Christmas 2010

Ramz found these giant gummy bears and bought them. I think this was the highlight of her Christmas. Here, I am pretty sure Dad is on the phone with me trying to get me home (I love my Dad).

Our lovely tree in our lovely home... oh how I love home (and this girl!).

 

I found this Christmas sweater in Grandma's closet years ago and wear it all December long. I LOVE it! It has to be the best most awesome ugly sweater EVER. I mean, it has BELLS. Real bells.

This is what happens when you ask Taylor to take pictures of you in an ugly Christmas sweater - a brother with ADD taking pictures of himself.

 

Christmas Eve Tradition - Christmas Jammies

This tradition has been going on since forever. When we were little, Mom would make them for us. As we grew older (aka the last at least 5 years) Mom has been buying them. We would find adorable jammies in the states and buy for everyone, bringing them home to complete the Christmas tradition.

This year, however, Mom decided (I'm not sure why??) to make them this year. She asked Bobbie if she liked them, before we all came back, and Bob told her the truth (as hard as it was) that she didn't really like the material. So Mom took Bob to Justice and bought her jammies and continued on making the jammies for the other 3 girls. 

As we sat around the tree on Christmas Eve, after reading the Christmas Story, we asked if we can now open the Christmas jammies (and one additional present). Mom said no, she didn't think we would do Christmas jammies this year... it was then we knew she had made them. And that it must have gone terribly wrong. We finally convinced her that ugly jammies was better than no jammies.

Now, I'm thinking they must be sewn wrong so they hang weird. Or that she chose really ugly flannel fabric. Nope, wrong, wrong, wrong. Whatever you are imagining - it is 1000000000 times worse. And the picture really doesn't do it justice - you can't really tell. 

The Boys

The Girls

I laughed until I cried. I'd stop laughing and get a glimpse of a mirror or one of my sisters, and I'd start all over again. They look like scrubs gone really, really, REALLY wrong.

It took us a long time to get this photo. We were all laughing too  hard to get one, and then there was the issue with Bob. She sat in the bathroom crying for at least 15 minutes. She felt bad. She thought she had hurt Mom's feelings by saying she didn't like them. She also felt bad she had nice jammies and didn't match us. She kept saying between sobs, "But I'd rather have ugly jammies with you guys than these!"

Overall, Christmas jammies this year was the most laughter I've had in a long, long time. 

For Christmas, Camree bought Taylor the movie, 2 Front Teeth. She asked him what he wanted for Christmas, and being the obnoxious 17 year old that he is, he said, "My Two Front Teeth." So Camree googled the phrase and up popped this doosy of a movie.

She watched the trailer with Taylor, finding it to be utterly and completely ridiculous. So naturally, she bought it for us to watch. It is, undoubtedly the most retarded, awful movie I've ever seen. But it was awesome, just the same.

And while I'm talking about awful movies we watched this Christmas, Taylor found this movie, Day of the Dolphin, and made us watch it. He's been waiting for us to come to watch it with him for a while. I mean, how could you not be antsy to watch a movie whose tag line is: Unwittingly, He Trained a Dolphin To Kill The President of the United States. It was, completely awesome. And made me cry at the end. Also provided MUCH enjoyment the rest of the trip in the form of ridiculous quotes.

Christmas Morning!

BOBBIE

Bob's Christmas gift - a green Kindle!!! This girl is in LOVE!

Taylor

Taylor's Christmas Gift - a new Alien laptop

Ramzi 

Ramzi's Christmas gift - A new phone

Mikail

Mikail's Christmas Gift - A GPS

 

Nin

Nin's Christmas gift - an iPod Touch

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Ollie Ollie drug addicts in free

At dinner one night with Grandma, Grandpa, Ramzi and I, we began discussing fat kids and Nintendo.

Seriously.

Ramz and I began to reminisce on our wonderful Saihat childhood, where we didn’t have all these electronic games. We had a neighborhood full of kids of all ages, and we ran the streets for years, barefoot, playing night games.

Ages ranging from Bobbie (2-4ish) to me and my friends, in our teens.

Ghadah, Badr, Maha, Angela, Jeff, Orey, Tray, Layla, Safaa, Safwan, Reem, Safia, Gor-illa! And so, so many more.

Grandpa began to remember his childhood and games he’d play. He mentioned the game, Ollie Ollie Ox in free! Wondering how old that game is, and it’s origin. I mean – no one these days would invent a game based on an ox – no one has oxen any more.

Ramz and I were tickled pink about his discovery – since we played Ollie Ollie oxenfree! ALL THE TIME as kids!

It’s interesting how the name changed over the generations. Ox in free makes much more sense than oxenfree.

Gramps then made a very keen observation – they’d never name a game like that now. Kids these days. They should call it,

Ollie Ollie drug addicts in free.

Ahhahahahaa!!

Love you Gramps!

Love,

Brittney

LoVe

Being a young, single girl, the subject of love comes up a lot.

To be honest, I've never been in love. I've loved, had way too many broken hearts, but I've never been in love.

I've had guys tell me they love me. One told me after I broke up with him because he treated me badly. One told me after knowing me a month, during a make-out session. Was it you loved me, or the action?

So, what is love? What is it that we are all searching for?

I have really little/poor experience in romantic love. But I am fortunate enough to have lots of experience in all the other kinds of love.

To me, love is:

• Grandpa kneeling on one knee asking Grandma to be his wife for ever, into the Eternities, because he loves her that much.
• Grandpa making rock jewelry for all the girls, for every holiday. Getting my ruby ring fixed for me, when the stone fell out.
• Dad driving me 4 hours to Rexburg for my first year of college, then turning around the next day and driving 4 hours back to Provo because I had a meltdown when he went to leave, and driving 4 hours back to Rexburg the next day to drop me off for good, then turning right around and driving 4 hours back to Provo again. 
• Dad using all his hard earned savings to send his kids to school, so we can start life with a good education and not in debt.
• When I was driving to St. George to visit Grandma and Grandpa,  I was feeling a little sick and coughing a lot. I called Grandma to tell her when I'd arrive at the Condo. When I pulled into the condo late that night, Grandma had left some cough medicine on the counter with a note for me.
• The way Grandma always tries to feed us, makes our beds, does our laundry - all the things she can do to make us feel comfortable.
• Mom never spending any time or money on herself, but giving it all to her family.
• The amount she prays for her kids.
• Mikail never giving up on me, even though I never give her a reason not to.
• Camree's love poems.
• Taylor pulling me aside to talk to me about something important, even though it was awkward.
• McKenzie never taking off the BOB necklace I made her.
• A friend driving 3 hours to spend a weekend with me when I was going through something hard, even though I never asked him to.
• Samar calling and telling me she's been thinking about me a lot (analyzing me as only she can, having been my best friend for 10 years) and some of the things I struggle through, and wanting to discuss these things in depth so I can have a healthier outlook on life.

I've never been in love, romantically. But I am so lucky to have good examples of what love is. It isn't extravagant gifts or showy displays of affection.

Love is time. It is putting someone else above yourself. Thanks, family and friends, for filling my life with love, for showing me what it is.

Love,
Brittney

Mexico/California Trip - Disneyland!!!

Before

This is what a truly happy child looks like:

Obligatory Mickey shots:

Bob kept her hands up the entire ride. Maybe she isn't such a pansy, after all

Mexico/California Trip - Horse back riding