Christmas with the Cousins

(Xanny and twin cousin Max)

Ahhh, it's Christmas with the cousins ....

This weekend we had a blast with my sister Marcia's kids. They recently moved to Colorado and it's great to have them closer. (Even though it took them 8 hours to fly here with the icy weather.) Our kids are great friends, especially Max and Jane who are right around the same age as my kids.

(Sweet Jane)

The girls twirled and wore beautiful golden crowns inside the warm house.


Baby Tate ate large amounts of saucy noodles.

(Baby Tater)

(Belle)

Isabella spent most of her time with her twin cousin Maddie.


And the boys spent hours and hours outside making snow caves and getting frost-bite!

Thank goodness for the miracle of hot coco. I think their brains returned to normal functioning levels after enough warm liquid.

I promise Xanny was much happier than he looks in this picture!


Now everyone is caught up on Marcia's kids. Merry Christmas, Wrides. We'll see you for New Years!

It Ott to be Christmas

Some Holiday Cheer with La Familia Ott ...

Marco and I decided we would be fine with Xanny marrying either Acacia or Quince. You know my advice -- pick the perfect mother in law and just see what is available.

We traveled north to see Santa, Rudolf and Christmas lights. Santa was a no-show and Rudolf here tried to eat Acacia's hair. Hey, it's Christmas!

Every little girl dreams of a pink flocked Christmas tree. Call me if you need to know where to find one.

It was freezing and somehow Zina escaped with out a coat. Good thing my car is a traveling Gypsy caravan with plenty of fuzzy red fabric. She stayed warm but we didn't stay too long.

We headed back to the warmth of the Ott household where we ate Sheppard's Pizza. That would be pita's with sauce, capers and some good goat cheese. It's our new Christmas food. Zendina and I should write a cookbook! "Organic Holidays for the Hippie Mormon Mom."

The absolute highlight of the evening was when Acacia grabbed this ornament off the tree and declared, "THIS IS ETHIOPIAN!!" Yes it is.


Baby Asher is the perfect cherubic heavenly angel especially in the warm glow of Christmas decor. I kind of wish Santa would bring me one of these in my stocking with a tag that says "To: Andi." Then again, maybe not.

Thanks , Otts. I think we just came up with a great no-plan-tradition for years to come. Have fun in Canada!

I'M NOT WOR-TH-TH-Y

LISTEN TO ME, PEOPLE. This is Marco @ 50mm f/2 - 1/50 second, 6400 ISO handheld. Did you hear me? 64-freaking-hundred ISO lit only by his laptop in a dark corner of the house. H-A-N-D-H-E-L-D.

  LITERALLY, STRAIGHT OUT OF THE CAMERA. 

(I KNOW! I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!) 

He's perfect. It's perfect. I am not worthy! It's not Mark that I am talking about. But it is MARK II (ironic, I know) as in Canon EOS 5D 21.5 mega pix. At 21.5 mega pix, Marco could be accused of "over-share" in that shot. 

Did you see that noise? What kind of noise is that? Who gets that kind of noise? You looking for some amazing noise? I've got some amazing noise. I've got noise you can practically sing to. Just think of a dark reception room. That's the kind of noise I'm talking about. That's the kind of noise you could fall asleep to. I know what you are thinking ... 

You are thinking, "She's not worthy of that noise." 

It's been a great day.

Lizzer, this one is for you.

Bed-Time Story ...

So this Santa thing has gone on for a while. The kids argue with each other about whether Santa is True (with a capital T) or not. Zina is the steadfast defender of Santa and Xanny is the doubting scientist with concrete proof that there can be no Santa.

Tonight Xanny asked for a "time" from when I was a little girl. I told him about when I six years old, I did an experiment. I decided if Santa was real,  I would find an orange in the toe of my stocking on Christmas morning. The orange - that was the Santa test. 

And then I told him this time ...

Once upon a time, there was a boy who asked his mother if Santa was real - if he was true. The mom thought for a long time and told the boy it didn't matter if he was real or not, it mattered only that the boy believed in him. "Believing is fun", said the mom to her boy. "Believing in Santa is good practice for becoming what grown-ups call a Believer." 

Later on when the boy grew up, he was really good at believing in things even when he wondered if they were 100% true or not. He knew it was more fun to believe than to know if it was always true. He was happy in a confusing grown-up world of doubts and half truths. 

The End. 

Then Xanny said to me in his sleepy falsetto voice, "Mom, would you be sure to buy some oranges and give one to Santa on Christmas Eve so that I can wake up to find one in the toe of my stocking?"

Sure, Xanny.

I think he gets it. 

This was a good lesson for me this week. God asks us to be believers first. In our doctrine, being a believer is more important than knowing if it is True with a capital T. God clearly tells us that we CAN know the truth of all things, but he never tells us that we MUST know the truth of all things. But he does command us to be believers and doers.

So, that's it. Who cares if Santa is true. Who cares if our grown-up lives of love, purpose and work are true -- not God. If we were to ask God to tell us whether love is "True" I am sure He could give us a solid "yes or no" but that's not His point. He would say, "Hey, my point is that you should believe in love even if sometimes you don't know that it's real. Believing Is Way More Fun! Believing that someone altruistically wants to bring you something sweet because you are nice is especially fun. And ... it's good practice for becoming a Believer with a capital B."

Maybe tonight I will ask Heavenly Father to buy a few extra oranges to hand out.