Creations From Everyday Life

Christmas Program

Last week, Jocelyn had her Christmas program. Tess enjoyed the view from up-top.

This piece was called, "Jocelyn basically sings Little Drummer Boy solo." She's a big mouth as it is. And was in very strong voice this particular day. I don't know why they put her right in front of the mic... other than she's short. She was literally the ONLY person we heard singing the whole time.

Enjoying Jocelyn's solo.

Kate and her cousin Genavieve rocking out to, "Must Be Santa."

We all handed Jocelyn a small bundle of flowers when the performance was over.

Jocelyn talked about how awesome she is because she's in 2nd grade. Actually she talked about how annoyed she was that the ball kept falling off of her Santa hat. Genavieve is REALLY into her story apparently.

Kate was just PUMPED!

Good night (or possibly good morning for you east coasters).  For me it's good night.

Einstein Proof + A Soup for Amy.

 

Also, she's to the age where she'll get any article of clothes off possible... through any means necessary.

 

And, as requested here is my recipe for the soup I made. I probably shouldn't tell you that it has 752 calories... but you can probably get that from reading the ingredients...

Zuppa Toscana (lighter version of the Olive Garden soup)
(recipe says it serves 4-6 people. I served it to 6 people, and had it again for lunch, and still have left overs).

• 2 cups kale
• 3 Italian sausages (we use 1 pound of Jimmy Dean hot sausage instead).
• 5 slices of center cut bacon
• 1 yellow onion (we use red onions)
• 3 large russet potatoes (we also use red)
• 32 ounces chicken broth
• 1 pint half-and-half (we use heavy whipping cream... cause that's what we had. Tasted great)
• 2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

- Cook sausage and bacon. Drain & set aside.
- Put half-and-half and chicken broth in sauce pan over medium heat (Use a big sauce pan)
- Peel potatoes and cut into 1 inch slices then quarter. Place in sauce pan. (We don't peel our potatoes. ever).
- Add cooked sausage, bacon, onion, and cut kale leaves.
- Season with red pepper.
- Simmer until potatoes are tender.

Little Einstein possibly?

Tess has possibly the most crazy hair I've ever seen on a person. I usually attempt to tame it in pigtails, but this is how it looks unattended to.

Salt Lake.

We went to Salt Lake over the weekend. While we were there we visited with family, some old friends, saw the Christmas lights at Temple Square, and ate awesome Vietnamese food.

 

The crowd was huge. What else should we have expected the week before Christmas? But I still managed to elbow myself into some cool places to take some fun pictures.

We froze. Us Southern Utahites aren't used to below freezing weather. We managed to have semi-heavy jackets. Not heavy coats. But really... do they even sell "coats" in St. George? The kids all had gloves except Katelyn, who lost hers at the house we were staying at. So she wore socks on her hand.

Tess rode on Jared's shoulders the whole time. She didn't complain once. It is entirely possible that she was frozen solid and that's why she didn't complain. She didn't move. She did look a little concerned.

Here I tried to capture the hustle and bustle of the place. I did the best I could considering I couldn't feel my fingers, was shivering, and didn't have a tri-pod:

The lights on the trees were amazing. The colors reminded me of trees in the fall. Still with their leaves. Bright red and orange. Only instead of being normal leaves, they were electronic glowing leaves. They decorated those trees all the way to the tippy top. Something I wish I could do in a tree, but haven't the means to get to the tippy top. Plus, right now... I really don't have much for a tree!

We went in the Tabernacle to warm our appendages. Jocelyn was amazed to learn about how the prophets used to speak there before they built the new conference center. Katelyn was amazed that those big pipes in the background were to an organ.

We watched the nativity. The voice recording of the story was the same as they have for the St. George Temple nativity, but the set up was way sweeter. I love that Jesus is looking out over the crowd.

Katelyn and Calvin were more interested in eating crusty, dirty snow.

 

The highlight for Calvin was seeing the UTA Trax trains/street cars on our way to and from Temple Square. We had our truck valet parked at the Marriott several blocks from Temple Square because there was absolutely NO parking anywhere! Especially for a large Dodge Ram (long bed). Best $10 ever spent!

Afterward, we made our way to Mi La Cai Noodle house, our favorite Vietnamese restaurant. Yes, I know Megan will be tempted to comment that Shanghai Cafe is the best. But Megan will be wrong. We ate there the last time we were in Salt Lake and the egg rolls definitely didn't live up to our standards.

Yummy Goodness. I'd marry them if I could. Polygamy I could handle.

I don't know how much the kids enjoyed their meal. But they were abnormally quiet the whole meal. A result of being frozen I assume.

 

I tried to take a picture of Tess, but my lens fogged over:

It was all that steamy food I guess. Tried it again from another angle:

Meet this little guy.

The newest member of our family. 

He's the kid's Christmas present from Santa.

He had been living in our closet for about a week, when a friend of Calvin's came over and they discovered him while snooping. I had been so vigilant in keeping the door locked, so I really don't know what happened! Lucky for me, the girls were still in school when this happened. Since it was Beka's daughter who snooped the pig out, I forced her to watch my kids (not really) while I snuck "piggy" as Jared and I have been calling him to Jared's work to live until Christmas Eve.

Until that point, Piggy, got to come out and play on my lap every night. Now that he's gone, I miss my little snuggle bunny... er... piggy. Guess I'll have to snuggle with my other snuggle bunny now... Jared. Darn.

Jared confessed that he programmed at work for awhile with Piggy sitting on his lap.

I think I'll pack him a lunch of carrots tomorrow. I should remember to pack something for Jared to eat too.

Oddly enough, Calvin has never once mentioned that he saw this Guinea Pig in my closet. Lily (the snooper outer) insists Calvin was playing with it (and held it even). Since, Lily has mentioned the pig several times to her mom, (or bunny as she calls it). But Calvin hasn't mentioned it once or even went back in the closet to see if it was still there. It almost makes me wonder if Calvin really DID see the "bunny" or if he was just more interested in the cookies he found hidden in my bathroom.