While we were at the Brown house last week, we enlisted my sister Mel to take a family picture for us. I Pinterest-ed “family of four poses,” and here’s what we came up with:
We’re going to hang this one on our wall. The whole photo session took maybe 10 minutes. It is SO much easier to have a living person wielding the camera than to use a tripod and remote control. Way to go, Mel!
Did you know that I have a business? Well, it’s a pretend business. The kind that doesn’t sell things. It’s called Goofy But Effective Designs (pronounced Gee-Bee’d for short and for fun). I invented it last year to embellish my homemade Christmas gifts and make them seem less homely. I like writing up goofy little adverts on the fake tags to my pet inventions. Then I wrap them up and foist them off on my family and friends.
Remember last year’s GBED product?
[my brother Brad with the prototype]
The now-legendary Beard Bonnet made a brief appearance this year at our friends’ white elephant gift exchange. I really like making people laugh.
THIS year:
I love wearing my gauntlets while running in the cold! They really do work wonders. Jeff likes them too. I should apply for a patent.
My Dad, my husband, and my mother-in-law received the gauntlets for Christmas. Today I got an email from my Dad—he invented a sweet pretend press release/newspaper article/history book entry for my gauntlets! I quote:
“It's official. The Gauntlet wrist warmers have been named new product of the year by the widely respected, much revered, Federation of Inventions Benefiting Long Extremities (FOIBLE). Yes, FOIBLE now proclaims that the only minor weakness in having long extremities while running distances in cold weather has now been overcome: cold wrists are a thing of the past thanks to The Gauntlet's inventor, Shaina White. Ms. White's invention came to her as a flash of warmth flooded over her body one day when her wrists accidentally became uncharacteristically warm while scraping the last bits of peanut butter from a jar. The epiphany hit her: "wrists are the thermostat of the body". Further empirical studies have confirmed her breakthrough discovery. Recently, at the FOIBLE national convention honoring her, she calmly proclaimed: "If you want your entire body to be warm, just make sure your wrists are warm!" Yes, The Gauntlet is not merely a new product extraordinaire, it represents the opening of an entirely new field of science already called Thermal Carpal Engineering. As with any new scientific breakthrough, this one is built on its own foundation of breakthrough thought. Yes, this a moment not unlike when the theory of relativity was brilliantly proclaimed. All Thermal Carpal Engineers of the future will marvel at the day when the theorem on which their discipline is built was discovered. It will be widely know as the WATOB Theorem ("Wrists Are Thermostat Of Body") as first discovered by Ms. White. History will loudly applaud December 25, 2012, not just as the invention date of The Gauntlet, but as the birth of Thermal Carpal Engineering. Each year on that day, Thermal Carpal Engineers everywhere will unite to loudly proclaim "WATOB, WATOB, WATOB"!!!!!”
And then, Auntie Shaina made some fleece booties for the Laynie-bug:
I found these patterns online, so they aren’t technically from my company. But they’re still cool, and I can’t believe that someone as sewilliterate as me managed them. It took a lot of puzzling and outside-the-boxing.
Next up we have the indoor snowball fight—another Pinterest gem. This gift was for my nephews, Steve and Dan. I sewed 20 circles out of white fleece and stuffed them to make the snowballs. Then I whipped up a quick drawstring bag to hold them and a clever little tag to label ‘em. Well, Jay, Rose, Jeff, and I had SO much fun testing these babies out that I actually sat down and sewed another 20 fleece circles and stuffed them so we could have our own set!
These things FLY when you chuck them and they don’t hurt, even when you get a faceful. Quite possibly my favorite family game to play with little kids.
Now for the easier, non-sewn items.
Cardboard and paper! My brother Brad is 6’7’’. He lives in a basement with LOW doorways that are the bane of his cranium. I was going to make him a doorframe cushion, but I didn’t want to make the doorway even lower than it already is. So I settled for this factory-style accident counting sign. The numbers 0-9 are on cards behind each clip, so the sign can be updated.
Ah, and then there were the Bobbleheads. These guys were of my own design with a little technical tip from Pinterest.
I gave away an entire batch of peppermint bark popcorn to our ward’s devoted Primary workers and a few friends.
And that completes 2012’s Christmas craftiness!
What on EARTH am I going to do in January?
We went to my parents’ house for the most wonderful day of the year. It was cookie-rific, present-tastic, and music-alicious, just like a Brown family Christmas should be.
Any who have attended a Brown family Christmas in the past would be surprised to learn that we did NOT sing Look-a-that-Star on Christmas Eve. We actually didn’t sing any songs. Gasp, no hour-long Christmas Eve gathering around the piano?!?! It just didn’t happen this year. Mom, Mel, and I did make a feeble attempt at a string trio—2 violins and a cello—but it was brief because I am rusty and there were cookies in the oven. We still read Luke 2 and had turkey soup with cranberry muffins for our Christmas Eve dinner. And now, on to Christmas morning:
Waiting for Grampa to turn on Jingle Bells so they can go look in their stockings. We all adore Rose’s Bink hair. I left it down for all of Christmas Day on purpose.
The big one: we got Jay and Rose Plasmacars, and they are awesome. They have a weight limit of 220 lbs so we all took turns riding them. Now that I have kids, I can give THEM the fun stuff and pretend I’m an adult until they go to bed…or leave their toys unattended…hee hee hee
Rose’s stocking had a baby in it.
And Jay’s stocking had a light saber. I was giddily excited about my kids’ presents this year, and it was SO FUN to watch their excitement.
Rose’s other present was a Sesame Street house. She was in heaven.
Jay’s other present was a set of Black and Decker play tools. He thinks they’re pretty cool.
Rose gave Jay a Star Wars ABC book. Jay gave Rose a My Little Pony.
Calling all Dr. Who fans—I found the BEST stress ball ever for Jeff: an Adipose alien!
Now on to the BEST part of Christmas:
MISSIONARY PHONE CALLS! My dear brother Kyle got to SKYPE with us for 45 whole minutes! We love him.
We face-timed Brad and Dani on one iPad and the Broadbents on the other (my brother and sister and their families for you who are less-Brown). We held them up and had a virtual family gathering when Kyle called. Technology is awesome. People in Washington, Utah, Missouri, and Montevideo were all in the same room for 45 minutes on Christmas Day. Next Christmas we will all be in the same room for REAL, and it will be even BETTER!
Fake-up
Mel reaffirmed her title of the fun aunt.
Of course Grama and Grampa gave a few fun gifts as well. I’m excited to try out my new deep dish pie pans!
My giant old dog turned out to be an awesome indoor sled.
Merry Christmas everybody!
I love dressing my kids up in festive colors at Christmas time! Rose’s Christmas dress is probably my favorite article of clothing that she’s ever had. I got it at Gymboree a few days before Christmas on supersale. LOVE. Jay conveniently still fit last year’s Christmas vest and pants. It’s amazing how much better clothes fit without a giant diaper underneath. I did get him some new Argyle socks to match his vest this year.
Two weeks ago, we went to the library and checked out a stack of Christmas books. One of them was The Nutcracker Ballet. Jay completely surprised me and fell in LOVE with it! In fact, the only thing that he likes more than the Nutcracker right now is Star Wars. He has Nutcracker-Star Wars battles. He has incorporated lines from the book into his everyday speech. For example, “Mommy! I’m brandishing a sharp saber!” and “BONG! the clock struck twelve,” and “What was that scampering sound?”
He’s been reading this book to himself over and over, multiple times every day, and then he asks me to read it. I renewed all of our books today so he could enjoy it a little longer (unfortunately that means WE have to read it a few more times too).
Here’s the reason Jay loves this book. The battle with the evil mouse king. He looks at this page over and over and OVER.
The pictures are quite detailed. Notice the sword puncture in the mouse king’s heart…
…and the blood-drenched sword with droplets on the floor. What kind of kids’ book is this? No wonder Jay likes it so much!
I dressed Rose up as a ballerina in honor of our household’s Nutcracker craze.
Rose is such a little me-too sister. If Jay likes it, she likes it too. Every now and then she sneaks in a turn with the most coveted library book of all time.
