xmas date night

i was freakishly excited when i went to trader joes and they had all of their christmas products out.  when i saw that they had gingerbread house kits i knew i had to buy it because dawson and i have never even made a gingerbread house together, and i don't know how this has happened.

we didn't even look at the box or instructions so that we could have our own creative juices flow and build a gingerbread house that was entirely our own.

it turned out so cute that i made dawson take a picture of our family night activity.  i am so embarrassed because i had to download a timer app on my phone so that i could take a picture of us all. 

it took like 20 tries to get the to not fall down, get us all in and all of us looking semi-normal.  i have since deleted the app so that we don't have to go through ordeal that again.  and i don't want to have people thinking we have a personal photographer with us at all times.

after the picture fiasco i went into the kitchen to clean up, and dawson said he was going to decorate a little more.  when i came back a mere 5 minutes later, the gingerbread house looked like it had been through a frosting blizzard.  

bless his heart.

we were feeling so festive still that we decided to go to festival of trees.  all feelings of pride in our gingerbread house went out the window when i saw the houses on display there. 

it really humbled us and helped us to realize that we are still gingerbread amateurs. 

we have decided that when we are rich, we are going to donate a harley davidson tree to the festival of trees.  dawson will pick out an actual harley to donate, and i will be in charge of decorating the tree.

but for now we will just be tree admirers.  here is blurry dawson with our favorite tree of the night, the ute tree of course!

grandma nancy

i can say with full certainty that no one else in this world has a grandma like my grandma nancy.  if you want proof, let me ask you this.  does anyone else's grandma...

ride a bike that looks like a harley around the neighborhood? 

teach you how to go through purses at d.i. to look for money that was left behind? 

take you dumpster diving for a bonding activity (she actually found us our first nintendo this way!)? 

ride a moto-cross bike off a ramp and land in a lake? 

claim to have invented the "do-rag"?

wear a indian headdress to every football game as well as in the provo city 4th of july parade?

let you put soap in her hot tub so it overflows with bubbles?

she truly is one of a kind and everyone who meets her can't help but love her.  a few weeks ago she had to have a total shoulder replacement and it just so happened that she stayed on my floor at the hospital.

i was lucky enough to be her nurse that first night, and let me tell you she was my most favorite patient i've ever had.  although i'm not sure she felt the same way about me, because after i left she told her new nurse "melissa is a really great granddaughter, but she's a little too strict of a nurse".

she made quite the impression on everyone, and i had coworkers tell me some hilarious stories about her that happened when i wasn't there.  some of my favorite stories of her stay were...

when she accused the male nurse of stealing her jewelry because he had a beard.

holding hands with the physical therapist with interlocked fingers so they could be boyfriend/girlfriend.

visiting other patients in their room (which is quite frowned upon) and making friends with the lady who brought her wigs.

getting up out of bed every night without pushing her call light (which is also frowned upon) and keeping the night shift running to her room every half hour.

i still have coworkers tell me almost every day how cute my grandma was and asking how she's doing, to which i answer she is doing great and recovering fabulously!  you can't keep her down for long and she will be back to her crazy antics again in no time.

love ya grandma!