Crafting Continued

Last night I went to my ward’s craft night. It was a little more low key and less extravagant that Diane’s, but it was still fun. I did two crafts. The first one we made these little Christmas trees made out of lights and tinsel garland. They look pretty good and were very easy to make, we just used wire coat hangers and the frame. Then I made cookies in a jar. That’s the one where you put all the dry ingredients of chocolate chip cookies in a glass jar with a nice bow, and then instructions on how to bake the cookies. Another easy one that still looked good.

I’d like to say I was crafty enough to say I made my advent tree, but I’m not that good. I won’t even pretend to be. I’ll have to clear off all the decorations tonight to start the count down tomorrow!

Winter

It has gotten so cold here lately. We’ve got lots of snow, and it definitely feels like winter. At least we had a pretty descent fall, and the sun in shining on my computer right now, so it does make it look nice and 'shimmery' outside. Hopefully our little car will continue to keep running and starting. It’s probably time to plug it in though.

More Christmas decorations in our front hall.

Getting ready for December

Finally I’ve got some holiday pictures up.


We got our tree on Thursday, (from Canadian Tire - which is becoming our favorite store) and set it up Saturday morning putting up the lights and angel. (Tangent: we put on the cartoon version of the Grinch, and after it ended the tape kept playing. Apparently after the show there is another mini-movie about some elephant and a dust ball full of 'Whos'. Anyone heard of it? Well I only caught part of it, and it really seemed like this writer/director was on crack, but anywho….). Saturday night I put all the ornaments up, which took forever since I had to tie the strings on each ornament before hanging it. But I think we’re pretty happy with the results.

The Weigh-In

Last night I had some people over for Thanksgiving. Between the 12 of us only 2 were duel citizens, so we made up one American citizen; which we found reason enough to celebrate. Prior to our dinner we had confidential weigh-ins, and after all was done, a weigh-out. All you had to disclose was your difference in weight. Chris, I think won with a gain of 5 pounds. I gained 4.2 pounds after eating the main course, and then another 0.5 after dessert. However, once I went to the bathroom (only #1) I lost that 0.5 of a pound. But by the time I weighed myself again this morning, I was back to normal.

As for the meal, it was delicious. I accidentally bought a stuffed turkey. The turkey was great, but the stuffing was only alright. We also had mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potatoes, more stuffing, mom’s broccoli/grape/cauliflower salad (me), homemade buns (me), cranberry sauce, and punch. We also had pumpkin, 2 apple, and harvest fruit pies with ice cream. They were store bought and brought by friends, but they were very tasty! All in all, everything went well, and everyone was happy to celebrate with the Americans.

Advent Follow-Up

Thanks for the suggestions. We ended up buying this cute one we saw at Canadian Tire. It's a stuffed felt like tree with different coloured and shaped buttons all over it. Then there are little wooden decorations with numbers on them that you hang on each button. It looks great. I really need to get organized with my pictures, because I've got lots of decorations up and they need some showing off!

Trees!

Last night we bought our Christmas tree! We weren't sure if we were going to go with a fake tree or a real one. Originally our plan was to get a real one this year, and buy a fake one right after Christmas and get a good sale deal. But then Canadian Tire was having a sale so we got a pretty nice 7 foot blue spruce. We haven't put it up yet, we're planning to tomorrow, and I will definitly post some pictures.

Holidays

Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans!

My Thanksgiving dinner (not until Sunday) is shaping up nicely. Last night I brought out a few decorations. Mostly window stickers because we are babysitting Anderson (Chris’ nephew) tonight and I didn’t want to bring anything else out since our apartment is already very un-child protected!

Chris bought me this poinsettia the other day. Very nice of him as they are one of my favorite flowers/plants.

Suggestions Wanted

I’m starting to get my Christmas decoration organized and set up and I would like to have an Advent Calendar. I don’t have one yet, and I’m wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to make one (preferably not requiring a lot of supplies), or have any cute sayings or poems that would go with it. Any ideas or suggestions, or things you may have seen would be great. Thanks!

More Eating

Today at work we’re having this training session to get some insurance credits for the year. Anyhow, they fed us lunch and since I proudly come from a family that enjoys any talk or thought of food, I’m sharing with you what we had. There was this delicious creamy tomato soup with melted cheese, plus those mini-sandwiches of all varieties (tuna, egg salad, turkey, ham, roast beef). The dessert was my favorite. It was assorted dainties, but I chose the Nanimo Bar. It was so creamy and simply perfect!

Just a heads up, this Sunday I’m having American Thanksgiving at my house, which should also be delicious feast!

Build a Bear

On Monday for FHE we finally did our 'Build a Bear' wedding present. I thought we would be more involved in the process, but really we just stepped on this peddle to make the fluff go in the bear, and that was it. We did add a heart, but not that big of deal. Any who, we dressed out bears at the store, and apparently my dress isn't even made anymore, thats right, it's a collectable!

These are our bears that made friends with a cool rocker bear at the store.

Good Bye Hair

Chris called me at work today warning me of what I will come home too. Apparently when he got his hair cut today it ended up more like a ‘buzz’ cut, which wasn’t what he was going for. He emailed me pictures, I don’t think they look too bad, but we’ll wait and see what the real thing looks like!

Serving Time

On Sunday Chris and I got our first callings in the ward. I’m on the Compassionate Service Committee in the Relief Society and Chris is the Proclaiming the Gospel Chair in the Elders Quorum. I guess all Chris has to do for his calling is teach a lesson once every three months about Preach my Gospel. I’d say if we’re going to get callings, these ones aren’t too bad.

I also found out from Chris there is a guy from Lilydale (the turkey slaughter house) who is in our ward. I haven’t met him yet, but I’m hoping too. I knew that somebody there had to be a member! And he is actually from Ecuador too; I’ll have to find out where.

Pretending to be Crafty

On Saturday I was oh so crafty, and I’m pretty of proud of myself! I went to Diane’s ward’s Relief Society Super Saturday. She had ordered these FHE boards for Jennifer and me to do. I did all the assembling and painting. I think I did pretty well considering I’m not a crafty person at all.

Wedding Bells

We still haven't seen our pictures from Headingley, and I think they are going to be really great. I'm excited to see the ones with the Limo! In the mean time, here's one from Edmonton outside the Temple.

It's been a very busy day at work. In addition to my own work, I've been covering for the receptionist all day. I'm excited for the weekend. I hope you all have a great weekend too!

Wally-World

Last night I entered another dimension, another world, the Wal-Mart SuperCentre. Well, I was only there for a minutes. It just opened up, and is the first in Edmonton. I was looking for these wire cube blocks, so I thought to try Wal-Mart. I hadn’t even realized the new SuperCentre was open. First of all the parking was insane. There were even police cars at the entrance. The only reason I got a spot was cause I waited for a lady to finish loading her goodies in her trunk and then took her spot. When I entered the store it was packed, and the line-ups for a cashier were stretching far and wide. My wire cubes weren’t worth it, so I didn’t even last in this new world. Well…. new to Canada, I know you materialized, consumer driven Americans are already adjusted to it. :)

Alarms and Earphones

When I got to my car this morning to go to work, I put my key in the door to unlock it, and all of a sudden this car alarm goes off. I’m thinking what the heck, we don’t have a car alarm, or even one of those keyless entries where you can press a button to set an alarm off. I look it around, and it’s for sure my car that has the alarm. I tried to start the car and it wouldn’t start. Chris had just left for school at the same time, so I run around to the front of the building to try and catch him, and he’s half way up the block. I’m running and I’m yelling his name like an idiot, but he’s got those stupid head phones in listening to his ipod. I finally catch up with him at the end of the block and tell him what’s happening. He said he heard the alarm, but thought nothing of it since we don’t have a car alarm. By the time we both get back to the car it’s stopped. We try again and the car started with no problem. Cookey! I guess we’ve got some real good security system that even the owners don’t know about it!

Too much of a good thing

Lately we have been eating very well, and probably a little too much! For example, on Sunday we went to the Lamont’s for supper. We had soup and chili in bread bowls which was so delicious that I had a few too many servings and soup and bread is very filling. Then we had ice cream cake celebrating Steve’s, Chris’ brother, birthday. Plus we had Krispy Kreme donuts that Chirs’ sister Pam had brought back from Lethbridge/Calgary. Not to mention the leftover chocolate brownies with chocolate icing that were from a party Chris and I went too Saturday night. Then yesterday the food just kept coming! We’ve been helping our ward missionaries with a Spanish lady and her daughter investigating the church. So we went over to their house to celebrate the daughter’s birthday. We thought we would only be having cake, so we ate dinner first (more delicious soup and bread bowl). When we got there they served us huge pieces of New York Cheesecake with blueberries and cream. Plus ice cream, and these enchiladas and empanadas. Basically we had two dinners in the space of 2 hours. This had better stop or you might not recognize me at Christmas; regardless of how much I exercise!

Sales and Snow

I understand that many would classify this as bragging, but in my defense, what else is a blog for? Plus mom said I should. On Friday the top manager in my office told me that I had led the office sales for the month of October. Meaning I sold the most policies. Pretty good since I’m still new. So in Cutts tradition, we celebrated the only real way to celebrate and went out to eat. We went to the Olive Garden and it was delicious!

Yesterday was the first day of the year that we had snow on the ground that hasn’t melted. A little sad, but then I saw a guy carrying a snowboard which got me excited for winter sports, so its not all bad.

Trick or Treat, Smell my Feet.....

I’ll admit that my trick-or-treating success was not as great as last years, but it still wasn’t a write-off. We headed to Beaumont to Chris’s family and tried taking his nephew Anderson, who is 1.5 yrs old, out, but he didn’t get past one door; maybe next year. Either way, Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles hit up a few doors on the Lamont’s street, and then some family friends. Considering the minimal time we put in we did get a lot back. We haven’t divvyed up the goods yet, but I’m hoping to make some good trades!