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For the first time, it is the Christmas season around the Winn house. You see, this will be the first Christmas that Jarom and Alixa have spent at their own home. Since their marriage they have always travelled to one of their parent’s houses for the holidays. And because they were never around, Jarom prevented Alixa from getting too many decorations. But this year that has all changed. Last week Jarom kept his long standing promise to buy a nice Christmas tree as soon as he would be around on Christmas to see it. Alixa comes from a tradition of getting real trees, but Jarom had to draw the line somewhere, so they got a 7-foot pre lit beauty instead. Jenna helped Lix put the ornaments on, and plugging the lights in has become one of her favorite pastimes. The Winns have also spent a lot of time visiting Santa lately, pretty much everywhere he shows up. And Jenna thinks it’s great. Every time she talks to him she tells him that she wants a green ball.

Some pictures of Bodiddly. We think he is very cute.

Speaking of Christmas presents, Alixa got the best one ever from her mom – a new iPhone 4S. Since it arrived about a week ago it has scarcely left her side. She loves that she can get to her email and the internet on her phone instead of having to sit at the computer, and she says that it has made her a better mother because now she can hang out where the kids are and ignore them while she plays on her phone, instead of the old way where she had to ignore them in a different room.

Jenna and her Christmas tree, with white and blue lights

But it isn’t all great news in Dallas. There has been a recent cold snap where on some mornings the temperature actually dropped below freezing. I didn’t sign up for this. But as Jarom would leave to go to work in the morning and see the frost on the windshields of the cars that were parked outside he remembered all those awful mornings scraping ice off the car in Richmond and is so glad that we have a garage now. And that’s not all the bad news. The Winns also had to give talks in church this past Sunday, one of Jarom’s least favorite things about being a Mormon. But I guess they did a good job, because Nate and Kenz kept getting compliments about the good talks they gave.

Fun with iPhones

Other than enjoying lots of Christmas music and drinking lots of hot chocolate, most of the time around here is filled with children growing up. Jenna attended her first birthday party over the weekend. It was a 5-year old party, and Jenna was the only 2-year old there, but she handled herself pretty well, got to eat a cupcake, and when they played some games that scared her a little she just went into the other room and played with some toys by herself. She has also corrected the pronunciation of two of her cutest words: Yellow is no longer E-O, and necklace is no longer nesick. Tear. And while Bo still doesn’t seem to be any closer to crawling than he was on the day he was born, he has started to use sippy cups, which is equal parts adorable, hilarious, and sopping wet.





And we haven’t forgotten the real reason for Christmas, either. Of course I’m referring to shopping. When we first moved here to Texas Jarom and Lix talked about setting her up with a fixed budget for discretionary expenses. A limit was set, and on top of that Jarom said she could keep one-third of any money that she makes from babysitting Kenna. Now before I get a slew of angry letters from wives all over the country whining about how Jarom has no right to take 56 percent of Alixa’s earnings, please remember that Jarom only gets to keep about 2 percent of his salary. So feel free to write, but he won’t feel bad. So Lix has her budget, and has done a fine job of staying within it. She even had some extra money left over from November so she decided to treat herself to a new pair of jeans. And the beauty of it is that she can spend as much as she wants and Jarom isn’t allowed to yell at her as long as she stays under her budget. And while they do seem like lovely jeans that make her look beautiful, they might have been a hair overpriced. I won’t say how much they cost, but $90 is a lot of money.

Some funny things that were said.

Alixa (to Jenna, standing at the top of the stairs at 9:45pm, long after she had been put to bed): Hey! What are you doing?
Jenna: Ummmm, I’m good.
Alixa: Where are you supposed to be?
Jenna: In bed. But I was just tellin daddy I got out of bed and I need some chocolate.

Jarom (to Jenna): Isn’t mommy fast?
Jenna: Yeah, mommy’s fast and I’m slow. Just like you’re slow daddy!