Ward Christmas Party

 

Last night was the ward Christmas party. Of course Santa came, and I took pictures of the kids with him. (Well, being me, I ended up taking pictures of all of the kids with Santa. After editing and tidying up, I still had over 160 pictures, lol). They were adorable, of course.

The picture with Sabrina's head on my knee was while I was photographing. I was sitting on the floor and she finally came and curled up by me. She's such a sweet little kitten!

I also got a video of all the 3 and 4 year olds singing "Once there was a snowman" and all the primary kids singing "Jingle Bells" before Santa came. Let me find my link...

A few Christmas ornaments of note...

Christmas Decorating

 

 

 

 

Here are a few pictures from a couple of weeks ago when we decorated the Christmas Tree. I will add more in a bit...

Gingerbread Houses

 

Again this year we hosted the annual Jarbh Graham Cracker House Convention. (Meaning that the saturday after Thanksgiving we get together and make "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers and decorate them with candy stuff.) So we had about 30 people over and served lunch and everything. My mom (while she was over helping prepare for the event) commented that it was as much work as Thanksgiving itself. That may be a bit of a stretch, but it made me feel better about being so exhausted, LOL.

I love our house since we were able to have everyone seated around tables over hard-surface (i.e.: moppable) floors all together. I didnt' actually make a house this year, but I spent the time taking pictures. I included a few here mostly of my little family, but I did get pictures of pretty much everyone with their houses.

Bless their hearts, several people stayed until everything was wiped, swept, and put away. So now I have a fantastically clean house! Tomorrow I'm planning to put up the Christmas decorations, so I'm glad to have things ready. I can't believe it's Christmas time already!

Happy Thanksgiving

 

This morning the girls woke me up by bringing me breakfast in bed again. This time is was a very reasonable cup of yogurt and an apple :) We went to visit the Southern family while they were eating dinner (our scheduling got a little confused, so we decided to visit then even though we wouldn't be eating with them). Grandma Southern was proud to show off her new baby kitten named Chloe Nutmeg. She seems like a wonderful baby cat with a perfect kid-friendly temperment.

The Jensen family big dinner was hosted this year at Dave and Carol's house. They had a couple of friends from China there too (actually I think one was from Taiwan, though I might be wrong). Dinner was delicious. Naturally I took lots of pictures :) Baby Madison is growing up so fast! It was a great day to see so many people I am thankful for.

I could list all the things I'm thankful for, but I bet you can guess them all :P I am so greatly blessed by the Lord. I am feeling reasonably well these days (knock on wood, lol) and I am surrounded by so many fantastic people. I have been truly blessed.

Grump

No, I don't know why my background is freaking out so much. I'm working on fixing it right now...

Drool....

[Random old picture: My sister Michelle's birthday when I was probably about 11 or 12. Joe is also in the picture.]

Recently I got a chance to go to Jamba Juice for a smoothie. I LOVE their smoothies and haven't had one for ages. Lucky me, they currently have their "Pumpkin Smash" holiday smoothie. >angelic choir sings< Well, I can't just get Jambas every day. BUT, I found a recipe and I made one today. It is super yummy :D

1 cup soy milk
1/2 cup pumpkin pie mix (not just pumpkin -- make sure you've got your spices!)
2 cups vanilla frozen yogurt
1 cup ice

Blend together and enjoy!

I am pretty sure the Jamba version didn't actually include any ice, and maybe I'll try it without next time. Lizzie was adamently opposed to pumpkin so I got some frozen strawberries and made hers with strawberries instead of pumpkin. It was delicious too. Of course the Sabrina wanted some strawberry too, so Lizzie at S's pumpkin smoothie for her. Naturally Lizzie loved them both, little punk ;)