Christmas Day

After a looong night, Christmas morning finally came. At 6:30, we went out to open our gifts.

With this being our first Christmas on our own, there were a lot of changes and traditions to keep in mind for each other. With me, I always get a stuffed animal, even if it’s not Christmas related, though I prefer it is, so I can add it to my Christmas stuffed-animal collection. I always get Lowry’s beef jerky and/or Slim Jims in my stocking, which are the first thing I eat as I open presents (yeah, my breath is truly a treat on Christmas morning). I sometimes get Hickory Farms stuff too. Lastly, I always get at least one video game. (Jenn’s family actually kept two of those traditions for me on Christmas Eve.)

Jenn kept all of them. She got me a stuffed snowman, Slim Jims, a box of Hickory Farms stuff, and two Nintendo Wii games. Jenn and I both got oranges at the bottom of our stockings as children, but that was one tradition that we willingly did away with this year. We just decided to do something else that was round. So instead of an orange, Jenn got me a Pokeball with a plush Pokemon inside. The rest of the stocking was filled with little toys and lots and lots of Snickers. Mmmm…

I also got: a remote control helicopter; the complete Kingdom Hearts original manga series; a cordless drill (donated by Mike); a pocket knife; a good screwdriver; a mini-screwdriver set; the Jurassic Park box set; a cheese plane; gloves; socks (or, in the voice of Mr. Bean: “Christmas socks”); and the two Wii games I got were Bully: Scholarship Edition and Tomb Raider: Underworld.

Lastly, Jenn apparently asked everyone to write me a letter about their feelings on Christmas, and give their testimonies of the birth of Christ. She also wrote one herself. Not everyone finished theirs, and some need to be mailed, but the letters I received were fantastic! I loved every one of them! Thank you all for writing them. It was a very thoughtful thing for Jenn to do, and for everyone else to participate. It was my favorite present this year by far.

Adam spoiled me rotten. My stocking was filled with all sorts of wonderful things. Instead of an orange, he put a couple of white chocolate oranges in the toe. Yummy! It also contained a Christmas Mickey coloring book and crayons, an Aurora polly-pocket style toy, and lots and lots of makeup, more Christmas socks, and Webkinz cards. Plus many white chocolate candy bars and two See’s Bordeaux Chocolate bars (which he knows I love). My stuffed animal was a big stuffed Eeyore with antlers and bells.

As for my presents, he got me a little Disney Princesses puzzle, an Oreck cordless iron (courtesy of Adam’s mom), Pokemon Pearl (a DS game I REALLY wanted), Personal Trainer: Cooking (which is an interactive cookbook for the DS), Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time vol. 1 manga book, Kingdom Hearts vol. 1 (Adam noticed how upset I was at finding it in the store after I had used all my Christmas funds, so he bought the first one for me, unaware I had already ordered the whole set on eBay.), Star Wars: Heir to the Empire book, Quest for Camelot on DVD, Wall-E on DVD, white chocolate covered pretzels, and a Mandolin (My undisputed favorite of all my presents. Woooow.)

My family traditions that Adam kept for me include: presents on the tree (he put little boxes of candy on there. Last year it was Kenny’s letters), I get at least one movie and this year I got two, getting a stuffed animal, See’s candy in my stocking, and I always get at least one book. I’d have to say that he made sure that Christmas was similar but better than those I had before ours.



After our Christmas, we went to my parents’ house for a big family breakfast. After everyone arrived and ate, my parents gave gifts to each of their children and grandchildren. They gave all of the married couples the complete set of The History of the Church. And of course we gave them our presents and presents from Jenn’s parents.

Then my siblings exchanged gifts too. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get them anything this year, but everyone else got us something. Bret & Melanie gave us Mark Mabry’s “Reflections of Christ” book. Jeremy & Kalli gave us a big decorative platter and DVD’s of his kids. Amy & Jason gave everyone a first-aid kit and Nursery Manual “to be physically and spiritually prepared” (I sure hope we don’t need the Nursery Manual yet, but it will be used). Sara & Mike got everyone a Scentsy, which they actually gave out weeks ago.

We then went home and did another video chat with Jenn’s family, and saw everything they got, and showed off our Christmas. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and watching Christmas movies and shows. It was such a eventful and amazing day, and I hope we didn’t forget anything, but this post is long enough as it is. Merry Christmas, everyone! And a happy New Year!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve began with a visit to my Grandmother’s house to wish her a Merry Christmas and to pick up a package my mom had sent for us. After that, we stopped at Adam’s parent’s house to pick up another package my mom sent for us. Then, we went to Wal-Mart to purchase our ornament for the year. I have received an ornament for Christmas every year since my first from my parents, and Adam and I wanted to continue that tradition in our own way.

Every Christmas Eve, my family gets together and has a late lunch, early dinner. (It usually starts at 3:00, because my mom doesn’t want to conflict with anyone else’s Christmas Eve schedule.) Then we read the nativity story as the younger kids act it out. After that, the kids exchange gifts.

As always, there was lots of laughter and fun all around. When my whole family gets together, we always find ways to have a good time. Like when Mike took all of the used wrapping paper and crushed it into a tiny box, tied a bow around it, and had Jordan write “To: Guy, From: Kalli Burningham” on it and stuck it under the tree. After that, my mom accidentally sprayed Kalli with whipped cream. Then Bret ate some little smokies (tiny hot dogs soaked in barbeque sauce) dipped in chocolate. Basically, everyone was just having fun.

Here are some pictures of the dinner, and the nativity. The only one that wasn’t in it was Briggs, who can be very shy when it comes to that sort of thing, and is in the “I don’t want to, and you can’t make me” stage. And Boston didn’t seem too thrilled with playing the role of Baby Jesus, but Alex got him to calm down.


After we were finished with the festivities at Adam’s parents’ house, we went for a long drive around Orem, looking at the Christmas lights, which was something I have enjoyed doing every year. When we returned from that, we hooked up the web-cam that my parents got us for Christmas (they sent us a gift card and let us pick out the one we liked best). It was a wonderful thing to see them for the first time since they moved, and get to see their faces as they opened the gifts we sent them. And they got to see us open the gifts that they sent to us, which was a Christmas Mickey and Minnie for our Christmas Animal collection, and Cubby gave us The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for the DS. We are very excited to play it.

Then it was time for us to begin our Christmas Eve gift exchange. I had bought Adam a soft navy blue robe and blue plaid pj bottoms. Adam bought me a big, soft, white, fluffy robe and a set of three pairs of long socks. They are soooo cute! Great minds think alike, huh?

Then, I sent Adam into the office and closed the door. I got all of Adam’s gifts (except for one, ‘cause I hid it so well that even I forgot about it) and put them under the tree and covered them with a blanket. When he was done arranging the gifts for me, he pulled the blanket off while he walked away so he wouldn’t see the pile.

And for the record, I would like to say that I did not peek. Not while I set up her gifts, or when I pulled the blanket.

Dinner With Ty & Cami

Yesterday there was a lot of snow in the Orem/Provo area, as most of you are well aware. While I love to watch the snow and am glad for a white Christmas, this snow was not making me a very happy person.

Last thursday the snow prevented us from going to Colorado to visit my family. Yesterday, Adam and I had plans to have my brother, Ty, and his wife, Cami, over for dinner before their planned departure today to go see her family in Boise for the holidays.

It looked like the snow was going to interrupt our dinner plans as well. It snowed all morning, afternoon, and began to taper off in the evening, but was quickly turning to ice. As I said, the snow was not making me very happy.

To try and make travel easier, we bumped up the time for dinner so it wouldn't be too icy. Thankfully, Ty and Cami made it and we had a very nice evening. (And for the record, I would like to say that in that disagreement we had, Adam was right, it was 10 am, not 8. Ty and Cami will know what I mean.)

A Promise Unfulfilled

As many of you know, we made plans to spend Thanksgiving in Colorado with Jenn’s family, but illness kept us from going. I then made a promise to Jenn, “we will see your family before the end of the year. I promise.” It was a bold thing to do, considering we were still very sick at the time, Christmas was coming, funds were low, weather was getting worse, etc.

But after Thanksgiving my parents had offered to take us to Colorado. When I knew Jenn’s family wasn’t going to make the trip here, like they had been hoping, I took my parents up on their offer. Being so close to Christmas, they may have regretted making such an offer, and probably weren’t thinking we would go before Christmas, but I had a promise to keep.

We made plans to leave on the 18th and be home on the 21st, because we had Ty & Cami coming over for dinner on the 22nd. Then the 18th came, as did a blizzard. We were beginning to have bad feelings about going. I received a small, but strong impression that we should not go. My mom did too. But we left it up to Jenn. We were all doing it for her, and my dad was confident in his vehicle and driving abilities to get us there safely. But Jenn decided that we shouldn’t try it.

As the storm faded in Utah, we all began to second-guess ourselves. We thought we could have made it. Then Jenn’s mom called and told us about the storm that hit Longmont. In the window of time that we would be arriving, there was an ice storm, and a record number of accidents... None of us know if that’s why we felt like we shouldn’t go, or if it was a test to see if we would listen to those promptings, or what. But we feel we did the right thing, as disappointing as it is.

And that’s where I’m left. I made a promise I cannot keep. Jenn keeps telling me that it was out of my control, it was not my fault, she made the choice, I am absolved of my promise, and she forgives me. But I’m having a very hard time forgiving myself. I want her to know that my promises mean something. That I am a man of my word. That she can count on me...

I’ve been desperately trying to keep my promise somehow. I held up the picture of her family that we have hanging on our wall and said, “look, you’re ‘seeing’ your family!” We had Ty & Cami over for dinner last night (which we’ll post about later), and Jenn said, “they’re my family, and we saw them.” And with an early Christmas gift from her parents, we are hoping to video chat with them, and “see” them that way... But I know that’s not what I meant when I made that promise.

At least we were able to go to Kaytlin and Taylor’s birthday parties, and go to our Christmas Sunday sacrament meeting, all of which we would have missed.

Looking back, we think, perhaps, we were being a little selfish. I was so focused on keeping a promise, and Jenn wanting to see her family, that we weren’t thinking about my parents, our nieces, or even our own safety. Or maybe I’m still just trying to make myself feel better.

Christmas Decorations

We waited to post pictures of our Christmas tree and the rest of our decorations until it was all finished. Little did we know how long it would take for it to be finished. Here's what we have done in the last month...

First, I put up lights on our balcony, which we posted about. Days later, I added lights around the inside of our windows. Next, we bought our Christmas tree (artificial, not pre-lit). We set it up, and began adding lights, when we discovered that we didn't like the color of the new lights we selected. So I took down the lights I had hung around the windows, and we put them on the tree. But then the middle strand wasn't working. After an hour of testing and fiddling, we went to the store to return the ugly lights, and get more pretty lights (to rehang around the windows), and a light tester (which only sort of worked). We found at least four bad bulbs in that middle strand, which was very odd because they seemed to work before.


We finally got it all lit, and hung some of our ornaments, and it was after midnight when we called it quits. We then spent a week or so trying to find my old ornaments and tree skirt. We found the ornaments, but not the tree skirt, so we had to buy a new one of those too. But the tree still wasn't done...



Jenn wanted to start a new tradition for the two of us. We made a whole bunch of gingerbread men (the above picture only shows about half of them) and selected a few that we wanted to hang on the tree. The rest were given away, minus the two dozen or so that we ate ourselves. After hanging our cookies on the tree, my old ornaments, and some candy canes, our tree was finally finished.


And here is the rest of our setup. We added garland, mistletoe (we know mistletoe is supposed to have white berries, but that's all we could find), our new matching stockings, our childhood stockings, my mom's nativity scene, my Christmas animals, some Christmas potpourri, bells on the door, a wreath on the inside, another wreath on the outside, and the rest of our lights from the outside.




Sorry for all the pictures, but we know a lot of you have never seen our place, and the rest of you rarely see our place. So the chances of you seeing our beautiful setup are slim.

By the way, keep scrolling down, because we have posted a lot today.

Candy Houses

As is traditional in the Burningham family, we made candy houses again this year. This time we did them at Sara's house as Mom Burningham didn't have a dining room at the time. We were able to manage having enough supplies and room for everyone at once and had a good, messy time.

I think my house is better than my first attempt at last year's candy-construction party. Adam's houses always turn out perfect, but I blame that on having many more years of experience than I do. Soon, I will be the undisputed champion of house-making creativity.

It was fun and I was glad for the experience. I had been looking forward to this activity since last year.

J.A. Toons, Bonus Volume

And here is our "bonus" comic for Kenny, our favorite missionary. We're calling it a bonus volume because it's not part of our regular series, and probably won't appear on our public comic blog.

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. Or you can download the printable, high-resolution image here. (Right-click and "Save Target As...")

For previous comics, check out our J.A. Toons Blog.

J.A. Toons, Vol. 10

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. Or you can download the printable, high-resolution image here. (Right-click and "Save Target As...")

For previous comics, check out our J.A. Toons Blog.

J.A. Toons, Vol. 9

Here is Volume 9, as it was originally going to be posted before Thanksgiving. We were then going to have another comic about the drive to Colorado, then a Thanksgiving comic using these characters. However, as you all know, things didn't work out that way. But we had already drawn this one, so we decided that we just had to finish and use it.

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge. Or you can download the printable, high-resolution image here. (Right-click and "Save Target As...")

For previous comics, check out our J.A. Toons Blog.

Busy, Busy, Busy

We’re sorry we haven’t posted in a while. Things have been more than a little hectic around here. Between sickness and the busyness of Christmas and remodeling, we have fallen far behind. Our Christmas playlist isn’t even finished, and I had more plans for our blog theme, but it looks like it won’t get done this year.

With my parents remodeling, there is a never-ending load of furniture to move around. They empty a room, paint and carpet it, then move the stuff from that room back in, plus the stuff from another room to paint and carpet the other room. That cycle continues about a dozen times. The upstairs, downstairs, downstairs, upstairs moves are the most fun.

Then, of course, we are busy getting ready for Christmas. Lots of planning, scheming, shopping, and wrapping to do. Plus decorations to buy and put on display. This being our first Christmas on our own, we didn’t have anything, except some tree ornaments, our childhood stockings, and my Christmas stuffed animal collection. So we had to buy a tree, lights, ornaments, tree skirt, garland, matching stockings, etc. And we borrowed some stuff from my mom. We’ll post pictures of our setup when it’s finished.

We also have four J.A. Toons in the works, one in each stage of the comic-making process. One of them is the concept/sketch stage, one is being penciled, one is being inked, and one is being edited/colored. We want to finish at least three of them this week, for the sake of continuity and timeliness of current events.

Check back soon for more!