Christmas!

Yesterday was a great day! It was my first real Christmas away from my family. I spent one Christmas away from my mom and dad about four years ago, but I was with my great aunt and uncle and great grand-mother so I was still with family. This year I was with future family, well, three days away from being real family. It was a relaxing day. I went to Leland's and when I got there he was making German pancakes, Yum! After breakfast we relaxed a little then opened gifts. My favorite gift is what Leland got me. He didn't have any wrapping paper so it was in the box the store gave him which had the store name on it. I thought I knew what it was right away, but I was tricked. I knew it was from COACH, my favorite bag shoppe, but it wasn't what I thought it was. I thought it was a regular handbag, but it was so much more! I had just mentioned a couple of months ago in passing that there was a fragrance that I loved that COACH makes. When I opened the box there was this beautiful silver bag filled with the fragrance and the matching body cream. It was perfect. I love that I can mention one little thing and he remembers it. I wish I had the steal trap of a mind that Leland has. I have to hear things over and over and over again before I can remember any of it. He hears it once and BAM it's in his head. The rest of the day was full of talking with family, trying to help my mom through the first Christmas without me, movies, and a wonderful dinner of ham, veggies and funeral potatoes. All in all it was a wonderful day. I even talked my mom into coming to SA a day early. As I type she is on her way here. The dryer just went off meaning it's time to get back to work.

Christmas Already?

I cannot believe Christmas is two days away! It seems to come earlier and earlier each year. This year I have not done my Christmas shopping or sent cards or e-mails to people. I haven't even done my Christmas baking! That's the big thing that I do every year. I love to bake around the holidays and this year it just hasn't happened. Maybe it's because I am not with my family this Christmas and Mom and I take a day to bake tons of delicious goodies or maybe it's because I am so busy with basketball and doing the whole athletics director thing or could it be that it's six days away from the wedding and there is still so much that needs to be done. It is really a mixture of all of the above. I just realized, I haven't decorated my apartment with my nativities, which is my second favorite thing to do after baking. I love decorating with the Nativities because it always reminds me of what Christmas is all about. It's not about the traffics at the malls, the stores that are full to overflowing, the sales, the food or the pretentious people you run into all the time. Christmas is all about Christ (hence the term CHRISTmas = More Christ). This is the one time a year when people start thinking about others instead of themselves, well, sometimes. Why can't we have this attitude all the time? It's not that hard to do. This season is all about Christ. He was born to help every single one of us. It was His mission to come to earth, die, and be resurrected so we all could have that chance to once again live with our Heavenly Father. Without Him this life would not work out. We would not have the joy and happiness the gospel brings. We would not have anything to believe in. We would not have faith. I think back to the people who were on the earth before Christ came. They were always told a Savior would come. They were told exactly the circumstances of His birth and what he would endure. Many people looked forward with faith, always believing that one day He would come. Others lost hope and faith. It is with admiration that I look to those who stayed faithful. I don't know if I could have been as faithful as they. All these people had were prophecies. All they had were words in a book or words from someones mouth. They played the waiting game. But, they had faith in Him. They had faith that Christ would come and reign on the earth. Now, 2000 years later, we know that Christ came and what he did. We have the proof in ancient texts and writings. We know he was here on the earth. We don't have to have faith that he will be born and do all that he was suppose to do, He's already done it. I sometimes think that we have it easier today than what our ancestors did over 2,000 years ago because we have the proof. All we need is the faith to believe Him when he tells us to look to Him and follow his teachings. Christ is our Savior. He is the reason we can know joy and live with our Heavenly Father again someday. I love the Christmas season. It is wonderful! Please remember what this time of year is really about. Let's also keep this "christmas spirit" alive throughout the year. We could all use it.

I really don't know what to write about today, but I feel as though I should write at least a little something. Today will be my last Sunday in a Singles Ward. I will also be teaching the Relief Society lesson. It's a great lesson about the prophet Joseph Smith. It is the last lesson in the manual. The topic is the testimonies of all the prophets since Joseph Smith about Joseph Smith. The words are beautiful and so true. I am excited to be facilitating discussion about this chapter of the book. I am excited and nervous. I think I am more nervous about this than getting married. Everyone is starting to ask if I am nervous yet. No, not really. At least not yet. I am still trying to figure things out about the apartment and what still needs to be done. I think I have it somewhat workable. At least I have how the food is going to fit. This past Wednesday one of my friends threw me a shower. It was a blast. I am grateful that only a handful of people attended the shower because if any more than what showed had some I would not have room for all the food. Oh, the shower was a pantry shower. All the guests had to bring pantry items that started with the letters of their first and last names. I got a lot of great stuff, especially dessert items. My cupboards are full to overflowing. Thanks to all who were able to come and contribute to my empty shelves. I am forever grateful to you. Like I said earlier, I really have no idea what I am writing about today, just a lot of hodge podge. Oh yeah, Congratulations Lovey and Andrew! You will have a wonderful life together. That's it for today. More to come later in the week as everything really starts to get down to the nitty gritty.

Almost There!

Two weeks, fourteen days! Time has flown by, but I now wonder how fast these next two weeks will go, hmmmm........

Three weeks and counting! Exactly three weeks from today my whole world will change. I will not longer be Kathryn Gilmore, but Kathryn Page. It's so weird typing that after all these years of typing my normal name. At least it won't take as much time signing receipts as it does now, lol. There are still lots of things to be done, but it's nothing too major and it's all coming together.


Excitement is in the air! The kids at school are way excited too. All of my volleyball girls are starting to countdown the days and weeks. It's actually a little funny. Sometimes I think they are more excited than I am. I would look at it in a bad way that they are more excited than I am and it made me worry and think. "Shouldn't I have that same level of excitement? I mean I have been waiting for this day my whole life that I can remember. I should be way more excited than what I am", but then I started thinking they don't have the worry and fear that goes along with it. They just see everything from the fun, oh-how-cute perspective of it all. They don't have to think about combining two separate lives into one, or what to do with all the stuff, or how much the daily activities are going to change, and so on. Don't worry, they will feel the stress someday when they start going through all of this.



One chapter of my life is about close and another one open. As I think back to what my life has been to up until this point I see the joys, pains, struggles, and experiences that I have gained from it all. As I look to the preview of the next chapter I see more joys, pains, struggles and experiences. This time I see another person that will experience those things with me and we can learn from them together as a family. I am really looking forward to this next chapter and can't wait to see what happens, yay!

Traditions

The date os this blog is 12/7/09 but I didn't really start it until 12/14/09 so. . . Yesterday Leland I had the opportunity to meet with Pres. Freckleton (sp?) as we enter the final weeks until the wedding. He was talking about traditions and it got me to thinking, "what are some of my family's traditions?" Many of my family traditions all have to deal with food. I guess that's why I am such a foodie and lover of all foods. Birthday traditions involve Mom slaving over a stove/oven cooking our favorite dishes. Mine usually changed all the time depending on the year and what new foods I was introduced to during the previous year. Eddie usually went with white chicken enchiladas, Dad was meatloaf, but Mom never really said what she wanted so I made whatever I could or we took her out to eat. That was birthdays in my home growing up. Christmas was always fun, especially when I started cooking. We would always do chili and tamales (yum!) with a really good dip and crackers, triscuits, wheat thins, oysters (for everyone but me, gross!) and egg snot, I mean egg nog. And that was just Christmas Eve. Since my mom usually worked on Christmas Eve she was never home to enjoy the meal with us. It wasn't until around the time I was in college that she started working more normal hours. When Mom got home Christmas morning she would make chorizo and egg tacos and we would begin the gift opening. Good times! In high school we started doing the neighborhood luminaria lightings on Christmas and Christmas Eve and that still goes on today. Ever since then that has been family's Christmas Tradition. Now, it is time to start new traditions with my new family. I don't know what the tradition will be, maybe a comination of my family's and his family's traditions. We shall see.
Another one of my favorite family traditions is the parade clean-up after the Sun Bowl Parade in El Paso every Thanksgiving. I started doing the clean-up in 2000, my first semester at UTEP. It was just me at first then I got my family involved the following year after they moved to EP. This year I got Leland involved. he thinks it's a strange tradition, but I love it! What a great way to show gratitude for everything that has been given to you! Now, I do regret that I have missed a couple of years of clean-up. Even though I am not there, my family still participates and I am grateful that I was able to start that for my family. Every time I go to EP for Thanksgiving I will still clean-up as long as I am able.
There really aren't any other set-in-stone traditions from my side of the family. I am excited to be able to start new traditions. Indeed, I look forward to it.

One of My Faves

Last night I was thinking about one of my favorite memories from past Christmases and came across on f my faves. I was about eight years old when my Grandpa Smith came for Christmas. He lived in SA and my family lived in Tulsa so I didn't get to see him much when I was growing up and we rarely spent the holidays together so it was a special Christmas. Well, my Grandpa made the BEST cherry cheesecake I have ever tasted, not even Cheesecake Factory can come close to what Grandpa made. Grandpa and I were up really early on Christmas Eve morning (I guess I have always been a morning person) and he wanted to make the cheesecake for my brother because that was my bros favorite treat. We didn't have the ingredients at home so Grandpa and I went to the store. Since my Grandpa did not have access to any car keys, or a car for that matter, we walked to the store. Grandpa asked me which store we should go to. Since I didn't know there was a store about a half mile from the house in one direction I told him we should go to Price-Mart about a mile and a half from our house. That was the only store I remember so we headed out. There we were and eight-year-old redhead and a 70 year old grandpa with a cowboy hat and boots walking down one of the busiest roads in Tulsa at the time. Thankfully it was still really early so there weren't as many cars on the road. We made it to the store and back without problems and I sat in the kitchen watching as Grandpa made his cheesecake. Great morning! Grandpa got into a little bit of trouble for that one though. Mom and Dad weren't so happy about Grandpa walking me to the store and back. Grandpa is Grandpa and didn't listen to what they had to say. The next morning was Christmas morning and I got a brand new pair of roller skates. These weren't just any roller skates though. These were my very first real pair of skates, white with teal colored wheels. I was ecstatic to get these skates! My school usually had a monthly skate night at the local skating arena and I would always have to rent skates, now I didn't have to rent skates anymore, sweet! I wanted to go out skating that morning so Grandpa took me out again. This time it was to Hick's Park to skate on the tennis courts. Again, out on the busy road, but this time I had on my skates which is a little more dangerous than walking, but I digress. It was a wonderful Christmas that year in 1990, almost 20 years ago (boy time sure does fly!). That, my friends is one of my faves.

The window in my gym still has not been repaired. It is 34 degrees outside now and 55 degrees inside the gym. The temps are suppose to drop to frezzing or below between tonight and tomorrow and I don't want to be in a gym when it is that cold without heat. How long is it going to take to get this window fixed? Anyone wanna place a bet?