REAL Christmas, not GHETTO Christmas

Compare my Parents tree to our Dollar Tree version. I was very glad to be home to a real Christmas. Christmas just isn't the same traditional thing without the Family & all that accompanies it.

We arrived in STG Christmas Eve day and got to see B and her darling babe! It was so fun to be able to see her and meet her little man finally. I really miss seeing my friends.
Christmas Eve Feast.
Traditional Christmas Eve Sugar Cookie Contest. Look for the worst cookies on there, those are mine. The artistic/patient/skilled gene totally passed me over.
Traditional chains to break through on Christmas Morning.
My mom got a bike and a basket. Now she can further her green ambitions by using her beach cruiser to make Relief Society delieveries.
Dan got a knife, obviously. His big gift already on his wrist, a Suunto watch! Besides telling time it has a baramoter, altimeter, compass, gives STORM WARNINGS and makes almond roha too! Just kidding about the Almond Roca, I wish.
Watching my sisters open their "teenager gifts" of trendy jeans and jewelry made me feel old. But thats okay, I love my new bakeware and cookbooks! Le Cruset rocks my world more than MEK jeans ever could.
What do you give the man who has everything. A Shaun of the Dead doll obviously. Dad loved it.
Speaking of my Dad, he went to get a pre-Christmas Hair cut at his usual Great Clips (He always balks at me and my Sister's "Fancy Cat Hair Cutting Salon" and the more than $4 it costs to get a haircut there). He asked the girl working there for an 8 on top and a 2 on the sides. Next thing he knows she says "Uh oh." Yeah, she buzzed the top of his head with a 2. But no worries, he'll still go back. They comped him the botched hair cut, and gave him three "sorry" cards, good for a discount hair cut. Perhaps he will learn you get what you pay for. But probably not.

Is that creepy thing wearing a Sombrero?

We Made it to Utah! We were on I-80 for 645 miles as highlighted below. ! I thought 1-80 ended at Tooele, I was so so wrong.

Me: I'm really thirsty, can we stop and get a drink?

Dan: Nope, don't need to. Pass up my camelback.

Me: Wait, you brought a filled camelback and you were going to leave my big christmas present because there wasn't room?

Dan: Yes
Dan drinking away from his water source. We barely made it through the 13 and half hour drive. I went stir crazy around Elko, and started poking Dan w/ a straw. He got angry "That I was bothering him!" And we didn't talk to each other for half an hour. We are 5 years old.

Dan defied the Eternal Laws of Christmas by opening a present early. But it was for a good cause: So his brother Chris could see the look of delight on his face as he opened...

Thats right, an X-Box! Thanks Chris, now I get to hear Modern Warfare going on in our living room... At least Dan is happy, make that THRILLED. Speaking of the x-box, Dan has been so busy playing it, he is neglecting his "DAN'S MUNCHY MOMENTS". So I'll have to fill in.

This beauty is the Hi Hat Diner. We pass it every time we come to Clinton, and always joke about going there. Today we made the joke reality.
How can you not want to go in a place with a scary Mexican doll holding a sign next to a siren? They really pushed that "WORLD'S FIRST CHILI VERDE OMELET" thing by the way.

This place had WINDOW TROLLS! How can it not be good?

A hand written menu w/ drawings? Yet another sign of the deliciousness to come! And here is the "WORLD"S FIRST CHILI VERDE OMELET." Both Dan and Aaron got one after the owner and waitress talked them up.

I was a bit wary of the Chili Verde, and stuck with good old pancakes.

But you'll notice in this picture of Aaron and Stacie my not so sneaky hand reaching into Dan's omelet. They were surprisingly good. In fact, everything was surprisingly good. It's like the pearl of wisdom Aaron's Grandfather gave to them on their wedding day: "Never have expectations, and you'll never be disappointed." So true.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Next Stop: STG. Huzzah!

Christmas in the Ghetto

The day after Thanksgiving we braved black friday for the first time. And Christmas came early for us! We're now "TV rich" (it was the next step after "couch rich", Dan is sure that "X-box rich" is the future. I think not). We are now the proud owners of this:

There was a certain victory in getting the very last one out of a giant pile. I felt victorious, like a Best Buy shopping champion. Next it was time to decorate our apartment for Christmas. But, being that we bought the above mentioned TV, this year will live on in history as "Our Dollar Store Christmas".

"Classy" Dollar store stockings with our names Ironed On. Ghetto. Awesome.

Beat up Artificial tree purchased at Wal-mart circa my Freshman year of college. All trimmings courtesy of Dollar Tree (which incidentally is located next to Red's Donuts in the ghetto.)

We did splurge and each got an expensive Donut ornament. We thought it fitting to commemorate this year.

These are actually from Target, not Dollar tree, but I love them. I sit and watch my fake snowflakes twinkle in the window while feeling grateful Im not Utah watching actual ones.

Today being Sunday, I finally had a day off to get back to baking. I made Peppermint Brownies. Its like Christmas in your mouth. Thankfully we will soon be in St. George at my parent's house, where Christmas is actually classy.

Let us be thankful for the most glorious of food groups: Carbs

We started out Thanksgiving Day bright and early (7 am) with some Football. The ward Turkey Bowl to be precise, very serious, very competitive. Haha.

It was a beautiful day. I jogged around the track, burned approximately 1 bite of pecan pie off, and took pictures.

Yeah! Dan has the ball. It was fun to see Dan's Young Men (he's the Priest Advisor) and all the Military guys playing. The best guy on the field: Not the Navy Seal, or the big tongan - a 5 foot hispanic soccer player kicked everyone's trash. Then, it was time to cook and get to our friends' house!
Dan and his fabulous appetizers, including his world famous Triscut Pizzas.
I was most proud of my Pies. Never mind that the chocolate cream didn't set up and was runnier than soup.
A close up of my contributions. Notice a trend? Sugar and Carbs. My loves in life.
Dan was stoked that our wonderful hosts had an X-box.
This little guy is so much fun. We love playing with him!
He was getting hungry and ate tons of Dan's appetizers. That boy can eat!
All this food for 4 people. A pie a person. Yeah, not good for waistline.
This was my first year having Thanksgiving not in St. George, and more importantly, not being cooked by my fabulous mother. I discovered many things about myself in the quest to cook Thanksgiving, one being: I eat nothing but carbs. I also learned that cream pies can not set up and go horribly wrong - even if you've spent an hour hand crafting chocolate garnishing curls to go on top. Also, if you forget your rolls are still in the fridge an hour before, and decide to put them in a 200 degree oven to speed up rise time, it will kill the yeast and your rolls will be hard as rocks. Yeah for self discovery. I have many a thanksgiving ahead, lets hope the learning curve is steep.

I hate that I love it...

Twilight that is. I will openly say to anyone how the Twilight Series is "poorly written school girls' daydreams that create a false ideal of what true love is." But I can't help it, I've read all those poorly written daydreams, and anxiously await all the movies. So we saw it yesterday: New Moon. I chose this picture because I can hear my mom's commentary of the movie in my head: "Those boys need to pull their pants up!" Haha, so classic of my mom.

I was so happy to be seeing a good movie (after the Wild Things debacle, don't see it). I am in love Jacob's body. And all of Edward. Its sad.

So, in trying to be fiscally conservative, we decided to go across the street and buy some treats from a little grocer instead of the over priced theater offerings. However, Dan didn't notice these chocolates were $7 a pound, and I didn't notice he had filled a pound and half of candy in his bag. Here he is holding his $12 candy! Way to save money, should've gone for the $4 milk duds...

Ah, Reds. Another thing I hate how much I love: donuts. I can't say no to them. So (nearly every ) Saturday morning Dan and I go to this marvelous joint.

They are delicious.

Clearly we go first thing in the morning, before make-up and/or hair brushing.

But thats okay, cause Red's draws a pretty rough crowd. Its in the hispanic district of town, and we are generally the only native English speakers there. Dan loves his nasty coconut covered mutations. Chocolate is the only way to go.

Some weeks were adventurous and recruit some friends, get our donuts to go...

And eat them at the beach! Have a Happy Thanksgiving. A holiday of gluttony. My kinda thing.

Sew? Just say "NO!"

Last year for Halloween, Dan and I threw together a vampire costume last minute for the ward Halloween party. We were not well received and I vowed this would never happen again. So starting roughly October 1st this year, I began discussing our costume options w/ Dan and we settled on Alice & Wonderland. However, when I tried to find costumes online, I found this:

Since when did Alice start stripping on the weekends? I was under the impression that she came from a wealthy family (she did have her own tutor) and didn't need to dance at Little Darlings for extra cash. After finding this out, and being completely high at the time (not really), I thought "I can sew my own costume!" Except, I can't sew.

This was the final product after countless youtube videos on how to sew gathers, multiple meltdowns, one suicide attempt, and a lot of Diet coke. Just don't get close enough to inspect the seams.

Dan was the Cheshire cat, and it should be noted he sewed his own ears. I was too unstable after my costume to do much work on his.

This year we were well received in our ward - even though our trunk was decorated rather shoddily for the trunk or treating.

Our main competitors in the couple coordinated costume division: Calvin & Hobbes.

On Halloween Eve, we celebrated Oktoberfest/Pumpkin Fest with Leana & Mark. It was awesome and here we are with our pumpkins. Mine is a bit bigger than everyone elses'. Just a little bit. Take Home Message: Just buy your costume, don't under any circumstances make your own. It is better to be Slutty, than to sew.