Dear God, Thank You For The Christmas Present

I got into Saudi Monday night, ready for two weeks of sweat pants, The Khan, shawarmas, and no work- and soon after learned that i needed to help Yez write her talk for that Friday.

After fighting jet lag, with little success this round, Wednesday we wrote that talk, giving her all my wonderful Christmas talk ideas. Only to learn late Thursday night, that i too would be required to write a talk so my dad didn't have speak as long. Except at this point, i had already exhausted all my Christmas ideas and clever Christmas related Dr. Suez quotes.

So finishing my talk at 2:50 Friday morning,i got it done! And then had to be ready by 7:30 to leave for church in Ras Tanura. We took a wrong turn at some point, had to make a very illegal detour off the road, down a sandy dune-like hill to the road beneath, but, we made it to church on time! We all gave our Talks, only to discover that my dad in fact did not require my extra minutes, and actually took sacrament 15 minutes over time, without even finishing his talk.

Disgruntled as i was at the last minute speaking assignment, it was a wonderful opportunity for me to remind myself about the true meaning of Christmas. I, unfortunately, am one of the many poor souls who throughout the years of ornaments, traditions, and presents had forgotten the real Christmas spirit that we celebrate this season. That is, the great and miraculous blessing of Christ's birth to this mortal earth so many years ago, and the many miracles he preformed, and the final suffering he took upon himself so that we may be saved.

Sometimes it seems to me that it is around Christmas time, where we really seem to loose the true meaning of Christmas. That is, Christ. The blessing that Christ is in our lives, and the spirit of giving and service.

We celebrate that hope we now enjoy because God dwelt among us, living and dying for us.

And now because of Christ…..because of Christmas…..We can live again, with our families, after our mortal death.

This is what the chirstmas spirit is all about. It is HIS Spirit, the CHRISTmas Spirit, the spirit we should strive to have within us, and to share with others unceasingly.

Christmas IS about a gift. But, not so much the gifts we wrap and lay under tree. Christmas is about THE gift of CHRIST.

God gave us the first gift….the Messiah, the babe in the manger, Our Jesus Christ.

“For God so loved the world that He GAVE His one and begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

And so may our hearts always be filed with the Christmas spirit. We do not need a holiday to express the spirit of CHRIST, let us show kindness, service, and CHRIST like love all-year-round.

.Ramzi

Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.

Brother drove down this weekend and i got to spend the day with him! It was really great to see him. While he was here we took a little drive down memory lane, and wow have things changed. I know things have to change, adapt, grow.... conform to the times and all- but for some reason it feels like things from my childhood are exempt. Like they shouldn't be allowed to change or something.

Our childhood park is a construction zone, our tiny little library now looks like a shopping mall, and the Cinderella pumpkin carriage we were so fond of is gone. We drove by the duplex we used to live in and a pile of things were scattered on the driveway with a sign stating "Everything Free!" College students don't walk away from anything free, and so we indulged.

Among the freebies I found this wonderful hat,

Which Brother then wore around all day,... to lunch,.... and then, fittingly, while watching Police Academy 6

We went to lunch at a restaurant that we used to go to as children, Shivers and Shakes... And wow was everything bigger when we were children. The train that ran around the walls shrunk, the burgers shrunk, the shakes shrunk, and......

The train we used to sit in to eat our BIG burgers and BIG Shakes definitely shrunk.

Eating in the train was much more exciting when we were 6 and 8.

I guess change is inevitable, but somethings just shouldn't be allowed to change. I guess that's why they invented cameras, and mothers are so fond of scrapbooks, huh?



.Ramzi

live for, little moments, like these.

How does that primary song go? "Saturday is a special day...." Well, Tuesday to me is a special day- its date night! I have school for one and half hours instead of from 9-4, i get to sleep in, and its date night!

Date night usually consists of, but is not limited to bowling and tacos. Our first date was a Tuesday, and we went bowling and got tacos, p.s.

Since we met, we have only missed one week of bowling, and throughout all that time i have only beaten Cowboy.... ONCE. and it was by one point. what can i say? Kid is a natural!

Last Tuesday he beat me by more than one hundred... in my defense, i was super tired, i actually fell asleep while bowling. But still, he creamed me! Four strikes and three spares, that is pretty impressive.

This time we got ice cream before bowling, turns out Farrs Fresh makes ice-cream, with no lactose. However, i piled so much candy on it that i ended up getting sick anyways...in hindsight, it was counter productive i suppose.

.Ramzi

A Real Halloween Scare

I don't know what it is about carving pumpkins that i enjoy, but i do enjoy it. Maybe it is because it is a holiday tradition, and i love holidays and traditions. Whatever the reason, i thoroughly enjoy it.

Every year that i have been here in Utah i have carved pumpkins with my old roommate Tara Balle Sweeney, and so naturally, i wanted to carve pumpkins with her again this year. And as always, it was a success.

Cowboy and I found orange and black Halloween tortilla chips at wallmart, and me being me, i had to have them. So we made super nachos for dinner, with halloween chips ;)

Looks a little gross, but it was delicious.

While cutting the lettuce for our nachos, i turned around to talk to Cowboy, and cut my finger. Nothing fatal, but it wasn't a tiny cut. After cleaning and bandaging it, i felt a little light headed, but thought it would go away. That's the last thing I remember until i woke up on the couch. Apparently i fainted, almost hitting my head on the stove, but valiant cowboy and his puma like bull riding reflexes caught me. to quote my 12 year old sister, "well at least you got a romantic moment out of it." Just too bad i missed it.

(P.S. Its little in size, but deeper than it looks.)

Right after dinner we got started on our pumpkins.

I lost my top-of-pumpkin-cutting privilege because of my earlier display of knife control, so cowboy did mine.

Tara took a break to show cowboy every embarrassing picture of me she could dig up, because, as she says, "that is what happens when you bring a boy home to meet mommy."

The final products

Even better with candles

.Ramzi

Sorry Charlie,

Cowboy mentioned a while ago there were a few repairs his motorcycle, (whom i named charlie) was in need of.

Excited, i told him that i would love to be his assistant and help with the repairs. In spite of my complete lack of mechanic ability, the sweetheart agreed to let me help. A few days later he showed up with a lovely pair of coveralls just my size, well almost, with my name embroidered into them! What a doll!

(My Coveralls!)

(See my name!)

(Me and mikail basically did all the work,.... ;)

(I.e. I took the seat off...)

...(but cowboy helped a little too.)

(Cowboy let me drive a little...)

(Turns out, i shouldn't...)

.Ramzi

...as long as point A is delusion and point B is the hospital.

For those of you who are office fans the following office quote basically sums up last night.

Jim: "This is parkour. Internet sensation of 2004. And it was in one of the Bond films. It's pretty impressive. The goal is to get from point A to point B as creatively as possible so technically they are doing parkour, as long as point A is delusion and point B is the hospital. "

Yesterday Yez, Brother, and I drove down to Draper to spend the evening with Ninnie, whom we absolutely adore. We met up at Airborne Trampoline Arena, and were all super excited! The arena basically is covered with trampolines, and pretty much is the coolest place i have ever been. It is the fantasy of every child who grew up on a backyard trampoline.


(This is a picture of what it looks like.)

We had an hour to spend there, and we had so much fun. Yez learned how to do a front flip and we tried our hand at trampoline parkour.

We wanted a group picture of all of us kids jumping. so we stood on the gray box you see pictured above, and we jumped off. Ninnie's friend Kip took the picture. When i landed i twisted my ankle, and tore or pulled the ligament that i just got fixed last summer. not cool.

So kip and brother carried me to the car and we drove to the ER, where we spent the next two or so hours...but we still had fun!


Ninnie, Brother, and I all took this picture on our phones and then sent it to my dad at the same time, but unfortunately he didnt get the picture, so that failed and i ended up having to tell my parents my self. how lame is it that i had to wear a gown?

The hospital was boring, and even though it was empty they took sooo long...So we had to find new ways to entertain ourselves.
After brother exhausted his dinosaur noises, he found the masks, and those kept us busy for a while.

Then brother resorted to the white board... isn't he tender?

Here's the leg...been about 12 months since iv seen it look like that...sad

Yez kept me company in bed

Brother found the buttons on the bed

And intrigued, he had to push them.

We played with the bed for a while...

...The nurse was unappreciative, but it kept us entertained.

After the ER we had planned on going to a movie, but there was no way my pants were going on over my cast, so we asked for hospital pants so i could wear them to the movie....and this is what they brought..

...one size fits all?

Yez could easily fit into one leg.

And Brother could squeeze into the other.
Do people really need pants this big?

Creative substitute for the three legged race...

.Ramzi

Photoshoot

Yez has been begging me all summer to do a photoshoot with her, and finally on the 18th i agreed to humor her and let her do my photoshoot. We had tons of fun taking pictures of each other, and The kid has major skills! The photoshoot actually turned out amazing, and with a little of my photoshopping touch ups... Here are some of our favorites from that day ;)

.Ramzi