The Twelve "Pounds" of Christmas

We had a wonderful holiday...
Such fun was had by all. We had our KS
kids and BYU coed and stuffed as much fun as we could in the days of Christmas.
Speaking of stuffed....
Anyone who knows me, knows that I get a thrill when it is time to cook...and cook we did...





Cookies decorated before Christmas just HAVE TO HAPPEN.

and it always includes a bit of silly....ok, a LOT of silly.

We then decided it was time for a few new traditions...how about temple square lights on Christmas eve? COOL...or should I say C O L D?

I just wanted to kiss this beautiful thing....but I had to resort to just scratching his chin and telling him how impressed I was with his great attitude on such a cold night...

Twas the night before Christmas and we had warmed up....

Christmas is really all about nine year olds and their older sisters.....
We did take some time from EATING to open presents....here our music man starts his family's traditional "spanish tortilla"....OLE'

We ate ourselves to near "FOOD COMA" so we decided it was time to do a winter state thing...

SLEDDING.......

We came home and warmed up and yes...ate some more and then headed over to Ted's for a little Christmas night concert and yes, MORE FOOD.

THe next day it was fun to load our Christmas ham plus fixins into Dora (the Explorer) and head up to Grandmas for MORE FOOD and another concert.

Here is Mr. DI who worked Christmas eve and still poses with a smile for the camera. IT was SO COLD in his work area!!

So, we are done for another year. All the food got eaten and now I am carrying some around on my thighs to remind me....now onto 2010.

video of song.....

Thankful

Somehow, moving brings so many new things. New house, new friends, new life. Can't say that I LOVE all these "new" things. But when you are forced to do things in your "new" life like having a holiday in the "new" place, you find out that you could really learn to LOVE

For instance, being close enough to your family that they will come and eat at your Thanksgiving table....pretty cool.

And for once we were the family that could take in a couple of sweet college nieces and a daughter that needed a table to put their feet under.Here we are doing pie dough...turned out pretty darn good...

oh, and when mom saw the roll dough rising on the counter said she sure was hungry for a cinnamon roll.....so we rolled em out and stacked em in...they were great appetizers.

We had unusual guests for dinner....haven't seen this pair for oh....about 20 years or so. I mean at Thanksgiving. Mom and Dad came to our house!! I convinced Dad to carve the meat....tradition!

it was great to eat together and talk about the silly and the strange and what we were thankful for....(I was pretty thankful to get to sit...)

We then served pies...ah yes, the pies...

I made just a few...cocoanut cream, raisen cream, black and blue berry, french silk, and Neil made two oreo cream and we bought a pumpkin. They were gone pretty quick but I am remembering them every morning when I put on my jeans.

THe high light of the day HOWEVER, had to be my great shopping find. I had been looking for some new nuetral color napkins and found a real deal in Ross. I was so proud of myself. I mean I found them on clearance and the price was just so phenomonal! 99 cents for four. I smiled all the way home. Of course, I bragged it up with everyone Thursday as we set the table...that is until I opened the package and saw the "real deal". Seems like there is never really a "deal" unless you are CATHOLIC....

NO WORRIES FOLKS....no one turned on their religion today. We just wiped up with em and tossed them in the laundry for a good soaking. ( a little sudsy baptism won't hurt em)

We decided on a new tradtion for this UTAH life....head on downtown to see a few of the lights they've been putting up since...SEPTEMBER.

We were not disappointed...just in my camera skills.

maybe if you squint, or turn off the lights, or shut your eyes.....

It was cold but beautiful. A nice tradtion to start.

"Octo-ver" move over...

One of my little kids used to call it that....I like it. SO, we have survived our first Octover in Utah. Generally it was ok. Halloween was cold and nasty for our one trick or treater from this house...she went as a "ghoulish fashionista".

Stacey went as a artsy..."cat fish" to her art club party. She came pretty close to winning that one.

Oh and speaking of cold....why does SL arrange for one of the most popular bloggers to come to a book signing at a "lettle" tiny bookstore??? REALLY?? For any of you out there that haven't clicked onto http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/, are really missing out. She is a world famous blogger and now has a great cookbook, that I ahem, took to get signed. Silly me. Thinking I would be one of a few..make that a few hundred women...yikes.

The line stretched down and around the block and then we found out that you needed a ticket with a letter on it. WE didn't have one. The waiting time was estimated to be about 4 hours. HA...my life is too short. I even offered to the new friends I had made in line, that I would sign their books and they could sign mine. Everybody laughed but nobody handed theirs over. Emma and I stood and chatted about and hour with all of our new friends and then called it quits. The "Pioneer woman" walked by me and I coulda tripped her, I was that close...it was enough.

Emma and I went and enjoyed an ice cream and called it a day. Here's proof that we were there.

Happy blogging.....

Maple-flavored day

Just a random day, I set out with my camera and my mp3 player set on Michael Buble's newest stuff, grabbed my golden-golden and I was off!

Enjoy the view....

ok, I just HAD to throw this last one in....made me laugh out loud. Then I came home and worked on this....

Still needs some work, but the juices are starting to flow again. The view from my deck at night is amazing....hmmmm.