The Bensons: January 2013

Happy post-holidays! I'm sorry for my absence by life is pretty hectic with three little ones and the holidays. Hopefully, I'll get caught up.

Thanksgiving
This year we got to spend Thanksgiving with the Bensons. It was wonderful to see them. Living in Montana has doubled the distance to them so we don't get to see them as often or as easily as we used to. The Wednesday morning before we were actually in Idaho for the Mecham family photos, which turned out great. After pictures we made our way down to Utah, it definitely helps the girls to break up the trip this way. We had a smaller Thanksgiving this year with just us and a couple of our sibling's families. I love smaller Thanksgivings. Much more bonding and banter I think, which I love. We were able to stay there through Saturday and we got to play a lot of games and just hang out with family and we got to see our dear friends Doug and Molly which is always a bonus. Friends and family are such a blessing and one of my favorite perks of the holidays is being able to see so many of them.

Christmas
We spent Christmas in Idaho this year and had a blast! Before heading to my parents' house we spent a day up in Tetonia with some of the Bensons. We were able to go up to Badger Creek and see the Ashtons (Peter's former boss and his family) and do some sledding. Well, I watched and everyone else sled.

It was a momentous Christmas at the Mechams this year because it was the first that all of us were there and also the last one for the next two years because my youngest brother is heading out to the mission field. It really was such a wonderful holiday! We played a lot of games, stayed up way too late, and got up way too early thanks to my beautiful girls. Every Christmas Eve since I was little we have a shepard's dinner. We eat on a blanket with lantern light, and we eat bread, cheese, cold meat, fresh fruit, and have Martinelli's sparkling cider to drink while my dad reads the account of that blessed night so many years ago that an angel appeared to the shepards by night and announced the holy birth of our Savior. It's my favorite tradition and will be continuing it with my own family. It brings such a wonderful spirit into the home and puts into perspective what the holiday represents.

Like I said, it was an incredible holiday season with a lot of family time and the making of wonderful memories.

2013
The year of 2013 is the year that I am going to try and get back to healthy and able to play some volleyball. I miss that game so much! It was a release for me and somewhere I could go to recenter myself and feel confident in myself. In life it is so easy to focus on our failures. To forget all the incredible things we do in our day to day lives. I want to become healthy. Not only physically, but emotionally and spiritually. I am striving to focus more on the positive things I do and to build up my self esteem and become a bit more like the person my Savior and Father in Heaven knows I can become. As of today, January 10, 2013, I feel pretty good. Better than I have in, well, years. I have the most caring and loving husband, who each day has made me feel beautiful, loved, and desirable every day he has been in my life. And I am starting to feel all of those things on my own again; when I look in the mirror; when I find myself in the quiet moments of nursing Anne and reading the Ensign; of waking up at 5:30 AM to go to Boot Camp and get my booty kicked for an hour by a certified trainer; of centering myself with my Yoga video. I am finding myself again and it feels great! So, here's to a wonderful holiday season, to wonderful friends and family, to having the truth of the gospel in my life, and here's to a new year of finding me again to the journey it will take me.

Mechams 2012