Cookie and Nativity Fun

Last night was our annual Finnish ribbon cookie making. I'm half Finnish and this is a fun way to celebrate that heritage every Christmas. These cookies are scrumptious, but honestly how can a cookie made with 2 sticks of butter be bad??! You have to roll the cookies into long ropes and press a groove down the center before they're baked so all the tactile stuff is really fun for the kids. If you're interested I've posted the recipe here on my recipe blog.


After the cookie making which actually went quite well this year (not too much whining and screaming - just a little:)) we acted out the Christmas story with the kids for FHE. This was the first year that we attempted this by ourselves - last year we did the nativity play with the Turpins and Whipples and it was so much fun. Since there's only 5 of us everyone had to do double duties as far as the roles. I was the narrator and Herod (Adrian suggested that I be the evil king...hmm...). Adrian was a donkey (my suggestion as payback), a shepherd, and a sheep. Sophie was a wise man and an angel. Ben was Joseph and a wise man. Nina was Mary (she loved carrying the doll that was baby Jesus). We dressed everyone up with scarves and it was really very fun and absolutely memorable. I definitely think it will be a yearly tradition just like the cookies.


Is she not the cutest little Mary??!

The wise men presenting Jesus with gifts (a couple from under the tree and a cell phone :)).

Meet Lloyd

It was absolutely impossible for me to wait until Christmas to open my present this year. When that FedEx truck stopped in front of my house I was completely giddy. When I signed the weird electronic thing for the package I had a huge grin on my face and the FedEx guy must have thought I was a bit loopy... But here's my present:

Meet Lloyd Dobler my new i-Pod!! Yay!! My old i-pod, Mr. Bingley, (a red Nano) couldn't hold all my music and audio-books anymore and so Adrian got me an i-Pod Classic and even had it engraved, just like he did my last one. My Nano has "You Rock My World XOXOXOX" on it and this one has a inside joke engraved on the back (that I will not disclose). I've given it the name Lloyd Dobler of course for one of my favorite romantic movie characters and also because Lloyd has pretty amazing taste in music in Say Anything so I thought it was fitting. Who can erase this image from their mind after seeing that movie??


Oh "In Your Eyes" is such a great song... It's going on the "Music I like" playlist. Definitely.

And having 2 i-Pods in the family now is great because Adrian can take my old one to work with him. He has renamed it Samwise Gamgee refusing to leave it as Mr. Bingley. It was pretty funny when Adrian took it into work for the first time. Adrian works in a very secured environment shall we say and all electronic devices brought into his building have to be checked out by a security specialist and they put a sticker on the device to show that it has been cleared. The security specialist asked Adrian if he minded where the sticker was placed "because some people have these things engraved and don't want to cover it up..." Then he turned it over and read the "You Rock My World XOXOXO" and started laughing. Adrian quickly said that he had given it to his wife a couple of years ago for Valentines day. The security guy then said, "Well I guess it's okay as long as you rock your wife's world too."!!! Adrian was very embarrassed and the security guy had a good laugh about it.

I've been having all sorts of fun adding new playlists to my i-pod and have been listening to it pretty much non-stop since it arrived. I found in a memory box from my backpaking trip to Europe 13 years ago the lists of songs from the mixed tapes I took. It has made me so happy to put together my "Europe" playlist and remember all the amazing adventures I had while listening to those songs! I-Pods are cool!! Big thanks to my sweetheart for giving me the best Christmas present. You do rock my world Adrian!!:)

I Am a Cold One

Hee hee. No, Edward didn't tract me down in the night and turn me into a vampire (dang it), but man oh freaking man am I cold... Well, not now because I'm inside and have once again probably broken our budget by bumping up the heat insanely, but when I was just out running some errands the cold nearly took my breath away and my eyes started tearing up like I was crying. The people in Target must have thought I was very depressed because it really did look like I was crying and when I saw myself in the glass of the windows before going inside the store I had the distinct look of pain on my face. Yes, I am a complete and total wimp. Freezing temperatures are very difficult for me and I think my years away from the Rockies have turned me into a marshmallow. Ben and Nina were all bundled up and loved it. I have weird children. Nina kept pointing to all the snow and ice smiling and saying " Snow!! Snow!!" I am glad she has the right attitude for Colorado weather. And Ben keeps begging me to go out and build a snow man with him. Nope, not today... I am a bad mommy. I am voluntarily sequestering myself inside for the rest of the day and making cookies to give to our neighbors for Christmas. And yes, I am wearing my poofy stuck-inside sweater just to remind me how very necessary it is for me to stay out of public view and thereby keep myself out of the freezing freaking cold. (I say "freak" a lot during cold spells. Sorry.)

Oh, and just to tell you a little bit more about how cold it's been (-15 last night and probably -20 tonight) because negative temperatures don't seem so bad in your warm house right? Nope they're still bad, the pipes in our bathroom froze over night. Froze. We have a warantee and everything and our builder's plumber came out this morning and fixed it. And of course we are now in the process of getting the insulation and framing of that wall looked at to keep this from happening again... But. Wow. That's serious below zero cold. On our way to church yesterday when our car's thermometer said it was 1 degree outside Adrian said the cold and the non-thawing snow over the streets reminded him of Siberia. (His mission.) Siberia! Crazy, eh?! The streets are better today, but it's suppose to stay cold all week. Eventually I will get used to the cold and toughen up, but right now I am planning on a lot of time indoors and an expensive heating bill.

Our Night in Bethlehem

On Friday night we went to the neatest ward Christmas party. It was a "Night in Bethlehem" themed party and we all dressed in Bethlehemish garb. Most people wore bath robes and towels/scarves on their heads (like us), but there were also a large number of Romans in togas. It was awesome. Nina refused to wear anything on her head so we decided she would be an angel and we got her to wear a white dress. Before going into the "market place" (i.e. cultural hall where the a Bethlehem market was staged) we were taxed or donated 5 cans of food for our family to a local food bank and given a bag of "gold" or gold spray painted rocks. Then with the gold you went around the market place and bought dinner from different vendors. It was so neat and the food was delicious! I can't believe all the preparation that must have gone into this party - wow! We brought a blanket to sit on in the middle of the cultural hall and the kids loved the picnic aspect of the dinner. After dinner there were also cute crafts for the kids to make. The evening ended with a lovely nativity program. It was a fun night. At this ward party we felt like we knew more people and it's great to feel like we are finding our place in the ward... We realize it's still going to take a while to get to know everyone - man our ward is huge!!

Random Thoughts on a Wintery Day

Today I feel like I'm sitting in a little house in the middle of a snow-globe; it's been snowing fluffy flakes all day. I really love looking out on the snow, its beautiful and I feel very cozy staying indoors with the heater turned up. I might even make some cookies or something just to complete the comfy snowy day feeling. I took some pictures as a sort of random thoughts photo montage:
This is my snowy-day-stuck-inside sweater. I believe I've had this sweater since 9th or 10th grade and it makes me feel so cozy whenever I wear it, but its got that big and poofy early 90's sweater style so I don't wear it in public very often (so not flattering:)).

Ben and Nina have been playing together so nicely today, thankfully. When Sophie gets home from school I might bundle them all up and send them out to the backyard for some snowy fun.

Tinker Bell is on every day in our house lately and today is no exception. It's kind of cute, but over and over... Not so cute. Honestly, I really have no ground to stand on when I get annoyed with my kids watching the same show over and over. I used to torture my family with persistent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory viewing and I'm still that way with a certain movie now.... I guess it might be genetic or karma.:)

This is the horrible stocking situation. We used to not have a fireplace so the stockings were under the tree where you really don't notice them... But now the sad one-of-these-things-is-not-like-the-other stocking on the right is very visible. Poor Nina... This is why I tried to find her a new stocking during our Utah trip. I'm probably going to have to make her one myself. We'll see if my sewing abilities are up to the task.

Art History Pic for December

I haven't done an art history pic in a while, so inspired by the Christmas season I thought I would choose a religious painting by my favorite Southern Baroque painter, Caravaggio.

Conversion on the Way to Damascus, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (nice name!!), c.1601

Caravaggio himself was quite an interesting figure. His works were full of faith and many focused on salvation through Jesus Christ, but his personal life was... well a mess. A notice published about him during his time in Rome read, "after a fortnight's work he will swagger about for a month or two with a sword at his side and a servant following him, from one ball-court to the next, ever ready to engage in a fight or an argument, so that it is most awkward to get along with him." But really that wasn't the half of it, he reportedly beat a man to death during a fight after a tennis match. Whoa, hu?! It so interesting to me that a man so obviously full of rage could paint works so touching and sensitive. Honestly, maybe that's why I find Caravaggio so intriguing much like I find Norman Rockwell intriguing. Rockwell himself had a very sad personal life, but his paintings are full of joy and warmth. Dichotomies like that are very interesting to me. But in getting back to this painting, I first saw it in my Southern Baroque art history class at BYU (taught by my favorite art history professor, Dr. Bule) and was completely struck by it. It displays with incredible drama and emotion the moment of Paul's conversion - his hands are flung up and he is having a personal and life changing moment that no one else in the painting is aware of. I love Caravaggio's amazing use of light and shadow and though this was a staple of Baroque painting, in my opinion no other artist pulled it off like this masterful painter. Hope it strikes you too.

Turkey Days

We spent Thanksgiving with our families in Utah and had a lovely time. We also celebrated a lot of birthdays on Jenni's side of the family so the week and weekend was full of fun times. This was the first Thanksgiving in 6 years that we've been able to share with extended family. It is so nice to live closer to everyone! I thought I'd just jot down some favorite things from our trip:

• The drive to Utah was fantastic - the kids were great, the roads were clear, and Adrian and I got to listen to my i-Pod (head phone splitters are the best) the whole way whilst the kids played Nintendo and watched kid movies.
  

• I got to see Twilight twice on the trip - once with all the girls on my side of the family to celebrate Kaitlyn's birthday and the other time dragging Adrian again (thanks Babe!) while my folks watched our kids. Yes, my obsession continues...
  

• The Thanksgiving feast at my folks was super delicious and so so fun to spend time chatting with my family. I couldn't stop eating the deviled eggs and man all the desserts were fantastic!!

• My sister in law Dore's COOKIES!! (I need not say more.)
  

• Lunch at Francine's (Adrian's sister) on Friday was great! We got to eat yummy sandwiches, catch up on everyone's happenings, and the kids even got to do crafts that Francine, with amazing foresight, provided to keep the kids happy. She also has a great swing on her tree that kept all the little cousins very content.

• Sophie and Ben's sleep over with their cousin Jon - Sophie and Jon are really close in age and have always gotten along so well. It really is a tragedy that they don't get to see each other more. But it was so adorable to see them all talking and playing Wii into the wee hours and having a blast. Cousins are so fun.
  

• Shopping at Quilted Bear with my mom, grandma, and sisters. I didn't find the stocking for Nina that I was hoping for, but I got a great freezer meal cookbook and had such fun with the gals.

• Staying with Lori and Dave and getting to know my cute nephew Zach better. They were oh so generous to let us stay with them and we LOVE the Alta room!! (My sister's guest room is devoted to Alta ski resort and decked out with very cute ski decor!)

• Bowling with my whole family to celebrate Ben's birthday early. It was awesome to bowl with everyone and especially to watch how excited all the kids were. And hey I got a Turkey (3 strikes in a row for the bowling illiterate like me)! Of course that was with the gutter guards up.:)

• Ben opening the huge nerf gun that my sister Julie and her family gave him. He seriously was in spasms of joy exclaiming "I've ALWAYS wanted a GUN!!"
  

• Okay so the drive home was not fantastic (drifting snow and ice in Wyoming) but we made it home safe and sound so I'd say that is just cause for it being a favorite thing too. Nice driving Adrian!