Random Thoughts Thursday

Happy New Year!!!

We stayed up to ring in the New Year last night. And by "we", I mean Chris, Vicki, and I, along with Grandma E. (who went to bed 5 minutes before midnight) and Scotty and his friend Sasha. Ellie crashed around 9:30, and Lexi dragged off to bed around 10, but Vicki was absolutely determined to stay up until midnight. Since she doesn't actually sleep, it wasn't that big of a deal. We watched Kung Fu Panda for the second time in a row. It was a good thing we'd just barely watched it, since I slept through the middle. Vicki was the most wide-awake person in the room when the ball dropped at midnight, and then we cruelly sent her to bed before collapsing ourselves. We're such party people.

I missed doing my Random Thoughts post last week, but it didn't seem appropriate for Christmas. Now I've forgotten all the random stuff I was going to post about last week.

I'm glad my children aren't throwing up anymore.

Emily and I saw Twilight this afternoon. Her first time, my second. I still like it. But Jasper makes me laugh and I still think Alice doesn't look right. And the "spider monkey" line has got to be the stupidest movie line of the year.

I can't believe our vacation is almost over. Part of me is hoping for huge storms again this weekend so we get snowed in and have to spend more time with family. The other part of me is longing for my own bed and my own pillow.

I also enjoy not having to entertain my own children at all for two weeks. Grandmas are awesome.

I looked at the word "entertain" in that last sentence for five full minutes, trying to figure out what was wrong with it, before I realized I had spelled it "entertian". Vacation is making me slow.

Yesterday we got to take the girls on a private tour of the soon to be opened Draper Temple.

Chris's dad has been in charge of the physical facilities crew, getting things ready for the open house, which starts next week. Since we'll be home then, he was able to make arrangements for us to get an early sneak peek. It was a really awesome experience to be able to show the girls what the temple looks like inside. Ellie and her cousin Abbie weren't terribly impressed (when I told Ellie it was Jesus' house she said, "No it's not, it's the temple!") but they loved all the pictures of Jesus and wanted to touch EVERYTHING. Lexi loved seeing the Bride's dressing room and all the sparkly chandeliers. But it had the greatest impact on Vicki. She's at an age where she'll remember this, at least part of it, forever, and she was very quiet and contemplative the whole time. Even when we were outside afterward, she just stood by the car looking up at the spire and the Angel Moroni statue. And as for me, well, standing in the Bride's dressing room watching as my father-in-law stood each of his granddaughters next to a dressing table, I got choked up. I get emotional at the weirdest times, but it just struck me how beautiful it was, and how much I wanted my girls to be able to be the brides getting ready in a room like that one day. (One day in the very distant future, of course.) It was also very awesome to be standing together in the sealing room, looking into the "forever mirrors", which are two huge mirrors on opposite sides of the room. When you look into one with the other behind you, you can see yourself and those around you reflected forever, a reminder of the eternity you have when you're sealed together in the temple. Beautiful.