Christmas Break: CHRISTMAS

CHRISTMAS EVE:

Well to start off it is a family tradition that we spend Christmas Eve at my Mom's parent's house. We drove up early and helped grandma make dinner. I love that kitchen and all the memories helping prepare family meals there. And if we are really lucky we get to help with the many many dishes because NO DISHWASHER! Just lots of wrinkly fingers and hands:)

Christmas Eve would be the same without a pinata! I have wondered myself and asked around and no one really knows how this tradition got started, but I don't ever not having a pinata on Xmas Eve. It always seems to be a challenge to see how much candy we can stuff, shake, smash, shake, and shove into a variety of pinata shapes each year. Then is the betting of what kind of pinata we have each year. A mildly entertaining couple hits and its open one, or a pinata so heavy duty it breaks the attached plastic hanging strap and becomes a ghetto, but rad pinata that is hung by wrapping it with rope. Those always seem to be the best years. This year we had a milder one, but it was still fun to watch the kids go at it. It makes me feel old to remember back to pinata's in the backyard of the Grandparent's house because there were only a handful of us grandkids. Now with this sweet baby and more to come we are currently at 21! This year at the party we had 11 of those kids and it was so fun!

After the crazy candy fun we sung Christmas carols with the favorites that never seem to end like the 12 Days of Christmas and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. Then each of the grandkids got to open presents from the grandparents. This is fantastic tradition because it serves two purposes. 1st the kids (yes i'm still included in that) love to open presents and get fun toys a day early. WHO WOULDN'T?? 2nd these toys serve as a distraction for a good hour or so for all the kids under 12 so that the adults can play the famous Christmas Eve Game. 

THE WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT EXCHANGE!! 

This game is family legend and we must be doing something right because people keep coming back and still get excited about it every year. Sometimes the presents are practical, or stylish, or tasty. You can also always count on a few good zingers to be thrown into the game. This year the favorites were a Airsoft Pistol with an included Justin Beiber Poster for target practice.

Christmas morning is always a joy!

Food is DELISH, But Just Not Fish...Chicken is Better:)

Soooooo ya, I made this last week for Roommate dinner and to take to the Bishopric Sunday night. 

They were indeed DELISH. 

The End. 

Springtimes-a-Comin!

Little Seeds Lie Fast Asleep

Little seeds lie fast asleep In a row, in a row. 

“Wake up, wake up,” calls the sun, “Wake up now and grow."

Little seeds wake one by one In a row, in a row.

Then they stretch up t’ward the sun And be - gin to grow.

YAY FOR: 

Roommates who drive me to Walmart for Seeds, 

Bishop's who give me Cow Poop, 

Egg-cartons, "pop"bottles, Gatorade bottles, 

Strawberry containers, and diced Jalapenos :) 

I made Egg-carton planters and thought it would be even cooler to make them into greenhouses! I taped and stapled a gallon bag to the cut-out top of the lid. Boom Greenhouse. In the big on I planed carrot seeds(the one with the eggshells for later transplanting) and the smaller one I planted lettuce seeds. We'll see if they work...

 In the toilet paper rolls that I collected from our trash like every day!! I cut and folded the bottoms so I can later transplant them to pots. And what am I growing?? Peas!! YAY I want them to grow fast so I can move them outside when the weather gets warm and grow up the railing outside my apartment. 

I also decided to try regrowing food from leftover scraps. I so far have a romaine lettuce and a celery. They just started to sprout!! 

I am also getting way too excited for spring and to see my family so soon I am counting down the days until school is over and I have a much needed break. 

Lucky Ducky!

Well maybe it's because of my mom or maybe because I grew up in a drinking, party, college town, but I CELEBRATE Saint Patrick's Day! Why wouldn't you want to? You get to decorate your house with rainbows and clovers, eat green cookies in green milk, and when I was growing up the leprechauns would come and mess up our house and leave behind chocolate gold coins.

 I remember waking up in the morning to find my room a mess! toys and blankets thrown all over the floor, the family room couch cushions were all thrown off and amidst all of this was a trail of coins leading to the kitchen table where that sneaky leprechaun had died our milk green! Mom would make sure we all had a green shirt and for the girls green hair-ties for school so we didn't get pinched! For dinner we would have an all green meal. Green jello, broccoli, noodles, apples, and of course green kool-aid!

This year being at college I couldn't just do nothing! I decorated our wall with shamrocks and rainbows, painted green nails, Wore a green shirt with gold earrings, dyed MY milk green, and even the toilet water! It was a monday so we had FHE (Family Home Evening) with our new group of kids. Two of the girls went to pick up something for the treat for after. They came back with a cookie mix and put green food coloring in. Then they kinda forgot about the cookies and it wasn't until we noticed smoke coming from the stove top did anyone remember the cookies. They were not exactly green but.....BLACK! Haha it made for a good laugh and a lingering smell for a couple of hours.

Why Not?

 I've always had a love of making something new out of something old. I will save little broken pieces to toys or scraps of fabric in the hope that I can re-purpose them sometime later in my life. Sometimes they go untouched for years and I find them later and think why would I keep this junk? Other times I find them and get excited all over again thinking of what I could possibly use this for. 

Well I like to do the same thing on the computer and when I go back and clean out my files I find all sorts of little projects and stories I have created over the years. I like to take images and make them into something new and fresh. That is what I was able to do this week for my apartment manager BB. We were talking and she mentioned that she still had to make the fliers for the upcoming free laundry week. She said it is always such a hassle trying to make them fun and cute and wished she could have someone make them for her. As soon as she said that JB, who I was in there with, looked at me and said that I do stuff like that all the time! So BB asked if I would and I said "Sure! Why not?" 

IT'S ABOUT TIME!!

Well we've been together for a semester and a half and we haven't killed each other!

These are some of the first attempts to our official pictures! 

More to come later:)

Happy ♥ Day!

Valentines in Rexburg. A scary place for single girls who are not exactly looking for a date. On the flip-side Rexburg is the most depressing place EVER for girls who WANT to have a BOYFRIEND. Sigh life is so hard;) Well V-day was a blast this year because ALL of my roommates were single! We decided that we didn't JUST want to sit at home watching sappy love movies. So we went out on the town. Which translates to we drove to the DI and went shopping and then got Taco Bell for dinner. 

 BUT living in a small town full of Mormons means that there is always an adventure to be had even just going to DI. We drove over and as we pull in the parking lot we notice two boys with the hood of their car open. We walk up to the store and they call us over asking if we can jump their car. KJ brings her car around and they get out the cables. Ok so I don't mean to stereotype and be totally sexist here but I just figure if you have a car and are a boy that you would know how to hook up jumper cables. Well I stand corrected. They did try i'll give them that , but even I know that you don't start moving things around once the car is started! Well we helped them get the car started.....and then he took out the keys.....and it died again.....smart I know. So we started it again and sent them on their way. We had a good laugh about it once we were inside. We started shopping and looking around for stuff when the boys cam BACK to the store. They said that they didn't really thank us and wanted to take us to ice cream. So we hid all of the items we had found in the store inside of clothing racks so we would be able to find them  when we came back and we went to Dairy Queen for $1 cones.


We then went back and finished shopping finding lots of... "fashionable" clothing. (Well i'm sure it might have been at one time in history) I found one sweater that kind of looked like that old video game, Galaxian that we used to play when we were little. I didn't end up getting the sweater but did get a floral belt! We then continued on our trip to Taco Bell. When we got home we ate dinner and watched Napoleon Dynamite, You Again and Safe Haven. We basically had a big sleepover in the front room. Livin' V-Day to the fullest! ♥♥♥♥♥♥

So I love to decorate our little Apartment for every Holiday and Valentines day is one of the fun ones. Hearts, ♥'s and more <3 's!!! I couldn't help but draw on every surface available! We even put up a Hugs for 5cents sign on out window. We thought it was a good joke until 3 boys we didn't even know came over looking for hugs because they saw our sign! Then we knew it was time to take THAT sign down;) I even went outside and got a branch to make a paper rose tree!

I also made Rice Krispies with pink, red, and white M&Ms and cut them into hearts. I cut the leftovers into little bite size Krispies for my VT sisters. I love having an excuse for making holiday treats!
The last thing I did for V-day was make cards for my family. I painted a lilac branch for Mom, and make personalized cards for everyone else. Even though I didn't end up sending them until much later I sent them eventually :)

Christmas Break: Home Sweet Home

 Well to start, we celebrated mom's birthday!! My mom is such an amazingly strong, kind, understanding, and supportive person. I have always looked up to her and gone to her for guidance and just to vent about my problems. She always listens and tries to tell me enough of what I want to hear and what I need to hear. I don't think I couldn't ask for anyone more patient and wonderful. I ♥ my mom!

One night I even had someone crawl into bed with me and steal all the covers. Normally I would be angry at this, but I guess I was just filled with a lot of love  for my family that day/night. Good thing too or she would have been on the floor;)

I loved being home with the family and just spend time together. I didn't realize how much I missed being with them until I came home and woke up to them every morning. I am so extremely blessed to have been born into my family. They are so funny, loving, sarcastic, loud, thoughtful, and just the right amount of crazy. 

One of my favorite parts of being home was getting to go to a family ward. Oh how I have missed my ward! There were baby's crying, so many people talking to me, and it just felt like home. Relief society even had funny old lady's just like it's supposed to!

Christmas Break: Traveling Home

The semester ENDED!!! JB and I made Lemon Blueberry Pancakes to celebrate! I figured I was going home for Christmas anyways so i might as well surprise my family by coming home a day early! I set up the plan and had my dad as my accomplice. i told my mom and siblings that I would be driving home all Friday, but secretly we drove back Thursday to surprise them that night.

 I was so grateful to go home for Christmas and get away from the cold weather for two whole weeks! I left early Thursday morning and drove back home with a friend from my home ward. We made really good time and only stopped twice the whole way back. I decided to be extra sneaky so I took pictures with my phone on wed to show me packing and cleaning my room so that I could send them to my mom as we drove Thursday. 

She didn't suspect a thing!

The drive was SO LONG, but it was fun and I got really good at coming up with lots of random questions and games to play. When we finally made it to my house I went up to the door and S answered the door. He had almost no reaction to me being there and all he said was, "hi". 

HELLO I CAME HOME EARLY!!   SURPRISE!!

My mom was surprised and so happy that I was home. K's reaction was the best! She was sitting in a chair and I had come all the way in the house and had put my stuff down before she realized that it was me. She told us later that she thought she had fallen asleep and that I was just a dream! I love that kid♥

Christmas is right around the corner...

We heard this in my English class earlier in the year and it gave me a good laugh. Enjoy!
http://www.npr.org/2012/12/24/167716732/david-sedaris-reads-from-his-santaland-diaries

Also in more recent news, ITS SNOWING!!!!! Real snow that sticks and is cold and messy :/ 

Here is the view from my apartment window!

"I'll Be Home For Christmas" has been one of my favorite Christmas songs lately there's only one part that I'd change this year ;)

I am dreaming tonight of a place I love

Even more than I usually do

And although I know it's a long road back

I promise you

I'll be home for Christmas

You can count on me

Please DON’T have snow OR mistletoe

just family round the tree!