Need Ideas!

Any former Young Women who read this blog, help me out here! What was your favorite mutual activity, one that you really remember? We're having our 2012 planning session tomorrow and I feel like I used all my good ideas in 2011. Thanks!

Happy New Year

Oh man, I think I'm still recovering from New Year's Eve. A) I'm getting too old to stay up til 3 a.m. and B). No one should EVER eat that much food.

We started the evening at Maggiano's Italian restaurant in the domain. And we loved it. So delicious. Definitely a special-occasion-go-in-a-group kind of place. You pick two appetizers, two salads, four entrees, and two desserts and it's served family-style and just keeps on coming 'til you can't eat anymore. And then they pack up the leftovers (also good the next day).

Then we needed a little walk before we all exploded. Hey, the Macy's Tree is still up, yay!

Next stop, Casa de Mockler. We played some fun games, ate some more, and watched the ball drop while listening to the worst version of "Imagine" ever. (And seriously, that fur coat and giant watch made Cee Lo Green look even more like a midget).

Brain food - apparently, we only like the cheese variety. But it left pretty hearts....

And after this party, I don't think we'll ever convince any of these people to play Nertz with us again... which makes me sad.

Happy 2012, everyone!

2011 Check-in

Today is the last day of 2011. Wow, that went fast. I thought I'd check in and see how I did with my goals from last year.

1. Continue to visit the temple once a month. CHECK! We went every month this year, and even a couple times some months. We continue to feel the blessings of the temple in our lives and will continue to attend as often as possible.

2. Improve at tithing payment. Check? Kind of? We did a lot better this year in most regards. We set up our bank to automatically skim our paychecks and move tithing into our savings account so we never touched it. That worked well. We made regular payments each month and were up-to-date on tithing on our salary all year. The hiccup was that we forgot to count rental income from Paul, Blair, Parker and Edgar so we did have a big chunk of catching up to do at the end of the year. And we need to work on improving our fast offerings.

3. Improve finances. Yes and no. It was very much a one step forward, one step back kind of thing. We were able to pay off some cards, but then we opened cards for other things (i.e., dining room table). We are down to having just the table and one other card and think we can pay them off in the next three months. We're almost there!

4. Home Improvements. We made a lot of progress, but of course not nearly as much as we would have liked. We did succeed in getting more living room seating and a living room rug, not to mention a new dining table and dining room rug. We also added a few small tables and art on the walls. We successfully painted the front door, the entire entry way, most of the downstairs trim, the guest bath, and painted and added wainscotting to the dining room. We did not get to the office, countertops, appliances in the kitchen, and we still have a little bit of painting left to do upstairs. Slowly but surely, right? 


5. Develop more hobbies. CHECK! I baked a lot this year, and definitely improved. I'm still not as great at cake decorating as I'd like, but I make a mean cupcake and my cookies ain't bad either. Hans needs to use those manly tools he got last year and build some stuff for our house. 

6. This year, we will read the Book of Mormon together as a family. As of this evening, CHECK! We have just 12 pages to go, which we'll finish off in our evening study together. This has been a really wonderful thing to do together, to study the Book of Mormon and discuss it together. I'm glad we were able to do it.

7. Participate in at least one organized run this year. CHECK! We ran the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving, a five-mile race I never thought I'd be able to do. And now we're hooked and want to keep doing races.

8. Food storage. Work on it. Period. FAIL. Can I roll this one over to next year?

Looking back, I'm frankly a little surprised how many goals we actually met. I've thought many times this year about setting those goals and I think it's helped keep me accountable. I'm really glad we took the time to commit them to paper (er, blog...) and give ourselves something to work toward. And most of these don't stop here - hopefully, this year has helped us make some practices into habits so that they're easy to continue doing. Stay tuned for 2012 goals... since that seems to work for us :)

I hope you all had a wonderful 2011. Here's to a great new year!

Framed photo gallery

Remember when I started this project? Way back in July? Well, I finally finished it. Took me long enough.

We ended up going with a square arrangement, trying to have fairly even spacing, but not symmetrical across the middle. The final arrangement shown here is not where we started out. We cut butcher block paper in the shape of all the frames and moved them around the walls (I have a picture somewhere, but can't seem to find it). Once we had it how we wanted, we hung the actual frames. And then decided we didn't like the two vertical 2x4s on the right (they're now on the left middle) and we decided we actually liked the two bigger pictures in the same column, instead of one on the right and one on the left. It was good to have a plan - it was better to diverge from the plan.

And then it took me a while to collect the items to go in it. Here's what we've got:

A wedding photo ("groomals" if you will) taken by the lovely Laura Jenkins of AL Collective:

A family tree designed by yours truly (over many man hours in photoshop):

A simple saying on a deep purple background (also a photoshop creation):

A cute temple print of HaveJoy on Etsy:

And a bunch of photos of us over the years.

Prom - 2003

Seeing a Christmas Carol - Dec. 2002

Band concert - 2002

We also have a spot for our parents' wedding photos. Since Hans' parents are moving to Panama in a couple months, all their photos are packed up. So my parents get two spots for now:

Once I have to take down the Christmas decorations next week, that table is going to be pretty bare. I'll have to come up with something to add beneath the gallery.

Christmas in pictures

We just got a back from spending a few days in Houston with Hans' family. His brother, Karl, is military and here for a few weeks on leave. It was nice to spend time all together. We went in with Karl and our sister-in-law Heather to get their parents a Wii. You should have seen Karin's when she opened it. We spent our Christmas celebrations dancing (horribly) and Wii bowling.

 As you can see, we are incredibly full (so many yummy things) and incredibly spoiled. What a wonderful Christmas.

Wise Men Still Seek Him

I've always slightly envied my Catholic friends for midnight mass. That's why I loved that Christmas fell on a Sunday this year. I loved that celebrating the birth of the savior came before the Christmas presents and cinnamon rolls and feast. Today's speakers were all asked to talk about what Christmas means to their family. The two adult speakers asked their children and were met with the response "presents!" They joked about the answer and then went on to talk about what they think Christmas really means.

But I think the kids were on to something. Christmas IS about presents. Christmas is about the gift of his son that our Heavenly Father gave to us. A priceless gift. A miraculous gift. A gift given out of love.

And Christmas is about the presents we get each other. It's about a time when people (a lot of people) stop thinking about themselves and think about the needs and wants of those they love.

These gifts are all a manifestation of love. That's what Christmas is about to me - the strong feeling of love that I feel, especially this year. I am thankful for my Savior and his love for me, and for the endless love my father in heaven gives me to me. I am thankful to be surrounded by so many loved ones that fill my life with joy.

May your holidays be filled with joy and love as well. Merry Christmas.

Christmas cookies

Something about the holiday season just gives me the urge to bake. How 'bout you? Last night, I tried a whole slew of new cookie recipes and I really like them all! They make great gifts for our co-workers and bosses. Check them out!

White-Chocolate Cherry cookies (Better Homes and Gardens)

I halved this recipe because I didn't want 60 cookies. They remind me of something, but I can't put my finger on what. I like the cookies alone - they don't necessarily need the chocolate and sprinkles. They were really easy to make (quick, too, if you skip the dipping) and taste light and not overly-sweet.

Molasses Crinkles (My Kitchen Addiction)

Mmmmm.... I love these. They have just a little bit of crunch on the outside, but the rest is soft and chewy. The combination of spices is rich and just right. They took the longest because they have to chill for two hours. Otherwise they'd be so quick.

Peanut butter Reese's cookies (Bakerella)

These were probably my favorite, and I don't usually like peanut butter cookies. I didn't use mini cupcake liners like the instructions said, and I like it just fine. I froze the unwrapped Reese's cups and then just pushed them into the cookie dough balls. They kind of melt in your mouth and have just the right amount of peanut butter.

In addition to the cookie plates, I also put together these cute hot cocoa mason jars (originally from My Recipes). I used pint jars instead of quart and halved the recipe. I cut a plastic coke bottle in half and used it as a funnel to help get the ingredients into the jar. Making them was surprisingly fast and cheap and made a perfect gift.

What new holiday recipes have you tried this year? Anything good to share?