Christmas in Arizona

This year we went to Phoenix for Christmas! It was my first Christmas in a warm climate, and it was a little weird. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that it was, in fact, December, but we had so much fun I didn't spent too much time thinking about that.

Some of the highlights included: going to The Nutcracker, me getting some quality time with Santa (or his floating head, anyway),

Kristin getting into a minor fenderbender (most would consider this a lowlight, but I got to meet Immanuel because of it which was just lovely), Kristin and me finding the perfect gift for Lon (from Ginny, of course),

Going caroling on Christmas night,

Church outside in the Christmas sun, staying at cousin Erin's house, and going to Walgreens with Ang. ;)

The trip was awesome, and I was so happy we had the chance to go! Thanks to Ginny, John, Erin, and Pat for being such wonderful hosts to all of us!

All I Want for Christmas Is...

Dear Santa,

This year, all I want for Christmas is a new butt.

Or a pair of jeans that fit the nonexistent one I seem to have.

I have never been very picky about the fit of jeans. I would just go to the store, search forever to find the right color of jeans, buy them based on color, and head home a happy girl. But over the past few years I have lost a bit of weight. I still have a ways to go, but I've lost 75% of the weight I want to lose. I'm wearing smaller sizes in everything, but I'm down 5 full sizes in pants. Which is great. The problem is that I have lost more from my butt than I have from my waist. So now, when I shop for jeans it's not just looking for the right color but for the right fit for a butt that isn't big enough for my waist, I guess.

Regular women's jeans in my new size all have the woefully unattractive saggy butt. I tried juniors, but hello, they are all ultra low rise these days which does nothing for an almost 32-year-old woman with a stomach that needs to catch up in the weight-loss race . I tried men's jeans, and while the butt fits great, the legs are way too wide.

So now I'm on the hunt for the perfect jeans. Or a new butt. Or a smaller waist that is proportionate to my butt.

Is that too much to ask, Santa?

Sincerely,

Me.

Happy Halloween!

This year was a pretty low-key Halloween for us. I went in to Kristin's classroom on Friday to help out with "pumpkin math" and brought the kids some cupcake treats...

Sunday we carved pumpkins which was a lot of fun. This was only my second year carving, so I stayed with a simple design. I used a stencil, but Kristin just dug in...

I thought the final products were awesome...

And of course we had to take the annual "Ellie with the pumpkins" photo (and yes, that is a rose still blooming on the rose bush!)...

Sunday night the doorbell started ringing around 5:30 and over the next 2 1/2 hours we got around 200 little ghouls and goblins. I love that this neighborhood has so many kids!

And now we head into November where we're sure to see our first snowfall and the fun of shoveling and bundling up begins!

Mother's Day

Tonight we were at Target and Kristin, being the procrastinator she is, decided now would be a good time to get a Mother's Day card. Now, I'm all about Mother's Day. If there is a day for middle children and a day for dads and a day for everyone else in between, there should be a day for mothers. If nothing else it provides a good reminder to say "hey, mom, sorry I was such an idiot as a child"...right?

For some reason, as Kristin was looking at the cards, I just thought about how silly it is for throngs of people (the photo doesn't do the crowd justice) to be crowded around and reaching over each other to find a card that says just the right thing.

A woman picked up one card, read it, and was all weepy. Then then a guy picked up the same card, read it, muttered "lame," and put it back. Wouldn't it be better to just pick up the phone or write your own note?

Anyway, happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there...and for those of you who have mothers still roaming around this big round planet, pick up the phone, write a note, or go see your mother. Forget the card. Then again, I sent a card to my mom AND grandma earlier in the week...so who am I to talk?

Halloween

This year for Halloween Ellie was a pumpkin.

We had a couple of friends over and decorated cookies.

Kristin loved decorating the cookies.

Happy Halloween from Ellie! :)

Happy Middle Child Day!

With all the excitement of a new puppy I forgot to say

Happy Middle Child Day!

I blogged about this day last year...talking about how not one person had stopped to tell me that it was MY day. I got the same treatment this year, but hey, there's a new puppy in the house...it's all good. :)

Popcorn Trains

So when I was little we would make these things called popcorn trains. I don't remember making them every year, but I know whenever we did it was good times all around - popping the popcorn, forming the trains, getting the frosting ready, and, the best part, getting the candy opened and poured into bowls.  Within minutes all of us would be hunched over our box car or train, trying to get it to look just right.  There was never a shortage of candy chomping, laughter, or "oh crap!" going around.  

Making popcorn trains is one of my favorite holiday memories, so every Christmas I think about it and consider making one.  I've never done it because I never knew what we'd do with it, but this year I told Kristin she should make them with her 3rd graders. She agreed, but only if I would come in and run a "station" (no pun intended) at her holiday party on Friday. They have 4 stations where 6 kids come for 20 minutes and do an activity. So my station will be making the engine car of a popcorn train. 

I pulled out the recipe a few weeks ago and have been mulling over how this is going to work. This weekend I went out and bought a bunch of stuff to try - the key is going to be ease since there will only be 1 of me and 24 of them (in groups of 6, but still!).

So this morning I made a 3-car train. I had limited candy resources (because I only wanted to use what I was going to have there for the kids to use) and tested out a new frosting (in a can instead of the homemade stuff). I'm still not sure if the canned frosting is going to work. I really need a frosting that is going to set up and get hard in a short amount of time (like before the kids have to take them and run out to their buses)...and I'm not thinking the canned frosting is going to work for that. If it doesn't I'll be going to a candy store to buy a ton of decorating bags and tips and spending all Friday morning making frosting (we're going to be making a ton of train cars Thursday night if anyone is interested in helping :)).

Anyway, the final product is below. It's not done very well (I totally blame the canned frosting), but what can I say - I did the best I could with what I had this morning :)

Haul Out the Holly

I like to try to get the Christmas decorations up shortly after Thanksgiving. I've been a little slow this year, but today I finally got to it and started setting things up. Kristin cleaned out the tree corner (there were stacks of books she needs to take to school) and even helped unpack a few nativities.

A short explanation of the nativities - once when I was like 12 I saw a news story about a woman who had like 300 nativity sets. I decided I wanted to have more than her and so the collection started. Seems like every year I get another one. I'm not such a huge collector anymore (realized they take a lot of time to set up, a lot of time to take down, and a ton of room to store), but I still get a set from people occasionally when they see a great one or travel to some far off land and score me a really cool one.

I'm not sure how many I have anymore - most of them are still stored at my parents' house in Utah, but I had a few (5) here that I brought when I moved and my mom knew someone who was coming out this fall and sent an additional 12 in their U-haul. So now we have 17 nativities set up in our living room. Kristin says it's her own personal hell, but I think it's festive.


The tree (Bianca) is patiently waiting to be unpacked and decorated and then I need to get the mess of boxes and bins and other stuff packed away so that in 3 weeks I can get it all out again to pack up everything for another 11 months. I love the holidays.


And now some pictures for your enjoyment (or so you can sympathize with Kristin):

When I first unpacked this one Mary was missing. It came with two guys who looked similar and I wasn't sure which was Joseph and which was the shepard...so we decided this could be our gay-friendly nativity. I did find Mary later...but I kind of like this one just the way it is.

The one on the left is from Mexico, the one in the middle is a candle holder, and the one on the right is one I received from my sister, Cassi (and also one of my favorites!).

I don't remember where this one came from, but it's snowmen.

The one on the left is from a friend, Lisa. She got it for me in Israel (thanks, Lisa!). The one on the right plays Silent Night and is indeed the one that can be heard in the infamous "Danette Dancing" video which is probably still floating around out there somewhere.

I received this one from my parents - it's from The Music Box Company.

The top set is a bunch of bears. Under that is a tea set - the sheep are the cups, Mary is the tea pot, Joseph is the cream, and the camel is the sugar. Weird, I know.

The top set was also given to me by my sister. It's another favorite of mine and Kristin's very favorite. It's called "S'mores Nativity." You can't see it very well, but the people are made of "marshmallows" sitting on "chocolate" and a "graham cracker." Super cute although everyone seems to think it's sacrilege. Under that is another tea set. I think was obsessed with those when I was 15.

On the top left is a Willow Tree set. Another favorite, and a gift from my parents. On the right is a white ceramic set I got as a hand-me-down from my grandma. On the bottom left is a small Precious Moments globe. In the middle is a cute set I got from my friend, Michelle, and on the left is a patchwork set I think I got from my parents (?).

PS - Going to take better pictures of these later...something to look forward to, right? :)