Hey, Look! We skipped November!

What started as a weekly email has now degraded to a bimonthly blog. We last wrote just before Halloween, where Ashley masqueraded around the neighborhood as a bumble bee. It didn't take long for her to understand exactly how Trick-or-Treating worked. Before we realized what was happening our quick visit to immediate neighbors turned into a trip around the block with Ashley running from house to house in search of more candy.

That same night was the start of the USU basketball season. As mentioned in our previous post, we sprang for season tickets thinking this was going to be a special season. So far, it has appeared that the basketball team has been hanging out with the football team. But, the games are fun to attend.

After her initial first game jitters Ashley has settled in to the whole basketball game routine. She'll now clap when the crowd does and knows the name of our star player, Jaycee, our coach, Stew, she can make the sound for "woosh" when ever the Aggies make a free throw, and most importantly, her favorite phrase is, "Goo Aggies!"

Thanksgiving brought family together from all over the northern part of the state. The first annual Family Soccer Game was organized at the Bicentennial Park, just behind Jen's (Amber's sister) house in Provo. Representatives from both Amber and Scott's families were in attendance, and fun was had by all who were there.

The day concluded with an extremely pleasant meal at the Bagby homestead, surrounded by family and friends alike.

One major difference from our celebrations of previous Thankful weekends was the omission of Black Friday observance. In years past, we would get up before dawn with the rest of the bargain crazies and stand out in the cold to get get some nifty gadget for next to nothing - after completing the mail-in rebate, of course.

No, this year we decided to sleep to a normal hour. Amber went out to the stores after they opened and was still able to get all the deals we were remotely interested in. Feeling rested for the remainder of the weekend was welcome change, and helped to keep all activities pleasant.

As the Christian-American population is aware Thanksgiving signifies the formal start to the Christmas season. Each year the Holidays get more and more exciting as Ashley learns more about them. This year will be remembered as the time when Ashley learned about the Christmas Tree.

A couple of weeks ago, while Amber was visiting with a neighbor in their kitchen, Ashley was playing with a couple of the neighbors kids in the front room. The oldest of the neighbor kids came into the kitchen, where the ladies were talking, to get some food. At that moment there came a loud crash from the front room, followed by Ashley erupting into tears.

Running into the room, the reflex of the mother of the two children was to yell the name of the child still in the room where the crash was heard, and the crying was still pouring from. However, the adults found that said child was fast sleeping on the couch while the balling Ashley stood next to the festively decorated tree - now lying on the carpet.

Embarrassed by the destruction that our child accomplished, Amber excused herself and Ashley after helping to pick up pieces of some broken ornaments. After such an experience, we really don't mind that according to Ashley all brightly decorated trees are called, "kiss-mass tree. no touch!".

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