Guess What I Got????!!!

Ahh! I'm about to die of excitement!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

December 24th: Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve! I hope everything is going well with all of you this Christmas. Our family is also very excited- Cashew and Pistachio have the exact amount of hours left figured out (almost to the minute!). The funny thing is that we aren't allowed to leave our rooms until 7:00 am Christmas Morning, so they're very forlorn. We're playing Christmas Music, wrapping last minute presents, and waiting anxiously for the rest of the extended family to come over so that we can gobble up the danish pastries waiting on the counter. They are definitely my favorite Christmas tradition. :)

But through all the hustle and bustle of family, food, happiness, activities, and Santa Claus, the true spirit of Christmas shines through: The innocent baby born in a lonely manger in Bethlehem so many years ago.

The wealthy and prominent were not there to celebrate his birth; the humble shepherds from the nearby hillsides, watching over their flocks, were told instead. The king made no speech to commemorate his birth, instead, concourses of angels sang. This little baby, so innocent and meek, would someday redeem all the world from everlasting torment. This was the son of God.

I love the saying "Wise Men still seek Him." It is true. Christ is the spirit of Christmas and the true reason for this wonderful time of the year. He is what makes it wonderful. I hope all of you have a wonderful, Christ-Centered Christmas this year!

December 23rd: 2 days 'till Christmas!

Does it seem like Christmas time to you? I don't know about me! Because of my school district's dumb decision to not let us out 'till yesterday, I don't know if I've had time to get into the Christmas spirit!

Luckily, All of my shopping is done and packed under the tree, so I'll have time to just sit downstairs, watching the lights on the tree glow. There's nothing else in the world that I love more than the magical feeling I get while sitting in front of a lighted Christmas Tree in a darkened room. It's lovely.

Merry Christmas everybody!

Love,

On the 6th Day of Christmas, My True Love Came to Me. . .

I am THRILLED. Today my Dad, Pistachio, Cashew, and Corn Nut went to the auction and brought back a little surprise. . .

I saw this as I was walking down the lane after being dropped off by the bus.

Introducing. . . .

Jack.

The new love of my life.

I don't know if I'll ever be able to go to school again. It would be traitorous to leave him like that. So I won't.

I'll just stay with him forever. Because, I believe it's worth it. I don't think anything but a tiny, australian shepherd/ border collie/ mutt could be cuter than him. The thing is that he is a tiny australian shepherd/ border collie/ mutt. So nothing could be cuter.

Enchanted and under a very powerful spell,

We Gave Thanks

Our Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful. Because we didn't have any plans for what we were doing, we decided to go down to Utah and crash my aunt and uncle's party. This turned out great for us. . . you're gonna have to ask them what they thought of our family's massive food consumption abilities. :)

The day before Thanksgiving we drove the long 41/2 hours down to Provo, UT. For some reason, driving seems to always be a little less pleasant when you have five energetic kids packed into the car.

Luckily, we survived.

And boy am I glad we did. Here are some of the events during our Thanksgiving weekend:

First: The actual, long awaited for, much anticipated, bite-your-nails event-

Carving the turkey. Looking back at this even makes me hungry. Having not eaten anything since breakfast has nothing to do with it, I promise.

See? They were hungry, too.

As soon as the prayer was finished, a line arose out of the dust of Thanksgivings past. Fortunately, it didn't take very long to get through seeing as people were grabbing plates and such secretly during the prayer. :)

Who wouldn't want to be in a line that led to such ambrosia? Vegetable trays, cranberry salad, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, deviled eggs, ham, olives, cranberry sauce, and of course, the turkey.

Soon all that could be heard was satisfied grunting at all of the tables.

Afterwards, we raked a gigantic pile of leaves and dumped it off of the terrace in the back yard.

The little boys jumped off the terrace into the leaf pile.

It was deep. And big.

Then yesterday, after packing up to leave, we set off to the Bean Science Museum in Provo. Within was this darling animal nativity.

Let me just say that no matter where you have Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving in itself is a holiday to be thankful for.

Holding On

Highlights of My Week

While my mother Almond Joy's been in Japan with my dad, Chestnut and I have been staying in at our grandparent's house. Here are just a few of the fun things we've done this week:

Drove down to Maddox's in Brigham City, Utah for a bite to eat.

Carved Pumpkins

And made caramel popcorn (recipe later this week) along with a bunch of other "spooky" snacks and partied Halloween away in at a neighbors.

Fun week!

Pumpkin Carving

Who knew that so many years could pass between the rare pumpkin carvings at our house?

Luckily, this is one of the good and fruitful years when it comes to the way of pumpkin art.

The night before Halloween, we brought in our pumpkins and were ready to begin. . .

Needed: 1 pumpkin,

1 sharp knife,

1 permanent marker,

1 spoon,

1 dose of creativity

Luckily, we were ready in all departments and started drawing faces on our chosen vegetables.

This was grandpa's.

This was Chestnut's

And this was mine. Sort of a dracula with not much going on upstairs.

Scoop out the slimy interior, scraping the edges with a slotted spoon, then carve in and hollow out your chosen face.

Here are our results:

Chestnut's masterpiece creation.

Grandpa's Goofy Man,

And last but not least, mine.

Pretty good, huh?

Sabotage!

It was a dark and stormy night on the west coast of Scotland. . . .

But this is irrelevant to our present story, which takes place nowhere near the west coast of Scotland.

But it was a dark and stormy night a few weeks ago. . .

When an armed and dangerous baseball bat-carrier snuck up on the one thing that we love most in the world, but never use.

Our poor, ever suffering mailbox.

~Requiem~

Our Mailbox

2009-2009

It will be dearly missed.

Ever Tried Plum Crisp?

I bet you haven't.

I mean, Pear and Apple crisps, sure- but Plum?

. . . You bet.

And boy it is good. Try this out and I'm sure you won't get disappointed. A few weeks ago I was looking for something to make with our excess of over-ripe plums and I found this recipe on Tasty Kitchen.

Wonderful Plum Crumble:

- 12 Whole Plums

- 2 cups Quick Oatmeal

- 1/4 cups Sugar

- 1/4 cups Brown Sugar

- 1 stick Butter or Margarine

- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F.

Pit and quarter plums. (If the plums are large, you may only need eight of them- ours were small, so we just cut them in half.)

Butter a shallow baking dish (I used a pie pan.) Add plums.

Mix oatmeal, sugars, cinnamon, and butter until butter is incorporated (two forks or a pastry blender work well.) Cover plums with this mixture.

Bake until plums are soft and topping is lightly browned, about 25-35 minutes.

It comes out looking wonderful. Check out that texture.

Take it out, . . .

Scoop. . . .

And enjoy! (With vanilla ice cream if possible.)