Happy Holidays

Sometimes, when there isn't a real reason to celebrate, we like to make small holidays into something more exciting, or better yet, make up holidays.  It gives me something to think about and plan for.  Like St. Patrick's Day.  Kind of a boring holiday, minus all those pinchies you might receive, but we like to turn it all green around here that day.

And April Fool's Day.  I've been planning this one for weeks.  The kids got spaghetti and meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy and peas and carrots for their dessert.  And Dustin got some brownies the day before that played a little trick on him the next day.  His trick turned certain bodily functions blue.  He fooled me by buying me pretty flowers.  Isn't he such a fooler?

And then there is the holiday of General Conference.  I LOVE General Conference!  Listening to real prophets and apostles!  Two days home, relaxing with the family!  Eating cinnamon rolls and fruit snacks!  A long time ago I learned this tip on rotating your 72-hour kit food:  Rotate it right before each General Conference and then let your kids eat it as a treat while they are watching.  During an emergency, we will be eating fruit snacks, fruit roll-ups and chex mix, so we love to rotate our 72-hour kid "food."  I also get together with my sisters during the Priesthood Session and we eat pizza, tend kids and attempt a craft.  Some attempts are more successful than others, so this year most of our craft was done alone, after the kids were in bed.  But it turned out cute anyway.  Do you think any of us will ever hit 6'4"?  Not likely, but you never know.

Another holiday that we celebrate in our family is the holiday of "Tax Sales".  This is a really fun holiday we have celebrated for nearly 20 years, where we travel to my home town, spend a day in the Parowan Vault, smelling smelly old books and searching through thousands of records of who has owned property down there.  Eight. Hours. Straight.  It is really exciting.  But, my dad does buy us lunch at an awesome place called "Hamburger Patty's", and the kids get a weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's, so no real complaints here.   

And there you have it!  Our month of holidays has now ended.  Time to move on to some other exciting holidays.  Real ones.