Christmas day.

Christmas came and went way too fast. We woke up around 9 (not too early, not too late) and opened all our presents. I had the greatest present waiting for me by my stocking. A Christmas Kitty! and she looks just like splat. I wanted to name her Splat but since she is a girl I named her Coco. After presents we made a Breakfast Feast with cinnamon buns and crepes. Later that Afternoon we went to see Narnia. It was so good my favorite one out of the bunch. Then we came home and just lounged around. We made a little Christmas Ham for dinner then drove around to look at all the Christmas Lights. We finished the night off by watching meet me in St. Louis! and I did the same Christmas puzzle I did last year. I love the puzzles. It was a great Christmas we missed our families and hope to be able to spend next year with them. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We spent the afternoon in Idaho Falls stuffing ourselves with the most delicious burger's and onion rings in the world at the Snake Bite. Then spent sometime walking it off looking at the shops in the downtown. We later attempted to make homemade pizza and we are usually very good at it, but it wasn't working for us. The dough just wouldn't rise and I can't figure out why. Luckily Albertson's was open and we were able to grab a frozen cheese pizza, and we just added our own toppings. Pomegrante 7-UP is amazing you must try it!
We opened our Christmas Eve presents, David got me some J.Crew Pj's I have been wanting and I LOVE them! We read the Christmas Story, and watched Disney's A Christmas Carol and it was kind of scary.

On another note my Cat that I've had since I was little had to be put to sleep on Christmas Eve. It was sad but she was really sick, so it was for the better. I will miss her very much she was the greatest Cat there ever was and I can't wait to see her again. I love you Buddy Cat!

A crazy chinese night

Dear David,

I really enjoyed our exremely fun date night to celebrate our 3rd anniversary of when you proposed. I don't think I have ever laughed so hard. I don't know how long we will continue to celebrate this probably forever. Is it weird that we celebrate this day everyear? I'm not sure, but this year was really fun. Thank you for taking me to the new Chinese restaurant in town. I loved it even if the rice was soggy. I especially loved DQ after. What says celebration more then DQ? Thank you for asking me to be your wife, I've loved every minute of it!

Black Friday

The day after Thanksgiving we met up with David's siblings to go shopping in Idaho Falls. I found a banana suite at DownEast that Ella so willingly tried on. It was great to see Brittany, Eric, and their babies! We hardly get to see them.

picture for Grandma

Pumpkin Tarts

These are delicious and so easy!

Basic Pie Crust (martha)
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons coarse salt
2 1/4 sticks cold unsalted butter (cut into 3/4 inch pieces)
7 tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed

1. Combine dry ingredients. Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor to combine

2. Cut in Butter. Add butter and pulse until coarse crumbs form, about 10 seconds.

3. Add water. Start with 7 tablespoons and add up to 2 if necessary. One at a time. Pulse until dough just holds together when pinched.

4. Shape and chill dough. Turn out dough onto a clean work surface. Knead once or twice to incorporate loose bits. Divide in half. Pat each half into a thick disk. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.

I made the filling from a Libby's can. I know that's lame but I'm not that good yet.

Roll out dough and cut into small circles. Form circles into a mini muffin tin and fill with Libby's Pumpkin filling. Bake for 20 minutes.

Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tablespoon confectioners sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1. Whip ingredients together until soft peaks form.

We have a cool whip cream can that shoots co2 into the cream to make it fluffy but I'm pretty sure you could the same result by hand.



Top tarts with Whipped Cream and Cinnamon.
Enjoy!

Sushi

I always thought I wouldn't like sushi however I was wrong. We made it with friends the other night and it was delicious. I loved it so much that we had it again later that week. We also played Harry Potter Clue and I wish I had taken some pictures. I can't wait for the second half of Harry Potter to come out, the first one was good and I know there is more coming but it left me feeling very unsatisfied.

It's never too late to Advent

I wanted to do something to count down to Christmas but didn't have time to think of a cute idea. So I stole this entire idea from this lady. If you don't read her blog you should she is very inspiring. Mine was 100% free. I looked up vintage Christmas wrap like she suggests. Sized them all to 5x5, printed, and cut out. Me and David thought of all the Christmas activities we wanted to do before Christmas, wrote them on little pieces of paper, scrambled them up, and put them in their individual envelopes. One for reach day. We open one every morning before leaving for school. It's perfect and it makes the living room look that much more festive. It's been so fun having a Christmas activity to do every night after a long day before school. And it makes it possible for us to do all the festivities we wanted to do.

Some of our ideas include:
-Watch a Charlie Brown Christmas
-Go caroling with friends
-Make a snowman
-Read the Christmas Story
-Bake cookies

25 days of Christmas

December 1st.
The Christmas Season is officially here! Time for
Snowman shaped marshmallows and hot chocolate.
Christmas Music
Lights
Gingerbread houses
Christmas Decorations
Night time walks in the snow
and lot's of cookies.
Happy Holidays!