My winter break.

Well... fall semester was beyond busy and to be honest I didn't do a very good job at checking stuff off of my list. But here are some fun things I did get to do over Christmas break...

79] make 'you are what you eat' cookies.

A couple months ago my way awesome co-worker, Carrie, shared this idea with me. I can't remember if she said it was a tradition or just a cutsie idea... but either way I really liked it and stuck it on the list. I had never made gingerbread men/ladies before but it turned out to be really fun. The icing/decorations were hard to get right 'cause think about it... what does a gingerbread man really look like? Thanks to Shrek the world now knows. Anyways... making these little friends was a great way to relax right before finals and I'm hoping the folks that got them thought they were fun. Go ahead and steal the idea, it wasn't mine in the first place. (:

40] go to the temple every week.

I did a lot of cool temple-esque stuff over break. Since I'm not planning on returning to Pocatello until I'm a Hall I made a LOT of wedding plans with my mother. Needless to say I will not be wearing her dress that Emily is so elegantly displaying here:

Heck, I didn't even know my mom had her dress around still! It was very fun driving around town with my mom and sisters checking out all sorts of stuff. Ya know... colors, cake, reception fun. But I also got to check out marriage stuff, I must say I am very excited to go to the temple.

Speaking of weddings... I also had the chance to go to two weddings in the same day! Congratulations to Shaely and Cory Thompson and Sheii and Carson Lindley on their most recent milestone. May your years be full of laughter and love.

Here is Shaely outside the Bountiful temple... what a beautiful bride! Below would be my sisters and I at Sheii's reception. I didn't get a picture with her but she looked stunning as well.

So... back to number 40, go to the temple every week. This is a picture from trip 51. The Provo temple closed over winter break so we had the chance to travel to American Fork for our last two trips of the year. I had a wonderful time, as usual, and I'm starting to get horse feet about graduating from the baptismal font.

80] whole-heartedly celebrate every legit holiday.

Unlike my fiance, the Grinch, I LOVE Christmas. The whole season with the lights and treats and pretty music is so exciting and spending it all with Todd made everything that much better. After finals we stayed and worked so we didn't actually get to family and free food until the 22nd. Since we spent a portion of the holidays in Provo we decorated Erin's little Christmas tree with a popcorn string and cute make shift ornaments. Some of the presents were for us but for the most part I wrapped my presents for my family and set them out on the kitchen table to make the apartment look a little more festive.

However, after a long and ansy day at work we got to Pocatello in good time and had all sorts of fun with my siblings doing holiday-like activities. We begin with gingerbread houses!

Todd volunteered his manly craftsman talents constructed the house.

He even added shutters and this pretty cool 4 dimensional chimney. The Santa was also one of his lovely contributions. A lot more lovely than the teasing I received for being so meticulous about everything else. ;) Here's Emily trying her hand at the cool chimney idea. It didn't work out very well.

 Marysa went to town with the icing... she ended up busting open a can of butter frosting from the pantry. Gross.

Todd probably trying to convince me to give it up already and be satisfied with the end result.

And here we have our gingerbread home... fully equipped with broccoli hedges and a "Snow Flake" award for decorations. (It's a neighborhood thing.)

69] Read A Christmas Carol.

Okay... so I didn't actually read this. Dang. But I did read some cute Christmas stories from my childhood. One of my favorites being:

 

After spending Christmas day with my family we woke up early the next morning to drive to Jerome, 119.98 miles west of Pocatello. The drive was pretty rough but we only saw one over-turned car and we got there in time to sit by Todd's family during sacrament meeting. In Jerome I had a great time relaxing. I got to read my books, watch Gilmore Girls, sleep in... it was wonderful. We even took a trip to Sun Valley that was a lot of fun.

Next to the visitor place they had a mini ice rink in the making and these cool fire guys. They came in handy since the temperature wasn't liking us very much.

We also played Bananagrams probably seventeen thousand times. It's terribly addicting. Here's Richard's Bananagram... he was pretty proud of it since he used all the letters.

The next activity... after we about died driving through Russia to get back to Provo... was this little trip to the Festival of Lights in Spanish Fork. It wasn't exactly on my list... but it shoulda been...

67] Make gingerbread waffles for Christmas.

This fun adventure didn't actually happen until the first week of school. We kept having to push it back because of other plans and such. But we finally made them and they were delicious! This would be Todd being a bacon wizard.

It's as easy as uno, dos, tres!

You will need: 

4 eggs

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup molasses  

1 cup buttermilk  

3 cups flour  

2 teaspoons ground ginger  

1 1/4 teaspoons cinnamon  

1 teaspoon ground cloves  

 3/4 teaspoon salt  

2 teaspoons baking soda  

2 teaspoons baking powder  

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted  

Whipped cream and fruit, optional 

Here's the uno, dos, tres part. ;)

 

1. With an electric mixer, beat the eggs until they're light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar, molasses, and buttermilk and mix until blended, about 1 minute more.
   
2. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, spices, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and stir until smooth. Stir in the butter.
   
3. Cover and refrigerate the batter overnight or cook immediately in a waffle iron until golden brown, 2 to 4 minutes. Serve with whipped cream and fruit, if you like. Makes 14.

 

These tasty waffles are served nicely along side some bacon, eggs, a sliced up 'mato, and a mushroom. 

Todd humoring me with a posed eating picture.

So as you can see, I really enjoy Christmas. The spirit that it brings added to the people I love and I just can't get enough of it. I hope your holidays were just as splendid!

Let 2011 begin.