12 Days of Christmas

Alixa and Jarom are leaving me to head for Delaware for the next 12 days, so I have to write an early Merry Christmas to all of you. You see, they lock me up whenever they leave, lest we have a repeat of the summer of ’07 when I disappeared for 2 weeks. So an early happy holidays to everyone.

The Winn’s are very excited for their trip, which will include seeing a new niece and a new brother-in-law. Jarom finished up school last week, and managed to get straight A’s on his report card, something that hasn’t happened since 1999, unless you count that one spring semester at BYU when he only had one class-Tennis. So he is mildly proud of himself, although not nearly as proud as Alixa is.

This doesn't have anything to do with today's entry, but it's funny

At work, Alixa recently told her boss that she would be needing time off for Christmas. She was told that this was not a possibility. After consulting with her parents and her husband, she thanked her employer for hiring her, and informed them that she would be taking time off for Christmas and if they had to let her go, she would understand. Fortunately, she is so indispensable that her boss told her that they would like her to stay. We are all very grateful for this blessing, as it will allow us to continue to eat for a few more months.

On the church front, Lix and Jarom are still teaching the 6 year olds, and enjoy being with them. On Sunday, upon arriving at sharing time, the Primary president told Alixa that there was a teacher meeting to talk about the new class assignments after the new year and that she should come with her. Lix asked if Jarom should come as well, to which the president replied “Oh no, he’s being released so we don’t need him.” This was the first that any of the Winn’s had heard about it, which made the president feel bad and made for a funny situation. Jarom isn’t really surprised, though. The bishop keeps asking him things about his schedule and the likes, asking if he has free time, so he thinks he will probably be an executive secretary or ward clerk, something that will take up lots of time and force him to call people he doesn’t know. He’s thrilled.



On Sunday we watched Dear Zachary, a documentary about a man who was killed by his ex-girlfriend. She fled to Canada, and while the legal system was working to extradite her, she had his baby. The story focuses on the parents of the deceased, and their relationship with their grandson and the woman who shot their son. As you might imagine, it is one of the most heart-wrenching stories you will ever hear. The documentary was well made, and I recommend it to anyone who needs to cry.

I probably won’t get a chance to write again until next year, so I hope everyone enjoys their presents from Santa, and get working on your New Year’s Resolutions!

Walking in Memphis

The Winns continued their road-tripping ways again this weekend, traveling all the way across the state to Memphis. Jarom’s cousin Melissa was to be wed, and she is one of Alixa’s favorite people in the entire world. It is only about a five-hour drive, which was countered by eating out in nice restaurants on Mom and Dad’s dime. It was great to see Jarom’s parents and other relatives. Alixa was also stoked to meet Michael Oher, the subject of The Blind Side, a previous Mitch Book Club selection. They were unable to find him, but they did see his high school, and some incredibly huge estates that could belong to his adoptive parents.



This week the fantasy football season ended for our house. Both Jarom and Alixa suffered some tough luck this year. They had good teams, ranking 2 and 4 in total scoring, but Alixa ended up in last place and Jarom just barely snuck into the playoffs. Both Jarom and his brother were sitting on 20+ point leads going into Monday night’s game, where Deangelo Williams ran for 186 yards and 2 touchdowns, and Antonio Bryant had 200 yards receiving and 2 touchdowns (the second of which was the best catch of the year), ending both of their seasons. All in all, a very disappointing season, but they will both be back strong next year.

I made some new friends this week, Addison and Riley Grose. They are cute little kids who were thrilled to meet me, Riley more than Addison. Usually people are a little nervous when they meet me, because I don’t blink and because of terrible movies like Anaconda. But Riley (4 years old) was about as afraid of me as you would be a puppy. Her mom took some good pictures.

Addison is the boy and Riley is the girl. Their parents are a little gender confused, but nice people

See how terrified she is!

This is my good side

Lixi and the baby continue to grow. Her pants and bras are now all much snugger than they used to be. Today a belly band came in the mail, which will enable her to wear all of her old jeans without buttoning them up. She is extremely excited about that.

Cleveland Rocks!

Alixa's favorite shirt in the world.  Go JMU!

Jarom and Alixa just spent a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday in Cleveland visiting the Hegewalds. It was nice for them to get out of Tennessee for a few days. They left on Wednesday as soon as Lix got off work, and only had to sit in traffic for about 40 minutes before they got out of Knoxville and the roads cleared up. They arrived at about 2:00 am. About 5 hours later, much to everyone’s surprise, Jarom arose to go play football with his father-in-law and assorted other Ohioanites. It was a pretty low-key game, but Jarom enjoyed it. He has really been missing intramural sports, particularly football. Thanksgiving afternoon was spent cooking and eating. The dinner was wonderful, and afterwards they got to have Christmas, since this is the Hegewald in-law holiday and nobody will be visiting in December. Alixa got some maternity stuffs and a neat little package-opening tool that is sold on TV infomercials. Jarom got a Bluetooth headset, some golf clubs (wedges), a new jacket, and some slippers.

Jarom winning a game of Settlers, while Zak watches squirrels in the backyard

Coming home was a huge pain in the butt, because it was pouring rain the whole way and there were lots of accidents. They made the 8-hour trip in just less than 11 hours. Once back in town, presents continued via UPS. The Adidas stuff that Jarom ordered is arriving piece by piece, so the past week has been a little like Chanukah. In one interesting mix up, the wedges that Jarom was supposed to receive were accidentally replaced with a purple skateboard with skulls all over it. He thought about just keeping it, but isn’t sure how much use he will get from it.

This guy should improve any one's short game, right?

Over Thanksgiving, in order to prepare myself for the movie, I read Twilight. I thought the story was actually entertaining, although there was definitely too much yapping about Edward. I did realize why all women love him so much: Although the book constantly tells us how beautiful he is, it never actually describes much about him, allowing each reader to implant her perfect man in his place. I am now about halfway through New Moon, and imagine that I will read the whole series within the next few weeks.

The latest in a tragic line of Alixa's Thanksgiving roll debacles

In other exciting news, Jarom bought gas for $1.36/gal today. Somehow he stumbled upon a fold in the space-time continuum that led him to a gas station in 1999. It was great.