New Beginnings

Leiden participated in New Beginnings this evening.  She was to come prepared to talk about someone in her life that has been an example of strength.  She chose me, and it was very sweet to listen to her talk.

They had made these cute posters for each young woman, where all the girls wrote something uplifting, encouraging, or complimentary on the poster.  I love seeing this girl flourish and learn so much.

Gorgeous sunrise caught by Jon as he left for work.  He sees some pretty mornings, that's for sure.  Generally while I am still snoozing/being lazy!

Today I was finally read in with my new calling.  I have been called to be the new Primary President, which is super overwhelming, but at least now I can talk about it openly!!  I received the call FIVE weeks ago, and have just had to sit on it.  During that time I've felt a strong responsibility for these primary children settle onto my shoulders, and I have looked forward to being able to do something about it.  Me and my two counselors were read in.  I called Alina to be my first counselor, and a girl I'd not met until today to be my second counselor.  She was recommended by the bishop, and I met her today on the stand as we gave our talks as the new presidency!!  Now I've got to get my feet under me.  It's the busiest time of year, as classes and teachers and all the things need to be decided for next year.

Luckily the girls wanted to do hairstyles this afternoon and that is relaxing for me!  Mac has been working hard on French braids and wanted to do them on me.

Later this evening we went to dinner at Pete's house, and we took a quick detour to the Oquirrh Mountain temple before we went.

I'm not sure what was happening here, but the picture amused me.

We are having issues with Mimi smiling for pictures.  She usually grimaces or squinches up her eyes like this one.

Christmas Tree

Christmas tree went up today... and we decided we wanted the good lights on it, so we had to strip it of the lights that came on it.  That took a while.  They were not straight strands of lights, but instead almost webbed strands made for the tree, and fastened with little plastic clips.  We ended up snipping the actual strands themselves because it was maddening, but the girls helped and we got it done!

Finally it was up and light free!  Jon then took a ton of the lights we bought and strung them on the tree.  It is going to look so wonderful!

This is always a long process, and I've learned to let the girls help as much as they want, because I burn out on the project before all the ornaments are on the tree if I do it myself!

They burn out, too, but when we all pitch in, it goes so much faster.

Tree all lit and decorated tonight!  We did it!!!

And then celebrated with orange rolls by the fire.  Which we started well before the 4 hour mark!

It's time for Christmas preparations!  Jon gets super excited about Christmas lights, and we found a bunch more of the lights we like, so we bought them!  Last year's were left up all year, and they have turned a bit yellow and a tiny bit less sparkly, so we will need to take them all down after Christmas.

We also decided we want to be able to use our fire place.  But we don't want to have to clean out the ashes every time, nor do we want to deal with lots of wood smoke.  Our solution?  Get the duraflame logs that hardly emit any smoke at all!

We gathered around the fire this evening, and it was really fun.  The girls were thrilled with the idea, and it was super cozy.

The package says they burn out in 4 hours...ummm, they don't.  We banked on that time frame, and didn't start it until it would be 4 hours before Jon and I went to bed.  Well, 5 hours rolled around and it was still burning like crazy and we were ready for bed.  So Jon poured water on it, and it just fell apart in a soupy smoky mess!  The whole room flooded with smoke because the draw through the flue wasn't strong enough to contend with the sudden influx of smoke.  We will not make that mistake again!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well.  The turkey was done several hours ahead of time, which is my main problem with the Traeger.  For whole birds, and actually many other things, the cooking time is simply not consistent and you end up with things cooked too early, or not ready quickly enough.

It sure looks beautiful, though!  We wrapped it well, and reheated in time for dinner.

These were the finished place cards, complete with ribbon and a sprig of pine underneath to tie in with the rest of the table.

I tried to keep it simple, yet beautiful.  Jon and I went on a goose chase earlier this week to find these chargers.  We could have gotten cheap ones from anywhere, but I didn't want to have to spray paint them, and these were beautiful.  We ended up going to a Pier 1 in Park City to get as many as we needed.  I love them, and they will work for any holiday or event. 

We had Jon's family with us, and it was a wonderful afternoon in each other's company.  We took turns saying something we were grateful for before we began eating.

Thanksgiving dinner is seriously the best meal of the year.  I made the stuffing again, but with some tweaks to make it even better, and the gravy was divine.  Tara is very talented with her rolls, and all together it was absolutely wonderful.

We all piled our plates high, and ate with gusto!

We went up to my mom and dad's house for another Thanksgiving feast, and I completely forgot to take any pictures!!!  But the food was fabulous, I love my mom's bacon turkey, and the best turkey gravy in the world.  Also the lemon pie!

On our way up, this was the sky.  Another beautiful blessing to be grateful for.

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving, spent with the best people in my life.  I am so thankful for the girls, for my family, for Jon's, and especially for him!

Thanksgiving Prep Part 2!

It's turkey brining time!!  We are going to smoke this bird in the Traeger, and it must brine.  I super duper cleaned out this big bucket we have, because it's the only one big enough for the bird, yet will fit in the refrigerator overnight!

Here is Mr. Turkey, ready to go into the brine.  Then it was time for clean up.  Which is seriously extensive and thorough.

I was so excited to go out and pick these to eat with dinner tonight.  I went and showed the girls, and they wanted to try it.  Leiden said there was weird grey stuff on it, and I saw it and thought it was just how they look underneath the florets.  Well, I started cutting it up, and there were aphids EVERYWHERE just under the florets.  THEY were the grey stuff.  It was really gross, and I feel super bad that Leiden ate them!  ICK!!!  We will have our work cut out for us next summer keeping them under control.  This was a bit of a blow, because that was it!  We have had SUCH problems with the aphids this year.  They are terrible pests.

Late tonight I was working on the pies for tomorrow's dinner with my family.  I have a delicious pie crust recipe that never fails me, and this year I made it with vodka, which helps it be even more flaky.

This guy will be our giant pumpkin pie.  Honestly as the years go on, I like pumpkin pie less and less, but it is a Thanksgiving staple!  I also whipped up a lemon meringue, which is what I'll be happy to eat tomorrow night!

Thanksgiving Prep

And now it is time to begin preparations for the real Thanksgiving day!  We will be hosting Jon's family here for Thanksgiving lunch, and then attending my mom's for dinner.  A double header is hard, but we want to see everyone!

I broke out an old tool I have that you use to hand draw the same thing multiple times and maintain consistency.  I needed to get the curve of a phrase right for our Thanksgiving place cards.

It worked like a charm!

Each place card looks like this.  They will be tied around the napkin with a ribbon.

I'm also super excited about my gold gourds!  These are the funny little birdhouse gourds from October that look like giant pears.  They are just starting to get wrinkly, but are honestly more dried out than smooshy.  I just spray painted them, and voila!  They are giant gold pears for our Thanksgiving table!

Friendsgiving

We had the awesome opportunity to go and see some of my good friends from Minnesota today!  Amber and her family moved to Utah last year sometime, and we have not been able to get together before now.  Another two great friends, Laura and Jami, also moved her in the last little bit, and we planned this Friendsgiving dinner at Amber's house!

Jon was on board, which was very sweet of him, and I was super excited to see them and honestly show Jon off!

The kids had a great time playing and there was tons of food.  Jon and I brought a fabulous stuffing and fruit salad to share, and everyone pitched in something.

The girls don't remember the Fetters very well, and Laura's and Jami's children are too young, but they got along swimmingly anyway!  Especially with mischief at the dinner table!

I convinced everyone to come together for a group couple picture, and then proceeded to look ridiculous in it!  I look like I'm singing for an old school choir, but it's what we looked like, and we got together finally!

Amber and her family moved to Heber, which is part of the reason I've not seen her since she moved, and it kind of got us thinking about moving up there.  It's a beautiful area, out of the inversion, yet still close enough to see our families on a regular basis.  We shall see!

Primary Program Rehearsal

Our ward's Primary Program is tomorrow, and as I'm the song leader, I am under the wire for these kids singing!  We met today for an early morning pajama rehearsal, and went through all the speaking parts and songs.  The primary is dwindling, and the voices aren't getting any louder, but I'm fairly confident tomorrow should go very well.  Honestly I'm more concerned about ME doing something silly or flubbing up than anything the kids could do!

There is a bit of a change coming in our Primary soon, so this will be my last event as song leader.  I mean to go out with a bang!

I completed an interesting custom order from my shop today.  A woman was throwing a "Chrismukkah" party, and wanted representative place cards for her guests.  She requested their names, and simple little hand drawn doodles for the respective holidays.  At first, I was pretty overwhelmed with the request, but soon found my stride.  I fiddled with the drawings a bit, and found which black ink was waterproof once dry so I could watercolor the designs.

They actually turned out really cool with the holly and the dreidel.  Hopefully the woman likes them!!  She was willing to pay me quite a bit for my trouble, and I want her to be satisfied.

Jon gave me a belated birthday gift today!  He got me a purse I've seen and loved on Etsy!!  I have desperately needed a new purse, and spent forever dithering about whether I should just buy another cheap one, or spend more and get real leather and finer craftsmanship.  I had kind of left it alone because the purse I liked was pretty expensive.  And then lo and behold, Jon got it for me!  It came from a seller in Poland, and they hand make each item, so it took a while longer than he had hoped.

It's beautiful and very well made.  Happy Birthday to me!

Career Day!

Gorgeous sunrise this morning as Jon went in to work.  He goes in super early, and caught this.

Then he came back down for Career Day, presenting as a scientist!  He wore his full get up, and the kids couldn't understand what he was saying, but the effect was that he had their FULL attention!

He did such a great job in both classes, telling the kids interesting things, asking good questions, and keeping their interest.  He performed a nasal swab on himself in each class, grossing them out as he exaggerated how deep the swab has to go in his nose.  He had pictures, and demonstrations, and a giant flask, and for handouts he gave them tiny capped vials, blue gloves like his, and a face mask for each kid.

Mac later said the kids LOVED his presentation, and that they all wish their step dad or dad did something cool like Jon.  I think that warmed his heart.

Today was carb night, and we decided to do it out!  We went to Olive Garden as a family and ate pasta!!  Carb nights are so fun.

Tomorrow Jon is slated to present to both Mac and Mimi's classes at school for career day.  He has worked hard to put together a fun presentation for them, and tonight was the last minute touches with cool pictures for interest.  The girls are SO excited to have him come to their school!

The younger girls get out of school on Fridays at 1:10, and Leiden not until 3, so they have a bit of time to play together with just them.  Today we had some spray cream, and they wanted to play Pie Face.  Of course the amounts of cream sprayed and whether or not it was sprayed on the game hand, or straight in their mouths had to be closely monitored!  Mimi is a wily little one!