Travel Troubles

Before I go any further, the misfortune that follows is in no way a poor reflection of our Christmas

After we had our Christmas present fun I went back to bed for a few hours and then we had a blast playing with our toys. As the day wore on I realized that I needed to go to work (in a manner of speaking... I get the weather data for the school). Usually this is not a big deal, but overnight it had snowed over a foot. Once again, it wouldn't be such a big deal, but this snow was not the normal powder, it was like wet sand.

Our adventure didn't start out well: we got stuck going out of our parking lot, going downhill. Getting stuck while going downhill is never a good sign. Breck got out (barely because the snow was up to the door!) and dug out the tires so that we could escape. Then we decided to go around to the weather station, which is uphill=ridiculous, and we got stuck again. It doesn't look to bad in the picture, but it was... trust me.



After we got unstuck from that one we decided to go home. We got stuck again going into our parking lot. We eventually had to ditch our car about a half mile down the hill and walk home. We were afraid of getting towed, so we went back at 10 o'clock to get our car back. They had already plowed the roads, which made us very nervous. The snowplow luckily went around our car, but that left it buried. Luckily we brought a shovel and dug out our car. It took us about an hour, but the roads were good so we drove home (well, up until the parking lot).

There were two other cars stuck in the entrance... they still hadn't plowed our parking lot! So we spent the next hour and a half digging a path to some parking spots... ugh. But on the plus side, we had a lot of fun out in the snow and we made some new friends!

Whew, we finally got to bed around one that night. The next morning we packed and got ready to go to Utah. On the way to Idaho Falls our car was shaking like a massage chair and we decided to turn around. We went to get it fixed... guess what... we had ice and snow stuck all over in our tires (go figure, that's what happens when your car is buried up to the windows).

So we were on the road again in no time. Unfortunately the roads were terrible. We saw at least 10 crashes on our way down. One happened right in front of us (we drove through the puff of snow that they left on the road). They were sliding all over the place and went right off the road. We couldn't stop because there were no shoulders at all, but Breck called 911.

We finally made it safely. What a blessing!

First Christmas

The Harris Family (that's us) had a quiet first Christmas. Breck claimed two things: 1) I would poop my pants when I opened my gift 2) He would wake me up at eight and we would open presents. Well, he was pretty close-ish on both accounts.

I woke up earlier than I ever have on Christmas (6:30 am) and proceeded to excitedly nudge Breck into consciousness. "Eeeee... It's Christmas morning...eeeee," was the first thing that escaped me as we jumped out of bed.

This was what we saw upon entering our living room. This is our modest little 3-footer... yay, cuteness!

I can't believe that I actually ripped through the paper on the presents! It was invigorating to show no remorse for shredding the paper to bits! Mwa ha ha! Oh, and I pretty much pooped my pants when I opened my new WII FIT!!! Yay! They were so hard to get before Christmas, but Breck found one for me. I gave Breck computer stuff and headphones and we were both very excited.




This Christmas was vastly different than any other I have ever had, but it was amazing. I realized that Christmas isn't about presents, or even about the seemingly important family traditions. The true meaning of Christmas is love. This is the time of year that we celebrate the Savior's birth and the love that he has for all of us.

I love this time of year and it was the most wonderful thing to spend Christmas with my new family, Breck. The first Harris Christmas was the best ever!

Paper Challenged

Last night we had the wonderful opportunity to go to our first, as-a-married-couple, ward Christmas party. It was great, and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that we aren't the only ones that will be here for Christmas (in our complex).

We were merrily greeted by a surprising (and startling) "Ho Ho Ho!" from our ward's very own Santa Claus. We each took turns as a couple sitting on Santa's lap, getting our traditional Santa-plus-happy-"kid" picture... and he even gave us presents! Now that is definitely the ward Christmas party I was hoping for. *I don't know when we will get that picture, but I will post it when it comes* Breck ended up getting a dictionary, and I got body butter (which sounds disgusting, but smells great).

The funniest and most embarrassing part of the party was the paper challenges. We were supposed to have a paper behind our backs and tear out the shapes of a Christmas tree and a snowflake. Breck did a really good job on both of them and even won a prize for his snowflake. Guess which ones are his? That's right, the ones that actually look decent (on the right). I decided that I have no behind-my-back paper skills... I was definitely paper challenged :P

















After that we had doughnuts and watched Mr. Kruger's Christmas (a classic that I had never seen before). It was a lot of fun to socialize with our fellow ward members and have some good laughs.

Just to prove that I can make decent snowflakes, when I'm looking, here is an additional pic:

Holiday Countdown

What better time to start a blog than during the Holidays. The snow is piling up, the temperatures are dropping like spit off of a roof, and there are warm blankies-aplenty. It's bloggin' time!

I have always thought that Christmas countdowns were incredibly exciting. This year is no different... in fact... the countdown has been taken up a few notches. I'm not talking about advent calendars, paper rings to rip down one by one, or even crossing out the days leading to Christmas. I'm talking about my own personal walking, talking, loving, Christmas count-down-o'meter. His name is Breck.

Around every corner waits... "Oh Alisha, you are going to be so excited," or the even better, "You are going to poop you pants Christmas morning." I hope for everybody's sake that I can hold it in. I fear that Breck is going to faint before I even get within tearing distance of the presents.

Well, we'll see what is in store for the Harris family's first Christmas.