Lights

I can’t believe it’s Christmas Eve already! 

Wednesday night we planned to go to see the Mesa Temple lights with the youth group from our local congregation.  Unfortunately, it began to rain on our way over.

In Arizona, rain usually lasts a few minutes, but as the night went on, the rain kept going, and going, and going….  It was heavy enough that I didn’t feel comfortable bringing out my camera unless I was standing under the overhang from the visitors center… but of course, 100 other people were crowded under there with me, so getting any pictures at all was pretty difficult.

It did seem like there were more lights up then in years' past, but who knows… it was raining so much we didn’t really get to walk around and enjoy them all that much.

So we headed inside the visitor center to see the Creche display, and warm up and dry off a bit. 

Here are some of my favorite nativity displays.

This one is a painting from Africa:

Japan:

I can’t remember which country this one came from, but I’m thinking it was a tropical location…. agreed?

We had planned to stop at another neighborhood with amazing light displays on our way home, but because of the rain, it would likely be 80% dark.  We’ll have to try to go back another day before New Year’s to see them. 

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas Eve today… we will be baking all day, delivering goodies to friends, and going for our bike ride around the neighborhood tonight.  Thank goodness rain is OUT of the forecast.  (I wouldn’t mind getting a little bit of fog, though.)

Victory

I have never been a huge football fan.  But when our High School Football team gets to play for a state championship title, it’s a big deal.  It’s made even more awesome that the University of Phoenix stadium hosts the game!  For just $22, the three boys and I got tickets to see the football game in the Arizona Cardinal’s stadium in Glendale.  We got seats on row 15… which during a NFL game probably cost hundreds of dollars.  We could have gotten closer seats, but I let Taylor pick where he wanted to sit.  (Good thing we weren’t in Minnesota!)

  During half-time our state championship winning marching band preformed too.  We essentially had home field advantage, and so our school got tons of shout outs, including some time on ESPN!

The second half of the game was pretty intense.  We thought we would walk away with this title with very little effort, but the other team came ready to steal that championship away from us!  The last two minutes were quite the nail-biting ordeal, but we prevailed!

After Ian played flag football this year, he keeps asking me when he can try tackle.  “Never!” is what I want to say, but I’m trying to be diplomatic.  But after watching the exposure these guys get, I can see why he wants to do it.  Let’s just hope I never have to worry about it later on.

More Recipes (with photos!)

 

 

Peppermint Bark

2 c. semi sweet choc chips

2 c. white choc chips

8 candy canes, crushed

1/4 t. peppermint extract

Melt semi sweet choc in a glass bowl in microwave.  Heat for 1 minute, then stir, then heat for 30 seconds.  Stir again.  If there are still lumps, repeat heating and stirring every 30 seconds until smooth.  Add peppermint extract and spread onto a foil lined cookie sheet.  Put cookie sheet in fridge (not freezer) for 5 minutes only.  You don’t want it to completely set or the layers will separate later.

Melt white chocolate using same technique.  Spread white chocolate over semi-sweet, spreading carefully to avoid “swirling” the two layers together.  Add crushed candy canes to top of white chocolate layer and freeze.  20 minutes later, pull from freezer, remove the foil and break pieces apart from the foil side, removing foil as you work. 

 

 

Easy Cheese Enchiladas

12 corn tortillas

2 c. shredded cheese

1 small can enchilada sauce

garlic powder, onion powder

In a 9x9 baking dish, pour a small amount of sauce to coat the bottom of the pan.  Then pour a fair amount of sauce into a pie dish.  Microwave the tortillas for 30 seconds to soften them up and then dip them into the pie plate sauce.  On a paper plate, load a small amount of cheese, a shake of onion, and garlic into each tortilla.  Wrap them up and put them in the baking dish.  Pour remaining sauce and cheese over the top.  Bake at 375 for 15 minutes. 

Recipes

 

Do you ever feel like cooking a normal meal in December is impossible?  I find that when we are running from Christmas party to band concert to football games that I can’t pull together even a basic meal.

 

I wanted to share with you an awesome recipe I discovered online:

 

Root Beer Pork

2 lb. pork loin roast

1 can root beer

1/2 c. BBQ sauce

Put the pork into the crockpot, pour the can of root beer over the top and  cook on low 8-12 hours.  Shred pork, pour BBQ sauce into crockpot and stir to coat.  Serve over rice or on hoagie rolls.

 

And just because I’m feeling super generous, I’m going to share with you my best party recipe.  Whenever I need to bring an appetizer to share, this is usually what I bring.  It’s my secret weapon recipe, and people can’t stay out of them!

Grape Jelly Meatballs

1 large package of frozen meatballs

1 bottle of chili sauce

1 jar of grape jelly

Pour bottle of chili sauce into blender, add equal parts grape jelly and blend until smooth.  Put meatballs and sauce into crockpot and cook on low for 4 hours. 

My Collection

It's a well known fact that I have a lot of handmade Christmas decorations.  I have lately become obsessed with collecting handmade nativities.  The one in my blog header is made by Willow Tree, and it’s one of the few mass marketed nativities that I love, but here are the ones I have collected that can’t be bought at your local chain store.
This is the Baby Jesus for a Nativity set my grandma made for me.  She is the queen of felt, and she gave me the pieces for a nativity that go on my Christmas tree.  I usually try to get the nativity up first so I can group them all together, but this year I forgot to do that before the kids went crazy on the tree, so they are scattered, but they are all there.

This nativity I made at a Relief Society Craft night.  Michelle, I still love this one.  I’ve made many more like it to sell at craft fairs or give away as gifts. 


Eric got to go to Israel this summer for a conference.  I told him, I didn’t care what he brought home for the kids, but I wanted only one thing.  A Nativity set made in Jerusalem.  This is what he brought home.  This picture doesn’t do the detailed carving justice.  I love it!

This was a project we did this year for our Relief Society craft night.  The glass blocks have vinyl silhouettes on them of the nativity scenes and I put Christmas lights inside the blocks to backlight them.  I used a batting-like material to block the lights from being seen and diffuse the light in the blocks.  I am super happy about how they turned out!

Pretty soon I am going to be in full crazy mode trying to get everything done for Christmas before my parents come in less than two weeks.  Wowza!  But when I take a minute to sit and look at one of my nativities, I remember to slow down, breathe, and enjoy the celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  He is the reason for the season, after all. 

Butch

Over Thanksgiving Break, I was doing haircuts for all the kids.  I felt a little reckless and suggested to Brayden that we go short this time.  Like clippers-short.  To my surprise, he agreed.

Before:

 

After:

What was I thinking?  Hate is a strong word… so I won’t say I hate it, but I dislike it.  Now I remember why I grew it out in the first place.  It actually looks okay in this picture, but most days, it’s sticking up in weird places.  Part of it lays very flat against his head, and other parts stand up and fluff straight up.  I’m sure no one else notices all these things, but I see them every time I look at his head.  His hair has always grown fast, so I will have to bank on that happening again!

Puppy Love

My kids are in love with my parents dog, Charlie.  It’s hard not to fall in love with him… if you like dogs, even just  little bit, you’ll LOVE Charlie. 
On Charlie’s last night of a very long stay with us, the kids got down on the floor for a wrestling match.  He likes to lick faces, in case you couldn’t tell already!
The good news is that he will be back to stay again in just 3 weeks! 
Yay!