Wandering Browns

Celebrating Austin and Owen's birthdays... very late! Just because we are THAT crazy and love traveling THAT much, we visited my family in California for two weeks on our way back to Chicago, then made it to Denver for Christmas . At this point, we had a few pieces of fall clothing from our fall in Korea, but most of the clothing we had with us was not suitable for the weather in Chicago or Denver. So, as soon as we landed in Chicago, we headed over to our storage unit to go "shopping" for the things we needed in Denver. Because we were so tired of flying, we decided to DRIVE to Denver. We spent one night in Chicago, loaded up our stuff, and rolled out toward Denver around noon the next day. Owen took an epic nap, we met up with our old BYU swimming pal Zach for dinner in Lincoln, Nebraska, where we had planned on stopping and resting for the night. We decided to continue driving, though, so the boys would not have to spend another full day in the car. I drove durin...

We spent a significant portion of our time in California getting over jet lag and doing all of the things that we miss when we're traveling- baking, cooking, eating awesome American and Mexican food, and spending tons of time with family. I am so happy that we were able to introduce Landon to some of my favorite family traditions. Landon and I made lemony sugar cookies with different colors of buttercream frosting. Landon helped by taking way too many tastes and manning the decoration/sprinkles station.  Our time in California flew by and was filled with tons of activities! Turns out my parents are pretty busy even with just one kid at home. Austin and I celebrated our anniversary with dinner at McClintock's in Pismo Beach- a cowboy-type steak house overlooking the ocean, and outdoor mineral springs hot tub. It was a very relaxing date! We attended Claire's piano recital (with my piano teacher from high school!) and band concert. We did some temple work for my ma...

Landon liked helping with the tree! My boys, the tree, and the jammies All of our Christmas stuff is in our storage unit, I wasn't sure what we were going to do to decorate for Christmas. Thankfully, our friends we are renting from generously left their Christmas stuff accessible and invited us to use it to decorate for Christmas. We had a great time putting up the tree and putting some of our own ornaments from this year with plastic, Landon-proof ornaments. Auntie Em and Grandma Ev found some matching Santa footie PJs for Landon and Owen. They were so adorable in their matching jammies with Santas on the toes!  We also made some ornaments this year out of a dough made of baking soda, corn starch, and peppermint essential oil. They smelled great, and we cut out different Christmas shapes as well as making hand impressions of Landon's and Owen's hands. Landon's hands are so big compared to Owen's! We love the Christmas season and the opportunity ...

Landon opening Auntie Em's present We flew into Colorado in the nick of time for Christmas! We tried our best to get into the Christmas spirit in Indonesia, but we were elated to be able to be in the United States with family for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Landon with his Christmas jammies! Christmas Eve, Austin's family has a traditional holiday dinner with his grandparents, and aunt. We had ham, mashed potatoes, rolls, etc. I made sugar cookies with Landon for dessert. I love baking and was happy to be back in a real kitchen. Familiar food was wonderful as well. Landon has changed quite a bit since our last visit so it was fun to see him interacting with all of his great-grandparents. Landon opened his Christmas jammies from Auntie Em. By the end of our time in CO, Landon was calling her "E Bim" and I think that might be her name now. We will see.  Landon in his Christmas PJs and Grandma Ev helping open Christmas morning was wonderful. ...

As a college student, December was always a hectic time. After Thanksgiving, it seemed that everything came to a head- papers, projects, and finals all loomed in the weeks before Christmas. I always shopped early and over the course of a few weeks to combat the pressure of that time of year. After completing my graduate program, I never felt that Christmas was so hectic and commercial that I didn’t have time to celebrate the real reason for Christmas- the birth of Jesus Christ. Sure, I was annoyed when Christmas stuff appeared in the stores in October, but really the start of the Christmas season for me has always been Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, you prepare for Christmas! Here in Cilacap, there are no problems with the “commercial” part of Christmas. No rushing around buying gifts. No Santas in the mall and commercials on TV with all the best Christmas toys. We don’t even have a congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here to sing Christmas songs wi...