Remembering November...

It's been quite some time since my last blog entry...I didn't have a good start...but I'll change, I promise! I'll do better ;) Let's go back, shall we? I'll give a few high-lights of the last couple months...

1 - My sister Corrie came into town!!! She came for a weekend away from the stresses of school, and her slight bit of CLAUSTROPHOBIA she started to have from living in Rexburg ;) haha No, she loves it there! But a weekend with her sister was much needed (or at least I thought so;) She's the best...good lookin' too!...inside and out <3

The first thing we did was go get some gelato at this cute new place called Bellisimo! It was DeLiSH...hazel nut was my favorite, corrie liked the passion fruit :) All I know is that I'm one of those people who, when making a decision at an ice-cream parlor or at an expensive restaurant, I have the hardest time picking...I mean, it may be my last! And I want it to be the best!!! haha I'm hopeless.

Then we came home to my sweet Adam and we had fun making popcorn in our popcorn popper (love the thing!) and just talking...with a little bit of dancing :)...Adam was so sweet to practice some dance steps with Corrie (she's taking a ballroom dance class up at BYUI) I loved watching them :) The next day I cooked up a little surprise for Corrie...oh yea! I forgot to mention it was her birthday the next tuesday...so we had to celebrate while she was with us! I made one of her favorites, banana pancakes...mmmmm! She got the red plate that said, "You are special today!"even though I think she's special everyday ;)

Then it was GAME TIME!!! The Kjars were so sweet to give us BYU football tickets! :) It was a blast! The whether was perfect!...a little cold at first, but Adam warmed me up...

We went with Adam's Luke (brother-in-law) and Becca (his wife:) and Ben (bro-in-law) and Lacol (his girl friend at the time...now FIANCE!) and it was so much fun!!! Football games are a blast! I'll admit I still have trouble with understanding all the calls, it'll be a life time of learning the science-of-football for me... And actually, I think I love watching the fans more!! haha They're the entertainment I tell ya ;) Corrie and I sure had fun with our spirited cheeks!...I <3>

Later that night, we pushed the couches together to make this sweet make-shift bed, and we put a DVD on the laptop...Kung Fu Panda!! It was so fun to be snuggled in between my sister and my hubby :) And the movie was hilarious!!! We were all laughing...the best memories

2 - Thanksgiving snuck up on us, as every holiday does :) We were both looking forward to it though!!! We both worked the Wednesday before, and headed to the Kjar's cabin that night...and from then on it was non-stop fun!! (literally...Mamma Kjar and Mandy (sister-in-law) did such a great job of planning! There was always things available to do, yet no pressure, the perfect family vacation...and it was the best being all together... When we got there everyone was making ornaments for the tree. They were the neatest things! It was a special type of paper that you colored on (with special colored pencils, of course), you put it on a cookie sheet and then into the oven...and within minutes it shrunk to about a sixth of the original size, and it was hard like a little stained-glass window :)

The next morning, Thanksgiving Day, we went out on our quest for the PeRfECt ChrIsTmAs TreE!!!! We thought about hiking out ourselves...but thought twice about it...THIS is what we had as our mode of transportation: Mwahahahaha! ;D

After we found our perfect tree, and Adam found a skull (an animal one, don't worry;), we headed back to the cabin for some dinner preparations. One of which was the cutest dinner-favor Katie brought...we made these adorable, EDIBLE turkeys...yum! (these 2 are of Adam and I, two love birds;)

The rest of the prep was smooth-sailing too...it was all planned out ahead of time, with people getting assignments for different parts of the meal...everyone contributed to a b-e-a-utiful feast! My favorite part, by far, was the STUFFING!!! who's with me??? :) Katie (sister-in-law) made the most delicious stuffing I've ever had! (this might sound wierd, but I'm more of a StoveTop girl than a home-made stuffing type...but hers was WAY OVER THE stoveTOP! =)

It was great to stuff ourselves to the brim with all the wonderful food...just about over-flowing actually! And it's always so nice to hear everyone's "I'm grateful for..." I'm sure most families have that tradition...but it meant even a little extra more to me this year because I was missing my family (this was my first Thanksgiving away from my sweet family) and we do it every year. I'm just so grateful for Kjars...they've welcomed me into the family so SO well...they accepted me...and I love getting to know each one of them better...they're amazing people.

We all kinda chilled for a little bit...talked and played a couple games...then it was the EggNog tasting contest!!! I love eggnog. And this contest is sweet!...in more ways than one ;) They'd buy a few different kinds of eggnog, and one person (Papa Kjar usually) would pour each kind into it's own cup with a number on it. Then we'd all taste the different kinds of eggnog. And let me just say...NOT ALL EGGNOGS ARE CREATED EQUAL!!! haha There are definitely some doozies our there...ex. Soy-Nog. But when you find a good one...such as Southern Comfort-Vanilla Spice OR Meadow Gold-Pumpkin Spice, you've got a winner for sure. (Southern Comfort Original is pretty swell too). Here are a couple pics of the endeavor...

The next day was picture time!!! It was the last time the whole family would be together for Thanksgiving for a few years...Sharla (sisiter-in-law) is planning to leave and serve a mission next spring, and Danner (brother-in-law) will leave to serve his mission just before she gets back... So this was most definitely a time to be treasured... Below is a picture I took while the photographer was shooting (oops, I guess I wasn't supposed to do that;) Don't they make one FINE lookin' family?!

After the group shots, I played with my adorable nieces :) Sassy little Gracie put on the puppet show, while Emma (left) and Kalia (right) watched and laughed!

The photographer was great and even got some fun outdoor shots too! I got some with my camera as well, of course ;)

Later we made some gingerbread trains!!! Everyone was so So SO creative!

Here's our train (the smoke stack got a little droopy;)...I loved our ice-skaters on the frozen pond!

And here is Emma with her sweet Grandma...and the awesome gingerbread creations: we had a candy-train, the snow-cat, a "pretty in pink" train, an airport, and even Santa on his sleigh and reindeer, including Rudolph!!

That night, the women went out for a little girl's night out :) It was a blast! We went to this awesome gift shop called Rainbow Gardens...super festive, with lots of Christmas things, as well as a variety of fun cards, home decor, and funny little gifts. We really started laughing, and didn't stop the whole night, when Sharla found this calender with pictures of "Extreme Ironing" (no joke, it was men ironing their clothing while doing extreme sports) and she insisted she had to have it! It was hilarious to hear her read the captions!...she's the best I tell ya! At as we left the shop we took a couple quick photos...nothing too embarrasing ;) hahahahaha We decided to take a picture holding hands around the ginormous Christmas tree in the middle of the store, like the Who's in Whoville...and it turned out picture-perfect ;D

Back at the cabin, we strung popcorn and cranberries :) my first time!!...but not my last (you'll see pictures of our tree at home later:) After working with men all day (I'm a secretary at a compressed natural gas car shop) it is SO GREAT to just sit down, do a little craft, and talk to some women! Especially the Kjar women :)

It was a Thanksgiving to remember.