Mac & Cheese,Trains and 30 Rock x 2 (Part 2)

My last post was getting a little long (Also I was distracted by 30 Rock!) Christmas day we decided to wake up at 7 a.m. and I woke up at 6:48! I am not sure why, I wasn't THAT excited but we waited for the OK from my parents and went upstairs to check out what Santa brought. Santa never wraps our presents, people have asked me before if that is weird but I love it. I got a cute shoe puzzle, sewing stuff, clothes and scrapbooking stuff. After we had enough time to check out all our gifts from Santa we gathered around the tree to open presents from Family and Friends. This year we went from youngest to oldest. I got earrings and manicure stuff from my parents, material from my younger sisters, and 30 ROCK!! Spencer got me the first season of 30 Rock, which if you haven't seen it than you are missing out!! The very last gift to open up was a HUGE box for the family, only my Dad knew what it was and we were all very curious to see what it was. We all tore it open and were surprised by a Lionel Train!! Every year we set up a wooden train around our Christmas tree so we thought that is what this new train was for, turns out my Dad already had grand plans for this train. He is going to build a shelf in the game room when it is finished and set it up there. (I will post pictures when this happens, could be another year or so.) Curtis and Ashley showed up around noon and we called Tyler around 12:30. It was so weird to talk to him. It was a perfect Christmas present though. Later on in the day I went to Devin's to exchange gifts. I made him a BYU quilt, (He is a HUGE fan) and I got him a fan for his Laptop. He got me some lotions and sprays (Love Spell and Berry Kiss) and ............... Season 1 of 30 ROCK!! lol It worked out great because we exchanged it and I now own 30 Rock seasons 1 & 2. The rest of the day was spent just laying around, snacking on all the delicious treats we had. Devin, Carissa, Michaela, Gary and I also played a few rounds of our new Clue card game. Clue has to be my FAVORITE game EVER!! So this ends my Christmas day post.

We do this every year (also for Birthdays), I love looking back over past Christmas's and remembering what I got. Man I look happy! :)


I of course didn't take any pictures Christmas day, but here I am working on Devin's quilt.

Mac & Cheese,Trains and 30 Rock x 2

I wish I had pictures, I didn't take hardly any. That is a shame because this Christmas was probably the best ever. The only sad part was not having my younger brother with us. He is on his Mission, serving in South Carolina. We did get to talk to him, I'll tell about that later though. This year on Christmas Eve we had our traditional meal of Steak and Seafood. We had SOOOO much food; Steaks, 2 different types of sausages, Crab Legs, Shrimp, and Scallops. The only problem with this I don't like Seafood and neither does my youngest sister Carissa. We fix this by making Macaroni & Cheese, usually we make home made but this year we made Kraft!! Yep, we are fancy!! So we had our great feast and we also had English Party Crackers, something I hope will become a new tradition. My Dad went on his mission to England so that is why we got them, I got a new measuring tape in mine, and a cute crown. We then played Apples to Apples, our family's favorite game. We played a couple of rounds and had a BLAST, I didn't win once but still fun!! We then each opened one present, Michaela, Carissa, Spencer and I got new pajamas. We look forward to that every year, and when we were younger we would get matching pajamas. This year my Mom really surprised us by explaining that while she sewed them, my Dad picked out all the fabric. He did a GREAT job!! Mine were Pink and had Crowns (TOTALLY ME). My younger sisters and I had our traditional sleepover, we watched movies and fell asleep long before we planned to. Well this is getting long so I will Blog about Christmas Day another day.

What a Day!

Yesterday was such a fun day, my Cousin Melinda came from Payson!! Her husband Phil was doing some electrical work for Curtis's Dad and some stuff around my house. They got to my house pretty early and Ashley, Curtis and Major (their puppy) showed up shortly after. Curtis and Phil went to the Galbraith home and then the fun began!! Major and Princess were sent outside to play in the snow, and Sarah, Alyssa and Ryland went downstairs to play with all of our toys. Ryland and I had a couple races across the family room. He would say, Ready, Set (and at this point he would start to push his car) Go!! The little cheater bug! :) It was so fun to race with him and hear him yell "Jatee, Race Me." The girls had a blast playing with the Barbies, Pollys and basically every toy we own lol. After a while Lyss wanted to go outside and after they got the toys cleaned up (I have to say that you did a good job girls!!) they went outside and were attacked by the dogs. At this point I need to explain that Princess loves new people and shows her love by jumping and licking which can be scary if you aren't used to it. Also Major is a puppy so he likes to play, so when I say attacked I mean in a loving way if that is possible. :) The girls came running in, Alyssa had lost her coat and her shoe! Needless to say, they were done being outside. Now to the crafty part of the day!! My cousin Melinda is AMAZING at crafty stuff, and whenever I visit her or she visits us she has something cute to do! We made cute tins for Christmas presents and the CUTEST Cards. She then gave us some kits for cute scrapbook pages. Thanks Min, you are great!!
After they went home my little sisters, dad and I went to the Mall to shop for some gifts for my mom. I think we did rather well. I went to Devin's after that and those of you that know me know that I am not a fan of sports. That may be an understatement!! lol Anyways I just happen to be dating the biggest sports fan EVER!! (Also the cutest guy ever!!) Anyway I went over to watch the BYU game, and by this I mean, Devin watched the game and I worked on a quilt that I'm making for the Warrens. It sounds weird but hey, it works!! We went out to look at the lights (kind of) and after we got Hot Cocoa. So taking everything into account, Saturday was a GREAT day!!

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before but my friend Camie told me about a website that will put your blog into a hardbound book! I was so excited because I have always wanted to be a good journal writer but never really got into the habit. So I am now going to use this as a journal and hope that it will get me into the habit of writing in an actual journal for my more personal experiences. So I apologize if my posts get long, or if I do too many. I won't be offended at all if you don't read them.

Every year the kids in my family get so excited when we pull out the decorations and finally pull out Rudolph, our favorite decoration of all. Back in his glory days he would play music, walk and his nose would flash. We loved to put him on the hardwood and watch him walk around. So sad was the day that we pulled him out and he no longer worked. Our Mom offered to buy us the new one from Build-A-Bear. (which I now want after holding Elizabeth's) we all protested though. There are so many memories of him. Every year we leave a Carrot out for Rudolph along with Santa's Milk and Cookies. One year we decided to be sneaky and set a trap for Rudolph. We put a cardboard box in the family room and set up a stick to hold up one end. We tied a string to that stick and the other end to Rudolph's Carrot, which we put under the box. The next morning we were so excited to see if it worked. When we got upstairs the box was down, the trap worked!! We thought we had him, we couldn't wait to play with our pet Reindeer. Imagine our surprise when we looked inside that box, and there was our toy Reindeer!! That Santa is so sneaky!! So this concludes the story of my favorite decoration, hopefully he is around forever!!

Sorry I crammed 11 cookies into the VCR

The title really doesn't have much to do with the subject of my post but I am watching ELF as I write this and it is at that part. What a great movie!!
As you may have noticed I like to do Bulletin Boards, My goal is to do a new one each month. This month Jeri had the kids cut out pictures of what they wanted and glue the pictures on paper stockings. It is so cute to see all of the things that the kids want for Christmas. I decided to ask the kids simple questions about Santa and other Christmas things. I asked these questions:

• What is Santa's favorite color?
• What does Santa eat for Breakfast?
• How does Rudolph's nose glow?
• What does Mrs. Claus do while Santa is delivering presents?
• How does Santa get down the chimney?
• Does Santa ever go on vacation?

These are just a few of the answers I got, a few of my favorites include,

• He said "Beautiful Nose" to Rudolph on the movie so his favorite color is Red.
• Santa eats breakfast at night when he is delivering presents, the Milk & Cookies are his breakfast.
• When you push his foot his nose flashes.
• Mrs. Claus is making a shirt, that's just what girls do.
• We don't have a Chimney so he makes a hole, well a chimney and goes down that
• Yes, when he is delivering presents that is his Vacation.

On Friday we made these really cute Reindeer cookies, I had to post a picture so you could make them Min. :) I have no idea where Jeri got the idea but they turned out SUPER CUTE!! (And SUPER YUMMY)

Christmas List

There are so many things I love about this time of year; movies, songs, activities, traditions..... I decided to write a list and I really hope that everyone who reads this will do the same. I love learning about everyone else's traditions and getting ideas.

Favorite Holiday Movies:

1. White Christmas
2. Holiday Inn
3. Claymation Christmas
4. Elf
5. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas
6. Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
   
7. Frosty the Snowman
8. Barbie Nutcracker
   

Favorite Traditions:

1. New home made PJ pants (Sometimes matching!!)
   
2. Staying up late watching movies and playing games Christmas Eve
3. Steak, Lobster, and home made Mac-n-Cheese for Christmas Eve Dinner
4. Fighting over which new movie to watch on Christmas Morning
5. Going to see the Nutcracker put on by Clytie Adams dance class
6. My dad reading the Christmas story in the Bible while we set up the Nativity
7. Making sure we leave a Carrot for Rudolph
8. Splitting up at Target so the boys can get each girl a gift and vice versa
   

Favorite Christmas Decorations:

1. The ornament I got for my first Christmas
2. Rudolph (He is broken but we LOVE him)
3. Our first Nativity set
4. Reindeer Carousel
5. My Stocking my Mom made me
6. Tyler's train snow globe
7. Our matching snowmen ornaments with our names on them
8. All of our Nutcrackers (each family member has their own)
   

Favorite Christmas Books:
(Some are from when I was a child)

1. The Christmas Donkey
2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
3. I Believe in Santa Claus
   
4. Snowmen at Night
   
5. The Forgotten Carols
6. A Christmas Dress for Ellen
7. A Christmas Bell for Anya
8. He Sees You When Your Sleeping (A Mary Higgins Clark Book)

I'm really glad I made this list because it was a horrible drive to work in the snow and I was cursing this time of year, but making these lists just reminded me of all the great and amazing things there are this time of year. It made me so Excited and Grateful for this time of year.... Snow and all. I'm excited to read everyone else's traditions and other lists!!

Decorating for Christmas

The sad things about this picture is that
A. It wasn't staged, we had been decorating and decided that we would finish all the little stuff on Monday and randomly all picked up books to read
B. This is pretty much what we looked like right after Church too
C. Seconds earlier Rissa had also been reading but was forced to stop because Princess needed attention

As I said in my last post I LOVE to Decorate, especially for Christmas. I am going to try my hardest to post more, we will see how that goes. ;) My family decorated today and we had a blast. I realized a few things about my family:
-If there was a prize for reading too much we would easily win that
-We will never let our old broken Rudolph go
-We may get a little TOO much pleasure from hiding Ryker in the Christmas tree and a Mouse around the family room

I am not the best at taking pictures so I apologize if they aren't the clearest. This is my believe block that I got at the Day After Thanksgiving sale at Ben Franklin. I am not totally satisfied with it yet. I may post a changed picture later.

Yes I have an American Girl Doll!! I waited until I was 18 to get one so I am going to display and dress her proudly!! I got Nellie which is funny because growing up I had all the Addy books. I got the black window decoration at TaiPan!! It was a STEAL!!

I am one of those Crazy people that loves to Decorate trees in a Theme, I have had the following: Candy Tree, Princess Tree and a Black, White and Silver Tree. I was using my sister's because she had no room in previous Christmas's for a Tree. This year she has a house so I gave her tree back and still wanted to display my decorations; I had to get creative! lol These are from the Candy Tree.

The ornaments in my carriage are part of my Black and White Tree. You can't tell but there are some cute ones in there including my favorite from Coronado. We have gone there twice for Thanksgiving and once for Christmas. We don't stay in the actual Hotel but we always go visit that beach.

Just another picture, including my Reindeer Carousel. (I have ALWAYS loved Carousels)

Thanksgiving!! (only a little late)

I am really behind on my posts, I just realized that Halloween was pretty much the last post I did. I was going to do a post about Thanksgiving but I got the flu on Thanksgiving so that pretty much ruined that idea. I spent the day on the couch, and ate Ritz Crackers. But some positives about the day:
-I got to watch my favorite episode of Friends; The One with the Late Thanksgiving
-Devin came over and gave me his old phone since mine dies five minutes into a phone call
-I won a SUPER CUTE head band in a game of Bingo (Yep that is a picture of them)

The day after Thanksgiving I felt totally fine and was able to make it to Ben Franklin where they had all their Vynil Lettering 40% off!! I was able to control myself though and only got 2 sayings and also got a glass block to go with one of them. (I will post pictures of them later on) I had a BLAST decorating my room for Christmas, I love to decorate and can't wait to have a house of my own to go crazy decorating!! Anyways here are some pictures my fall decorations.

It is hard to tell, because I had a hard time getting a good picture of these. They are the tiny pumpkins, I mod podged them and put different shades of sparkles on them. I also put beads on them kind of like little leaves. Again it's not a great picture.

I love this little carriage, anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE Princess stuff, and this totally reminds me of Cinderella!! I got this with my Amazing friend Kristy, I pretty much love her!! I got it when I was visiting her in Logan, it was at a store called, Sugar and Spice. Cute name huh? I saw this and Had to have it!! I added the leaves for fall, and in my next post you will see what I did for Christmas!! I know the suspense is killing you!!
I also did another bulletin board for Thanksgiving at work, and this is how it turned out.

This is the finished product, and yes I stole the saying from you Melinda!!

Of course I am going to make a Turkey!! I love to do the art projects too!!