More Christmas Stuff!!

Joe’s company Christmas party was on the 1st. Thermo Fishers’ Christmas party is known for their killer gifts and excellent food. I was so sure I was going to win that Kitchen Aid! I was wrong, but the food was still awesome. Prime rib and shrimp with roasted red potatoes, salad and sautéed vegetables…and the best part of all—cheesecake with chocolate, caramel and pecans on top. Anyone hungry yet?

Last Friday afternoon was my company Christmas party. Just like last year, it wasn’t anything to rave about. Every year they rent out a theater and we watch a movie. Last year it was Happy Feet. Joe and I were both ready to leave 15 minutes into the movie. This year was a little better, but not by far. The movie was Mr. Magorium’s Magical Emporium. Without giving it away for those of you who want to see it, the end really left something to be desired. It was pretty bad writing IMO.

Later that night was our Ward’s Christmas party. Just like most LDS activities, there were kids running around everywhere. Most of our class was there, and it was fun to see them interact with each other without feeling the need to tell them to keep their hands to themselves and to stay in their seat. For those of you who don’t know, we teach the 5 year olds at church. Good times had by all! Santa came. I asked one of the little girls in our class what she asked him for. Her request: Chapstick. It’s good to know that not all kids want the latest, greatest toys out there. Had I been able to put in my request to Santa, it would have been a pony for sure! Joe and I brought some treats for dessert, and I’m bummed that I didn’t take a picture because they were definitely all about the presentation. Maybe we'll make them again just to take the picture, but for now I can come close....here’s a link with the recipe and a picture

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cherry-Chocolate-Cups/Detail.aspx

I also made some peanut butter cups. In total, we made about 100. It was a lot of work! But I always have lots of fun doing stuff like that and Joe is patient enough to help me out so we can spend some quality time together while we work. Our least favorite part—cleaning up afterwards.

On Saturday I bought a new quilting book as an early Christmas present to myself. I’ve been interested in it for a long time and finally saw the book at JoAnn’s. When I saw that it was 40% off, that was it! I couldn’t resist. Check this out…

A Kaleidoscope quilt all made with one fabric and one block. So COOL!! I started practicing with some cheap clearance fabric and some of my fabric stash, but I don’t think it was the right style. The most important part of making these quilts is your fabric choice, and I don't quite have that part down yet. I’ll have to work on picking the right fabric because I am SO excited to make awesome quilts like these! I think the coolest part is that a lot of the fabric people use is SO ugly, but it turns out amazing. Ugly fabric is so easy to find on sale which is one big reason why I think this pattern is awesome.

Church was pretty great yesterday. A far cry from our last ward, everyone was friendly as ususal and we had some great talks in Sacrament meeting...but best of all, the kids in Primary actually participated in Sharing Time rather than just misbehaving. I think it was because the topic was something they were all interested it: Christmas!! We talked about the symbolism of things we see all the time during Christmas. Toward the end, we talked about presents which really got the kids going! At the very end, we talked about what gift we could give to Jesus for Christmas. Since we're in the Junior Primary, I think it went over most of their heads. One of the Sunbeams yelled out, "I'm going to give Jesus a caterpillar costume!" It was pretty funny! We were in the nursery before we were moved *up* to the 5 yr old class. Though, if you ask me, it's not much of a move up. The attention span is about the same, but there are no toys and the kids are more bratty and less cute! To compensate for the short lessons, we color...a LOT. While we were coloring, one of the boys wanted my help to write a letter to Jesus. He wanted me to write, "My Christmas present to Jesus is to say my prayers every day forever and ever" which totally made my day. Just when you think the message isn't going to sink in, someone shows you that it did. It makes all those weeks that you want to rip your hair out worth it.

So that was pretty much our week. More eventful than usual, so I hope you all don't start expecting all our posts to be this action packed! ;)