Christmas Spirit?

I've been trying really hard to have the "true" Christmas spirit this year and in turn have that spirit spread through my family. I am trying to practice patience, tolerance etc. so as not to get too high strung thinking and doing all the things expected of mom at this time of year. I'm doing okay. The tree is decorated, the house is reasonably clean, the Christmas shopping is done and most is wrapped (woohoo), I plan on baking over the next two days and if a miracle happens I may get out Christmas cards.
Yesterday I was thinking to myself that today was the Sunday before Christmas and it is usually such an extra nice day. We sing and hear lots of Christmas hymns, hear stories and everyone breaks out their "Holiday Wear". I was really looking forward to today. Well, we woke up at a decent hour and was just getting ready to cook a nice Sunday breakfast when . . .
The phone rang. Now, you may not realize, but Trent was recently called as the Elders Quorum President. Enough said, right? Sure enough, a single sister had frozen pipes, and being she is a single sister, I knew that it would be best if I went and helped him. So we put on all our winter clothes, headed to the shop for an industrial strength heater, (side note: one of the coolest things about farmers is they always have the "stuff" you need, that's probably why they called him) and headed to this sisters house. Well, 2 hours later we were home and long story short even the cool industrial strength diesel powered heater couldn't do the job. Too stinky, they would have died from carbon monoxide poisoning before the pipes thawed out.
So we quickly got dressed and out the door and were 15 minutes late for church but luckily in time for the sacrament. This is when I realized, "Hey, today is supposed to be that special Christmas Sunday and we are late!!!" I was kind of miffed and embarrassed. What kind of members were we to be LATE on Christmas Sunday? It took me about 2 seconds to realize that we were exactly where we were supposed to be that morning and that Heavenly Father did not care that we were late.
I did end up with a raging headache, I have no idea what that was about, but have felt totally at peace about my day.

Twilight the Movie

So I went to the Midnight premiere Thursday night, which was soooo much fun! My girls were there, their friends were there, their moms were there, there were crazy people there ( such as the lady with the feather shirt, DO NOT ASK!), there were obnoxious teenage boys there and we had awesome seats (thanks Brittany). I loved that everyone in the theater cheered as soon as they saw the Summit Entertainment icon come up on the screen. But that night, I will confess, I did not LOVE the movie. When I started reading these books I had no idea they were such a phenomenon, I had no idea there was a movie in the works, they were just a series of books that a few friends had recommended and on a really bad TV night I picked up Twilight. If you read my earlier blog you know that nothing has touched me the way these books have, so when they announced the cast I was less than thrilled. Edward was ok but I was really upset about the choice for Bella. However, at the end of the movie, I was actually happier with Bella than Edward. I felt that Edwards wisdom and presence in the book was missing in the movie. Also, having read the book at least 5 times I think I knew the story too well. I also felt that the special effects in the movie were probably hampered by their budget. I also thought Jasper looked like a serial killer. So at the end of the night I was a little disappointed, but remember, I did say I expected to like it, not LOVE it. This was true.
But, I went again the night before Thanksgiving with my mom, my sisters and sisters-in-law and I really liked it a lot more. Now that I had no expectations (and it wasn't 1 am) I was able to enjoy the movie and found that although my basic opinions were the same, there were still a lot of really good things about the movie, I may even go back for a third viewing!
So now, I'm waiting for my mom to finish Twilight so I can get it back to read it again, so while I wait I'm taking another trip throught Breaking Dawn and reread the draft of Midnight Sun, posted on the website.
It may sound silly but I love being able to escape to Forks, WA and immerse myself in a world of vampires, werewolves, and truly devoted love.