Chapman

Boy what a Christmas! We have been having a GREAT time here in Alaska! We left St. George on December 18^th. Trevor’s mom bought his ticket before his mission, so when she went to get me a ticket just a few months before Christmas, there were no seats available out of the Salt Lake Airport (where Trevor was flying out). So she got me a ticket out of Las Vegas. Trevor left early on the 18^th with a load of our stuff and dropped it off at Jini’s house on the way to the airport. I left later that day to the Las Vegas airport with my mom. After a grueling 12 hours apart, we finally met up in the Seattle airport. Hooray!! We then flew up to Alaska to stay with Trevor’s family until January 1^st.

The time here has been so much fun! The second day we were here we had a “Bake-athon;” grouping into baking teams, each armed with a recipe book and bag of ingredients. At the end of the day my team had made 7 different types of Christmas cookies! Along with the other team’s cookies, we had a TON of cookies. We assembled the cookie plates, and then bundled up to go Christmas Caroling. It was so much fun caroling—it really got us in the Christmas spirit. Many people were very touched by our songs. It was so much fun. The cookies were great, too!

The days leading up to Christmas were filled with anxious anticipation. We played lots of games, drank lots of French hot chocolate, and just had fun being with each other until the great day arrived. It was REALLY hard not to peek at my presents. I was warned that in the Chapman family, if you peak at your presents, they are given to Azure. I didn’t want that to be the fate of Christmas, so I exerted MUCH self control and didn’t peak ONCE.

Christmas Eve we had the Sister Missionaries over and had dinner together. We acted out the Christmas nativity scene (Trevor playing Joseph as I played Mary), read the Nephite Christmas story, and played games. It was a lot of fun. We even had a very spiritual experience with Sister Judd. Trevor remembers it often with special feelings.

That night we all went to bed very early, sleeping in the same room so no one would catch Santa. No one slept that night—everyone was too excited! Trevor and I were crammed in Sierra’s twin bed, Brooke and Sierra were crammed in Sierra’s twin bed, and Bryan and Azure found whatever space they could on the floor and snuggled in. We couldn’t have snuck out even we wanted to. We aren’t allowed to wake up until 5:00 am on Christmas morning so we all were in and out of sleep until an excited little Azure saw that the clock said 4:45 am. She woke us all up with excited squeals. We then had to wait until mom and dad woke up. Bryan assisted their waking by playing Taps as loud as he could on the trumpet, while Trevor composed brilliant ballads about the state of Azure’s underwear on the electric guitar. The plan worked and a sleepy mom and dad soon came down the stairs to usher in Christmas. We lined up at the bottom of the stairs, youngest to oldest, and after the picture was taken, scrambled up the stairs, tripping over each other to see what Santa had brought.

When we got to the top, we were not disappointed—Santa had come! It was a beautiful site with presents galore! Trevor and I need to make a list of everything we got because we got a lot of great presents from everyone. It was a lot of fun. Trevor gave the lesson the Sunday before and urged us all to follow President Monson’s council to focus not on what we get for Christmas but on what we give for Christmas. The spirit of giving made Christmas much more meaningful this year.

It was so much fun to see everyone open the gifts we gave them. I was so excited for Trevor to open his present! I will make a list of what we gave to everyone:

Dad: A flying hovercraft and a knot tying book

Mom: A gorgeous fur jacket

Trevor: A 7205 HP Pocket PC

Caci: A sewing machine, silver watch, green jacket, black choker

Brooke: A gorgeous sweater and watch

Bryan: A spy laser trip wire

Sierra: A bike and water bottle

Azure: A Barbie scooter set

We spent the rest of the morning playing with all of our toys. I have played only with my sewing machine because I am having such a fantastic time with it. I LOVE it!!!! So far I have been able to make a stuffed bear and stuffed rabbit that Trevor and I will pass on to our kids (they are out of the same fabric as our Christmas pajamas), a matching skirt for Sierra and I, and a covering for Trevor’s pocket PC. The cover was the most extensive and turned out wonderfully! It is beautiful! It is corduroy on the outside with a light suede on the inside. I am very pleased with it. So cute! Sierra looks absolutely gorgeous in the skirt, too. It’s just been so much fun!

Since Christmas we have been having fun just playing games, shopping, ordering in, and being with each other. It’s been really really great. Today I had a lot of fun experimenting with essential oils! I have discovered a new hobby! I can’t wait to start collecting different oils and mixing them. I spent at least 3 hours today just reading the books and making up different blends. It has been WAY fun.

Oh! Something I forgot to mention about Christmas—In Trevor’s ward there is this mentally retarded man named Elmo. He is a real sweetheart. He’s about 6’ 4”, 200 lbs, and always wears suspenders with highwater pants. For the past month every time he saw mom (Denalee) he would say, “You’re bringing me presents on Christmas, huh?” “Yeah, we are, Elmo!” “OK.” He is just like a little 4 year old. Very sweet. Anyway, on Christmas we went down to his house to deliver the presents. We caroled for at least 10 minutes before he realized we were there. He came to the door and we gave him the presents and he said, “Oh, OK. See you at church.” We wished him a Merry Christmas and then went to the car. As we were driving off, we saw him through the window inspecting the presents carefully like a curious two year old. We stopped to see what he would do. He held them up close to his face, carefully poked at it, and gently ripped the paper, looking ever so inquisitively and curiously at them. I was overcome with the spirit as I watched this innocent, pure, man as he inspected the presents. I felt so much love for him and just wanted to help him. That was the highlight of my Christmas break. That was when I felt the Christmas spirit the strongest—not when I was opening presents, but when I was giving to someone who didn’t have much. I was so happy to have that experience during the Christmas season.

One thing that Caci forgot to talk about was our fishing outing on Christmas Eve. It was amazingly fun. Caci had the time of her life as she caught fish after fish jigging off the bottom. We went out in our buddies boat. Caci just about scared the bujeegers out of him as she would scream each time a fish nibbled.

This weekend was so much fun! We had a blast! We took off after work on Friday to head up to Provo. We were planning on leaving at 5:00pm but Trevor fell asleep, then I fell asleep, and then we had to pack and get everything ready. One thing led to another and by the time we finally hit the road it was about 8:30pm. We packed all of our stuff into the Rodeo and got going but then Trevor had the impression that we should take one of my dad’s company trucks. So we drove to Hurricane, unloaded the Rodeo and repacked everything into the truck. That took about an hour and then we were FINALLY really on the road. Whew! We got up to Provo around 12:00pm. We rejoiced when we saw the Provo lights because… da da da DAAAAAA we had made it all the way to Provo without getting pulled over!! It was quite the experience. We hardly knew what to do with ourselves! So to celebrate we went out and got a milkshake at the Malt Shop.

We then went to Trevor’s friend Logan’s house to spend the night. We got there at about 1:00 and then he talked to Trevor until 4:00 in the morning. Logan just got married so they discussed marriage and things like that for a while and then they pulled out Russian music videos and hit songs (they both served their missions in that region of the world). By that time I was exhausted and just went to bed while they watched crazy Russians dance their hearts out.

The next day we got up at 12:00 (we NEED our 8 hours to function) and played. We went to lunch at Durangoes and then went and got our first picture together with Santa!!! We are going to do what Trevor’s family does and get a picture of the family with Santa every year.
We went around visiting Trevor’s friends and family members and went and checked out our new house at Cambridge Court. We surprised the people currently living in that apartment with a tour request. They let us look at the apartment and we really really like it. It is really small, but so cute! I can’t wait to decorate it! We will FINALLY have a home!!! Hooray!!!!!

Then we went up to Temple Square to see the lights. Oh, well we got a picture with Santa in Salt Lake at the ZCMI center. The temple lights were absolutely gorgeous. Every year they take my breath away. The lights were gorgeous but the weather cold, so we went to the mall to get some hot chocolate to keep us warm. As we were crossing the street to go back to the temple, there was this homeless man selling hand-drawn pictures. We had no money so we just passed on by. But then Trevor stopped and went back and gave him his hot chocolate. “Are you sure?” The old man said. “Yeah, I’m sure. Merry Christmas.” Said Trevor, and then kept on walking. He had nothing to give, but still found something to warm that old man on that cold winter night. Trevor is such a genuinely selfless person. After that we walked around the temple and went to a Christmas Concert in the building next to the tabernacle. It was beautiful and really invited the Spirit. All in all it was an absolutely magical night. Oh, something else that was cool…. We went up to Salt Lake to feel the Christmas spirit. We went to Crossroads Plaza to feel the hustle and bustle of Christmas– but there was no one there (they are doing reconstruction and shutting down all the stores) so we went across the street to ZCMI to find Christmas— it was not there. Very few people were there. So we went across the street to the temple and that is where we found Christmas. Temple Square was alive with people basking in the Spirit of Christmas amid the beauty and tranquility of the temple. Christmas was not to be found in the shopping centers– it was to be found where Christ was. It was beautiful. That is the real meaning of Christmas.

That night we stayed at Lia and Justin’s house. It was really hospitable of them since we had only asked them a few hours earlier. We had a fun time with them and got to sleep underneath the Christmas tree. It was fun to be able to visit with them. Julia (Lia’s one year old), as always, was such a cutie and into everything. I enjoyed having her help me apply my makeup.

We then went to church in the Joseph Smith Building at BYU. They were having their Christmas program– it was gorgeous. They had the choir sing, and various people sing– they even had a harp solo.

We then went up to visit with Grandma and Grandpa Chapman. Grandma just had knee surgery so we wanted to check on her and make sure she was OK. Grandpa is taking great care of her, cooking, cleaning, and doing all the other things that Grandma can’t do while bed ridden. Grandma as always was chipper and energetic although it was apparent she was in a lot of pain and a little frustrated that she can’t hustle and bustle around like she usually does. It was a lot of fun visiting with them. Aunt Kathy and Lindsay came over and we watched as Grandma pulled out Lindsay’s loose tooth. Lindsay is a really brave girl! The tooth wasn’t ready to come out, but Lindsay didn’t even cry. She is so tough! We were really impressed! Just give that girl a cookie, and she’s happy as a lark! We said our goodbyes and headed home after that. It was a wonderful trip! We had lots of fun and made many great memories. Merry Christmas!

We worked all day today, so we decided to reward ourselves with a midweek date night. We went to Mandarin Buffet, a Chinese Buffet here in St. George. As usual, Trevor ate too quickly and got sick. Usually we attribute his “feeling sick” to his terminal disease called hypochondria. *This is Trevor - I am not a hypochondriac. * However, this time I got sick too, so we are thinking it might have been the MSG. We then went to Hollywood to get a video. We got Mr. and Mrs. Smith– it was a cute movie. Trevor really liked it. Some parts reminded us of ourselves. It was a cute little movie. We are now going to go to bed! But I just thought Trevor would be so so excited if he saw that I was writing on here of my own free will so I did. Love you Trevor! Are you so happy? *yep!* Good night!

Merry Christmas!

Caci and I are going to be sharing with everyone the events and thoughts of our lives right here. Eventually we hope to get to the point where this all will be hosted under something like chapman.com or the such (which we of course are going to create). However, for the present this is more than sufficient.

This time period of our lives here in St. George is now coming to an end. This, in actuality, really signifies the start of a stable life. We met at the end of a semester at BYU. Then lived that summer in ghetto Riverside, California. We got married and went gallivanting all over the countryside (three continents) for a month and a half. Now we are living here in St. George temporarily. Transients. We will welcome with a warmth beyond warm our new apartment in Provo - Cambridge Court.

On the right side of this page we have our current work project - a comprehensive training website for Classic Surfaces Inc. A company owned by Caci’s parents. You can check it out by clicking here.
The Login and Password are both ‘Caci’

Only 20 days till Christmas…

Trevor and Caci