Christmas Eve Celebrations

Christmas Eve is always a big deal for my family especially since we are German. We had a great big meal that my mom prepared. We had so delicious ham, potatoes, and lot's of other yummy stuff. Here is the table beautifully decorated.

Payton making noise like usual.

Mat keeping Payton entertained by pulling her all around on the tile. She just love it.

My cute mom that didn't want me to take her picture. She sure did make a great meal though.

My second oldest brother Craig with his video camera.

Mat and I Chillin'.

So after we ate we played the pipe chimes. We play them every year. The first song or two is always rough for us (we don't get much practice just once a year), but by the end we are not too bad. My mom has the Christmas songs blown up on big posters and she points to the numbers and we strike our appropriate chime with large nails when it is our turn. We all usually gripe out doing the chimes every year, but I think we all really like it.

Here is Mat looking very excited with his chime. After songs and chimes. We usually read a new Christmas story. This year my mom did not get one so I suggested that we make up a story. So how it worked was everyone would say a few words then the person next to them would have to start where they finished off and keep going around the circle several times. I don't remember what our story was about, but obviously it was pretty lame. We had fun doing it though. Then we read the nativity story of Baby Jesus which is the real reason why we celebrate Christmas. I will be forever grateful for the birth of my Savior Jesus Christ.

Here is everyone that was able to make it this year. Some of the family was not able to make it because they are on missions and some at in-laws.

My cute grandma and the headphones that helped her to hear better. Look at that face. We had a great Christmas Eve.

December 23rd Family Christmas Party

So every December 23rd since I've been alive we have our annual Christmas party with my dad's side of the family. My dad has 3 brothers and 3 sisters. They are all married with kids and their kids have kids, etc you get the gist. Not everyone comes because some people live outside Utah, but we usually get a good turn out. I did not bring my camera, so I don't have pictures, but we had a nice time. Some of this family I only see on this day of the year which is kind of sad. We always have it on the 23rd because that was my Grandpa's birthday. If my grandpa were still alive he would have been 90 years old this year. Crazy. My grandpa died when I was a little over a year old. He had a heart-attack. So I didn't know my grandpa which makes me a little sad. My grandpa built houses for a living. My Grandma (dad's mom) is also not alive, but she died when I was a senior in high school. So I was able to get to know my grandma and spend lot's of time with her. I use to sleep over at her house all the time. Three things that remind me of my grandma are cream soda rootbeer, scrabble, and mini boxes of cereal.
Anyway, back to the party. We start off by eating. We have lot's of yummy food. Everyone just brings potluck. Then we have a talent show which has gone on for years. I use to participate in the talent show in my younger years. I have many good memories of those times. I can remember my brothers doing a Grinch skit one year for it. It was really funny and we have it on video. I also remember doing line dancing with my sister and Aunt Carolyn. Yep that's right we did the good old fashioned boot scoot and boogie in front of everyone. However, now it is usually just the young kids that participate. My nieces and nephew participated this year with some singing and dancing. They were cute. Then after the talent show we always have a white elephant gift exchange. Then we clean-up and go home. Spending time with family is great.

Backfired..

Last weekend we were able to babysit Payton for a few hours. We had a fun time with her even though Payton LOVES Mat and wants basically nothing to do with me. Mat had to work on a lesson for church so for most of the time I had to try and entertain Payton and keep her away from Mat. So I read books with her, fed her lunch, watched part of a movie, jumped and jumped on the mini-tramp, and even went outside for a little bit. She kept asking for Mat, but I was able to keep her mostly entertained so Mat could work on his lesson. Meanwhile, Payton was jumping on the tramp and I noticed she had a poopy diaper. So I decided to be cheeky and see if I could get Mat to change the diaper. I asked Payton who she wanted to change her diaper, Uncle Mat or Aunt Shel (thinking in my head that for sure she will say Mat cause she loves him so much) well it backfired on me because she said she wanted me to change her diaper. The only time this kid wants me over Mat is to change her stinkin' poopy diaper. That'll teach me.

What a doll.

Payton all bundled up to go outside in the freezing cold. She loves being outside and does not care that it is cold. We stayed outside for like 10 minutes and then I made her come back in cause it was SO COLD.

We also went to one of our friends home, Mark and Emily. They just build a new home and it was fun to see. Everything is nice and new. We played the game of Life with them. It was really fun. One of their little boys played with us too. Some of the things he said were so funny. Right now I can't remember what they were, but he cracks me up. I also jinxed Mark while playing because it was his turn to pick a new salary (he currently held the $30,000 salary card) and I said I will laugh so hard when you get the salary card of $20,000 and sure enough he got that card. It was real funny. Then later on in the game it was Mark's turn to spin the wheel and I said I hope you don't spin a 1 because if he did he would have to pay lots of money to the back and sure enough he spun a 1. We laughed and laughed about it (I did feel a little bad though.) Funny how that happens sometimes. We had a great time hanging out with them.

The Game

We watched the BYU vs UTAH game on Saturday and I made some treats to snack on. I've never made orange rolls before and decided to attempt them. I found the recipe on My Kitchen Cafe and they turned out delicious. So we took the orange rolls with us and headed down to Lehi to watch the game over at Mat's cousins home. Mats brother Josh and wife Melissa came as well. We had a good time. Too bad BYU won, but it was a good game to watch because it was down to the wire on who was going to win. Dan (Mat's cousin) was really happy they won cause he is a huge BYU fan. Until next year.

Thanksgiving such a wonderful time of the year.

So Mat and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. We both have so much to be grateful for. We are truly blessed. We are so grateful this year for a new home, great support from family and friends, and that Mat was able to find new job so quickly. So the day started off my going to my mom's to eat. There were lots of people and lots of good food. I made some homemade crescents from scratch. They were really yummy.

I also made some yams. They were pretty tasty.

Mat and Me.

Some of the gang.

More of the gang.

Cute Payton who still absolutely loves Mat and doesn't want anything to do with me.

After eating some of us played a little bingo (for prizes) to help us burn off some calories. It was fun even though I didn't win.

After that we went to Mat's mom's and had another meal. It was good. I ate way to much food. I also made some yams to take there. Mat really enjoyed them. He loves yams. We had a nice time. We played some Yahtzee after we ate. It was fun.
Here is Mat with his mom.

Here is a cute picture of one of our step-nieces (I think that's what she would be to us). She is cute and sure likes her olives.

Thanksgiving was great. It is so nice to spend time with family and to have a couple days off of work. On Friday we went and saw New Moon. We had a great couple of days off, but it always goes by way to fast.

Cafe Rio Style

So the other weekend we had some friends over for dinner and I made some homemade Cafe Rio and it was delicious. Here is the recipe:

Pork (I used chicken, but pork is delicious too)

3 to 4 lbs. Pork loin (I used about 4 to5 chicken breast)

1 cup brown sugar

1 bottle red taco sauce

1 Tbls cumin

1 can coke (12 ounces)

Cook pork/or chicken on low in crock pot with water covering ½ pork for 6 hours or until able to shred. Three hours before serving, drain liquid off pork, and add coke, taco sauce, brown sugar, and cumin. Continue to cook for approximately 3 more hours.

Tomatillo Dressing

1 pkg Dry Buttermilk Dressing (ranch)

3 Tomatillos

1 cup Mayo

1 cup Buttermilk

1 cup Cilantro (chopped)

1 Garlic glove

¼ to ½ tsp Cayenne Pepper

Rice (This is a rice recipe that I have done before, but I did not do this time)

White rice

Chicken Broth

Chopped Cilantro

Chopped White Onions

Lime Juice

You get to experiment on the portion sizes. Cook the rice in chicken broth instead of water with cilantro, onions, and lime juice

Rice (This is what I did this time)

2 cups white rice

2 cups chicken broth

2 cups water

1 garlic clove

A Little olive oil

Chopped up garlic glove, put a little oil olive in pot, add garlic to pot. Stir constantly for a couple of minutes until garlic is golden. Add chicken broth, water, and rice. Bring to boil, reduce heat to low and cook for about 15 to 20 minutes or until rice is tender.

Then I get a tortilla and load it up with lettuce, rice, beans, meat, tomatoes, cheese, and then top it with the tomatillo dressing. It is really tasty.

Finally some pictures of our Home with our Furniture

Here is our cute little home that we love.

Here is our backyard with our nice deck that Mat helped build.

Front entry-way, that still needs more decorating.

Our living room with our new couches (at least they seem new cause we bought them in January and have never used them until now).

Dining room.

Kitchen

In our bedroom, the entry-way to the bathroom.

Master bathroom.

The study

Extra bedroom which will be a baby's room someday.

Spare bathroom.

We really love our new house. It is so nice, clean, and perfect for us. We are so glad we decided to build it. We love the area and our neighborhood. We are so lucky and blessed.