Wake up, wake up, wake up, it's the...

The first Winn Christmas was a wonderful success. It turns out that we don’t need any parents or siblings to have a great time. Lix decided to start the celebration by throwing a gift exchange party with a bunch of her new friends. This required that the house be put together, which meant that Lix and Jarom had to spend an evening repainting the dining room and its 12 foot walls. The room used to be a mustard yellow and is now drizzle, which is a sort of sea foamy blue-green. The painting was followed by the putting of stuff on the walls, which is one of Jarom’s favorite things to do. But things were all done by the time the party started, and it was a big success. About a dozen women came and had appetizers and shared presents and generally enjoyed the fact that they had left their kids at home with their husbands.

A few shots of the new room and wall decorations

For her gift, Alixa had purchased a wonderfully soft blanket from Marshalls, but they had forgotten to remove the security tag. So Jarom was sent back to the store to have it removed. While he was there, he purchased another wonderfully soft blanket because he thought it would be a nice present for Lix. He brought it home and hid it away, and didn’t really think about it again for a few days. Then he got a call from Lix while he was at work. She was going through the credit card charges and noticed that Marshalls had charged her twice for the one blanket. This was not something that Jarom had considered, because until recently Alixa would not have even been able to log into the accounts to see the charges, that’s how little she cared about the finances. But now that she is on a budget she apparently watches them like a hawk. So she quickly caught the double charge and rummaged through the garbage until she found the receipt that Jarom had thrown in the trash and then called Jarom to see what should be done. He did his best to calm her down and convinced her to wait until after the weekend to see if the second charge dropped off. She didn’t seem thrilled about this solution, but accepted it anyway. On Christmas morning when she saw the other blanket she was quite relieved. I’m not sure which she was happier about, getting the blanket as a gift or the finding out that Marshalls wasn’t overcharging her.

Jenna working the train table, some cute hats from Amanda, and the kitchen set

Christmas Eve was spent over at the Nate Winn house, having dinner and playing games with a few friends. The food was great and there were lots of leftovers. Lix made a wonderful chocolate cheesecake and none of it fell on the floor. After the party they came back home and watched some football games while Jarom assembled a new kitchen set for Jenna and celebrated his third consecutive championship in the Winn family fantasy football league. Christmas morning Jenna woke up and came downstairs to find her kitchen set, which immediately made her go to the bathroom. After that, she wanted to know where the food was, so some of that had to be ordered. She has been cooking all sorts of goodies for everyone in the house ever since. Jarom also put together a train table that is supposed to be for Bo, but he can’t use it yet so Jenna has been putting it through its paces. Jarom and Lix mostly just enjoyed watching the kids play with their new toys. The got to call some grandparents and cousins and had a nice brunch with Nate, Kenz, and Kenna, but mostly they just lounged around and enjoyed a day with the family.





On the 26th Jarom took advantage of his day off by getting up and heading out to play a round of golf with a friend from BYU who was visiting Dallas for the holidays. It was a little chilly, but very fun. Afterwards the Quigleys drove up to Frisco to eat lunch at the Cheesecake Factory and come over to the house to hang out a little. It was fun to see them with a little kid. The rest of the week came with wonderful weather, above 60 degrees each day. So Jarom left a little early from work a few days and took Jenna down to the park to swing and play and enjoy the sun. Those are the days that Jarom will remember in July when it is 110. On Saturday it was almost 70, so Jarom and Lix decided to get a real babysitter (the kind you have to actually pay) and go play a few holes of golf. Lix played out of her mind, making two pars and shooting a 50 over nine holes. She even beat Jarom on one hole, which prompted an immediate Facebook post. She was a little upset about a scrabble loss earlier that day so she took great pleasure in rubbing Jarom’s face in it. He was very happy for her. And the kids seemed to enjoy the babysitter, so they might start doing this more often.








For New Year’s Eve the whole crew headed over to the Bishop’s to play. Bo brought his pack and play and went down pretty quickly, while Jenna managed to fight off sleep until after 10:30, when they took her home to her bed. It was a good end to a good year. There have been a lot of changes and stress, but we are all quite happy with where we have ended up and very optimistic about our future here in Texas. We have already made lots of friends and feel very much at home. Hopefully your year was just as good and that the coming one is even better.

This is a current favorite pose of Jenna. She has to go potty.

Only one quote from Jenna this time, but it’s a good one. While shopping in Target a few days before Christmas Jarom was headed up to the checkout with Jenna when she looked over and saw the little girls section.
Jenna: Can we go over to the clothes?
Jarom: Do you need any clothes?
Jenna: I don’t need any clothes, I just want to look at clothes. C’mon, it will be fun.
This girl is going to be big trouble.