Festive Memories

Happy New Year! Here's a recap of the past couple weeks in my life. Christmas was great. Isaac, Heather, and the kids came up Christmas Eve and are here through Friday Jan. 2, so we have a party house with 10 people right now. Christmas we enjoyed our 7am service and breakfast at church, then we had fun opening presents together. The day after Christmas we made a trip up to Sequoia National Park to play in the snow. We found plenty of snow, but didn't play in it much because it was only 19 degrees and we were really cold. We still had a good time though. Tuesday was my last day of work at Tazzaria and it was with mixed feelings that I said goodbye. I'm excited to go to London for a semester and it will be nice not to work for a week before I go, but overall I enjoyed my job at Tazz. It was harder than I thought to teach Rosa how to bake bread, not because the teaching was hard but because I had a hard time letting her take over doing it. We had our annual New Years party, but this year Michelle and I broke tradition and did not participate in the polar bear swim. After 8 consecutive years of dreading the swim, we decided to watch instead of suffer. It was more fun that way and I don't regret it. Today I finally finished my album from our trip to France and I'm so excited with how it turned out and that it is done. Welcome to 2009!

Ouch

It is not feminine to brag about wounds, but sometimes you have to and this was a good one. I was at work yesterday and went to put a hot pan back in the oven, but it hit the edge of the door and smashed back into my arm. It hurt quite a bit for awhile, but since has been fine. My boss, Michelle, made me get some burn gel that is supposed to help me heal quickly and not scar, we shall see. Day 1: Day 2:

Cookie Decorations

On Saturday we had fun decorating gingerbread cookies. Mom and the boys made the cookies and Heather, Jonah, Evan, Micah, and I decorated them. Micah was funny because he was squeezing the frosting out with both hands and it reminded me of myself when I was little. I would make my gingerbread people have huge eyes that were too big and I would have to lick them off and start over.

The Show Must Go On

Michelle was in the COS dance show this past weekend. Heather and I went on Thursday for the dress rehearsal to take video and pictures, then I got to go the next night with a group to watch the show. It was a fun show, although I was jealous. The past 3 times, Michelle and I have been in the show together. Here are pictures from ballet (representing heaven) and modern (representing hell). This is a dramatic shot of Michelle, in the back center. It was hard to get good pictures because the stage was dark and they were moving around, but some of them turned out pretty well and it is fun to have the pictures as well as the video.

The Annual Christmas Tree Hunt!

For our family, the day after Thanksgiving is steeped in tradtion. It is the day we get our Christmas tree. This year we have a video of our hunt.

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Thanks to Heather for putting this video together.

I'm almost famous

This is a picture from a local magazine called, "Lifestyle". My boss, James, writes an article for each months' issue and when he was getting ready for the photo shoot for the December issue, he said he wanted me to make a molten chocolate cake to complement the meat he was preparing. I was happy to oblige. James found the recipe and we modified it, then I got to bake a fancy dessert for a photo shoot for a magazine! I like to bake desserts, they are delicious and artistic. It is fun to see something I made looking tempting in a magazine.