We wish you a Merry Christmas!

This is a little video of our family and our friends, The Saathoffs, enjoying Christmas Eve together. (Make sure you turn off our blog music before you start the video--or you might get a music overload!) More to come as soon as I have another minute...


continued...We planned for a Mexican dinner for Christmas Eve, and we got a little carried away--the girls made homemade tamales, beans, rice, 7-layer dip, and tres leches for desert (along with peppermint candy and vanilla ice cream--and homemade chocolate sauce!),

Taylor demonstrates how to construct a tamale

First you spread out your wet corn husk...
Then you put on some masa...
And you spread it out..And shape it into a rectangle.Then you put some filling down the middle of the masa (this tamale is chicken!)...

Add a little sauce (this one has tomatillo salsa)...

And tie it up into a little package!Now they are ready to be steamed! (The ones with white string are pork; the ones with pink string are chicken) MMM, MMM!

and so it gave us a really good excuse to invite friends to share with us! They brought over some juice, a great salad and little Smokies (Taylor was ecstatic!), and also their chimes. We had dinner, and after, while the adults visited, the kids prepared the Nativity play for us.


Mary (Olivia Saathoff), Joseph (Taylor Hull) & baby Jesus (Bitty Baby)Then we played the chimes and sang carols together. After the Saathoffs headed for home (got to get in bed so Santa can come!), we opened one present each (new jammies for the whole crew!) and then played Apples to Apples.
This is a summary of our
first Christmas Eve in Rigby, ID!

It is a good day...

Taylor is taking a nap. Madi and Bethany just drove off to the Rexburg Temple to do baptisms. I have enough butter and eggs to make biscotti and the wind quit blowing. And one of our wonderful neighbors rode over on his little CAT and cleared our driveway (Bethany and I spent over an hour on it this morning and only did about half of it!)

It is a good day...

Brrrrr...

It is a warm day here in Rigby--it is only 10:30 am and it is already up to 20 degrees! I feel fortunate to live here in a balmy area of the nation--those mid-west temps recently have really helped me feel grateful for what I have here! We have decided that we would really like to have a generator (our well has only an electric pump, so if the power goes out, not only do we lose our lights and heat, but our water, too) and we would love a wood stove downstairs. Our gas fireplace works no matter whether the power is out or not, so that is a blessing!

Bethany is coming home today for Christmas break.

We have completely finished sheetrocking the room Seth is in, and we have a good start on the room Bethany will occupy. We bought our doors for the basement and brought them home during Saturday's blizzard, only to find out that we purchased the wrong ones. John just threw up his hands, laughed, and tied Taylor's new sled to the back of his truck to take her on a spin through the neighborhood. The neighborhood kids she invited to come with were not allowed to join in--their parents thought sledding when it was only 7 degrees out was a little extreme.

Today I have to figure out how to have clogging lessons around the six extra doors we haven't returned yet...

And another time today...

I just found this photo online of Bethany taken last night at the BYU Folk Dance Christmas mascarade ball. She made her dress (hand-beaded) and mask (woven with wire and beaded)

ALL BY HERSELF!

(I'm a proud mom!)

Hmmm...

A friend (Sariah) whose blog I follow pointed out a wonderful blog she came across--those of you who read this may want to look at it. It is beautiful...

http://www.aholyexperience.com/2008/12/mothers-work-model-for-true-work.html

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly...

This post may be a little long and scattered. I think I will start with yesterday. Yesterday was December 9, 2008--Taylor's 10th Birthday. Yes, one decade ago our baby was born (a 10 1/2 lb bundle of joy)! This day began with our girls arising one hour early to open birthday presents--all was grand! Except the one present that is still in the mail...oh well. Everyone went on their way, and I sat down to finish Madi's Christmas dress. Although I had to take the zipper out once and redo, I finished in pretty good time. I went over to press it and didn't realize the iron was as hot as it was. Even though I was ironing on the wrong side of the fabric, it made a shiny spot on the back of the skirt on one side of the slit (it pressed down the fibers)--the dress is red velvet. Mishap #1.

I had to run to the grocery store before Taylor got home--but I didn't leave in time so I left a note for her and the door open. I did my grocery shopping, got loaded up and on my way, stopped at the stop light and realized I forgot an important dinner ingredient. I went around the block, went back in the store, paid for the item and drove home in a hurry--I was behind schedule by now.

I was supposed to have the lights put on the Christmas tree so we could decorate it between Taylor's Birthday dinner and Mutual/Scouts. I started Taylor's cake (just a mix), put it in the oven and then proceeded to put the lights on the tree.

I finished the lights and went back to the kitchen to start dinner. I turned around just in time to see it--the lighted Christmas tree, seemingly in slow motion, crashed to the floor-- including the stand filled to the brim with water.

It took awhile for the girls and I to pick up the tree and figure out how to get it to stay upright (the trunk is too small for our stand I think). It is standing pretty sturdily now (I stuffed rocks in around it), but it is listing slightly toward the fireplace.

John came home 15 min. later. (just missed all the excitement!) Of course, dinner was not even close to being done. Taylor wanted fish and chips. It takes a LONG time to hand batter and fry fish. I put the girls in charge of starting to decorate the tree, which they couldn't do without being rude to each other. I told them that they could either decorate the tree nicely, or go clean their rooms. Things got a little better...

I finally got the fish about half done and called everyone to the table so that they wouldn't be late to where ever they were headed. Then Seth bit into his fish (a thick piece) and politely commented that it was not cooked all the way through. So I gathered all of it back up and stuck it on a cookie sheet in the oven for a while. The shrimp was good--but I didn't make it to the table until all but 4 shriveled fries were left.

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On to the cake--well, I haven't made a layer cake for many moons. You can see by the picture that it had issues. I picked up the top layer several times after I thought I had finished it to put it back on straight, but it continued to go the way of the tree. I guess I made slippery frosting. It finally crashed too. But it tasted pretty good. I'll have to say that I was happy to fall into bed. I got up this morning to clean up the aftermath.

.That was my yesterday in a nutshell. I am supposed to throw Taylor's party on Friday. I am somewhat apprehensive at this point!

On to more pleasant days--we had our first real snow on Sunday night/Monday morning. Taylor was excited. I went out jogging in it before daylight...it was silent and still, and really not that cold.

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Our side of the Tetons on Sunday, Dec. 6

Sunday we went for a drive to Mesa Falls to see it in the winter (Taylor, John and I). Afterward we listened to the Christmas devotional together (all of us).

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And we are working on our basement! Friday and Saturday, John, Seth and I put up the ceilings in the family room and 2 bedrooms. We are on our way--a little more each evening!

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Christmas memories...

We just got back from a great Thanksgiving trip to Boise! Unfortunately I forgot my camera, and so I am hoping that those who got family pictures at the "feast" will share.

Since I didn't take any new photos, I decided to scan some pictures in from the past (aka before digital) and share some of our Christmas memories.

For all of you who have been worried about the status of my Christmas spirit, I would like to let you know that it is improving, and I am hoping to be at full strength very soon. I hope you enjoy these pics of our little "elves!"

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Bethany--almost 2

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Seth--1 1/2 years

.Seth (2 1/2) and Bethany (almost 5)

.Madi--6 mos. old

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Christmas Scrapbook page 1997

.Taylor--16 days old

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A snowy daycare day with three 3 year olds!

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When we were all together all the time...

Holiday blues...

I don't know if anyone will believe it, but I do not have the holiday spirit as of yet. What I'm talking about is that really excited, warm, happy feeling that just wants to leap out of your chest--the "can't wait for Santa to come" feeling. This is very abnormal for me. I have been trying--last weekend I sewed Taylor's red velvet Christmas dress and watched Santa Claus 2 at the same time, and I have been listening to all of my favorite Christmas music for the past couple of weeks (Seth even put a new visualization on our Windows Media Player--a little snowman who dances to the music!). Nothing seems to work. I'm guessing it is because things are so different.

John is a little worried. He keeps asking me how I'm doing, if I'm excited for Christmas yet, etc.

Sigh...

I am going to get out a few more decorations today, work on Madi's dress, and order a few gifts off of Amazon.com. Maybe that will help out.

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Seth is downstairs playing "Jingle Bell Rock" on his electric guitar...

Halloween Flashback!

I need to have some Halloween closure. So here are a few pumpkin-carving photos:

We had an open house for our subdivision at our home on Halloween night. For it I made:

80 frosted sugar cookies (50 ghosts and 30 pumpkins)
90 carmel apples (with a choice of sprinkles, mini chocolate chips or chopped nuts)
100 maple bars (yes, homemade!)
spiced apple cider

Our neighbor brought ingredients for homemade rootbeer, which was soon bubbling and brewing. We put in "Hocus Pocus" for the kids downstairs, and sent bags of microwave popcorn down periodically. Although I significantly over made goodies (I invited 75+, so I just wanted to make sure there was enough!), it was a great success. A little too sweet, however. Next year I think we will do the maple bars, rootbeer, and maybe add some nachos--we are big fans of Mexican food at our house.

Today in Roberts, ID...

I was the P.E. teacher. I had P.E. with every child in Roberts who was under the age of 11 and over the age of 5. It is 5 miles from my house to Menan, and then 7 miles from Menan to Roberts. I wasn't sure I wanted to sub that far away...but I accidentally said "yes" (I have subbed for this teacher before at Midway in Menan--I didn't know she spent Mondays in Roberts) and so I instructed Taylor to leave for school at 8:00, and I left at 7:50am down highway 48 to find Roberts Elementary School. The fields were golden all around, and as I crossed the Snake River, I noticed the ruby red willow branches lining its banks. The air was crisp and the clouds were low.

"We are 2000 ft. closer to the clouds here in Rigby," John explained to the girls on the way home from church yesterday.

"Could we build a ladder high enough to touch them?" Madi asked jokingly.

"We all know what happened to the people who tried to build a tower to heaven," John replied, "but we could drive up a mountain into them if we want to."

The drive was beautiful. I wouldn't mind subbing in Roberts again. Until the snow flies, anyway.