Christmas Card and Our Top 10 of 2012!

Since we didn't send out many Christmas cards this year, here is the card and letter we sent out. Enjoy!

Our Top 10 of 2012! (In no particular order)

10. Visiting our family in Utah for 2 weddings and a  farewell (sounds like a movie title!)

9.  Alexander’s parents visiting us in January

8. Giving Annalee’s parents and brother, McKay, the big KC tour of church history sites and BBQ.

7. Participating as tour guides  for the Kansas City Temple Open House

6. Hosting our annual holiday parties for St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween and Christmas

5. Annalee graduating from her calling in the Young Women’s Pres. to a calling in the Relief Society Pres.

4. Dancing in the torrential rain at the Irish Festival and watching the jousting matches at the Renaissance Festival

3. Alexander presenting his paper at the Diastole Conference and receiving a graduate teaching assistantship

2. Being able to attend our beautiful, new temple that’s just 20 minutes away (rather than 3 1/2 hours)

1. Celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary (going on 6 years in Jan 2013!)

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year! I love everything about it (except maybe the snow!). I started up the Christmas music in October and waited anxiously for the socially-accepted time to put up Christmas decorations.

We started our celebrations off with a boom right after we got back from Thanksgiving. I had my decorations up in record time and we kicked it all off with our famous 2nd annual Ugly Sweater & White Elephant Party. We had such a blast!

On December 21, we had a little family party with our little tiny family of me, Alexander and Godiva. We opened a few presents and played a little bit before finishing our packing for Arizona.

Godiva got to spend Christmas with her furry friends at our favorite boarding place. We always feel so guilty leaving her there, not knowing if she really enjoys it or not. I think we were feeling especially bad this time to leave her over Christmas (not that she knows the difference, but still...). We had a little answer to our prayers when we arrived at the boarding place. Godiva was whining and couldn't wait to get out of the car, at which point she ran right in, said hi to the managers and ran right to the cage doors to play with her friends.   (This is a play-all-day facility, with separate kennels for nighttime.) She didn't care one iota about me, she just couldn't wait to play. Since this is the first time she had ever done that, I stood and watched her for a bit. She immediately met up with a black lab about her same size and started running laps. The owner said that the dog's name is Gracie and that she is always there when Godiva is there and they are inseparable. I thought it was cute that Godiva had a best friend. :) It also made it much easier to leave for a week and not worry.

We set off bright and early on the 22nd headed toward sunny Phoenix. The flight was a bit rough and uncomfortable, but we survived. Alexander had hurt his knee (I think he tore a ligament but that's another story..) a few days earlier so it was a bit harder on him with the cramped conditions. When we arrived in Phoenix we were met up by Alexander's dad, Peter, and step-mom, DeeAn. They took us back to their new home and fixed us up a nice lunch. I then went with DeeAn to do some Christmas shopping for less-fortunate families in their ward and I think I was actually pretty helpful (some teenager girls are probably really happy I was there...).

The welcome feast that Peter laid out for us

Close up of the beautiful tomato salad, complete with rose petals

The rest of the week was filled with really good food, fun company and great entertainment. Peter and DeeAn completely spoiled us. Peter is an amazing, gourmet chef and I became his sous chef that week.  Peter made sure we had a good breakfast each day and we never had less than 10 people for dinner so we were kept busy. (As an aside, on Christmas day I went to work in the kitchen at 2:00 and didn't leave until 7:00 when dinner was served!)

Here are the highlights of our week in Arizona:

• Amazing food made by Peter
• Attending both Sebastian & Bethy's ward as well as Peter & DeeAn's to watch their ward Christmas programs (6 hours of church and I wasn't even doing anything for my RS calling!)
• Going to The Nutcracker ballet on Christmas Eve
• Going to The Hobbit with Sebastian and Bethany
• Seeing Les Mis at the Fork and Screen (dinner with the movie!)
• Visiting Alexander's mother's headstone in the cemetary
• Hanging out with Robert and Natalie and their cute kids
• Chatting on the phone with my family back in Utah
• Visiting the Musical Instrument Museum
• Spending time with Grandma Alvord
• Contemplating the art at the Marshall-LeKae Gallery owned by Peter and DeeAn
• Singing at the top of my lungs in the high-ceiling rooms of the house when no-one else was there (fabulous acoustics!)
• Getting a phone call from my missionary brother Tyler on Christmas Day!! 

We arrived home late on the 29th to a snowy Kansas City feeling like we had fully used up that week. It was so good to spend time with the family there in Arizona, as the last time we were there was for Seb & Bethy's wedding in Sept of 2011.

So grateful for everyone who made this holiday so special! We are truly blessed! :)

Giving Thanks

We were so blessed to be able to visit our family and friends in Utah for Thanksgiving this year. Last year we spent the holidays at home with friends, which was wonderful, but there is something truly magical about being home with your family for those special occasions.

We arrived on Monday to a much warmer Utah than I expected (thank heavens!). Tanner and Karianne graciously picked us up from the airport and then took us out for breakfast. I hope they know how wonderful that was! We had been up since 3:30 KC time and 6 hours later I was starving! 2 packets of airline peanuts were not going to cut it.

Other highlights from the week included:

• Lots of time catching up with Mom and Dad
• Cooking with my mom and sisters Thanksgiving morning
• Going out to dinner with Melissa, Zuke, Lisa and Nathan
• Black Friday shopping with Melissa, Annie and Whitney (that was fun!!)
• Getting my hair done with Natalie and Alexander at a surprisingly good salon for a surprisingly low price
• Taking Natalie shopping for new clothes for a special occasion 
• Spending 3 hours on silly little cornucopias seen on Pinterest. (it was almost a Pintrosity, but I persevered and figured it out)
• A fun photo shoot with Melanie
• Chatting with Natalie about her missionary's return
• Going out to dinner with Mom and Dad
• Hanging out with Melanie in my old college apartment (It was weird how much it was the same 7 years later! There were some things that had been in there since my time like a sunflower oven mitt and a banana chair!)
• Eating lunch with Tara and Jaclyn and catching up on the VitalSmarts gossip
• Going to Carter's homecoming talk
• Decorating the Christmas tree with Mom

I had so much fun with everyone!! I was so sad to leave, it's always a bit heartbreaking saying goodbye to my mom and dad. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful and supportive family and such loyal friends who still want to spend time with me even though I'm terrible at keeping in touch. I know there were people I didn't get to see and I wish I had! Next time I will try to see more of you so that we can catch up! :)

Fun Pics:

Natalie is hiding between the manequins

Some of the gang Thanksgiving day. I was there, just off to the Left ;)

Our beautiful Thanksgiving Pies (complete with all the Black Friday ads)

Some of our photo shoot photos :)

Melanie: doesn't she look hot?

True Foodies

In early November my BFF, Melissa, flew out to Chicago for the CMTA conference. She is an active group leader for the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (for the neuro-muscular disease both she and her daughter have). The conference was an awesome opportunity for her.

The trip was also an awesome opportunity for us to get together. It was fairly easy to justify the 9 hour drive up to Chicago when we are normally 19 hours away from each other, so on Saturday morning I jumped in the car and headed up. The weather was gorgeous! It was a sunny, warm 75 degrees and I happily wore my capris. I arrived at the hotel in time to rest a little bit before going to the CMTA recognition banquet with Melissa. It was neat getting to meet her new friends and learning more about the disease she endures.

After the conference concluded Sunday morning, we found a nice restaurant. I did a bit of research that really paid off and found Weber Grill. The food was fantastic! I had a Black Angus Meatloaf that just melted in the mouth, we some yummy mac and cheese and mashed potatoes. Seriously delicious! I also splurged on a Passionfruit Lemonade that was divine!

My Meatloaf:

Here is a pic of Melissa eating her Crab Cake (which she said was amazing):

After lunch we hit the road and headed back to Kansas City. Unfortunately,  we were following a storm line and I spent 6 hours fighting strong winds and heavy rain. I guess that's what I get for such a nice drive the day before. Despite that, we had a great 9 hour catch-up conversation. It reminded me of the good ol' days and weeks spent on a tour bus for choir tour. :)

Monday was full of random Kansas City sight-seeing. We went shopping at Crown Center and ate at our favorite restaurants. We had Chinese at Bo Ling's and we took Melissa to eat the best of KC Barbecue (in our opinion) at Fiorella's Jack Stack. Oh how I love that food! I always get the BBQ Baked Potato with burnt ends. Yum! 

Okay, so, the potato doesn't look particularly good, but it really is. Trust me!

On Tuesday we finished up our tour with some good ol' American cuisine at BRGR. If you go you MUST try the white truffle tator tots and the onion straws. They aren't messing around there. The strawberry shake wasn't half bad either. ;)

Mine is on the right and is called a Mangia burger, complete with Parmesan crisp

White Truffle Tator Tots, Onion Straws, and Classic Fries

Melissa enjoyed a chocolate Oreo and I had Strawberry :)

Thanks Melissa for visiting us and giving us an excuse to go on a "best of KC foodie tour".  We loved having you visit and hope you come again soon! We'll even let your husband come with you this time ;).

To all the rest of you, consider this an open invitation. We have a guest bed waiting and some gourmet food to share.  :)

Halloweeny

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. I love being able to dress up and decorate things to be just a little bit spooky.

This year we had a ward trunk-or-treat and chili cook-off. Alexander and I enjoy having a theme to our costumes so this year we took our cue from an old Disney movie, "The Sword in the Stone". If you've seen this movie it's probably been awhile, however, it's one of Alexander's favorite movies. He dressed up as Merlin and I dressed up as his nemesis, Madam Mim. Very few people knew who I was, but I had fun with it anyway. :)

Merlin without his scratchy white beard:

The Marvelous, Mad, Madam Mim!

I also dressed up at work. However, as I would be flying solo on this one, I dressed as Mickey as the Sorcerer's Apprentice. I got a lot of good comments about my nose.

We also hosted a little Halloween shin-dig for anyone who didn't have plans but wanted something to do. I had a lot of fun decorating for this party. We had a good little turn-out and our friends dressed up in some awesome costumes :)

The Friends:

Sara and Ellie

Steve and Ellie

Jon & Caitlin

Joe & Kathy

The Decor:

I had a bit too much fun with the cheese cloth ;)

and All Play

Once August was over, I felt like I could finally breathe again. We have taken full advantage of every non-scheduled moment and played. Labor Day weekend was a great way to start the fun. On Friday, Aug 31, despite a torrential downpour of rain, we suited up and went to the Irish Festival, which has become an annual tradition for us. It was at the Irish Fest 2 years ago that I finally felt like I might be able to survive living here in KC, and enjoy it. We had a blast! Due to the rain, there were not many people there but music was playing and vendors were selling Scotch Eggs and Meat Pasties. We found a dry place to sit under a big tent and revelled in the moment of relaxation and happiness (while sipping freshly squeezed lemonade, of course).

                   This is the best I could get in the dark:

On Labor Day, Sept 3, we went to the annual Pops in the Park concert. It's a free concert put on by the Kansas City Symphony. The weather wasn't too hot and the symphony played some of our favorite pieces. It was a perfect night!

Last weekend we kept the fun up by going to the Renaissance Festival. We spent 5 hours wandering through the huge village, partaking of medieval chamber music, people watching (people really have too much fun dressing up!) , trying on masks, watching jousting duels (to the death!) and learning how to shoot a crossbow. A seriously awesome way to spend the day!

Check out the royalty:

This is no little pansy fair, this is a real treat. The village is a permanent fixture with buildings, pavilions, gardens, fountains of running water all situated on meandering paths between tall trees. You can almost make yourself believe that you are really 600 years in the past, except that it's too clean and doesn't stink. But don't worry, they make up for that inside the bathrooms. No expense is spared to make sure you have an authentic experience. Nothing like the smell of roughage and sewer run-off and stepping over who-knows-what to really convince you that you are in a medieval village. ;)

Alexander had fun playing the carnival games, even winning me some "champion beads" in a crossbow game. I wore them proudly the rest of the day. His longbow skills need a little work though. ;)

                   Winning me some champion beads :)

                   A serious longbow for a serious archer

                   Check out the burly man with his Thor's hammer

                   Training with a real weapon

                   The Victorious Crossbow Champion!

All Work

I think I spent all of August being exhausted. I had the two family weddings, Tanner & Karianne's and Bryce & BreeAnna's (sorry, I left my camera home so I have to get pics from my mom). I spent the majority of my time in Utah working my tail-end off. We flew for Tanner's but drove for Bryce's and when I got home, still dreary eyed from the 19 hr drive, everyone asked how my vacation was. I unashamedly announced that I had had no vacation.

The next week on August 28, I undertook my first real Relief Society activity since getting the calling to RS 2nd counselor. We conducted a Sisterly Swap, where sisters donated stuff they no longer needed and took stuff that they did need. For refreshments I created a Popcorn Bar complete with 5 different flavors of popcorn: regular Butter & Salt, Cinnamon & Sugar, Kettle Corn, Masala Curry, and Rosemary Parmesan. It looked and tasted amazing! (PS, I'm addicted to popcorn!)

The very next night, on August 29 & 30, I presented a training course entitled "Intro to Becoming an Event Planner". I spent 6 hours discussing the ins and outs of the business and found myself absurdly missing it. Successfully presenting that course was probably one of the most amazing experiences of my life, by the way. It was another reminder that I can do hard things and that I did actually know what I was doing when I was planning events. The entire time I felt the Holy Ghost there, reminding me of experiences, tips and details that I had forgotten in the years since running my business. I only had 21 slides and no notes. The attendees gave me flying colors and are planning on enrolling in my next course, "Successful Event Planning". It will be 16 hours of intense details and will be held in October. To be honest, despite my previous success, I'm terrified.

The course description I was given:

Thankfully, August is over :)