Wanting Time To Stand Still

Wow!  These past few weeks have blown by so amazingly fast.  I'm wanting it all to slow down just a bit!  Changes are happening...towards the end of October, Spencer applied for a new position with SkyWest airlines.  He has applied for so many positions over this past year and we have tried to be patient while waiting for the right one to take advantage of his hard work ethic.  Finally, after feeling like we needed to explore different options, he got a job at headquarters as an Engineering Coordinator.  For one reason or another, we felt like he had been black listed and we recently found out that some people were saying that he was difficult to work with.  Spencer does stand up for what he knows to be right and sometimes that works against him politically.  Anyway, we are so excited for this new opportunity!
  We listed our house for sale the day before Thanksgiving because with this new position, we will be moving to St. George, Utah.  A step closer to family!  We had one showing Thanksgiving weekend and then a few days later a friend of mine called and told me that her parents were looking to purchase a house for her single sister.  She told me that they wanted to take a look at our house so I told her to come on over.  As it ends out, her parents made an offer!  We bought this house at a very bad time.  The value has decreased by about $100,000.00.  I did not make a mistake with the zeros, trust me!  So we are having to short sell the house.  We are anxiously waiting to see how it all goes because we weren't behind on our payments.  Now that we need to find a place to live in St. George we won't be able to afford a rent payment and the mortgage payments. 
Thanksgiving...it was good!  Spencer had started working in St. George 3 days earlier but, he was able to make it home for Thanksgiving dinner.  His sister, Cassandra, and her son Tristain, were able to come down and they brought the dog that we gave to her a year ago.  The kids were so excited to see the dog and the dog was excited to see the kids, so she peed, hence the reason why we don't have her.  It was good though!  I had to prepare the turkey all by myself so I was a little nervous about that but it turned out great!  I also did most of the sides.  I did keep it simple because of everything else that was going on!  Cassandra brought cheesecake and pecan pie for dessert.  We played spoons and visited.  It was a successful, happy day!
  Tonight the kids and I decorated a bit for Christmas!  Again, we are keeping it simple because of our whole situation.  The plan is to keep the kids in school until the 16th, then head to Utah for Christmas, then back down here to finish packing everything up and moving it up to St. George.  In our decorations this year we found a little elf.  I new tradition going around is something call the Elf on the shelf.  It is about an elf that comes to your house and reports back to Santa each night to tell him if the kids have been bad or good then returns back to the house in a new spot before the kids wake up.  I thought that it would be a good way to explain to Makenzi about the true spirit of Christmas.  So the little elf came holding two notes.  One for the Olsen kids and the other for Makenzi's eyes only.  The one for the kids was the whole story about what the elf is all about.   The kids ended up naming him Alex.  After the small tree was decorated and each of the kids rearranged the nativity Makenzi read the note by herself.  We said family prayer minus Spencer, then when the little ones were all in bed Makenzi needed to talk with me in her room, without Garet, she said.  She proceeded to ask me if I believed in Santa.  I actually got all teary eyed because my baby is almost 10 and I know that friends have been 'talking'.  She was excited to be in on the special secret and I was so sad!  I just want time to stand still!  It is going way too fast!  In the letter to her only, it explained that I needed her help with moving the elf each night for her to be part of the Christmas magic.
I love this special time of year.  I love the spirit it brings.  I love all of the memories the season holds for me while I was growing up.  I love the thinking about what to give others.  I love the smells.  I love the time for reflection.  I'm just hoping that time will slow down so that I can enjoy it!