It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

When my sister called, worried about me because I hadn't posted for a long time, I knew it was time to post. Well, I haven't posted for good reasons, and here they are:

We had to get a new washer and dryer (you know it's time when it takes all day to dry one load; plus our other set was as old as Bryant!). It took awhile to decide which ones we wanted and then we spent a long time trying to find the best price. We convinced Home Depot to price-match an Internet price from a website (not a retail store); not very common, but we were grateful!

So we decided to get a new dishwasher at the same time. The first one delivered had 3 broken parts. So as we waited for our new one, we decided we actually didn't like the one we ordered. We ended up canceling the order and getting a totally different one than we had planned on. It's now installed, and we love it! Wow! No clunking noises as it's changing gears!

We enjoyed a fabulous Thanksgiving feast in Springville!

And Jesse and I went Black Friday shopping EARLY the next morning. I can't say we "enjoyed" the 5 hours in JoAnn's Fabrics, but I can say I got a good stash of fabrics to continue my quilting hobby/addiction after Christmas. It's taken me weeks to recover from the lack of sleep from this shopping excursion, however. I also got asked to be in charge of our ward Christmas program with 2 weeks notice. I'm happy to say it's over and it went well!

Now, on to Christmas preparations:

A really good soup mix and breadstick twists recipe for the home and visiting teachers/teachees.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip and Cinnamon Burst Bread loaves for Jesse's employees.

Mugs filled with instant mixes for Jesse's office staff.

Fleece blankets for the neighbor boys.

A twin-size quilt for the neighbor girl.

A set of Crazy-Square Placemats for us!

More fleece blankets for my nephew's daughters, with fringing and a crocheted edge (I used a skip-stitch rotary blade from www.skipstitch.com to poke the holes).

Our 2008 Christmas newsletter (we actually got it mailed BEFORE Christmas this year!).

And finally, the first big snow storm. Kaysen is enjoying every moment in the snow with his friends. And when they're not outside in the snow, they're inside in the kitchen making hot cocoa and getting muffin crumbs all over the floor!

So that's why I haven't posted for awhile. I plan to spend the next few weeks relaxing and enjoying the holiday season! Whew!