Christmas Parties, Open Houses, Gatherings and Get Togethers

Last Friday was an adults only dinner with some friends. The food was great as was the company. Jennifer had all the kids at her house with a baby sitter. Jennifer is soooo amazing. She had gingerbread houses made from graham crackers ready for the kids to decorate, a movie for them to watch, pizza and ornaments to color! They had a blast.

Sunday night we had tithing settlement and it was also the annual holiday open house at the Erbs. Once again we had a great time visiting with friends and eating hors d'oeuvres. Monday was our neighborhood party/home night.

We were asked to bring food for the food bank and treats to share. I made my Peppermint Fudge (if you like fudge, it was great) and Mexican Wedding Cookies, AKA Snowballs. The cookies were a huge hit. I plan, well need, to make more soon.

I still have Andrew’s class party to do, our ward party to attend (Emma has been asked to play some background music along with the other kids she takes lessons with) and Emma’s piano recital. I hope I’m not forgetting anything!

Holiday Lights

(I wish this was my photo but it isn't. It was dark by the time we got there)

This year I had a list of things I wanted to do before Christmas. I wanted to visit Santa (even though the secret is out around these parts, it has become a tradition to get a photo with Santa), do the Holiday Lights at Thanksgiving Point and go ice-skating.

Last night we were trying to decide how we were going to fit everything in(we have even had to give away basketball tickets since they were on Dec. 23 rd and that wasn't going to work anymore), not to mention the weather has been bad and it is only suppose to get worse.

I said, “Why don’t we go right now?” No time like the present right? We hurried and got in the car, still in our pajamas, and drove over to Thanksgiving Point. It was neat, I’m glad we did it, but we won’t be doing it again! Paul felt like he was stuck in traffic LOL! Here is Andrew in the car in his PJ's.

Emma, mad that Andrew is trying to get in her picture.

The one shot that I got from our moving car.

Visiting Teaching

Today Maggie and I have appointments to do our visiting teaching. I love butter cookies with hot cocoa, it is one of my most favorite things this time of year. I saw these adorable little tins of cookies and knew they would look great with the blue peppermint cocoa cans sitting on top. The store was out of the blue cans so I got the next best thing, marshmallow, however they look like crap since they don’t match. Matching is very important to me. Very. After being convinced that I was sick in the head by Maggie and Paul, I decided to just keep what I had and not to let the colors bother me. (Like that can happen)

This is what it should have looked like. This is my own can of very well used Peppermint Cocoa.

Instead this is what they look like. Ick! I just have to remind myself of the song Silver and Gold

I now have to shower, and shovel my way out of the house and brave the snow for our appointments. I was going to do some returns and try to get the treats for Andrew’s Christmas party, but I might come right home if the roads seem too bad.

Just for the record, Marius hates snow. This is as far as he went (this is under our overhang where it should be dry but it isn't) then he turned around and is back asleep on my bed.

Update!!!

We went to Beth’s house and there were tons of cars. She had forgotten that she was having a presidency meeting so we didn’t get to visit with her. We just dropped off her gift and wished her a Merry Christmas. The roads were covered with snow at that point. It was/is bad. I will not be going to the store! I couldn’t even make it back up the mountain to my house. I had to have Gary pull me with his four-wheeler. My brand new car is cute, I love it, but I miss my all wheel drive……a lot.

Other useless info and ramblings…..

There is a program here for 5^th graders that we enrolled Emma in. She will get a ski passport that will allow her to go to each of the resorts in Utah up to three times. Paul dusted off his skis yesterday and enjoyed a half-day at Sundance before his work Christmas lunch at the Foundry Grill. He is so excited to teach his baby girl how to ski. He wants to do skiing the first time and then have her try snowboarding. I am trying to figure out how I can be there to take pictures.

Paul was given a quesadilla maker yesterday at work. He also brought home some tortillas and gourmet salsas from the Sundance gift shop for me. (Isn’t he so thoughtful?) Instead of the tri-tip, twice-baked potatoes and basil-roasted carrots we had planned for dinner we had quesadillas. The kids loved seeing the new toy in action! They thought it was so cool.

This time of year is great. Paul gets to bring home all kinds of things that are sent to his office. We got a Kneaders gift basket that was AWESOME! Emma got mad at me for eating all of the pumpkin bread. Oh well, you snooze, you lose;)