The Luke Family: Happenings of our Life!: A New Christmas Season and the Army?

This year, we had great fun acquiring our one and only Christmas tree! Since Tammie and Clay went and cut down their own tree last year, we decided that we would do the same. So Tammie, Clay, Chris, Aubin and Myself all got ready to go up to Heber to purchase our tree cutting permit on a beautiful winter morning, when what to our bewildered eyes appeared, but a forest sherif informing us they were out! We couldn't believe they were sold out of permits! They began selling at 8am, and they sold 1,000 permits by 10am. We had just barely missed out. So we drove around instead and ended up at the Olympic Park in Park City. We went inside and had much more fun than was anticipated. They had a ski museum complete with ski games... We got hooked on those games all tell ya what! Aubin had fun looking at all the cool lights and mountains. We read, we played, we took pictures. It was actually a lot of fun. However, permit-less, Tammie and I decided we would return early the next morning in our last attempt to acquire our permission to cut a tree. We left at 7:30am Saturday and arrived to a line winding back and forth from the lodge where they sold the permits. Aubin was just in his pj's, but luckily I had decided to bring his coat and blanket. The line moved pretty fast, but keeping Aubin still in my arms was not a simple task. It was an impossible task in fact. Finally we made it to the front, and as I was asked to sign a paper with my name, I looked around wondering what to do with the antsy child in my arms. The man helping me asked if he could take him from me while I filled out the paperwork. To which I gladly replied "sure!". When I handed Aubin over, the man huffed and said "Geez kid, what did you eat? A cynder block!" This seems to be the story of his life! I know he's big, but I never realize just how much he weighs until I pick up another baby his age and they nearly fly out of my arms! Anyways, long story short... we kept warm, got our permits, and left happy!

(There was supposed to be a picture with Aubin and Smokey the Bear here, but it won't work for some reason... it's okay, Aubin really wasn't interested in him AT ALL anyways.)

Then came the actual day to pick our tree. We decided the Saturday after Thanksgiving (which was amazing by the way!) would work best for everyone, so Tammie and Clay were going to meet Chris and I up in Heber after we went to lunch with some friends. We knew time would be tight, so we tried to keep an eye on the clock... but as usual we must've blinked, because before we knew it we were 30 minutes late picking Aubin up and racing to get home. We had to get home, change in to warm clothes, and hustle up to Heber. We changed ourselves, and Aubin, in record time and as I locked the door handle I yelled orders to Chris. "Grab the tarp and the coats, and lets go!" Before I knew it Chris slammed the door, and as he did so asked "do you have the keys?" Which I didn't! Poor Chris had forgotten that he had the keys last and my orders totally side-tracked him... so what could we do? We tried calling Tammie and Clay to see if they had an extra key somewhere (though we didn't know how we would get in their house either), but they were out of cell phone range. And then an idea struck me. I shared my idea with Chris and told him what to get me from the car (which was luckily unlocked... a rare ocurrence), but he didn't think my idea would work and set off to discover another solution. I wasn't giving up though. I picked up Aubin, and grabbed what I needed myself and tried my idea. To both of our amazement, it worked! I won't tell you what I did, but I can tell you I felt pretty cool breaking in to my house successfully. Secure? No. But cool? Yes. We grabbed the keys, locked the door again, and finally left to find our tree.

When we got up to Heber, Tammie and Clay were just coming down from an unsuccessful attempt (with Ben and Kyle in tow) at driving up the mountain. We rondezvoused at the local 7 eleven to figure out what our plan was. Clay seemed pretty disinclined to try again after their first failed attempt. Apparently the slopes were a bit icy, and they got stuck. He really didn't think that we would be able to make it up the mountain at all. These were fighting words to Chris! Chris finally talked Clay in to trying one more time, and I really think Clay was just going to humor Chris and Tammie. But we're glad he did because there was hardly any snow on our way up the second spot and we found our trees! I really liked being able to trudge through the snow and cut down our own tree. Of course it was 11 feet tall (no kidding!), so we had to cut it down a bit. But that was fine because it enabled us to form the tree to what we wanted. It was definitely a fun outing with the family, and Aubin loved standing in the snow. He didn't really do much besides that. He was just happy to feel it with his feet and look at it closely. I love Christmas!

Daddy and Aubin (if you can't tell, we got up there kind of late... we barely had enough sunlight left!)

Letting Aubin actually touch the snow... he loved it!

The Anstead's with their end result... A beautiful tree!

Lastly, for those of you who don't know, Chris has officially sworn in as a member of the National Guard. It took a lot of pondering, praying, discussing, and fasting, but we really feel this is the best thing for our family. We got the contract we wanted, and Clay was even able to Swear Chris in, which was neat. Clay really helped us a lot in understanding and gathering information. Also in counseling us in general during this hard time. At any rate, Chris is officially in the Army and I am officially a military wife. He got his orders to report on January 6th for boot camp. This means that I have to drop him off at a hotel in Salt Lake on the 5th, and say goodbye. At first, I didn't think that would be easy, but I also thought that I would handle it ok. I tend to not really feel the impact of things until they have actually happened. However, as the time draws closer, I find myself to be a spouting fountain of emotions! I was talking to my friend, Sharlene, the other day about it and we both ended up with tears in the process! It was rediculous! I guess I just really didn't think I would have a hard time until after a day or so. I was wrong.

Anyways, I am so proud of my husband and all of his hard work. I truly believe it will finally begin to pay off. He is a wonderful, smart man who is capable of much more than he himself even knows. I think he will finally begin to be able to explore that. We are all going to be making some huge sacrifices, especially Chris, but the Lord is with us and he will fill the gaps. I am so grateful for that knowledge and His presence in our lives.