Well hello dear readers.
If only there was smell-o-vision...

We escaped to Erin and Bryce's tonight, being bored and sick of being stuck in the bat cave (as we have so affectionately named our temporary housing). We played with Will and hung out for a little while before reluctantly returning. We walked in the door and were hit in the face with the lovely smell of cabbage from something we had cooked earlier. And if that wasn't bad enough, the kitchen garbage reeked of crap (literal crap) thanks to cleaning out the lizard's cage earlier. I nearly died. In fact, I collapsed onto the floor, my nose trying to pull itself into my face to prevent further assault of its ... smell... buds.

While we are grateful to have had a place to live this past month, we cannot WAIT to get to our place in Rexburg!

Hello all!
For those of you who are interested, here is the link to my wedding picture proofs from the Connecticut reception. I know, I know, I owe updates to you all, and hopefully I will get to that soon. But for now, amuse yourselves with this.

www.deonjamesphotography.photoreflect.com
click on Dickerson wedding
password Wadsworth
then click Continue (not "login")
Enjoy!

... Tell me what you think!

Hello my few blog readers. (Blah Blah Blah -- you can skip to the last few paragraphs if you want...)

I feel like I should have done more updating when we went through all of the wedding planning but it's not like I had a lot of time to do so in between running from business to business trying to get everything squared away.

Our invitations were a pain in the butt. We went to a paper store (a la Dunder Mifflin without the desks and Steve Carrell) and found an invitation that we liked in the sample book from their printer. We found out what paper it was printed on and went to go find it in their store. They didn't have enough of it, so they called their Salt Lake store and reserved enough packages of it to be sent down for us. When they finally came in, we went in, paid for them, and got them out to the car before realizing they were the wrong thing. These were place cards that all had a crease down the middle to fold them in half and we ordered index card style. I knew it was too easy. So we went back in and they called the Salt Lake store to see if they had the right cards for us. We drove up to pick them up because we didn't want to wait another 3 days for yet another shipment to come in. The Salt Lake store is much bigger than the Orem store, and the people were much more knowledgeable. They took back our wrong cards and paid us the difference between those and the cards we actually wanted. Fairly easy.

Okay, so the next step was to take them to the printer and get our invitations printed. Bryce tried to get us a good deal from the place he works at but the guy that works in the print shop was pretty lame and didn't get back to us with any information until about a week later, at which point he told us that he couldn't print on the cards that we bought. Okay. Plan B. We took them to the printer that printed the sample one we saw. They promised us they could do it. We had to revise our design because they couldn't print in color and do the raised text unless we wanted to pay about $500. Sad day. So we simplified our design and got them a CD of it. They took all of our information and told us they would have a proof for us on Monday. Monday rolls around, no proof. So we go in to find that they neglected to take down our phone number and so had no way of getting in contact with us. They can't print on the cards that we bought. They're too small. So they offer us paper that comes in sheets that they have in stock in Salt Lake. It would take about a day to get them to their store in Provo, and then they would print them. Meanwhile, we had to return all of the paper we bought from the crappy Dunder Mifflin imitation store. That was a pain because we didn't have our receipt after shuffling the paper around to two different printers. They eventually found our order and refunded our money. Yay. And with that, we got our invitations printed. Neither of us were thrilled with the finished product, but it probably had something to do with the fact that it was such a pain in the butt to get them printed. The text was also remarkably small, so we're afraid some of our guests might need a magnifying glass just to figure out who's getting married.

BUT! They got sent... eventually.

Once we picked up our invitations, we went to pick up our pictures from the camera store we brought them to. They promised us 4x6 prints and 5x7 envelopes for 17 cents each - one envelope and one picture. This sounded like a pretty good deal so we went in and showed them what we wanted. They told us they could print a proof if we'd wait about an hour. So we waited for an hour, came back and approved the proof, and were told that our pictures would be ready to pick up by Wednesday (or some equivalent time frame. I can't remember exactly what the days were). We call on Wednesday, having not heard anything from them, and they said they were waiting for us to come in and approve a proof. Urgh. We told them we'd already done that, so they promised they'd have our prints by Friday. I go in to pick up the prints on Friday, but they don't have our envelopes ready. They're waiting on a shipment. It should be in by Monday or Tuesday. We call on Tuesday. They still don't have our envelopes. They should be in by the weekend. By now it is Memorial Day weekend. We began this whole invitations process right after I got back from tour on April 27th. It has been a month now and we still don't have our stuff. Needless to say, we were fed up with everything and everyone related to our invitations. I went in and picked up the pictures, asked them to forget about the envelopes, we'd buy them somewhere else. I bought some 6x8 envelopes to put our 5x7 invitations in. Yes, quite overkill, but they were the only envelopes Staples, Office Max and Office Depot had, and I needed invitations so I could send them out on Saturday so they could get in the mail before Memorial Day. On Saturday morning I returned the envelopes I didn't use, and bought the right size envelopes from the original paper store. I know, I know. I had every intention of boycotting their store, but for once, they did have exactly what I needed and for cheaper than it would have been to buy something close to what I needed. *sigh*

So, I finally got some invitations sent, in big ugly envelopes. Sorry if you received one of those - I wanted you to get it before it got too close to the wedding. Oh well. And I still have some more to send out. Sorry if you haven't gotten yours yet. It will arrive shortly.

I also looked for shoes for the longest time, and today I finally found some at Walker's Bridal Emporium on Center Street in Provo. THEY WERE TEN BUCKS! I was so proud. Okay, okay, but the best part of the story is not that.

We drove up to Walkers, and parked on Center Street, just across from the store. There was an ice cream truck parked on the sidewalk out in front of the NuSkin building directly across from Walkers. I frantically searched through my purse, but couldn't scrounge up enough cash, even after raiding Chad's wallet and ash tray. :o( So I decided to just go look to see what they had. As we were walking up, a few workers from the NuSkin building came out, got ice cream and walked back in. I was going to turn around and walk away, disappointed that the ice cream was only for the NuSkin people. A guy, ice cream in hand, walking back in the building, turned around and said "Free ice cream! Have some!" I looked at him like he was crazy. "Go ahead!" NO WAY!!! The guy in the ice cream truck lured me in to. "Yeah! Free ice cream! What can I get for you?!" NO WAY!!! Not only was there an ice cream truck with it's music of happiness playing and it's flashing light drawing attention to its goodness, but it was GIVING OUT FREE ICE CREAM!!! It was seriously my lucky day. If you know me at all, you know how much I love ice cream trucks. I've been known to chase one down the street just to tell them to wait while I ran in and got money. And this one didn't even require money! So I chose the big cookie ice cream sandwich - Chips Galore. And joy of all joys, he reached in the back, grabbed one, and handed one to me! Chad asked for a fudge pop, and the guy says "Do you want two?! Here! Have two!" It was like a dream. But I know it was real because I have pictures to prove it!


(Free) Ice cream truck!!! There it is! Off in the distance! A very rare specimen of its kind, captured on camera for the very first time today.

Free delicious ice cream from the ice cream truck.

One of Chad's two free fudge pops from the ice cream truck!

So. It was a good day.

Only two more weeks until the wedding! We're both wicked excited. Hard to believe I will forever leave the world of single people.

"Attention ladies and gentlemen, please make sure your seat backs and tray tables are in their upright and locked position as we begin our initial descent into marriage where the local time is eternity. Thanks for flying with us today, we hope you don't have to choose us again in the future. Thanks again and have a nice life." AH!

Hello all!

It has been quite a while since I wrote anything. As you may have read on Erin's blog, the wedding date has been pushed up to June 18th. It's in a month and 9 days, so we're excited about that. The wedding planning has been kind of hectic with that kind of schedule, but so far I think things are going okay. I finished paying for my dress, and had it pinned for alterations. I will get my (hopefully) final fitting on May 17th. Yesterday Erin, Chad and I decided what we're going to do for centerpieces. They're kind of different, but we think they're pretty.

Uhm... what else? Invitations have been designed and paper is being shipped to Orem from Salt Lake so that we can print them. We're waiting on a quote from Bryce's company and then those will get printed and sent out!
In other news, I worked Wednesday, Thursday and Friday last week and Monday of this week with the temp agency. I haven't gotten any calls from them since, so that's kind of crappy. I had an interview with the Boondocks Family Fun Center on Wednesday. I have a pretty good deal there if I want it. Right now I'm waiting to hear back from the BYU Grounds people - I HATE waiting for people to get back to you. You know that as soon as you commit to something the other place is going to call and tell you they have a position available. But from the looks of things, I'm going to be working at the Boondocks this summer. The only drawback is the commute, which is about 1/2 an hour, as opposed to the .5 minute commute I would have if I worked for BYU. I wish any one of the 5 billion places I applied would call me back. Let me tell you how much I hate online applications for that reason. You never get to talk to anyone - they never have to talk to you. So you have no idea what to expect, or if they're even still seriously looking or the post is just old. Gr.

I recently tested at 91 WPM typing speed with 100% accuracy. I was proud of that. Other than that, I am finding that clarinet is not really finding me any work for the summer. Maybe I'm just "looking for [work] in all the wrong places. "

Chad and I are doing well - he's working at Cold Stone, though we'll see how long that lasts. Today is the first day of the five days of Chad's birthday! (For my birthday, mom sent me a KitchenAid mixer!!!! I thought I had written about this on my blog but apparently the last post was that I was engaged... hm... Anyways - Chad, knowing he couldn't compete with that, came up with 5 days to celebrate my birthday, instead of just 1. Each day was accompanied by a small gift of some sort, and then we dressed up and he took me out to dinner on my birthday. So - it's only appropriate that he gets the same treatment.) I can't tell you what my five days have planned or it'd ruin the surprise. Chad is going to be 28 on Tuesday! Yes, I know what you're thinking. That's 8 years older than me. Yes it is. And that is all I have to say about that.

The other day Kari & Eric (Chad's sister and brother-in-law) and Chad & I were at WalMart. I went in to use the bathroom and the toilet flushed randomly (automatically) while I was in there. I told Chad when I came out - I feel a blog entry coming on. But, I think Ellen tells it far better than I ever could.

I suppose I should be doing something productive. It's kind of lame to be sitting at home all day while other people go out and do responsible things. On with the day.

Hello dear readers (aka Mollie, Mom and Erin...) That's not to leave out my other readers, but I'm assuming Mollie Mom and Erin are the only ones reading this.
So... yesterday or the day before Mollie wrote about spring being in the air. It certainly is.
Okay, okay, cut to the chase.
I'M ENGAGED!
The story:
Chad and I had to go to Idaho Falls this afternoon to get my phone replaced and look into getting my clarinet fixed. (which we didn't end up doing because the guy wanted $395) We ended up not having enough time to get something to eat while we were gone, so we came back around 3:30 so I could go practice with my accompanist for my performance tomorrow for the clarinet festival. I practiced with Natascia and then met up with Chad again. Around 5:00 we went to Applebee's for dinner. Since it was relatively early for dinner, the restaurant was relatively empty. I rambled on at the mouth for a while talking anything and everything. We ordered our food, and then Chad got really quiet. And I asked him what was up. He couldn't think of anything to say so he reached into his pocket and pulled out a little white box and put it on the table between us. He took my hands in his and asked me to marry him. I said yes and he put the ring on my finger. And that's our story. He promises me he kept it simple because 1) he couldn't wait and 2) he didn't want to embarrass me. As you'll see, my ring is simple too, so it fits.

Hello readers -- not much is new in the land of cold and wind. ... or should I say "colds and wind".
I took a lovely nap Sunday afternoon only to wake up not feeling that well. I took my temperature which was a little above normal. I had a slight fever. I woke up Monday morning feeling even worse, had a higher temperature than the day before, and had developed a lovely little cough to accompany it. They go so well together. I skipped most of my classes on Monday, hoping that if I stayed home and rested, I would get better faster. I had to play for someone's pre-recital jury around noon, and then I had a dress rehearsal for the opera (The Magic Flute) that I'm playing in the pit for. That ran from 5:45 to 9:00. Yesterday I woke up feeling still worse, with a temperature of about 101.5. After feeling like I was going to konk out right there in the shower, I decided to skip my first two classes, and go in for Wind Ensemble at 11:30. By then I didn't feel too terribly better, but knew I had to go. I had clarinet choir and sectional after that and then another dress rehearsal from 7:00 to 10:30. Let me tell you -- in case you had wondered, playing the clarinet for 7 1/2 hours in one day is not a good way to cure a sore throat. But -- wonder of wonders -- I woke up today with a mild fever (if you can even call it that) of 100.5. I'm feeling pretty good right now, which is not to say that as soon as I step outside I won't wonder why I thought going to class was such a good idea.
But my point in telling you all of this is to point out why you should stay home when you're sick. You get innocent people like me sick if you don't. And I never get sick! I have to admit though, it is quite the dilemma. Skip class and stay home, because you feel crappy, and you don't want to share your germs, and lose credit for that day of class. Or go to class because you have to be there, and risk spreading your killer germs to others. Since I haven't missed those classes ever, I decided to just stay home. But I have to go today because otherwise I will have missed my M-W classes two days in a row.
Let me just say this. Curse you whoever brought your sickling germs to school and let them jump and play all over me until my body was jealous and wanted some of it's own! Mollie and I agree that the candy nerds on the commercials look like little germs. That's what I imagine. Little nerd germs throwing parties in every imaginable place. Eew.
On a grosser sidenote -- ya know how some people hack up phlegm like it's their job? And then they spit it out really disgustingly...? I envy those people right now. I have this nasty cough and I seem physically unable to do that. I could go into detail, but I'll leave it at that.
Anyways -- after making such a valiant effort to get up early so I could go practice this morning, I have realized that by the time I was ready to go, there really wasn't quite enough time to practice anyway. So I decided to do this instead. Well, until something more exciting than sickness comes along... I bet if you read all the family blogs right now, you'd think we were constant sicklings. Or at least me and Kyle. I bet your so glad you can read everyone's blogs to catch up on their health issues....

Hello blog readers!
Let me tell you a story about daylight savings time.
So Saturday night, knowing that Daylight Savings Time would go into effect at about 2:00 am the next morning, I set my alarm on my phone, thinking that it would automatically reset itself to the correct time and thus ensure that I got up at the right time. It's foolproof... right?!
No, you, like me, would be wrong about that.
I set my alarm for 8:00am, giving me plenty of time to get up and get ready for church which begins at 9:30. Sunday morning as I was laying contentedly in my bed, I heard the noise of the hair dryer. Thinking it must be about time to wake up, I rolled over and looked at my phone -- 7:53am. I looked at my clock radio which I thought I hadn't successfully reset the night before -- 7:53am. Hm. I must've reset it afterall. So I fall back asleep, cherishing my 7 minutes before my alarm goes off. And in the middle of my dream, I'm thinking -- it sure does seem like it's been a while... my alarm should've gone off by now. I wake up and roll over and look at my phone -- 9:05. So did I fall asleep and really sleep for another hour? No. My alarm never went off. After doing some investigative work (Kimberly blow dried her hair about 1/2 hour before I got out of the shower, which was at 9:15) I realize that my phone decided to accept Daylight Savings Time at about 8:00am. Except that it went straight from 7:59am to 9:00am. 8:00am on Sunday March 9th, 2008 never existed. Hence why my alarm never went off. We were late to church because of me, but not by much -- we walked in in the middle of the opening hymn. I called Chad (who also has Verizon) after church and he said his phone did the same thing. He missed sacrament meeting altogether. Anyways. I wanna know what happened to 8:00!! I needed that time to get ready for church! I don't want it back in November when it's no good to me anymore!
Obviously Benjamin Franklin didn't take cell phones into account when he came up with this glorious plan.
In Australia their clocks change half an hour at a time. I can't even imagine getting used to that. I would wake up thinking it was 8:30, get ready only to realize that 9:00 is now 9:30. An hour would occur in the space of half of one. So here in the U.S. that hour just doesn't exist. . . . ?

...Sure makes me wish I lived in Indiana...

Well my dear readers, I have much to be thankful for today.
I just got a box with two full pounds of Valentine's Day chocolate in it thanks to my dad, as is the Dickerson tradition of Valentine's Day After Chocolates. I don't care if it was bought 24 hours later, I'm just glad it's here. Especially since it was completely unexpected. Completely made my day, and let's be honest, quite possibly my week. It's not every day that chocolate magically and perfectly-timed appears on your doorstep. I just thought I'd share my happy news for the day. With that, I think I'll go eat some more.... yum....
Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, I suppose I have much to update about. Unfortunately, I don't feel like doing all of that now -- I just want to post about one story in particular which I've been dying to tell.

So -- Saturday morning/afternoon/evening Chad was working which meant I had to find something to do with myself for an entire day. This doesn't usually happen to me -- if it's a Saturday, I'm usually in rehearsal or recording sessions. If it's Sunday, I'm at church. If it's a weekday, I'm in class. But Saturday -- Saturday I was completely free. So naturally I slept until about 11:30. I got up and did some stuff around the apartment, then took a nap from 2-4. Productive so far. I went and played the piano some and then came home and decided to make some Valentine's Day sugar cookies -- the kind my mom usually makes but didn't have time for this year. Now, I'm not a big fan of the cookies only because when I was little I liked them so much that I ate enough to make myself throw up, so now they're not exactly all that appealing. But everyone else seems to like them and they're fun to make. So, I made some. I got all my ingredients out, and then had to go to Broulim's to try and find a heart-shaped cookie cutter, which I did, and it only cost me 10 cents. I was happy. I came home, got a bowl and a hand mixer and began baking. Everything went relatively smoothly as I mixed all of the liquid ingredients and then moved on to the dry ingredients. It was the flour that did me in. I had been using a whisk to mix everything together before because I couldn't find regular beaters for the hand mixer, just weirdo dough hook things that couldn't really do the job. But once I added all the flour, it was too thick to do with the whisk, so I broke out the hand mixer. I stuck it in the bowl, holding the whisk against the side, thinking I could just use the hand mixer and steer clear of the whisk. By now I bet you know where this story is going. In fact, I couldn't just "steer clear" of the whisk. There was this terrible noise and struggle before I realized what was happening. I was slightly injured in the process of trying to separate the two before turning off the mixer like an intelligent person. I also succeeded in spewing flour and dough all across the kitchen and myself. So -- here is what happens when a whisk tries to take on a hand mixer.

I was actually quite surprised at the fight the whisk put in. It actually snapped one of the dough hooks right in half, leaving the long straight part of it stuck in the mixer. It strategically wrapped itself around the other dough hook in an effort to take it down. I haven't really decided exactly who won the fight, because the effort from both sides was so valiant. Once I removed the fighting kitchen tools from the mixer, I was going to just throw it away. Or else try to untangle the surviving dough hook from the mess and return it to the drawer... not like it would be much good without it's partner anyway. But then I decided to wash it off and keep it for future entertainment. How often are you going to have the experience of running an electric hand mixer straight into a whisk? I have to keep the evidence. Anyways, it's somewhat artistic. I showed it to Chad's roommate who's an artist, and he said I could probably take it into a beginning sculpture class and get an A on it. Who would've thunk?! ... I always felt artistic...

Hello all!
I have just a few things to tell you and update you about before I have to go to class in 15 minutes. School has gotten off to a crazy start this semester. I'm finally all settled with my classes and obligations. It's going to be a busy semester! A few things:
1. My classes this semester consist of Theory, Ear Training, Symphony Band, Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Woodwinds, Doctrines of the Gospel, Educational Psychology, Clarinet lessons, and Vocal Methods.
2. We had auditions for ensemble placement at the beginning of this semester, and I was placed first chair in the Symphony Band (previously known as Wind Ensemble) and co-principal in Symphony Orchestra. So I'm very excited about that, and am adjusting a little bit to the responsibility.
3. It has been ridiculously cold here. And I mean ridiculously. A couple of days it was about negative 20, not counting wind chill. It's snowed almost every day since we've been back from Christmas, or at least that's the way it seems. It's the coldest winter they've had in 10 years. Yay me.
4. I helped out at the temple open house a couple of times in the last three weeks. This is the last week for the open house, then it will be closed for a week for cleaning, and then it will be dedicated on February 3rd.
5. The Symphony Band is playing for the Temple Celebration on Saturday, February 2nd. We have rehearsals every day next week except Monday. 6:00 - 9:00 pm.
6. Chad and I are still dating.

Well, I've used up all my time, and my class is about to start, so I guess I better go. After this, I only have one more class today! WEEKEND! Yay!

So I will update more later.

Hello all!
My mom pointed out to me that I haven't posted in a while. Not for lack of trying, let me tell you. It seems that every time I get on here and get ready to post some pictures, my computer decides it's too hot to possibly continue working, and shuts itself off. Kyle is working on that problem as we speak. Hopefully he can fix it. Anyways, I wanted to post a few pictures from my trip to California. I have over 300 pictures from that week, so, as I said, a "few" pictures. Keep in mind that I probably have multiple pictures for everything I tell you I did.


Tuesday, January 1: leaving Connecticut at sunrise

Tuesday, January 1: about 10 hours later: arriving in Sacramento

Elk Grove! (Chad's hometown)

Wednesday: January 2: Eating cookies at a mall in Sacramento. We had to buy something so they'd validate our parking.

Wednesday: January 2: Capitol Building. After the mall, we walked around the Historic section of Sacramento, and then went to see the Capitol. We picked oranges off the trees in the Capitol Building park. They weren't worth the work it took to get them, they were really sour.

The pride of Cal-ee-for-nya.

On Thursday, January 3rd, we decided, after much debate, to go to San Francisco. It was supposed to rain all day, but it looked like our best weather day for the rest of the week, so we finally decided to just go. I'm glad we did, it was amazing, even though we were soaking wet within half an hour of getting out of the car. We tried to tour the Ghirardelli factory, but it was under construction. Typical Dickerson luck.

Pictures don't really convey just how steep these streets really are.

I touched the Pacific Ocean! The San Francisco Bay was as close as I got because it got too late/dark before we could go find the real beach. But I'm counting it anyway.

Alcatraz.

Lunch at Boudoin at Pier 39. Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Yummm!

The sea lions at Pier 39. Unfortunately there weren't too many out.

Fisherman's Wharf.

Golden Gate Bridge.

Golden Gate Bridge at night.

January 4-7, we spent the rainy days visiting with Chad's family, and Chad's grandmother and aunt. On Friday we lost power for a few hours in the morning, so that was exciting. We went to see National Treasure 2 on Saturday. All in all, it was a very fun trip, and I'm glad I went.


Monday: January 8: Getting our chains put on during our trip back to Rexburg.

Well hello my dear readers, once again. This time I am writing to you from "Sunny" California. I write "Sunny" like that because it's done nothing but rain for the last three days. Of course.
Anyways -- why am I here, you ask? To visit Chad! SURPRISE! It was sort of an impromptu trip. We had thought about it before but it always looked like it was going to cost much more than either one of us could afford. But a week ago I was looking online and found a fare to change my flight to Salt Lake on January 7th to a flight to Sacramento on January 1st. It actually saved us money. So here I am in California. On Wednesday, Chad took me around Sacramento, and then on Thursday we went to San Francisco even though it was pouring. We took a lot of pictures, and hopefully it won't be too long before I get some of them posted here. Right now they're all on Chad's computer. It's been fun! We were supposed to drive to Rexburg today, but with the weather, we decided that Monday would be our best traveling day. So Monday it is. Pictures to follow!

... I told you to expect a blog entry to explain what a Dickerson Christmas is all about. Voila.

(Please also see Mom's version (she took more decorations pictures than I did) and Kyle's version.)

I made sure to take pictures so be grateful this isn't quite as boring as it could be.

First of all -- our house is COVERED in Christmas decorations. My mom hangs up all of our elementary school decorations on the kitchen wall above the table.

My Rudolph always gets made fun of the most because his nose is lower than his mouth. Somehow this made sense in my elementary school mind.


Christmas Eve officially begins with the Christmas Eve Program. Except this year, we went family band-ing first... like caroling, only with instruments. Mike and Erin play tenor and alto sax, respectively, Evan plays trumpet, Kyle trombone, Mollie flute, and me, clarinet. We only went to one family this year, which is fine by all of us. The following is a picture I took in the car. Probably my favorite one of this Christmas.

When we got home from that, we finally began our Christmas Eve Program, which consists of singing, musical numbers and stories (every family member is required to participate in some way) and culminates with Dad reading the story of Christ's birth out of Luke, a closing hymn and prayer/blessing on the refreshments. Then we snack on traditional (for the Dickersons) Christmas Eve foods of Wheat Thins, Triscuits, little weenies, fruit (mom's addition this year), wassail and a veritable array of candy, chocolate and Christmas cookies. Then we open presents from each other.

The fireplace in the living room.

Mollie and I playing our obligatory musical number.

Mike, Mollie and Kyle looking oh so enthused.

Mom reading a story.

This year mom bought musical "crackers" for us to open. Each contained an awesome hat and numbered whistle so you could play Christmas carols.

Evan obviously liked his the best.

Our snack table in the dining room. (This picture was taken Christmas morning.)

This year Erin didn't come home but had Christmas in Provo with her little family instead. But we got her on WebCam and we put her on speaker phone so she could be a part of our opening presents.

Our Christmas tree in the family room with all the sibling presents under it.

Christmas morning we aren't allowed to come downstairs until everyone is out of bed. This year I beat Mike and Evan out of bed with an empty wrapping paper tube. (I will have to remember this for next year -- it worked brilliantly. Not only could you poke and hit people, but if you hit it against the wall it makes an amazingly obnoxious sound. It was perfect.) Once we come downstairs we have to stand and get our picture taken before we get to open our stockings.

Mike's Sugar Daddy pajama pants.

On the stairs. This is never an attractive picture of anybody.

Mom and Dad taking our picture on the stairs Christmas morning.

Christmas morning!!

More recently mom makes us open presents one at a time in order to draw out the process for as long as possible. Christmas afternoon usually consists of napping, snacking, and messing with new Christmas gifts. This year after Christmas dinner, we played Dad's new Dilbert game. Though complicated, we all enjoyed the "Circle of Trust" card. Everyone was required to hold hands until a new card was played. If they broke the circle with more than one hand, or at any other time than to take their turn, they lost crucial "Happiness" points, and then had to rejoin the circle anyway. Mollie and I were exempt because we were Dilbert and when you're Dilbert you don't have to follow the rules if you don't want to.

The "Circle of Trust".

And that, my dear friends, pretty much sums up Christmas at the Dickersons. Now you know.

I'm back again already! You're probably going to hear a lot from me since I'm home with comparatively nothing to do except post things on my blog. And I'm taking lots of pictures for that purpose, so here are some from today. We got our Christmas tree!!!


The Christmas tree farm. How New Englandy!

The tractor they drove us out on. And then us on the tractor.

Evan on the tractor. The view.

The view avec moi. Evan again -- is this the tree?

Evan cutting down the tree. Dad and Kyle carrying it out.

Netting the tree. Tying it to the top carrier.

We all got a kick out of this sign posted on the barn wall. All settled into its corner.

I'll have to post more pictures when we get it decorated.