Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmas. Paul and I have been in Twin Falls for the past few days and enjoyed a quiet Christmas with my parents and sister, Sara. Santa Claus was very good to us this year. He gave us just what we wanted. As for the rest of our break, I am very content sitting around and doing nothing. Well, I am still doing things, I just don't have a schedule.

Tis the Season

Well, it is December and I am feeling very festive. Since we weren't home over Thanksgiving, I decided I could wait until the beginning of December to put up the decorations. So on the 1st that is just what I did as a reward for finishing a homework assignment. Oh, Paul helped me too. This is our beautiful Christmas tree. The theme is "Starry Red and Green with accents of Gold and Gingerbread Wonderland." Maybe a little excessive, but I really love red, green, and gold. They are Christmas colors.

Oh, maybe you can see outside on the patio. It snowed for about five minutes today. Too bad it didn't stick.

This is the Christmas garland. Once again red, green, and gold. The little sign says "Be Merry." I am feeling very merry!


Since it is the reason Christmas even exists, I have out my new Nativity. I am very thankful that we have this joyous time of year to thank our Heavenly Father for His most precious gift to us, our Savior, Jesus Christ.

A beautiful poinsetta next to a Christmas favorite, the crocheted Santa boot. My Grandma Hamman gave this to us last year. It has been one of my favorite Christmas decorations since I was a little girl. Since she gave them to all of my siblings, we can all enjoy them.

A good friend of mine gave us this cute stocking holder last year. I was telling her how I wish I had a mantle to hang up stockings and voila, now we have somewhere to hang our stockings. Also notice our countdown chain...16 days until Christmas!

You might be wondering what the orange is all about. Well, when I was little and really into American Girl, my Grandma gave me a Felicity packet. Felicity is the doll from 1776 and made things like a sampler, etc. In this Felicity packet was a quill and ink set and ribbon and cloves to make a Christmas Orange Satchel. Ever since, I have wanted to make one and don't know why I didn't do it then. I had an inspiring idea a few weeks ago when I was trying to decide what to make for an ornament exchange I am doing with some friends, "Aha!" I thought, make those oranges. They are just so old fashioned and fun! So I bought some pretty yarn and three cups of cloves and a bag of oranges. I sat down the other night to give one a try and realized that oranges are too heavy to hang on trees. Now I have a lot of cloves, some pretty ribbon, and the oranges will be easily taken care of. Sorry for not thinking this one through. I guess my friends will have to get another cool, smelly, old fashioned ornament.

Up Close. It smells really good and Christmassy.

Eventually, it is supposed to dry up and look really cool too.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Afternoon at the Park

While at Paul's parents in Tri Cities, we enjoyed a nice afternoon at the park with Rueben and Samuel. It was a little bit chilly outside, but nothing that a little playing couldn't take care of.It has been a while since I went on a twisty slide, surprisingly, they are kind of intense.

Riding the giant sturgeon was a blast too!

We also enjoyed climbing a rock wall. That is some hard work.

This is the new and not so improved teeter totter. You can't really make the opposite person fly into the air. Isn't that what teeter totter's are for?

New Hairdo

A few weeks ago I was feeling bored with my hair. It would look really cute in the morning and then I would walk outside. I grew wings and fuzz and my hair was uncontrollable the rest of the day. With a bit of my birthday money I decided to get a perm. Since I think it is absolutely rediculous to spend $70 for something I might not like, I went to the beauty school. Somewhat weary, I found out that perms are their most common hair styling that they do. After four hours of beauty school talk, I ended up with curly perm! Some days it is good, other days I
don't know what I did. Overall, I like it though.

Busy, busy, busy

This has been a very busy month. Lots of tests, studying, and work. There hasn't been much else going on in our lives. I have been trying to think of something exciting to write or tell about and this is a list of what I have come up with over the past few weeks.

Congratulations to my brother Adam and sister-in-law Leigh-Ann on their first baby boy. I love being an aunt.

I was very excited this evening when I saw the sign at the gas station. Gas has dropped below $2.00!

Paul has become an excellent pancake maker as he bribes the Elders Quorum to clean the church on Saturday morning.

School has been very interesting and extremely applicable to life. If you need parenting advice, just ask. I have never been a parent, but know all about how to be a good one.

I have a new blender!

Dollar Scoop Tuesday is back at Baskin Robbins.

Pirates took over an oil tanker with a million dollars of oil on it. The mother pirate ship is now sunk.

A Spooky Halloween Evening

On Halloween we had a few friends over to enjoy the evening. Paul made some delicious doughnuts, I made some sugar cookies and apple cider. Everyone enjoyed eating candy and playing games. I also created this unique picture display! It was really fun to take people's pictures with it. And since it took a long time to make, I will probably keep it forever. Even if it is made out of cardboard!

Lucky!

I consider myself to be extremely awesome. On Saturday Paul and I went into the Salvation Army. I saw a keyboard and immediately wanted it. You see, I would like to have a piano, in case I ever feel inspired to learn how to play again. A piano is sort of unrealistic in the space that I have, so when I saw the keyboard, I needed it! I had priced some out early this year and the really nice ones that have seven octaves and feel like you are playing a real piano cost around $200 or so. This little keyboard was only a few dollars! I asked the sales lady if it worked and wasn't sure, but would sell it to me for ONE DOLLAR! It didn't have an adaptor, but I found one that Paul already had. Now I have a sweet keyboard. It has excellent features including: marimba, record and play, and a variety of beats. I think I might take up playing the piano again.

Homecoming Weekend

This past weekend was the U of I Homecoming. Paul and I decided to enjoy the weekend activities to the fullest. (I wasn't in the mood to study!)

Friday night we enjoyed some beautiful fireworks. The newspaper said the best place to watch was at the Kibbie Dome parking lot (football stadium). Instead of walking clear across the road we just sat in front of McDonald's. I think we had the best seats in all of Moscow though. The fireworks were being launched right in front of us and as I named all of them, the ashes were falling on us.
This is us in front of McDonald's. We enjoyed a delicious cup of hot chocolate while watching the fireworks. I would have taken some pictures of the fireworks, but I was too busy naming them. Starburst, Firefly, Christmas Wonder, Popcorn, Dazzle, you get the idea. I love fireworks! This might be due to the fact that they are far and few between. Everything from the explosive noises to the glittering sky.

Saturday morning we went to the parade. This is Moscow's only parade. I was pretty certain that over half of the little kids there had only been to two parades their entire lives. They kept migrating to the center of the road. I wasn't sure if the marching bands would make it through. I thought it was nature to stay close to the curb, otherwise you might get pooped on when the horses go by.

This was one of my favorite floats. SpongeBob rocks! The next two pictures are very representative of Moscow. You have to remember that Latah county is only one of two Democratic counties. All I can do is laugh.

Representing the Latah Democrats is the Llama for Obama!

Representing the Latah Republicans is a semi truck.

Finally, we went to the football game. If you are not aware, the Vandal Football team is only mediocre. They are last in their conference, possible the United States. However, they have some die hard fans. We have only gone to one other game this season and they beat ISU so I had a little bit of confidence in them. After a very close game, the Vandals pulled through and won! It was a miracle.

GO VANDALS!

This is about as much Vandal Pride that I have. I am starting to learn how football works though.

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Today is the official day of the Canadian Thanksgiving. In tradition of our forefathers, who might have been Canadian, we celebrated with a Thanksgiving feast, yesterday. The meal consisted of a ham, carrots (from the garden), mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing. Just like the pilgrims and Indians of Canada ate many, many years. ago.

I actually am not aware of the history of Canadian Thanksgiving. However, it all started for me four years ago when I had a Canadian room-mate, Kathryn. We started celebrating then. She would make turkey, but I like ham a little bit more. Our feast really was skimpy compared to Kathryn's great cooking skills, but we still have to celebrate the American Thanksgiving. You can only have so much turkey.

I am also not quite sure what the Canadians drink on Thanksgiving, but we like Kool-aid.

Happy Thanksgiving CANADA!

Autumn is here!

I love fall! These are the things I like:

The cool nights and warm days make life wonderful. Harvesting vegetables and fruit from the garden. Baking cookies and warm foods (it is too hot in the summer). Walking through crisp leaves. Watching leaves fall. The smell of leaves. Wearing sweaters. Drinking apple cider and hot cocoa. Eating homey foods like cinnamon rolls and chili. Making salsa and jams. Pumpkins. Decorating for holidays. I like fall.

Blogging

I have entered the new world of blogging. Don't worry, I Facebook and enjoy looking at other people's blogs, but this will be a new experience.