More Miscellany

 Here are some random tidbits from the past few weeks...

Landon is officially taller than my mom...by a lot!

I found this note stuck to the side of a kitchen cabinet while we were decorating for Christmas.

A kid from school delivered Dove chocolates to the office staff, which was very nice.

Whitney decided to bake a cake and get creative with some chocolate chips and peanut butter for frosting...it didn't go so well. I figure she used $10 worth of ingredients, had a huge mess to clean up and then didn't even eat the cake! I may need to send her to Michelle's house for lessons.

We rarely see Adam and his family anymore since they're so busy, but we had a fun 30 minute lunch recently.

One of Whitney's hilarious vignettes.

My dad shocked me by agreeing to coach Landon's basketball team's practice one Saturday when the coach couldn't make it. He knows all things basketball so he impressed the boys and had them playing better by the end of practice, Landon said he wishes my dad was their full-time coach.

 

Whitney is obsessed with the band One Direction, particularly Harry. This is her school binder decorated to document the love.

Is it just me or is it kind of ridiculous to watch someone hold up an iPad to take video at a concert?

Keep It Together Man

Why am I always in a frenzy the night before Christmas vacation? Surely I could have gotten the teacher gifts ready before now? I bought them several days ago, but left the wrapping and tagging until now. Plus normal life just keeps piling up. Keep it together man!

Update: I kept it together. I got all my gifts wrapped and given, made it through a super crazy school day even though I had a headache, went to Whitney's last Christmas Sing as an Elementary Student, took dinner to a woman I visit teach, and did two Boards of Review for Scouts! Fortunately the camp breakfast meeting we were supposed to have Thursday morning was moved until Saturday so I have a two-day reprieve. Phew!

Book Club Christmas Gathering

Our December book club gathering is always our best gathering of the year because of our book exchange, gift giving, and tasty dinner. (Do me a favor and comment on this post okay?)

Collette had the table all set up when we arrived.

Collette made a wonderful roast, Jana made a good spinach salad with pears, Amy made perfectly cooked, ginormous baked potatoes, I brought rolls from Shirley's bakery (I had to come straight from Whitney's band concert so they gave me an easy assignment), Michelle made a fantastic artichoke dip appetizer baked on bread, and Jenn made an amazing dessert (featured below).

We sat around the table for a long time hearing about Jenn's recent trip to Greece and Amy's recent trip to Hawaii, but my pictures are crappy so you'll just have to imagine what we looked like. We eventually moved into the comfy family room for more talking until it was time for the book exchange.

Collette gave me this book that I'm pretty excited about.

I gave her this book which was one of my favorite from this year.

Amy gave this one to Jana (pleasing cover no?).

Jana gave this to Michelle.

Jenn gave to Amy.

Michelle gave to Jenn (this is another favorite of mine from this year).

Here is the amazing dessert (recipe below) Jenn made, it is sugar cookie crust with raspberry pie filling. I'm not usually a fan of gooey fruit filling but this combination was amazingly good.

Collette gave us all a pair of these darling jammie pants and our favorite Cadbury Eggs.

 Jenn looked like Santa as she unloaded the bounty o' gifts she brought.

She gave us packets of cider and hot chocolate with spoons covered in her glorious homemade caramel!

She also gave us each one of the world's softest blankets ever! She had to go to 4 stores (TJ Maxx) to find enough of them, this is the one she gave me. I cannot properly describe the softness of this blanket except to say that "the cozy" will never be the same again.

We all agree that book club Christmas gift giving is better than anything else we ever receive!

I really struggled with a gift idea for this year but ended up finding a couple really cute cloches at TJ Maxx last Saturday while out shopping with Lori. We ended up driving all over to visit 2 Home Goods stores and 2 TJ Maxx stores to find more but didn't succeed. I ended up finding 3 cloches of a different style at Hobby Lobby. I ended up putting a Clementine in them just so they weren't empty.

This is the stash of happiness I brought home with me. Michelle made us huge trays of fudge, Amy brought us shortbread cookies from Hawaii, Jana gave us a few of her favorite things (Hemp lotion, kick butt muffins, lip gloss, and laundry soap), so it was quite the variety of goodness.

Super Yummy Raspberry Cheesecake Bars

Ingredients
1 pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
1/2 cup firm butter
2 packages (8 oz each) softened cream cheese
1/2 cup white sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 can (21 oz) Wilderness Premium Raspberry Pie Filling*


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bottom and sides of 13x9 inch pan with cooking spray.

2. Pour sugar cookie mix in a big bowl. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly and coarse. Set aside 1 1/2 cups of mix for later (topping) and press the remaining crumbs in the bottom of the 13x9 pan.

Bake for 10 minutes; do not overbake.

3. Put cream cheese, sugar, flour, vanilla, and egg in a large bowl. Beat together with an electric mixer (medium speed) until smooth.

4. Spread cream cheese mix evenly over crust. Spoon raspberry pie filling over the cream cheese; spread evenly. Take remaining 1 1/2 cups of unbaked crumbs and sprinkle over the top.

5. Bake 35-40 minutes or until crumbs on top are lightly golden brown. Cool 30 minutes, refrigerate about 2 hours to chill.

6. Cut into bars. Store covered in fridge. Makes 24 bars.

* Can easily substitute cherry or strawberry fillings.

12 on the 12th--December

{click to enlarge}

1. My "day" started as I pulled into the driveway from our late-night bookclub gathering (that was wayyyy past my bedtime).
2. I joined Landon during his early morning hang-out time while I cooled down before putting on my makeup.
3. Family scripture reading.
4. My peanut butter and dorito sandwich at work.
5. Whitney had N.O.V.A graduation (which I didn't know about until it was already happening) and got 3 awards!
6. My mom had gone to the school to check Whitney out an hour early so she got to be there for the graduation too.
7. I went to Wal-Mart for a few things.
8. Driving to Michelle's house.
9. I went with Michelle to drop Eva at a friend's house, it was just good to hang out and talk for awhile.
10. I watched "Survivor" with Randy.
11. Whitney writing a thank you note to my mom.
12. Landon doing homework on the computer.

Thanksgiving 2012

This was the first Thanksgiving in years that I wasn't assigned to make a pie. I was happy at first because my assignment to bring some other dessert was easy, but that ended up meaning I didn't eat any pie (I don't like pumpkin or banana cream).

We took a self-portrait before leaving the house.

Lori made a fun, mix-cd so we were rocking out in the car.

Two of my mom's aunts were there this year, Berniece (the little one) is 98 and Inez is 92 (my dad also made a rare appearance).

Roll perfection.

My cousin's daughter made cute place settings for everyone and sat Randy and I by her parents, so we were very pleased with the arrangement.

The spread!

We had a pretty good-size crowd but were still missing a bunch, it's nice that whoever can make it is welcome.

My plate of goodness.

Landon played catch outside with my cousin's 9 year old son and was impressed with his knowledge of all things football (which is really saying something because Landon isn't easily impressed).

Lori made these festive cupcakes for the kids; but they all ate the top part and left the cake.

Our kids weren't going to participate in the talent show this year, but my aunt asked Whitney to be the M.C.. Here Whitney is saying, "Welcome to the talent show!".

Whitney also ended up sharing her drawing talent by taking some requests and then drawing them. The first one was a dog catching a football, the next one was a cat sitting in a chair knitting.

After the Thanksgiving festivities my mom, dad, Lori, and our family went to the movies to see "The Life of Pi". It's a shame I don't have a picture of us because Lori had accidentally bought tickets for the 3D version! We all hate 3D so we weren't keen on this, my dad told her she is out of the will! We all liked the movie and the 3D didn't end up being too awful (the previews were nightmarish though).

We then moved the party to my parents' new house where we finally acknowledged Randy and Whitney's birthdays (from October!).

We also played a lame game of Qwirkle (I'm terrible at it) while watching a Michael Jackson special (which was quite good).

But still, I had no pie!!!

Odds and Ends

Apparently I don't blog with much regularity anymore, is there such a thing as blog fiber (comments perhaps)? Here I am again with another miscellaneous post.

A couple weeks ago I was informed by a kind driver,  who followed me,that I had a flat tire (this was just as I was returning the the junior high to take Whitney to band). I tried to change the tire myself but couldn't even get the plastic plate that covers the lugnuts off! I called Randy to come help me, but before he got there a nice man came over to help me. He did the entire thing (which wasn't easy) and then went on his way. We were so grateful! We ended up having to go buy 2 new rear tires ($306!) and a gift card to 5 Guys for the man (who had told me he was the set designer for a play being held at the school). This is what I wrote on the gift card, which I gave to some woman involved with the play who seemed to know I was talking about when I asked her if she knew "the set guy".

The next day was Friday and I woke up with clogged ears and dizziness (what the?!). I tried to get ready for work but gave up after 45 minutes and called in sick. Michelle had already planned to bring me lunch at work, so she just brought it to my house instead...delightful!

She also returned a couple books and loaned me two new ones, plus brought some tiny truffles and a "J" stamp for me and a "W" stamp for Wendy (since she originally planned on giving me these things at work). So nice.

Last Tuesday, just before leaving work for the Thanksgiving break (yeeha) a mom came in the office to give Wendy and I each a loaf of Pumpkin Bread from Kneaders! It was such a thoughtful thing to do it brought tears to my eyes.

Whitney and I went to D.I. where I scored these 5 books for $5 and Whitney scored two dinosaur toys and a snake toy for $1.75.

I loved having a cute tag at the ready when we were rushing to get out the door to a wedding reception, hooray Creative Friday success!

The kids have gone teenager on me and both have earbuds in very often!

Landon listened to music for the 2.5 hours he spent raking leaves!

Whitney's latest creation.