I booked our flights for the first part of December thinking it would be the perfect mix of post-Thankgiving/pre-Christmas activities.  One of the activities at the top of my “Things To Do While In Utah” list was to take the kids to see the lights at Temple Square. The King mentioned to me that the Christmas Devotional for The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints (you know, the Mormons) was scheduled  for the weekend we would be in Utah.  According to the church’s website:

This devotional will include Christmas messages from the First Presidency and music by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and the Orchestra at Temple Square.

This means that not only would those in attendance get to see the Mormon Tabernacle Choir but they’d get to see and hear the prophet IN REAL LIFE!

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints (you know, the Mormons) I believe that we are led by a living prophet. The prophet has always lived out of Salt Lake City, Utah (for obvious reasons).  I spent the majority of my growing up years less then 100 miles from Salt Lake City, and yet, I never ever had seen a prophet in person.  Sure, I watched the prophet on TV during our twice yearly General Conferences and other televised events.  But never in person.  (I would say this is very atypical for a Utah Mormon.  The King grew up here in Seattle and he’s seen more then one of the prophets during his life!)

I knew this was a ticket-only event and while the tickets are free, they are still hard to come by.  I called Temple Square and asked how I could get my hands on some tickets and the sweet old lady on the phone pretty much laughed at me when she said; “Those tickets have been gone since October.  The Conference Center holds 21,000 people and we get requests for tickets from over 500,000!”

Oh man, how I wanted to attend the Christmas Devotional.

I thought about who I knew that could get me tickets.  Instantly Heidikins came to mind.  She gave a coworker and myself a private tour of Temple Square a few years back and I knew she had some connections.  (I’m not sure I can blog about what her connections are. But they are very impressive connections!)

I e-mailed Heidikins to see if she could do anything for me.  She replied by saying: “IF (and this is probably a big “if”) I happen to get some tix I’ll be sure to pass them along, but I’ll probably only get 2, and the chances are pretty slim in the first place.”

I thanked her for tying and then sort of gave up my dream to attend.

(I’m sure you can guess how this ends, right?)

A week or so later I heard back from Heidikins; “Ok, so I for sure have 2 tickets for you!” (emphasis added)

OMH (Oh My Heck), The King and were going to the Christmas Devotional.  (Only 8 and older can attend.  For obvious reasons.  My Sweet Babboo would have to wait to see the prophet some other time.)

Heidikins sweetened the pot by saying she got another set of tickets and she and her new fiance would be attending with us.

We met up with them on Sunday night and headed in.  Our seats weren’t by each other, but Heidikins was pretty confident that she could pull some strings and get one of us moved.

(Isn’t Heidikins so pretty?!  You can’t see it but she was wearing fuchsia leggings and a gorgeous new diamond ring.  Both were awesome.)

Just look at this picture.  That’s the famous organ in the background and the MoTab (as we in the know refer to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as) warming up before it started.

When the Prophet and his counselors walked out on the stage the entire conference center (which holds TWENTY ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE) became dead silent and we all stood up to show our love and respect to these three great men.

The MoTab sang some beautiful Christmas songs and all three of them spoke and shared uplifting stories and counsel for this Christmas season.  The Prophet said:

The spirit of Christmas is the spirit of love and of generosity and of goodness. It illuminates the picture window of the soul, and we look out upon the world’s busy life and become more interested in people than in things.

They announced a new website devoted to videos about Bible stories.  They showed the videos of the story of Jesus’ birth taken from Luke.  AMAZING. (Go and watch it now.)

The service ended with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing “Silent Night”. The congregation was asked to join in and sing the fourth verse WITH THE CHOIR.  When the fourth verse rolled around I sat there and sang, with tears in my eyes, and consciously acknowledged that this was a very special moment in my life and one that would never be forgotten.

My parents watched the devotional live on TV at their house with the kids.  My mom said Babboo looked for us in the crowd.  But with 21,000 people there he never saw us.

Thanks again Heidikins for working your magic to allow The King and I to participate in such a wonderful event.

(You can go HERE to listen to me singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir!!)

(You can go HERE to watch or listen to the entire Christmas Devotional.)

Upon returning home from our trip I remember having the specific thought that while the divorce rate is statistically high none of our friends have gotten divorced.* I was thinking about our closest couple friends I couldn’t even predict that any of them would divorce.  They all seem to be pretty solid in their marriages.

A few days after thinking about this The King called me at work to tell me he had just read an e-mail from his oldest friend, The Groom, informing him that he’d left his wife over the weekend.

Bam!

And just like that we were forced to think about the demise of this marriage.  The King has known The Groom since the second grade.  He was the best man at his wedding and left me and a week old Babboo home to attend the wedding in Arizona.  Needless to say the two of them are tight.

The Bride and Groom have lived in Arizona since before they met so we’ve only ever hung out with them as a couple a few times.  But those times I got a very positive vibe from them.  I would have never suspected anything was amiss in their marriage.  But that’s how it gets you, right?

I had hoped The King would have talked to him and tried to talk him out of getting a divorce.  He said he mentioned something about “some days you are more in love with your spouse then on other days” but not coming right out and telling him he’s an idiot to leave her.  The Groom called one evening and talked to The King for over an hour.  I didn’t hear what was said but when the call was over I asked, again, if he had tried to talk him out of it.  He said he didn’t give him any advice because he didn’t think that’s what The Groom wanted from him.  I figured since he called The King he was specifically looking for his advice.

Just knowing that someone we knew was getting a divorce scared me.  I got nervous that maybe this was the start of more of our friends splitting up.  Now I know The King isn’t leaving me but I got nervous that the demise of The Groom’s marriage would give him some ideas.  Seriously, I know he’s not leaving me. But the idea that he could leave me made me sick to my stomach.

Marriage is hard.  I’m just hoping The Groom isn’t starting a trend.  I know I couldn’t handle any other of our friends splitting up.

So tell me, have you had to deal with friends divorcing?  How has it affected you and your own relationship?

*Technically one of our good friends got divorced a few years ago. But her husband was a horrible, horrible, horrible person and her situation was totally the extreme.  Plus, they didn’t have any kids so once the divorce was final he fell off the face of the earth never to be spoken of again.

The King worked like a mad man the week before my family arrived and was able to get our guest bathroom DONE.  This was a lot of work but he was able to get all the tile laid so that they wouldn’t have to shower in the boy’s bathroom.  (And now I have four showers I have to keep clean.  Kill me now.)  We had a pretty good time with my family.  I love weddings, especially ones where someone I love, love, love is getting married.  And I love, love, love this particular cousin.  (And no, she doesn’t read this blog so I’m not just saying that for her benefit.)

The day after my parents left town The King and I frantically washed the sheets on the guest bed and cleaned the guest bathroom so that May, my best friend that deserted me and moved to Reno, and her family could come and stay with us!!

This is the first time in two years that the entire family has been able to come visit.  And whether or not they’ll admit it, I think our husbands were the happiest to see each other. 

Boys aren’t too good about keeping in touch but The King and Mr. May picked up exactly where they left off when they moved away four years ago.

We took the kids to visit the neighborhood where we all used to live.  The kids played in the park that is right across the street from our old house.   I don’t think Babboo will ever forgive me for moving away. 

The park is pretty awesome. 

Eventually May and family had to head home to Reno.  We drove as far as Portland with them and then we all stayed the night in The City of Roses.

We stayed in Portland a little longer to enjoy the beautiful sun.  (Seriously Portland, thank you for the gorgeous 4th of July weather.)

While we’ve been having a blast I admit I’m a little sad that we won’t be here to enjoy August, which is the best part of summer here in Seattle.  We’re taking both kids and heading to Europe.  It’s been a few years since our last trip and our frequent flier miles and hotel points were starting to burn a whole in our pockets so we decided to pack up the family and go!

We leave in a few weeks. 

Thankfully, as of this morning, our last hotel is booked.  It’s official…we’re actually taking our two kids (one that will turn one while in Paris) to Europe.  I’m pretty sure that classifies us as The Stupidest Parents in the World. 

(Actually, I’m pretty excited about the whole thing.  I’m sure the kids will be great.  Repeat with me…THE KIDS WILL BE GREAT!)

I never took any art classes in college and as an adult I really never had the need to come up with any type of creative idea.

And then I met The King, who has a degree in art and is one of the most creative and talented people out there.  In the time it would take me to come up with an idea of how to decorate a baby’s room The King would have designed and built a house from scratch.  The King’s brain is always working on some type of new idea.  His brain isn’t limited to the traditional arts like painting, drawing, or sculpting.  He designs furniture, house wares, bedding, graffiti, landscapes, decks and as we all know, houses.

It’s like The King took all of the collective creativity genes from a twenty mile radius and  kept them for himself.  This would include any that I may have had hidden in the back of my brain.

The King lets me help him create and distribute his creations.  But yeah, the ideas don’t belong to me.

Somewhere along the way I met my BFF, May.  The King and May met back when they were in college together, both working on degrees in art.  While The King can visualize and build a house you can say to May, “Can you draw something to represent the state of Minnesota?”, she’ll be able to whip something AMAZING up.

May, she’s good.  (Want more proof?  Here you go.)

One of my favorite stories about May is the time I taught her how to crochet in the back of the car on the way home from a weekend in Canada.  My grandma had taught me when I was really young and I’d been crocheting all sorts of things since then.  Things like blankets and hats and anything else that only required crocheting a square.  May was so excited about her new skill and told me “I’m going to make baby sweaters and shoes and all sorts of things.”  I patted her knee, rolled my eyes, and wished her luck.  As if someone who had just learned how to crochet a straight line could create anything besides a blanket or a hat.

Maybe a week later May showed me the baby sweater and slippers (complete with a suede bottom) she had crocheted.  No pattern.  No book to teach her actual stitches. Nothing but her own brain and creativity.

(For the record I continue to be limited to crocheting squares.)

I quickly figured out that May had the best ideas about creating all sorts of things.  And she was good about sharing her ideas.  For years May came up with the ideas for all sorts of awesome gifts and projects and crafts that she and I could do together.  Creating the actual product wasn’t that hard to do.  I could do them all.  I just would have never come up with the idea to do them.  Off the top of my head here are a few of the things I’ve made with May:

Spice garden pots

Cut metal pin-up girl Christmas ornament

Shrinky Dink jewelry and cards

Every type of greeting card imaginable

Iron-on onesies

Earrings

Necklaces

Felt pouches

Picture magnets

Too many Christmas ornaments to count

(May made this baby Babboo ornament for his first Christmas)

And so many others I can’t remember.  (May, help me out. What else have we made?)

You would think that after all these years of crafting I would have picked up some creativity along the way.

Not so much.

I’m still just as uncreative as I was back in high school.

Last month I was asked to be in charge of one of our week nights activities for the teenage girls at church.  I instantly decided I’d teach the girls how to make their own greeting cards.  As always, this was May’s idea.  I e-mailed her and asked her what I would need to make the activity a hit.

“Remind the girls that in regards to glitter ‘less IS more”.  You would think they would know that. But they won’t.

“Precut and fold all of the cards.”

“Don’t expect too much from them.  Trust me.”

I’ll be honest here, I didn’t trust her on that last one.  All the girls had to do was cut out May’s designs and glue them to the front of a precut and folded card.  How hard could that be?  I figured the girls would go a step beyond this and maybe jazz up the cards a little with some gel pens or pretty paper.

On Wednesday night I showed up with 6 precut and folded cards for each girl, along with matching envelopes and a print out of May’s designs.  I was using my own supplies and was feeling guilty that I was being stingy and only giving each girl enough for six cards.  We had an hour an a half for the activity.  Six cards would take 10 minutes.

Boy howdy was I wrong.

And May was so right.

Out of the seven or so girls (and other adults) only a few of them completed two cards.  The rest only got one done.

One card.

In over an hour.

And all they had to do was cut and paste.

I had expected too much from them.

I made six of my own cards while teaching the girls, chatting with the girls and watching Rerun in the same amount of time.

For most of my life I’ve been feeling bad for myself because I’m not very creative.  Turns out I might be more creative then I thought.

So tell me, how creative are you?

• Christmas was good.  The King wanted this year to be “magical” for Babboo.  We figured we only have a few good years of him totally believing in Santa Claus and we’d better take advantage of it.  Needless to say Babboo was spoiled a little more then I’m totally comfortable with.

• For the first time in our ten year marriage The King and I sat down and wrote out actual goals for 2011.  One of them is to go out on a Date Night at least once a month (for a total of 15 times in the calendar year.)  We’re going out tonight and again next Monday.

• Speaking of next Monday….we’re going to see Rhett Miller and The Old 97’s!!!  Hooray.  We haven’t seen them since back when I was knocked up.  We’re both pretty excited.  The King’s already written up the songs he wants them to play.  And I’m trying to get up the courage to DM Rhett Miller to see if we can get back stage.  Gulp.

• One of my personal goals for the year is to post to my blog at least once a week.  Back in December I paid for my blog for the next year.  I want something to show for the money I paid.

• One of The King’s goals is to be more consistent in doing yoga.  He decided that he wanted to go off dairy to help him with his flexibility.   There are two things I don’t like about this:

• • He didn’t discuss this before hand with the rest of the family, so Babboo and I didn’t have a vote.
  • Dude, I DO NOT want to go off dairy.

• We’ve recently become obsessed with both Nick Kroll.  You must search the interweb and listen to him.  Our favoritea are El Cupacabra and the Ed Hardy Boys.  We can’t stop saying “que pasa baby” at our house. Even Babboo says it.

• And I know we’re about ten years behind on this, but we’ve also recently become obsessed with Tosh.0.  We DVR’d all of the old episodes and have been watching them the last few weeks.  Tosh.0 reminds me of why the internet is so awesome.  And for that, I thank him.

• Due to policy changes at the school district my dad has taught at for the last 24 years he was forced to retire over Christmas break.  It was either that or lose his pension.  He had two days to make the decision and once he submitted his paper work he couldn’t return to work.  No time to say good-bye to his students or prepare them for it.  They just came back after Christmas break to find that their favorite teacher was no longer there.  And so now my dad is retired and wasn’t mentally prepared to be retired yet.  He’s recently become even more obsessed with Facebook and his status updates are getting a little creepy.  I hope nobody tell him about Twitter.

• • Seriously, don’t tell him.

• While I was on maternity leave the company The King works for moved a block away from my office.  Again for the first time in our ten year marriage we’ve been meeting for lunch every now and again.  It’s pretty cool to spend time with him away from Babboo and Rerun and be reminded that we actually enjoy each others company and that we can still make each other laugh.  (I think we’re supposed to meet today. Which would mean we’re having lunch AND dinner together today.)

• I went back to Weight Watchers last week.  There is so much to say about this and yet, so little I want to say.

• We went to Vancouver, Canada last weekend.  We usually pay about $35 a day to park at the hotel.  (The hotel that we get on Priceline for less then $70.  Do the math.  We’re getting screwed on parking.)  Last weekend we tried just parking for free on the street.  Totally worked.  Saved us a ton of money.

(This is us in front of the 2010 Olympic Torch last weekend.  We’re a little late on this too.)

• The King gave me a new type of calendar for Christmas and I’ve had to learn a new way to keep track of my schedule.  It’s embarrassing how hard it’s been for me to change my way of thinking.  I guess us old people do get stuck in our ways.

• So tell me, is there something you’ve wanted to blog about for a while, but just could never seem to write an entire post about?

(I have no idea why when I use bullet points in a post my font gets all messed up.  Please forgive how lame this looks.  Unless you’re using a reader.  Then I’m sure it looks just fine.)