It Was Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

Ok I know its way past Christmas, but I had to blog about what Christmas looked like for me this year.  I didn't get a white Christmas due to the fact that I am on a tropical island.  However, thanks to my grandma, it definitely felt like christmas.  I did really miss the Utah Christmas that I am used to.  I missed dressing up in winter wear, I missed putting my feet up laying by the fireplace and watching "White Christmas" and "Scrouge" (Christmas classics), I missed drinking hot chocolate when its snowing outside, I missed going to The Nutcracker at Capitol Theater, I missed seeing the lights at Temple Square, I missed  going to the MoTab Christmas concert, and I missed the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping, I missed putting up MY Christmas decorations, and I missed my family and friends!  It was sad not having that this Christmas but I was open to starting new Christmas traditions and getting used to Christmas in a new place.

I think it was the first time I put ornaments on a Christmas tree while I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and sweating.  That was kind of odd, but it happened this year.  I spent about a week (yes a week) helping my grandma put up her Christmas decor.  My G-Ma goes ALL out for Christmas and when I say all out I mean 19 Christmas trees (8 big and 11 mini trees), two christmas villages, wreaths, and lights, and garlands, and other little decorations.  I have pictures of all the trees for you to see.  I just loved it!  Every corner you turn (literally every corner) there was a tree and some other kind of Christmas-y-ness.  It definitely felt like Christmas.  It took so long to put up because every ornament is wrapped in tissue paper or bubble wrap and in a box.  They are all collectible things from Hallmark so they each have their individual box.  Anyways take a look at the trees...

This tree is in my room, its the Precious Moments tree.  My aunt has a HUGE precious moment collection along with all these ornaments.

These are three of the mini trees as you walk up the stairs.  It took forever to put up these ornaments because they are so tiny and they each have their own box as well.

This is the moving tree in the front room, all the ornaments on this tree move and/or make sounds.  Its a loud tree!

These are some of the ornaments on the tree, they both spin

The Christmas decor on the piano

This is the Santa tree (one of the mini trees).  This and the next tree are on each side of the TV

The snowman tree (another mini tree) with the family of snow people surrounding the tree.  My Gma loves snow people

Noah's Arc tree on the coffee table

This is one of the precious moment displays on the wet bar 

A close up of the little nativity in the corner

The Disney tree as you come in the front door, its a rotating tree, that's why its kind of blurry

Then you turn the corner and go down a few stairs and see the Barbie tree.  I love the topper its Barbie on a carousel horse going in circles. 

This is the big tree in the downstairs family room.  This year it was the blue snow people tree and next year it will be the red snow people tree. 

As you can see there is tinsel on the tree, Gma puts each individual tinsel on the whole tree then takes it off and saves it every year.  Talk about lots of work.

This one also rotates (hence the blurriness) but this is the "Hallmark" tree in the dining room

The little snow people display in the dining room as well

The other precious moment village on the buffet bar

I like this one

This is one of two trees that hang on the wall.  This one is in the kitchen, all the ornaments are from Paraguay

The tree in my Grandma's room, its the Hawaiian tree (just like the one I have in my room at home, Gma got me started on it) I only have half the tree pictured because when I took this picture the top half of the lights weren't working so Gma didn't want me to take a pic of the whole tree.

The sports and transportation tree in my cousin's room 

And finally, the Christmas display on top of the wet bar

So thats the house.  Christmas was different this year of course, but I had a good time.  We made a big dinner for Christmas Eve and had some family and friends over at Gma's house.  Gma and I did all the cooking.  We made a turkey and a roast, we had yum yum corn, and a green salad, I made Aunty Parees homemade rolls, we made homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, and for dessert pecan tassies, and I had to make cream puff pie.  My mom only makes it once a year on Christmas so I had to have it!  

Not the best pic because I forgot to take the pic before we cut into it

On Christmas day opened gifts after church.  After we opened gifts I went with Gma to visit my Grandpa at the cemetery and put flowers on his grave.  When we came home I got ready to go to the west side of the island to spend some time with the other side of the family.  We ate more yummy food, Aunty Dawn made her sushi bar (its sooo delish) so we had cone sushi and other bbq yummy food.  We then had a little Christmas message by Grandpa and all the kids participated and sang Christmas songs.  They then ended it with a little dance performance they were working on that night.  It was a fun night with family!  All I can say is that I'm so thankful that I have family here that I was able to spend Christmas with!

Holiday of Thanks!

This Thanksgiving was of course spent in Seattle and I was lucky to have my family (well some of them) drive up to spend Thanksgiving with me.  It was so fun to see them, although my brother and sister Cheltsey were missed very much.  My family arrived the day before Thanksgiving so after they came in and got something to eat, we spent majority of the day shopping for food and then preparing food for the next day.  On Thanksgiving morning Bran Dan and I got up early and went to Booty Barre at 7 to burn some extra calories before the massive feast later that night.  On the way home we got a little treat at Safe-A-Way.  I got it for Brandee for coming with me so early.  Don't worry we didn't get anything too fattening after we just worked our butt off at Booty Barre, but we loooove this treat!  If you haven't ever tried Ciao Bella Sorbet, you have to go to your local grocery store and pick some up, it is DELICIOUS (blood orange is one of my favorites and mango is a close tie)!  They also have gelato!  Mmmm...

Anyways, after that it was back to the kitchen when we got home.  I did the turkey again this year.  Ever since I found the Dry Brine and Cider Bourbon glaze at Williams-Sonoma I always do the turkey.  So we cooked and cooked all morning until we HAD to get ready before everyone came over.  Thanksgiving was at my grandma's house and we had my uncle's family over and also the Panee's and Ing's so it was a pretty full house.  The more the merrier!  We started off eating of course...check out the spread!

Sooo much food and everything was so good!  We had a green salad, my sisters and I call it the Fully Loaded, Berry Explosion Salad because it is loaded with yummy things throughout the whole salad not just on top and there are lots of berries.  It is muy delicioso!

We also had a broccoli salad and a veggie tray

And of course my Turkey

Honey-Baked ham 

Candied yams

Mashed potatoes

Funeral potatoes

We tried a new recipe for the stuffing this year.  It was from Williams-Sonoma (I love that place so much) its called focaccia stuffing with italian sausage and chestnuts.  It was divine!

Typical green bean casserole

Baked beans

And oh my gosh these rolls are TO DIE FOR!  Seriously, they are sooo good.  Aunty Paree made six dozen rolls and by the end of dinner, they were all gone!  I can't even tell you how good they are! DELICIOUS!!!!

And thats not even dessert...Amanda made a pumpkin cheesecake with an oreo crust

Of course we had to have pumpkin pie

Custard pie, from Safe-A-Way, it is really good!

My mom made this raspberry jello-pretzel dessert that is always a hit

Apple pie

A caramel swirl cake

And finally coconut creme pie

I was stuffed!  We all sat around and talked while we digested a little bit.  This is how full and miserable we were.  (And yes it isn't the best picture, I definitely need a new camera, I have been on the hunt for awhile.)

After we let our stomachs settle we all played Dance Central on the Kinect.  It was so much fun everyone played even my parents, uncles and aunts, kids and all!  Then we looked through some of the ads to determine if anything was worth risking our safety to be trampled on in all the black friday madness.  The only thing I kind of wanted was a camera we saw at best buy.  My mom, sister and I decided we would go out a little before midnight when the doors opened to see if we could get one.  I guess I didn't want it bad enough because when we got there and saw the line wrap around the whole building (and it was a big building because it also had target and sports authority in the complex) we turned around and went back home.  So no black friday shopping this year.  Normally for the past couple of years in Utah we would go out shopping just for the fun of it.  This year nothing really sparked our interest.  

All in all, it was a fun and yummy Thanksgiving and I'm so glad my family and the Panee's and Ing's were able to celebrate it with me!  I'm so thankful that I'm surrounded by amazing friends and family, thanks for all the love!  I hope you all had a Happy Holiday!