I was born on Christmas Day

It's true. I'm a Christmas baby. Whenever people find out that I am, they usually say any of the following:

"That's a terrible birthday!"

"How does that work?"

"That must have been a GREAT day for your mom!"

"Ooh, extra gifts? That's cool!"

I will elaborate upon my response to these statements.

That's a terrible birthday!


I understand that there are people who don't wish a Christmas birthday, or even a December birthday upon anyone because it can get overshadowed by the holiday season.

It annoys me when people say about a baby born close to Christmas, "Oh, be glad you didn't have him/her on Christmas!" I actually know someone who was induced a few days before Christmas for that very reason. Maybe it doesn't occur to them that there are indeed Christmas babies in this world.

My parents have always tried to make my birthday as good as possible. Yes folks, I get a birthday! Celebrating my birthday is part of my family's Christmas tradition. The only bad thing about my birthday is that I've never had a birthday party with my friends. And the letdown afterwards (double whammy).

But mostly, I love my birthday. Everyone in the world celebrates it (ha ha) and my husband has absolutely no reason to ever forget it. I also think it's a special day--the day we celebrate Christ's birth.

How does that work?


When I was born, my parents vowed that I would always have a birthday. Like I said, my birthday just happens to be part of my family's Christmas tradition.

How does this tradition work? The first half of the day is devoted to Christmas. We open Christmas presents in the morning and have dinner sometime in the afternoon. Then after digesting dinner, we celebrate my birthday with cake (or cherry pie) and I open my birthday presents. Stephan intends to keep this tradition going.

That must have been a GREAT day for your mom!


Well, I was my mom's only drug-free birth, after a fairly hard pregnancy. Not planned, but I was born too quickly for her to get anything. I was my mom's 45 minute special.

Also, my mom didn't get pregnant that easily, so she wasn't one of those mothers who has the luxury of "planning" what month they want their babies to be born. I hate those mothers.

But it was a good day for my parents because they finally got a girl, after having two boys. They had been wanting a girl for a while. So, their Christmas present that year was a baby girl. And my mom said that if I had been a boy, they would have stopped having kids. After me, they decided to try for another girl...but got a boy instead.

And folks, she didn't have to cook! Although she did get fish head soup...(I was born in Japan).

Ooh...extra Christmas presents! That's cool!

I get a few extra gifts for my birthday, yes. Yes, I get birthday presents.


So, please do not disparage Christmas as a birthday. After all, we celebrate Christ's birth that day. Don't hate on us Christmas babies.

Day 20: A Hobby of Mine

I crochet. In fact, I'm part of a local knitting/crocheting group that meets at the Barnes and Noble cafe every week. My group was featured in the Provo Daily Herald last month.

I took up crocheting about four years ago, when I decided to make a scarf for a friend who was going to serve his mission in Canada. Until I found this group, my crocheting was off and on.

My crocheting skills are still developing, and one day, I would like to become good at knitting too. And someday, sewing.

Day 19: A Talent of Mine

I play the violin. People tell me I'm talented, but I'm very out of practice at the moment (I'll change that someday). I started playing the violin just before I turned 11, and I'm nearing 24. Thirteen years? Wow.

This is a sonnet I wrote for a creative writing class I took my senior year of high school. Please keep in mind I was 17 and writing this for a grade, so disregard how juvenile it may sound.

Me and My Violin

I have played violin for many years
Practicing difficult music and scales
And keeping short my growing fingernails
I suppose it is something cavalier.

But I really do love all the music
It fills my heart and soul with great delight
To play music good composers write
You must know: learning is not at all quick!

Practice and listen to some strict teachers
And practice with the stupid metronome
It seems easy to compose palindromes
Tough teachers often teach you a lot better.

Before you take up any instrument
Mind you that it is not an ornament. 

Day 18: Wedding Day

Brace yourselves for a long post folks :)

We were engaged for five months. By Mormon standards, that's a long engagement, as most couples in our religion tend to get married in the 2-4 month range. Crazy, I know. The only reason we were engaged for that "long" was because the first free day for a wedding wasn't until the day after my college graduation. We figured since my family was already coming up for the graduation, why not have a wedding? By the way, those five months were torture.

I decided that we would be married in the Mount Timpanogos Temple. This seemed to surprise both sides of the family. My in-laws were expecting to make a trip to Houston, since that's where I'm from. My parents were expecting me to choose Salt Lake, since that's where I originally wanted to get married and because it seemed to be the family temple.

I always knew that I would be married in Utah, because that's where most of my relatives live, or thereabouts. When it came time to decide where the wedding would be, Mount Timpanogos Temple just felt "right." Plus, my mom's Uncle Herschel is also a sealer there, so we were able to have him to perform the ceremony.

My decision later proved to be inspired. About a week or so before the wedding, I found out that there was going to be a protest around Temple Square on our wedding day. It wouldn't be fun to try taking pictures when there are angry protestors just outside of the gates. We would have enough snags on our wedding day as it was...

Looking at this picture, what time of year do you think this was taken?

Would you be shocked if I told that we were married in the middle of August?

It had rained a lot that summer, so I was crossing my fingers that it wouldn't rain on the big day. When I woke up that morning, it was windy and there were dark clouds in sky, threatening to rain on my wedding day. I prayed that the rain would be stayed until after the ceremony and after pictures had been taken!

My mom and I left for the temple, met Stephan and his dad there, got the details of our marriage license squared away, and then I was taken to the bride's room. This is where I changed into my wedding clothes. Looking back now, I think I should have just worn my temple dress for the sealing. I'll explain.

After I got dressed, I was reunited with Stephan and we were taken to the Celestial Room, where we would wait until the sealing room was ready. As we walked into the Celestial Room, Stephan stepped on my dress and ripped one of the bustlings out.

For those who aren't familiar with temple sealings, if the bride's dress has a train, it must be bustled for the ceremony. I had a very long train (I wish my mom had taken more off), and it had to be put into a "French bustle", meaning three bustlings instead of just one. I was pretty annoyed with Stephan for stepping on the dress. Not a good start to a marriage. I should have just worn my temple dress and that would have been avoided. Or else I should have been more insistent on my mom shortening the train even more...she didn't want to.

Instead of basking in the peacefulness of the Celestial Room, Stephan was trying unsuccessfully to fix my dress. Finally, a patron offered us a safety pin. That did the trick. But then it was time for us to go to the sealing room.

Was I nervous? Surprisingly, no. Stephan has since told me that he was terrified up until the altar.

The sealing room was filled almost to capacity when we showed up. We booked the largest sealing room, which holds about 55 people. Most of the people there were family. Shows how big our families are.

The ceremony began. Apparently Uncle Herschel gave us some very good counsel, and those who were at the sealing told us in cards to always remember it.

Unfortunately, we don't. Well, except for the "go to the temple often" part. I wish someone had written down the counsel he gave. A friend once said that the counsel must be more for the people who are attending the sealing, rather than the couple, because the couple is too caught up in the moment to really remember.

Then sealing itself took place. It was very short. Almost anticlimactic considering how much it is emphasized and celebrated in our religion.

After the sealing was done, we were taken back to the dressing rooms (well, bride's room in my case), to remove the ceremonial clothing, and in Stephan's case, change back into his suit. Then we made our grand exit:

It was raining when we came out. Although I didn't get my wish for the rain to stop, it was a light rain (mostly). So, we were able to get a decent number of pictures taken at the temple, even though there were some shots I wanted that we didn't get.

I'm very glad we hired a professional photographer. He had plenty of experience shooting during inclement weather. And dealing with stressed-out brides.

One of my favorites :)

We had an afternoon reception at Le Jardin in Sandy, UT. It's a greenhouse. Indoors. And incidentally, it was sunny there. Grr.

And a lot of people didn't get the memo that our reception was in the AFTERNOON.

Why did we have an afternoon reception? Well, it was cheaper and it was the last spot available for that day. Not kidding.

But we still had a lot of people come to the reception.

I have no idea what my mom is doing here.

Can I just say how much I hate receiving lines? Especially while wearing high heels. I was so glad to sit down.

I believe Le Croissant did the catering for the reception. Our wedding cake was made by Stephan's mom :)

Some people thought it looked highly unusual. Was it the coloring?

We also had a string quartet at the reception.

We had a celebrity cellist, and didn't know it.

Then my dad jumped in and played "Sunrise, Sunset" with them.

We had the bouquet toss. My cousin Kerstin caught the bouquet.

 Then we had a boutennier (sp?) toss. No garter toss. My brother Paul got it. He'd better be next.

Then we made our getaway. Certain people were determined to decorate our car, but my brothers were so kind to hide it in the neighboring cemetery. The car decorating is one of those wedding traditions that I really don't like, along with cake smashing, the garter toss, gifting the bride with lingerie, etc. 

Although Stephan's scooter didn't fare so well. 

We've now been married for approximately 16 months, and we're still happy. I don't ever want to go back to single life. Never. Not even with all the bumps in the road we've had. Stephan is still my favorite person in the world, and I'm pretty sure he'll say the same about me. At least, he'd better ;)

Okay, this entry took like a week to write. Whew. If you're reading this last sentence, I congratulate you for having the energy to read the post all the way through.

Day 17: An art piece

I like Degas. I have one of his ballerina paintings (a print, of course) in my living room. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the exact one in my online search, but here's the next best thing :)

Day 16: A Song that Makes You Cry

I haven't posted in a really long time. Sorry folks.

Josh Groban's rendition of "I'll Be Home for Christmas" brings tears to my eyes every time I listen to it. Listening to those recordings of some of our soldiers serving in the Middle East wishing their families a Merry Christmas is what does it to me.

I know that some of my friends are opposed to the war in Iraq, but I think we can all agree that it would be incredibly difficult to be separated from your family and friends during the Christmas season.