How exciting we have myfamily again!
I know I was one of the worst posters on the old site, but going through and archiving every post really made me want to keep in touch better. This is awesome!
Our Christmas has been really fun. It was our turn with Trent's family this year, so for the first time, I got exposed to a lot of new traditions. It was great. We all went to the Hobbit together on Christmas Eve afternoon. It was such a huge relief to be done with work for a little bit (I had to work half day on the 24 and also on the 26. Getting home on the 24 was awesome). We loved the Hobbit. In my opinion, it's not quite what Lord of the Rings ever was, but it's still entertaining and fun and good. My favorite character was Bard, and, of course Bilbo. It makes me want to go read the book again. It was a little comical because with about 20 minutes left the sound went out. While they tried to fix it, the movie was paused on a VERY close shot of Gandalf for half an hour. Like, a little too close of a shot. But they got it fixed and we got to see the end of the movie. (We actually got to see Thorin die twice, cause they rewinded it for us. Kind of painful).
Christmas Eve we had lots of party food, opened pajamas, played games, and read the Nativity story. Trent's family has a tradition of drinking "Gypsy Sleep Potion" that was procured by their dad (usually just juice). It was fun to see a different side of things.
We woke up Christmas morning at 6:30 to SNOW!!! It was so pretty outside, and nice to have a white Christmas. We opened presents (Trent's family goes in a circle and opens them one by one...quite a spectacle and takes much longer than the 20 minutes of madness at our home. I like both ways.) We got a Bosch from Trent's parents. I gave Trent a really nice electric razor (he didn't have one), and he got me clothes and an immersion blender and a necklace (of the molecular structure of dopamine) that I had requested. So fun!
Afterwards we ran over to mom's house to shovel the driveway. It was good to see her on Christmas morning, as well!
After that, we traveled to West Jordan to Trent's grandparents' home. We exchanged cousin gifts and ate a huge ham. Trent's sister announced that she was pregnant, so that ended up being a big topic of conversation. It'll be Trent's second niece/nephew on that side, and the fifth great grandbaby for Trent's grandparents.
We then made our way to Orem to talk to Trent's brother, Tate, who is serving a mission in Washington DC. He is a really happy kid, and I think he's pretty excited to come home in April. I'm excited to finally meet him!
After another round at eating the party food (originally served on Christmas Eve), Trent and I went over to Mom's. We exchanged gifts. Mom got us some amazing tennis rackets (Thank you! And thanks Reed for your help in picking them out!) and nice clothes, shoes, and a Cafe Rio gift card. Such a fun Christmas! We finished off the day by doing a jigsaw puzzle of Jerusalem in the basement. This is apparently a passion shared by Amber, Trent, and Eli. It was really fun to connect with different people while doing the puzzle.
On the 26th, Trent and I left for SLC to celebrate our anniversary (the 28th is on a Sunday this year, so we had to celebrate early). We got a really fun 'Arabian Nights' themed room at the anniversary inn. We didn't get up there till late because I had work. We did, however, enjoy Panda Express (in homage to our luncheon cuisine last year).
On Saturday, we went to see Body Worlds at the Leonardo. It was so fun! We got to learn all these crazy things about the brain and heart and skeleton. We both really enjoyed everything we got to learn. It was my second time (the first time was with a heroic effort from dad...he drove up from Price to go with me in SLC at midnight...such a sweet memory), but was still fascinating and precious to share with Trent. On Sunday, (our actual anniversary) we broke out the cake from the freezer and had a little bit each. It was pretty gross, in my opinion.
We're gearing up to go to Trent's family cabin tomorrow, and stay through Friday. I can't believe we've been married for a year. It's fun to learn different traditions and different thoughts and just experience the world differently with another person. It's been a great year.
I'm also studying for the GRE. I am applying to the Master's program at BYU. That's been an added stress to the holidays, but I hope that I can get in and return to research and teaching. Those have been my most enjoyable jobs over the years. The application deadline is feb. 1, with school starting in August. Fingers crossed!
Love you all! SO happy to have this connection back!
Love,
Mary and Trent
Hey Mar Mar! Good to hear from you! I didn't know that Body world was back. Isn't that a traveling show type of thing? I'd love to try to go to it. Happy Anniversary! A year flies by, doesn't it?
ReplyDeleteSounds like a very busy Christmas! You guys hit a lot of places! What is an immersion blender?
Total bummer that you had to work half a day on the 24th and on the 26th. What days do you get off this week- New Year's Day hopefully? That really is the best part about being in education- nice long breaks. Love you and glad to see you contributing on here!
Is body World good for teenagers? How long is it around for.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on one year. That first year is such a growing and learning experience. I can't believe you're through it! Good luck with GRE.
I think it's great! I don't know how long it stays (I think it might leave in January?), but it really is geared towards a general audience. It has real bodies and and real brains and real hearts and stuff...and lots of simple explanations next to each display. It was way way cool.
ReplyDeleteI wanted to go to body world with my friends when we got together in Vegas and they only wanted to go shopping!! Trent has a cabin? Where? Puzzles are a grand way to hang out. I meant to get one for us for Christmas, but didn't, so now I have one coming from amazon. Did you get your money back on the movie tickets? Something tells me no. What's party food? Immersion blenders are the bomb… they're really good for making soups when you don't have to transfer everything to the blender. There's a great slow cooker tomato soup recipe on skinnytaste.com and you can use the immersion blender for it. Or for butternut squash soup.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have to say you guys have a pretty cool last name. Jackman. Like Hugh Jackman. Very cool.
ReplyDeleteHaha. Bonnie, Trent said to me yesterday, "Are you ever going to answer Bonnie's question of what an immersion blender is?" And I said, "Oh she asked me that? Whoops." He replied, "On MyFamily." Good thing I have someone who can keep me on the ball! Mindy kind of explained it, but it's basically blades on the end of a stick that you can put into anything....soups, cups of fruit, icecream, and you blend as much or as little as you want right there. It's the bomb.
ReplyDeleteMindy: That is hilarious about your friends. I feel like I've been in situations like that so many times in my life. We have a parmesan basil tomato recipe that we love. And I want the butternut squash one! You know how much I love squash. I also probably have this conversation probably once a week:
Phone lady: "And your name?"
Me: "Mary Jackman."
Phone lady: "Mary Jackson?"
Me: "Jackman. Like Hugh Jackman."
Phone lady: "OHhhh. Okay."
It's awesome. In Trent's family history a long time ago there were two brothers. One stayed in America, one went to Australia. The one in America is where Trent's family comes from, and the one who went to Australia is Hugh's ancestor. Go figure.