Christmas in the kitchen

Making Christmas memories with the grandkids! Nothing says baking with grandma like a store bought, pre-assembled gingerbread house and store bought cookie dough!! Laura and I watched Ash and Maci this weekend so Katie and Jeff could spend their anniversary downtown. They made a gingerbread house and then we rolled out cookie dough for gingerbread men. Oh, and we placed preformed reindeer cookies on a sheet and baked them. I've lost my desire to spend a lot of time with flour and cookies (poison to me) so I love the ease of these convenient products!

Our ward party was themed Polar Express- Doesn't Bishop Combs make a perfect ticket taker?!!

Christmas will be on the small side. For Christmas Eve Laura, Karl, Grandma and I are going to see the movie "Lincoln" at the 3 O'clock matinee and then we are going out to dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant. (Think Fa-Ra-ra-ra-ra-ra). We have been doing this for about 8 years, ever since Rob left for his mission and there are just the 3 of us around. Traditions adapt to the circumstances. Christmas day we will have dinner, but we will add Katies family and Greg & Annie. This is an "out" year, with the kids/nephews going to the in-laws. Snow is beginning to fall, we will definately have a white Christmas this year!!

Happy Holidays!

We went to a party in the neighborhood and the hostess said, "You have a lot of opportunities to dress up this year, don't you?" Yup, I guess I do. Laura and I attended the Gala opening night of the Festival of Trees. It is such a nice, festive way to see the trees with only a fraction of the hassle of the crowds, and you get to wear something fun.

This tribute to "Tangled" was one of Laura's favorites.

This tree was dedicated to 2 Elders who lost their lives in the service of the Lord this year. The tree skirt was made from their ties.

LOVED the incredible gingerbread houses too!

Tonight is my company party at The Leonardo museum, we have rented it out for a personalized visit to the DaVinci exhibit. This week is the Tabernacle choir concerts and next week is the Tabernacle choir party at the Grand America. Fun times!

November

Snow and Katies surgery- that's how we started the month of November. Laura and I took Katies kids to see Disney on Ice while she was still recovering. They were enthralled.

It will be hard when I no longer work at my job, the perks are so much fun.

I took Karls mom to the Music and the Spoken Word the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Steve and Jeanne Tobler were in town for the weekend and they attended also. Betty has been in the habit of going to see the Tabernacle choir every Sunday morning and most Thursday night rehearsals because she lived across the street AND because her son sings in it. We moved her this week to the Legacy Retirement Center and I'm quite sure she will miss the Tabernacle. She let her feisty side rule when she attended because she went and sat in the section that was roped off for choir members only and when the hostesses would ask her to move she would just say NO. We went to hear Betty report on her 4 years on her mission in her home ward this day also and then enjoyed dinner with Steve & Jeanne and Becca. Thanksgiving was small and manageable with just our immediate family.

Yes we did. Laura and I ventured out for Black Thursday night.

We hit Walmart at 8:00, Target at 9:00 and then Shopko. We were home in bed by midnight. I gotta say, I like the Thanksgiving night idea so much better that getting up at 3:00 am - that is if you are going to join the throngs at all. Saturday the 24 was entirely consumed with moving Betty into the retirement center. Can I just wonder out loud why we thought she had downsized when she left for her mission? She had so much stuff. After 2 1/2 hours of loading the truck, we were about to leave when we learned that there was a storage shed out back!! Yikes. Greg Garret, Leah, Laura, Karl, Steve and Paul Garrett, Rob, myself and a couple of elderly home teachers all helped to one extent or another.

Leah was hauling a giant pot with a ficus tree in the back seat of her car. The front seat had Grandma's clothes on hangers from the closet. I'm not sure of all the details but a quick stop produced a reaction that sent the pot forward with such intensity as to hurl all the dirt from the pot into a shower that cover not only grandmas clothes but the entire front of her car.

It was a little funny. I will post pictures of Betty's new home once we finish getting her settled into her tiny new space. It is nice, we visited her again the next day, got her new TV and DVD player hooked up and she said she really liked her first day.

Let it Snow!!

Friday- November 8th - it started to snow. Fun, pretty, no big deal, right?

It did not stop snowing until Sunday afternoon!!

Of course this was so beautiful! It was hard not to play some Christmas music! The downside to getting 22" of snow this time of year was that the snow was heavy and wet and there are still leaves on some trees. Every yard in our neighborhood had branches broken to one degree or another. Katie Jo's inlaws had a car totaled by a falling limb.

Sunday our Stake held a Veteran's Day Fireside. It was well done and touching. Karl and another friend from the Tabernacle Choir sang the Armed Forces Medley, they were awesome. Of course all veterans were invited to stand during their military branches song so it was fun to see all of them rise to their feet, many in full uniform.

They had costumed actors throughout the ages give a spiel about how they contributed to this great land- from Nephites to Columbus. They even had an elderly gentleman from Norway talk about the invasion of the Nazi's in Norway and how grateful they were when they heard the American's had entered the war to help. When they were allowed to fly the Norweign flag they hung an American flag as well. This gentleman emigrated to the United States and ended up serving in the Korean War before he was even a citizen as a way to pay back the debt he felt was owed for the American's help in his homeland. After listening to endless campaign arguments and fearing for our ecomonic and social future, it was such a nice evening to reflect on the Spiritual heritage of this great land! God Bless the USA!

Octoblerfest

We enjoyed a family get together this weekend. Menu was chili with eyeballs and other toppings, corn bread, salad, jello, applejuice punch and pumpkin pie. I failed to get a picture of the children's costumes and they were adorable- 50's girl, pirate, policeboy, princess and power ranger.

I like that spiders now come with clips instead of just "rings"

This was supposed to look like Candy corn, white on the bottom, orange and yellow. It was just okay. Probably won't repeat it.

Karl as Captain Hook, he did not keep the costume on for long. As a little girl I was totally frightened by the Hitchcock movie, "The Birds", Laura talked me into making it a scary costume!

Brent and Katie Anderson, Avalanche fans.

Rob and Jill as cowboy and girl....

This is their cow!

Becca and Laura stayed and made glitter pumpkins... Grandma like them so much she asked if she could take one home!! Then we watched "Wait until Dark". Fun day.

More Halloween madness

So we added a few items to our Halloween crap decorations. Laura made headstones for the bodies she buried in the front yard. I had to try a Pinterest ghost idea.

We also went to the new "Scheels" store one night for Family Night. Yeah, we do that. Scheels is a big imitatation of Cabelas sporting goods store. Huge, with a Ferris wheel in the middle. And some skunk photo ops.

Would like to scream!! I have righted this photo in every application known to me, and Blogger still puts it upside down!! So dumb. Anywho, other Octobler happenings include BYU football. They may be somewhat lousy this season but we still love our Amazing views from Cougar stadium.

Rob celebrated a birthday, so Grandpa read some stories to Tessa. She seemed to enjoy his animated voices!