"Christmas is all around me, c'mon and let it snow..."

I love Christmas, especially THIS year! I was in New Zealand for Christmas last year, so I was stoked for this Christmas. The food, the sights, smells, time with family and friends, and the reason for the season, Jesus' birth. We had Christmas Wednesday night because the sibs were at their in-laws for Christmas this year. So we opened gifts and then had our traditional fondue dinner. We go all out and have not only cheese fondue but beef, chicken and shrimp (this we dip/cook in olive oil)! Chad and Bryan always see who has the most shrimp tails left after dinner. They ate themselves sick. Jack, Haylee and Mitch got a ton of toys and it took about 2 hours to open all of our gifts. Our family has now doubled in size, 10 people, so the gifts were abundant! On Christmas day Mom, Dad and I drove to Spokane to spend it with the LaVines (Chad's parents). We had a great time and awesome Christmas!!

Grandma Johnson with her 3 grand kids!

Jolly little elf sitting in his bumbo.

All the presents before the unwrapping fest of 2009.
We couldn't fit all of them under the tree.

My little Buddy.

Katie all peaceful in the mayhem of gift opening.

Dad's attitude towards opening presents. :)

Haylee's first Christmas. She knows how to get it done.

My present from Bryan and Katie. I had no idea what they got for me...

This is a picture I drew of my face in an art class at Whitworth my freshman year. The assignment was to draw a picture with pastels of our face, using shapes. Katie and Bry found it downstairs at Thanksgiving (I put it there years ago and forgot about it) and had it custom framed for me. I was totally surprised!

Haylee was a little overwhelmed.

Jack playing with his Lincoln Logs I got him. The first of MANY toys he received.

Some of the aftermath...

My new North Face ski jacket. The first jacket I've gotten since high school, 10th grade.

So my mom thought she was getting Chad camouflage pj's. She didn't realize they were actual deer print. Chad called them his " Mighty Stag Pants." So funny. Mom got Bryan fish pants, in his words "I caught you a delicious bass" pants. We had quite the laugh!!

The 3 cousins again.

Cutie Mitch.

Kim and Haylee at LaVines.

Jack riding Brad the "reindeer."

A Festivus of Friends!

Last weekend was a very busy weekend, the last weekend before Christmas! I feel like this month has just flown! I wanted to get some festive activities in before Christmas. By doing so, I baked Christmas goodies, as seen in the previous post. I also went ice skating with Mica, Friday night in Moses Lake. It was a fun and interesting experience, to say the least. It was us and about 13 middle school/high school kids. They were all gangster pretty much. We made the most of it and laughed our way around the rink. Thank goodness Mica was with me! We always have a good time. I then left early Saturday morning for Spokane to stay with my other friend/college roommate Shanon and her hubby Kyle. We went downtown and ate at the Olive Garden (YUM) and then went to the Davenport to look at gingerbread houses and Christmas trees. It felt like old times again and I wish more of our Whitworth/Ephrata friends could have been around to share it with us. Thanks for letting me stay with you Shanon and Kyle. It was a great weekend!

Mica caught me tightening my skates.

Look at that form! Top that Sasha Cohen.

Mica bustin' a move.

The "skate guard" was nice enough to take our pic.

Picture by the big tree at the Davenport Hotel.
Shanon and I.

Merry Christmas to everyone and Happy New Year!

Christmas Goodies Day #1

Today Mom and I worked pretty much all day in the kitchen (I had to leave for a dentist appointment. No cavities!!! YEAH!) baking Christmas treats. We made Chex party mix, peanut butter balls and white chocolate covered pretzels. There's still more to be done, but we got lots accomplished. Dad put up the Christmas lights outside as well. Better late than never. We've had our indoor decor up for weeks, so I included some of those as well. One week until Christmas!!!

The white chocolate bark melting!

"When I dip, you dip, we dip"....actually it was me doing the dipping of the pretzels in the white chocolate. Check out the sweet apron!

Peanut butter balls.

The finished pretzels.

We use the porch as our "outdoor cooler." It does the job well.

Homemade chex party mix courtesy of Mom.

Some inside decorations.

Front of the house.

I love Christmas!

The Lion Sleeps Toniiiiiiiiiight!

About a month ago Mom, Kim, Kim's mother-in-law Carol, and I went to The Broadway musical, The Lion King. Let me tell you it was a sight for the eyes, and the ears. Mom treated all of us to the show, a night the Red Lion Hotel (go figure) and Carol treated us to dinner. Kim and I felt very spoiled. It was such a great time to get away for a weekend with the girls. I had never seen the musical of The Lion King before, but the soundtrack is one of my favorites out of all the Disney movies. I was literally in aw with a huge grin on my face the entire time. My jaw was sore afterward, I even sang along to a couple of tunes. The costumes were just spectacular and all the animals were played by people. It was so bright and colorful, I got goosebumps more than once. In the program I read that a lot of African culture influenced the costumes, dance, music etc. Plus one of the composers of the newly added songs was from South Africa (I traveled there Jan Term 2008). So it was cool how that related into it. Since we couldn't take any pictures of the actual show (due to copyright laws) here is the The Lion King in a nutshell via Youtube. I"m not sure why the video is SO BIG, sorry about that.

Me, Mom, Carol and Kim eating dinner at the hotel restaurant. I ordered salmon that was served on a plank of wood. The wood was still burning even.

Mom pulled out her camera at intermission. Right after one of the ushers yelled at a group of girls behind us, threatening to send them to jail for taking pictures. It's illegal we found out. Of course for my mom, there are no rules!

Sisters....sisters....

Resemblence maybe?

Thanks Fest '09

Yes, I'm a little behind on some of the bloggage. So I decided to post not one, but, wait for it....TWO posts. Thanksgiving and Halloween.

My parents hosted 20 family members at our house for Thanksgiving this year. Cousins, 2nd cousins, cousin-in-laws, aunts, grandmas, you name it. It was a full house with lots of energy. I missed Thanksgiving last year because I was in New Zealand, so I ate enough to make up for the last two years. Oh, and leftover turkey sandwiches too. It was great to be with family again. There are many things to be thankful for this year, I hope you had a blessed holiday:)

Babies are cute. But half-naked babies are even cuter. They love to be naked, I don't know what it is! Here is Haylee and Mitch. Cousins. Mitch is 3 months younger than Haylee, yet Mitch is bigger. By a few pounds. They were so cute and wiggly!

This was our entertainment Wednesday evening. The cameras and camcorders came out and we were smitten!

The annual turkey carver.

Nice spread.

The Family.

All of the 2nd cousins. I love Haylee falling over.

Dad and Chad cleaning up the kitchen.

Haylee: The marshmallow starfish.

Katie, Bryan and Mitch.
Little fam, lots of hair :)

Mitch has the biggest, most kissable cheeks!

More cheeks!

And he's out.