Getting Ready for Christmas

Jordan and I are SOOOO excited for Christmas! The week after Thanksgiving, I decorated our front porch with lights and our front room with some Christmas decorations. For some reason, we waited until 2 weeks before Christmas to get a tree. A real tree, mind you! I LOVE the smell of Christmas trees. That, and the smell of "smoker-men" incense brings to mind so many Christmas memories from growing up. We weren't sure where to get a tree, so I kept my mind out while driving in Richmond. There really weren't many places it seemed! We also needed to get a tree stand. Target was all out of them, so we went to Home Depot and lo and behold, they had Christmas trees! For really good prices too. So we got a cute 6-foot Douglas Fir, a tree stand, and some tree food. Isn't it cute!?

We've gotten all our shopping done and I'm loving just taking in this Christmas season. It snowed last week (2 inches) and all the schools had a snow day and a lot of businesses shut down. It was pretty hilarious! We decided to go to the mall that day, and it was perfect because NO-ONE was out! Then the snow melted over the next couple days and we're supposed to get a "big" snow storm this weekend. I hope it doesn't interfere with our flight home!

Yesterday at work we had a potluck and I was the only one who remembered. Haha. We were supposed to bring foods from where we were from (A lot of the girls I work with are from Africa, so they were going to bring African cuisine). Well, I brought funeral potatoes, and everyone loved them! I also brought Martinelli's, but didn't have a bottle cap opener. One of the patient's daughters brought everyone doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. Then one of the CNA's bought some Fanta from the gas station. So my dinner consisted of funeral potatoes, Krispy Kreme, and Fanta. Delicious :) It's a good thing that I burn so many calories during a shift, otherwise I would be getting fat, lol.

Good Old-Fashioned Cheesy Potatoes (Funeral Potatoes)

6 large potatoes, boiled and grated OR 24 oz. thawed country-style hashbrowns

1 (10 3/4 oz) can cream of chicken soup

2 cups sour cream

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

1/2 cup melted butter

1/3 cup chopped onion

2 cups corn flakes

2 Tbsp. melted butter

Combine soup, sour cream, cheese, 1/2 cup melted butter, and onions. Gently blend into potatoes. Pour into 9x13 baking dish. Crush corn flakes and mix in 2 tablespoons melted butter. Sprinkle on top (or omit corn flake topping and just sprinkle with paprika). Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.

Delicious!

Thanksgiving 2010

This year, I had to work on Thanksgiving. Jordan and I decided to "postpone" celebrating until the weekend, and we had a wonderful time! I had bought the smallest bone-in turkey breast I could find (5-ish pounds) and cooked the bird, made mashed potatoes, rolls, and pumpkin pie! It was a Thanksgiving to remember :) The turkey turned out pretty good, if I do say so myself. And since I bought one with a pop up thermometer, roasting it was easy. I'm going to do that from now on! I heard from my grandparents that my little cousins raised a turkey that was over 30 pounds, and they had it for Thanksgiving! Talk about a lot of meat! Our little bird lasted us for about a week.

For the turkey, I rubbed it with olive oil, salt, and pepper and cooked it for 2-3 hours. The rolls are freezer rolls. Pumpkin pie came from can (and was yummy). The potatoes are 4 large potatoes, with sour cream, cream cheese, milk, butter, salt, and pepper. I've found that you can have a delicious meal without the hassle of cooking all day long - meaning you can make things from a can or the freezer section and they'll still taste good. Yay for shortcuts! :)

We're Coming Home!

I totally spaced blogging about this - we're coming home for Christmas! We fly in on Christmas day at one in the afternoon. We're SOOOO excited to see everyone and we want to fit in as many visits as possible! I fly out Monday night and Jordan will fly out Thursday night.

Disney World and Universal Studios

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we had the chance to meet up with the Hendersons, Petersons, and Evers for a family vacation in Disney World and Universal Studios! It was amazing!

Day One:

Jordan and I caught our hour-and-a-half (that's right, folks) flight down to Orlando early in the morning. Mitch, Jackson, and Creighton picked us up from the airport and we went to check in at the hotel. We decided to go to Animal Kingdom first, so the little boys could have the time of their lives, and got our tickets all set. We had an amazing time! The safari was better than I ever remember it. The boys went on Dinosaur with Mitch like 20 times and loved every minute of it. You can see the video description of what Dinosaur is like here. Aren't our nephews awesome?! We even took Jackson on the Mount Everest ride. He barely made the height requirement, but he loved it! We also went on the river raft ride, and got completely wet. I just love how happy the little boys were about getting soaked.

Then Allie and Easton flew in and we went to dinner at Chevy's, which was incredible by the way. If you like seafood, you should definitely get the crab and shrimp quesadilla - so delicious.

After dinner, Mitch, the boys, and Jordan and I went to the Magic Kingdom. We rode on the Thunder Mountain Railroad (is that the name?) and a the Haunted Mansion. The boys were so nervous for the Haunted Mansion, but they bragged afterward that they were only scared once. :) And I am extremely pleased to announce that there are going to be TWO new rides at the Magic Kingdom soon....Little Mermaid and The Beauty and the Beast!!!!!! My two favorite movies!!!!! I am so excited.

Jordan and I decided to go back to the hotel at this point because we had only gotten 3 hours of sleep and were exhausted.

Day Two:

Sunday was a wonderfully relaxing day. There was the big debate about whether Epcot was considered educational enough to count as a worth-while Sunday activity. Jordan, Jim, and Matt thought it was, so they spent almost the whole day at Epcot. I basically read Harry Potter all day (gearing up for the movie)! Around lunch-time, we decided to rent a four-person bike and ride around the lake. Lindsey, me, Jackson, Allie, Mitch, Creighton, Easton, and Beckham rode around three times! We are so fast. It was quite a workout too.

That evening, we went to Downtown Disney for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, mainly so the little boys could have an awesome time. Then we walked around and Jordan and I bought some awesome shirts.

After Downtown Disney, we all played Scum, one of our favorite games.

Day Three:

Monday was incredible. We spent the day at Universal Studios. My absolute favorite part of the entire park was THE WONDERFUL WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER!!!!! Ahh, I was like a little kid the entire day! So many wonderful things. Hogwarts was amazing, Hogsmeade was amazing, butterbeer was amazing, Hogwarts Express was amazing, Honeydukes, Zonko's, Ollivanders, Dervish and Banges.......I LOVED IT!!! I am a self-proclaimed Harry Potter freak, and so I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it.

We also went to Suess Land, Marvel Superheroes Land, Jurassic Park, and a couple others. They were so fun :) The boys absolutely loved the Spiderman ride! And they were able to go on the Flying Pterodactyl ride. Almost all the adults decided to go on this "great" river adventure with Popeye, and it was awful! The main point of the ride was to completely soak you, and those that weren't wearing ponchos did indeed get completely soaked.

After drying off a bit, Micah wanted to go on the Jurassic Park river ride. "You won't get wet, maybe just a little sprinkled." Yeah. Right. :) Here we are, drifting along next to the bronchiosaurus, and then there is this HUGE drop and I got soaked! "Micah!!!" It was a hot day though, so we dried off quickly.

For lunch, Jordan and I went to the Three Broomsticks, which was an amazing experience. The attention to detail in Harry Potter Land is incredible!

For dinner that night, we went to Cheesecake Factory and then shopped a bit around the mall. Then we took the flight home!

It was an awesome experience and we were so lucky to be able to see our family members, if only for a few days! We love you guys! (P.S. See our cool shirts! haha)

Me on a Scooter

Well, we took the plunge way earlier than expected. Shown above is photographic evidence that Melyn and I purchased a scooter. How did this happen? So, I've been searching craigslist off and on over the last month to see how much used scooters were going for and what models people were selling. Using craigslist hadn't been very promising here in Richmond because rarely a scooter would appear that would fit our needs and usually it wouldn't be in very good condition nor would the seller be asking a fair price. So we had been planning to buy a new scooter at a dealership sometime next year when we could afford it. But, last week I noticed a posting for a Yamaha C3 (the same model Melyn mentioned would be a good compromise for us). It looked like it was fairly new and in good condition, but the seller was asking for more than we would consider buying it for. However, the seller kept going down in price every few days as he mentioned he was moving to California and needed to sell the scooter in part to buy his plane ticket. So it got to a point where it was listed for an unbelievable deal, and we decided to take a look.

After test driving it a bit, I felt very happy with it. After talking it over some more with Melyn, doing some more research as well as looking at its background, we decided to buy it. My first ride home with it was very fun. It can reach a little above 40 mph, which is fine for the roads I'll be riding on. It should cut my ride time to school almost in half, plus I won't arrive sweaty. And yes, Mom, I will be safe and wear a helmet always!

Scooters

Jordan and I went looking at scooters today! We won't be able to get one until January when the rest of Jordan's loan money is given to us, but it's nice to dream :)

This is the Yamaha C3. It has a nice big storage space under the seat and lots of extra safety features so it won't get stolen.

This is the Honda Ruckus. Jordan loves it because it looks manly.

This is the Honda Metropolitan. I like it because it's so cute. Jordan thinks it looks girly.

I think we're going to compromise and get the C3, due to the storage space, price, and sturdiness. Yay!

Halloween

Halloween weekend was great. It was especially sweet because of the good news of Jordan's wrist and shoulder. Because we are on the activities committee, we helped to plan our ward's Trunk-or-Treat. We brought our pumpkins and lanterns to help decorate and I made Pumpkin Chicken Chili (Amazing) for the chili cook-off. Surprisingly, I won second prize with my chili! For those who have the Dining with Duchess cookbook, it's on the last page of the main course section, page 84. The recipe is as follows:

Saute:

1 onion

1 yellow or green pepper, chopped

1 T. garlic, minced (3 cloves)

Oil

Combine saute mixture with:

3 c. chicken broth

2 (15 oz.) cans black beans, rinsed and drained

2.5 c. chicken, cooked and cut in bite-sized pieces

1 (15 oz.) can pumpkin

1 (15 oz.) can diced tomatoes

2 T. parsley

1 T. chili powder

2 tsp. oregano

2 tsp. cumin

1.5 tsp. curry powder

0.5 tsp. salt

Cook in crockpot on low for 4 to 5 hours.

Notes: I accidently used pumpkin pie mix instead of pumpkin and I think it added a lot of flavor - it was so yummy!

Approximately 200 people came to the party, and it was so fun to see all the little kids and even some adults dressed up :)

The next day, Halloween, we went to church and then watched The 'Burbs with Tom Hanks. Hilarious, and sort of Halloween-ish. I made a pumpkin cobbler for the Richmond Mormon Chorale party/rehearsal and it was delicious. I think pumpkin desserts are my favorite! Jordan said that a total of one person came trick-or-treating at our house, and he didn't even answer the door because he was playing Starcraft. Lame!

Today I got called off work, which is always nice. I've been needing a little bit of a break. I'm so excited to see Jordan's side of the family next week when we go to Disney World! It is going to be amazing!

I asked the scheduling person at work about getting a couple days off around Christmas so that we could come home, and she said that it's company policy that there are...NO vacations from December 15 to January 15. How retarded and lame is that. I couldn't believe it. The only way we will be able to come out is if I can get someone to cover one of my shifts. So I'm going to keep trying to get coverage, but we'll see what happens. :(

A little note about commenting on blogs - The reason Jordan mentioned that I feel no one reads these is because of the lack of comments. You don't have to be a member of Blogger to comment, just click "comments" at the bottom of a post to comment as anonymous (just remember to leave your name) :). This is really the only way for me to communicate to you, our family and friends, about what is going on in our lives, and it makes me happy to read your comments, kind of like reading a conversation. Because that's what this blogging is all about. Communication! We love you so much and thank you for reading!