December (wedding, Christmas, games galore)

WEDDING:

Our niece, Alicia, married Dallin Marr in the Reno Temple on Tuesday the 20th of December (which was also my parents' 55th wedding anniversary). It was a beautiful day. Congratulations Alicia and Dallin (and Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad).

Alicia and Dallin Marr

Dallin's brother and sisters vs. Alicia's brothers

PREPARING FOR CHRISTMAS:

Once school was out on the 22nd it was time to get busy. Here we are with our traditional gingerbread houses. Why do I always buy so much candy? I have more than half left.

Eric, Alex, and Andrew

Glen's creations: the Salt Lake Temple and the St. George Temple

Hannah

Dad lighting the traditional bayberry candle at sunset (4:36 pm) on Christmas Eve to bring good luck

sign on Hannah's door...she was very busy Christmas Eve

CHRISTMAS DAY (pictures are out of order, but I guess it doesn't really matter):

With Christmas being on a Sunday, we had church from 11 to noon. The week before Christmas, Alex said that we should wait until after church to open gifts (but Andrew didn't agree). So we said we'd wait. Christmas morning Alex had a change of heart and wanted to open gifts before church. Andrew said we should wait. Since we take a long time to open gifts (about 2 hours), we opted to wait. It was pretty funny.

Andrew in action

...and still posing (Glen's opening a new snackster since Andrew took ours to college)

Andrew, Ryan, Glen, and Alex playing one of our many new games (Oltre Mare)

Alex found the pickle hidden in the tree so he got to be first to choose a gift to pass out

Alex and me

Mom capturing the action

Eric opening a gag gift from my parents...bubble wrap to pop

Dad getting his new NY Giants cap and shirt out of the bag

Glen napping in the middle of the festivities (it was 2 pm)

Ryan modeling the shark hat Hannah made for him

Hannah's turn

For Christmas we got a ton of board games: 3 different expander packs for our beloved game of Dominion, Oltre Mare, Small World, 5 Second Rule, White Lies, Forbidden Island, 2 different Trivia games, Dixit, Guesstimations, Pentago, and Pandemic. I have played most of these and I can say we love them all...except for the trivia games (one's the 21st century and the other is Christmas trivia) because they are way too hard. 

It has been a major game marathon over here for the past week. Sad to say, Andrew goes back to college tomorrow (and taking Guesstimations and Pentago with him) and the fun won't be quite as much.

Other happenings:

The "Perrazzo Ln" street sign in front of our house was swapped out so it now correctly reads "Perazzo Ln."

Ryan was accepted into BYU-Idaho.

Hannah ran in Fallon's 5K race this morning. Way to go Hannah!

I had to force Hannah to let me take this photo, but she's ready to go.

Pinterest projects report and ugly sweater day

Perhaps I'll start with it was ugly sweater day at the high school today. Hannah and Glen wore sweaters and Ryan chose to go with his Christmas vest.

I've been busy getting ready for Christmas, but I've also been busy trying out some things that I found on Pinterest.com. Pinterest is an online database where you can "pin" things you like from the internet onto different "bulletin boards" (files) you make so you can find them again when you want to. You can pin anything...beautiful photographs, recipes, crafts, quotes.... Better than bookmarking because you can see a picture that goes with the item. You can "follow" what your friends and others pin and repin them to your boards if you like them.

So in case you were wondering about how some of the items I've pinned actually work (yea, I know, no one was really wondering):

Magic shell:
As reported on last time, the magic shell ice cream topping got a mixed review. It tasted too much of coconut (ingredients are 1 1/4 c chocolate chips and 1/2 c coconut oil) for me, but others in my family like it. The site did say you could use butter instead of coconut oil. If I try it again, I might try that version. You can find it at:
http://www.skiptomylou.org/2011/07/08/diy-magic-shell/


Cleaning microfiber couches:
My couch doesn't look as clean as hers did after the rubbing alcohol treatment, but it is certainly better than it was. You put straight rubbing alcohol into a spray bottle and spray and scrub your couch with a sponge. Simple as that. The link to the pin's site:
http://www.imperfecthomemaking.com/2011/11/how-to-clean-microfiber-sofa.html

Homemade tub and shower cleaner:
The dawn and white vinegar solution for cleaning tubs, showers, and sinks was excellent. You heat up 1 cup of white vinegar and then add 1 cup dawn dishwashing soap and put it in a spray bottle. Spray in the tub, shower, or sink, wait a few minutes (even over night if you want) then scrub and rinse.You still have to scrub just a little and put up with the vinegar smell, but it works great and beats the chemical smells that hurt my lungs. I think the vinegar helps keep the sudsing down, though it is tough to rinse the soap out the sponge afterwards.
http://www.food.com/recipe/tub-and-shower-magic-434275


Weekly to-do list:
You take a picture frame that has 8 individual frames attached together. You put pretty paper in the frames and use it to write your daily things to do. I bought the frame at Walmart for $10. Here is my version:

I will change the paper out after Christmas, of course. But I love the idea. This idea came from:
http://fey-next2heaven.blogspot.com/2011/09/our-launch-pad-new-weekly-calendar.html

There are a few projects I plan on trying soon...like the yellow underarm stain treatment found here:
http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/2011/11/goodbye-to-yellow-armpit-stains.html (why is dawn in so many homemade recipes???)