Idaho for Christmas

I went to Idaho for Christmas!! And I was so caught up in family that I didn't visit any of my friends. And I'm sorry. I really wanted to. 

The trip started out awesomely at 7:00 when I was told that the luggage weight limit for Allegiant was 40lbs. Not 50. And definitely not 53. Luckily, Brea had put Kaitlynn & Perri's Christmas tutu's in a garbage bag. That I promptly stuffed 13 pounds of clothes and shoes into. Because my Christmas olive oils and shower gels couldn't go through security. The employees made fun of me for my awesome luggage ;-P, but at least I saved $50. Man oh man. 

After that, though, everything was awesome. Bridget came to visit me just a few hours later (my hair's a little crazy here) with John, her new boyfriend, who is super super sweet. (Yes, she drove 3 hours to see me for 1). It was so awesome to see her for the first time since MARCH! And she brought me the cutest little Precious Moments doll because, well, she thinks I look like one. Or I did when I was 4. :-)

Bridget also got me a "Wreck this Journal" which is a very creative outlet for my underused right brain. :-)
 Kaitlynn loved it. Per the instructions, we froze this page. Tate was impressed. 

Candice's kids LOVED the snow. It really hadn't snowed much at all until the 24th. Tate was eager to help Pappa with shoveling. Until he decided to make snow angels.

This is Perri. She's just adorable.

Christmas was good this year. I definitely missed Brad stressing to make sure we got all our traditions done (there was no Jolly Old Santa Claus book, the cartoon Grinch, or ELF for me this year. ;-( ) But I did have so much fun picking out presents for the kids and, ok, well, everyone. I do love myself some Christmas shopping. And hearing Perri say everything was "fretty" (pretty) was maybe my favorite thing. And Candice got me a fabulous cookbook that I want to cook everything in! (It's called The Sprouted Kitchen.) Tonight I made the golden beet walnut salad. mmmm.... (Who knew it took an hour to cook a beet? Not me.) (I also loved my other gifts so much- thank you thank you :-) )

They made for a very reverent Nativity. 

Kaitlynn's Birthday is the 26th. She turned 8!! She gets baptized on Jan. 5th. 

My dad got this humungous salmon from a guy at work. We probably should have cut in in half since it basically could have fed an army, but.....it was delicious. Unfortunately I left the next day. 

Birthday Party. Is she really 33?!

I didn't have too much time to do a birthday party this year.  (Besides, it's 33. Not the most milestone of years.) But I did want to get together with as many friends as possible. Which, if you're wondering, is not very many on Dec. 22nd (many of my best friends here are my co-workers and a lot of them were out of town). So we just met up for a nice little dinner at Liberty Market, which is a great little restaurant and very chill. I still wore my fancy "model" outfit, though. It was my almost-birthday.

Oh, yes, that IS Vanie's new boyfriend, Peter. He might be a big deal.
Speaking of big, Jonmark did not gain 100 pounds. This is just a very weird angle of a picture. 

again, still not dating, but it is a cute picture.

Roxanne and Mina, two of my favorite co-workers from my last job

Creativity at its Best

Christmas is often a time of creativity. For example, we started this season with a little Christmas Primary activity. We met in the morning for doughnuts, milk, stickers, and jeweled Christmas trees. The kids had a blast. Then we took them to a nearby nursing home and sang a bunch of Christmas songs they didn't really know. :-/ But it was still a fun little way to start the day. And I loved the colored snowmen. 

My next opportunity to release my creativity came at Brad's house (of course). Brad invited about 4 of us over to make gingerbread houses. He and Brea had made the gingerbread, the icing, and had gone shopping for the most amazing candies ever. Including little chocolate "rocks."
However, in a sad stroke of bad luck, Brad had misplaced his OCD tendencies that night. What, what do I mean by that you ask? I mean that, not only did our houses have slightly uneven floors, but they also might have been short the squares needed to make a roof. Oops. No worries. We thickened up the icing and went to work. And declared this our Practice Round to make awesome ones next year. However, we still had a blast this time. :-)

Olivia made a roof from Pretzel Sticks. With the help of a glue gun. 

Brea was pretty heartbroken when her house fell apart for the fourth time. :-(

My gorgeous home. The tree is my favorite.

Olivia added this cool design on
the side of her house. 

Christin's Christmas Decorations

I really loved decorating for Christmas this year. I got some new (much-needed) garland and some trees from Target that I loved. I was waiting initially for them to go on sale, but then they ran out. Like almost completely.
I declared it a mission.
I hit up four Targets.
After 3, I was still missing the middle tree. So, I thought to myself, which Target is selling the least gold glitter Christmas trees. Which one, you ask? Mexican Target. That one. The one that has all its signs in Spanish and English. And the one that had EVERY SINGLE TREE in stock. Whoo-hoo!!!! (That sounds kind of racist in writing. It just sounded like brilliance in my head.) Anyways, this is the result of 2 hours of hard work of driving to multiple Targets.

It goes well, I think with Gunther the Christmas pig, who is happy to be out again.

 Every year since I've been out of the house, I've bought a real tree. Which, I'm sure you know is awesome. And kind of a pain to put up. And water. And get all centered. And try not to kill. And dispose of. etc, etc, etc... So when Vanie begged me to please not get a real tree for the sake of her allergies, I relented. And when Craig and I found this skinny little thing on sale at Target, I was pretty excited. And a little shocked by the overwhelming sense of relief when we set down the already-assembled tree (2 pieces; that was it) and, well, it was DONE. I mean, that was it. And at that point I realized, sometimes you need to realize that life is busy and you should cut yourself a break. And this was the perfect, perfect break. After it was decorated, I realized it looked a lot like a Dr. Seuss tree, and that made me like it even more.

I found this set of Roald Dahl books at Costco.
Luckily Brad was just as excited as I was about them. 

There always seems to be one last Christmas surprise. For me, that was this picture. Which is really awesome to me. I had showed it to Brad, but didn't buy it because it was a little expensive. But then, Kirkland Home had a 50% off sale. So while I was in Idaho for Christmas (Brad & Brea both had to stay and work), they secretly bought it, snuck into my house via my roommate, and hung it on my wall. So cool!! Thanks, you guys. You are the best. It totally made my Christmas.

Craig Comes to Visit (Surprise!)

One of the most unexpected things that happened this month was a visit from Craig. Craig was the boyfriend of my roommate Tara in Boise, which meant he was over pretty much all the time. For pretty much 3 years. And we were always good friends. We haven't talked much in the last six years, but we do meet up usually when I head to Boise for a bit.
So I wasn't expecting a phone call in late November asking if he could come stay for 5 days 2 weeks later. But, of course, I said yes. I mean, it's Craig.
It was really fun to catch up, and funny how much he remembered. About Christmas decorations and the way I did everything.

We ate dinner the first night at Pure Sushi. We ordered 5 rolls. And could have eaten them all, if the last one "Pure Sunshine" wasn't pure "grossness." Our desserts were also kind of a disappointment, which was pretty lame because usually everything there is amazing. And because they looked amazing. (And our first 4 rolls were sooo good!!!) The couple next to us at the sushi bar couldn't believe we kept ordering, but, um, we were hungry. And it was awesome.

















Saturday night was Mandy's birthday, which was great because she's been really sick most of the year with a weird rare form of MS (Tumective, the doctors think), but she's been doing great this month. And we all had fun time just catching up. 
Sunday was Craig's first 3 hours at Mormon church. And he survived fabulously. We even went and looked at the beautiful Mesa Temple Christmas lights later on.

Monday I actually hosted Midsingles FHE at my house. We decorated Christmas cookies, and somehow this is the only picture I felt was worth taking. I was a little nervous, but it turned out good, and the cookies were delicious. Despite an interesting conversation on the legalization of medical marijuana led by the possibly most ignorant person I have ever spoken to. oh man. 
We also did a little Christmas shopping at Scottsdale Fashion Square and even re-enacted this Carl's Jr Commercial (kind of). Don't you judge me. :-)
It was a great trip, and so good to see such a good friend. :-)