Wednesday 28 December 2011

Christmas 2011. . .

i cannot believe that Christmas is already over!
it all happened way too fast.
time spent with family and friends has seemed
to whiz by over the past week or so, & i cannot believe
that i have to go back to work soon!
booo.
overall Chrismas 2011 was great:)
logan & i pretty much followed the same schedule as last year.
we went to my annual family christmas party held at
my brother's house in spanish fork.

my niece, alli loved being part of the Christmas nativity.
she was the proudest Virgin Mary i've ever seen.



Christmas wouldn't be complete without some
good ol' fashioned Christmas baking, so I made some
cookies to take up to my house on Christmas Eve.
The mix actually came from a box (shh!) but they
turned out really good!
the box mix made these amazing salted caramel chocolate cookies.
i also bought some peppermint kisses and threw those on top
of one of the batches i made.
they were delish and i bought the mix at costco
just in case you are wondering.



Christmas Eve spent at my house was fun, but i must confess
it was a bit odd.
my older brother and younger sister were spending Christmas with in-laws,
and my youngest brother is on a mission in Russia.
this was the first Christmas none of them have been around, so there
was a little part of me that felt like Christmas wasn't real
because none of them were there.
BUT we did get to Skype with my brother Christmas morning!
it was sooo good to see his face and hear his voice!
he is doing great in Russia and is loving the experience he's having there.

after talking to James we opened presents and ate
amazing berry french toast made by my mom.

my mom's Christmas wish this year was a dog.
she has been a little lonely ever since my dad and her
became empty nesters last summer.
she has been joking with my dad about getting a dog lately.
half of her is serious and the other half just likes the idea of it.
my mom says she wants to "dog-share" with someone.
she has it for one week, someone else has it for another week, etc.
the idea is insane but i'm pretty sure she is dead serious about it.
anyway, we thought it would be funny to get my mom a dog
for Christmas.
not a real dog of course-my dad would have flipped.
but the one we got was pretty convincing:)
i brought it up after everyone opened their gifts in one
of my mom's purses.
it's the kind that barks and moves when you pet it.
she basically died when she saw it but
she may or may not have taken it to church with her later
that afternoon as a "joke".
she loved that dog like it was real.


logan & i decided to open our "big" presents from eachother
down at his parents house later that night.
we left my house in the late afternoon & got to his house
just in time for Christmas dinner.
it was fun having 2 Christmases in the same day again!

this year i told logan i wanted a print of the slc temple
where we got married.
i had seen a few on etsy that people made & logan
assured me he could make one that looked even better.
i am happy to say that he did.

the greatest thing is that the white temple is glued
onto the glass, leaving me with the option to change the color
of paper behind is as often as i want!
it now lives in our kitchen and i LOVE it.

as mentioned last month, i started working on a "secret" project
for logan for his Christmas gift.
as i already mentioned, the surprise was somewhat spoiled and
logan may or may not have found out what i was making him. . .but
he acted surprised when he opened it to make me feel better.
i decided to make logan a quilt for Christmas.
he didn't necessarily ask for a quilt, but i thought he would
appreciate the time and effort put into his gift:)
i got the inspiration for the quilt from this image
i found on Pinterest:

i love the color combination with the yellows and subtle
grey/blue tones that make the quilt more "boyish".

logan really loved the quilt:)
i may or may not have also been excited to display the quilt
by getting some new bedding.
i saw this image on Pinterest as well and fell in love with
the idea of white bedding with a pop of color from a quilt:


the bedding was purchased and now logan's quilt is
displayed on the end of our little bed.
seriously, our bed is so small.



after the hustle and bustle of Christmas was over, i got
to catch up with some of my best friends.
i really miss seeing them:)
we went to hires and ate greasy fries and chatted the night away.





this Christmas season was pretty amazing.
great food, great family/friends, great gifts, and
a great time to remember the true meaning of Christmas
and celebrate the birth and life of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Bring on the new year!

5 comments:

  1. How FUN, Maren! Great job on the quilt!! I have to admit I'm a little teary eyed looking at the picture of James and the fam on Skype. Everyone looks so happy. And, I'm sort of thinking that a "proud Virgin Mary" is kind of an oxymoron, don't you think? Alli must be quite the actress!

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  2. aw, the quilt looks amazing! and i can't believe you ended up getting that fake dog for your mom. hilarious!!!

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  3. That quilt looks sooooooo awesome! You need to teach me how to quilt! Sad I missed seeing you - hopefully soon!

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  4. you being part of our Christmas made it all the more wonderful!

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  5. you are turning into quite the crafty lady and i like it

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