Love, Strength, Happiness: So This Is Christmas/ What We've Been Up To Part One

I've been struggling lately.. actually, a month is a lot longer than lately but whatevs. I have wanted to feel the Christmas spirit, I have worked really hard at the task... but so far, no dice. I know I shouldn't admit to that on a family blog but at least I'm trying to do the Christmasy thing. The girls and I have been working on some secret present projects, we happily vandalized a present for my parents, and we had a huge birthday to celebrate as well. So cut me a little slack if I still wish that a certain D at Open High School would fall down a hole forever for being such a beast and I truly can't wait for Karma to catch up to that one. (The truth is that I am thrilled to be done with OHSU even if it means struggling at Christmas. D you can have all the money in the world and you'll still be a poor excuse for a human being.)

So what exactly have the crew and I been up to? On the 18th we celebrated Carley and Madi's 18th birthday. Where the HECK did the time go?? I thought very hard about what gifts to get them to commemorate the day and I decided on custom jewelery for them both from The Vintage Pearl. If you ever want to get something special, you need to order from them. Their pieces are beautiful and their customer service is beyond wonderful.

Carley got a bracelet with different charms each stamped with the name of someone in our family and Madi got a beautiful necklace which also has everyone's names on it. The other part of their gift was a GPS navigator for their cars. Are you wondering how the items go together? Here's the cheesy part: I told the girls that the GPS was so they can always find their way in the world, and the jewelry was so that they would always be able to find their way home. Awwww... I know, right? :) They changed into their new clothes and jewelry right away so I know they loved and appreciated the gifts!

The girls wanted to visit mom on their birthday so we loaded up the Durango and headed out. Even though we are 100% able to find our way to Gma's house without a GPS device, we turned on one of the birthday gadgets to guide us there because it was fun! I can't tell you just how much I enjoy time with my family. We laugh all the time when we're together!

My mom gave the girls special bracelets from Concord, Mass along with marble signs saying "Believe" and "Imagine" which were stunning and so thoughtful! We had to laugh when Madi stood next to Mom because Madi looked like a giant! The optical illusion is exaggerated because Madi had on heeled boots and my mom is such a lil thing. I love this picture of the two of them together!

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay long because Emily had a costume fitting that afternoon. We just don't get to spend enough time with extended family lately.

After the fitting, we headed to SLC to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We wanted to try something new and none of us had ever been to that restaurant before. One word: WOW! We had the BEST time at that birthday dinner. Everyone ordered something different and we were all sampling from each other's plates. There was not a bad dish among us! Ordinarily we never order dessert but it was The Cheesecake Factory, right? So even though everyone was full to capacity, we each ordered a different flavor of cheesecake and the sharing continued thanks to a few handfuls of extra forks that our fabulous waiter, Bill, brought to us. My poor hubby was groaning when we left (Don't get between him and his tastebuds!) but we couldn't quit talking about what a wonderful time we had that afternoon.

Later that night we watched some fun family flicks.. Despicable Me is a seriously cute movie! Overall, I was so happy with the entire day. I hope that Carley and Madi will always remember their 18th birthday with fondness and know without a doubt how much they are loved!

Part two coming soon! In the meantime, enjoy these individual pics that Carley took of everyone at the restaurant. :)