50 years

Today is my parent's 50th wedding anniversary! What an amazing accomplisment and journey for two people to have. I was able to talk to my parents for a while today and hear about their celebration plans...dinner, treats, and a movie at home. It was nothing too extravagant, but it was the perfect date night for them. Hopefully when Covid becomes a bit more tame, we will be able to gather as a family and do something to celebrate together. For now, happy 50th mom and dad...we love you!

Back in the day

Beth sent me this picture the other day when we were talking and it really made me happy. I love this picture. I know it is us, but it feels like a different lifetime ago. I'm so happy she is not only my sister, but also one of my best friends! We go a long way back...all the way back! 

Toonces

The other day something came up in seminary (don't worry, it was after the lesson) and it reminded me of Toonces the Driving Cat from SNL in the 90s. I couldn't get the little theme song out of my head and had to look it up and watch a skit...or two! I hadn't thought about Toonces in years, but was happy to be reminded. Good ol' Toonces!

Something for another year...

I saw this picture and thought it was the most beautiful little gingerbread house. I'm not going to get to anything like this during this season, but this is definitely one to keep for another year. Be on the look out...

Pictures of Andrew

I always love when Andrew's mission posts pictures and he is in them...they make me so happy!

 

Christmas baking extravaganza

I was initially going to bake over 2 days, but got into the groove and decided to finish it all up. I was pretty tired, but was glad I did it once I was done. My anise drops tasted great, but I tried a new method and didn't love how they turned out, so I am going to bake another batch on Christmas Eve, but other than that, I'm all done and we will have treats all the way through New Year's Eve!

 

Shhhh

Normally I wouldn't post pictures of Christmas gifts before Christmas, but it's the 23rd and I figure noone in my family is going to read this before they see them in real life. These are the family ornaments for this year. 

Hopefully it is obvious that they are a partidge and a pear from the pear tree. I have more to make, but at least these are done. Any guess as to what I'll be making as ornaments for the next 11 years??

Finishing an old craft

I started this craft years ago and came across it this year as I was looking through some holiday stuff and decided to finish it. I still need to put it onto a pillow, but the actual craft is done. I love how it turned out and am so glad I decided this was the year. I bought this with Holly, Jonna, and Tammy when they were out for my birthday 7 years ago! I sent them a picture too! It took a very long time to come back to this one, but I can finally check it off of my craft to do list - ha ha!

Sunday roast

YUM!

 

The sky was all purple

The sky was all purple, there were people runnin' everywhere...those were the lyrics running through my mind when I looked outside and saw the lavender skies the other night. They look a little more pink in the pictures, but they were definitely purple in person. Beautiful.

Neighbor gifts

I decided to make iced shortbread cookies for neighbor gifts this year. It's a bit of a process, but worth the time. Here they are baked, piped and flooded...

Then came the next piping and placing the pearls. Greg came and helped me with the pearls. His fingers were too big to place them, so he used tweezers! It was a little bit of a labor of love. 

Once enough were decorated to take around, Ava decorated the rest for us.

She did a great job!

We put them in tins and delivered them to our neighbors. It's always fun to share some love (and treats) at the holidays!

The birds

It is a little hard to see just how many birds are in these pictures, but it was CRAZY! The wind was whipping and all of the sudden I heard a super loud flock of canadian geese. I went outside and there were hundreds of geese circling around. I don't know if they knew where they were going, or what was happening, but it was quite a sight to see - and hear. So, so wild!

Special treats and Big Time Rush

Wednesday was a good day around here! Dominique Ansel's started shipping cronuts on a limited basis and I got an order of them along with some kouign amanns. Be still my beating heart!

That is a beautiful sight!

That same night, we drove the kids to Chicago to go to the Big Time Rush concert. They only did 2 shows and I tried for 6 months to get resale tickets and finally got them just 3 days earlier. The kids were very excited! 

Ready for the concert!

We ate our kouign amanns on the way to Chicago and they were perfect!

We dropped the kids off at the concert and then went out for a little date night sushi.

I read about this place because the sushi was supposed to be not only delicious, but also beautiful...and it was! 

Look at that dragon!

This was the restaurant...good to save for future reference.

The kids sent us these pictures from the concert. It is a really awesome theater, so that makes it even more fun to be there. 

They loved the concert and we love that they loved it! 

 

We had a late night driving back, but we had cronuts along the way. So, so delicious...what a perfect ending to a really fun day!

Snuggle Puppy

A weekend in Carmel

Greg and I drove to Carmel on Friday night and went to the Christkindlemarket...it was rainy earlier in the day, but it cleared up and we got the most perfect, warm, December night to walk around the market. 

We headed out to dinner and then went over to Lindsay's house and met friends for a birthday celebration for Greg. We had picked up Long's Donuts and Handel's ice cream, so we had great treats to share with the best of friends! 

The next day, we went to the temple and spent about four hours there. Then we met friends again for lunch. The kids drove in on Saturday afternoon and we all met up for the Carmel Show Choir Christmas Spectacular! 

It really was spectacular! They really know how to put on a show!!

After the show, we went out for a late, late night dinner with a huge group of friends again! Zach ran into Christian while we were there too, so it was really fun to see him again as well. 

The next morning we got up and went to church in our old ward. It was so wonderful to see everyone and catch up. We really love it there. 

We went back to the Sanchezes after church, had a nice meal and then headed home. It was a great trip and we were very grateful to get to spend some quality time with such wonderful friends!