Santa Lives Here

I found Santa Clause naked and in our bathtub tonight.

I must say, he was astoundingly jovial.

What's New

I've committed myself to making all my Christmas gifts this year. It has been a little difficult with time constraints and what not, but so far I have 3 of my projects completed! I wish I could post pictures of them now, but that would just ruin the surprise for those who might read this blog. :) I can't wait to give my gifts away! I have had such a tremendous surge of creative energy lately. I don't know why. But I've been doing a lot of crafty little things and learning new skills. I love it. I've also been writing like crazy, especially poetry, which I haven't done in a very long time. It feels so good. I just wish I had more time to do the things I love.

Mike is almost finished with the semester and I couldn't be happier. It will be nice to have him all to myself over the Christmas break. Well, I don't know how much time we'll actually have since he'll be pushing to write up most of his thesis during that time, and then there's that little thing called a "job" that he'll have to go to....but hopefully we'll get to hang out more than when he's in school full time.

Vessel is getting bigger all the time. He' s walking around like crazy. We bought him a pair of shoes a few weeks ago but they really detract from his walking ability since they're so darn chunky and heavy. So we were happy when Kathy got him some awesome little shoes that are light and thin, with a thin sole. Thank you so much Kathy, he has no problem getting around in those! Vessel is getting more molars, which has been a pain in the butt for both of us. It shouldn't be long until he's eating a T-bone steak. :) He's learning so fast too. I watch him play in the mornings and he is getting so smart. He talks to his toys in different voices. Seriously, it's so cute I can hardly stand it. He's learned how to twist lids on and off of jars, bottles, and such and he could go on doing that for for hours it seems. He loves fitting shapes into his shape sorter and being pulled around on a blanket. The other day I was changing the bedding so our comforter was on the floor. He climbed on top of it and so I started pulling him around the house. I could hear his laughter trailing behind me. He is starting to love books more too. He was never that interested in them before, but now he'll crawl up on my lap to read a story and sit there contently. He has gotten quite independent lately, especially when it comes to feeding himself. He hates it when I try to spoon feed him because he wants to do it, dang it. That creates a bit of a mess, but if it's at night before his bath I'll usually let him go at it with his Vessel size eating utensils. Vessel loves to point and where ever we go he is constantly staring and pointing and learning and discovering new things. When we had our first snow of the season I didn't think much of it. I mean come on, I grew up in Idaho, so I've seen plenty of snow in my life. But it didn't dawn on me until Vessel and I went out to run errands that day that it was his first time seeing snow. He pointed like crazy and "oohed" and "awwed" about it. He has been fascinated with it ever since. I let him play in it for awhile yesterday. It was like the cold didn't even phase him, he was so intrigued by the stuff that it didn't matter a bit. I really love that kid and it's so fun to watch all of these "firsts" happen in his life.

So that's life lately. Not a whole lot to tell I guess. :)

Murder Under the Mistletoe

On Saturday, we went to a murder mystery hosted by our friends Gavin and Tracy. Gavin's birthday is this Tuesday, so Tracy wanted to throw a fun party for him. It was really cool and was a fun excuse to dress up. We ate first and then when everyone had arrived we started the game. We were given clues and had several different tasks to complete, some being quite challenging. With all the information we were given we had to figure out who the murderer was.

Here is the crime scene where the late Reginald Desmond was killed.

Here we are dressed up as our characters. I was DeVine Desmond, wife of the late Reginald Desmond. Mike was Martinique.

Shopping for our costumes was very entertaining. I borrowed some black stilettos and baret from a friend to match the Paris ensemble I was shooting for. I was so excited because I won best costume! Although, I thought Martinique was going to win since he was looking quite ravishing as well.

Here are some of the attendants. Colonel Cream, Jazzy Jingles, Gavin Foreshanks, Biff Lava, Virgo, Cooter Grits, Mother Desmond, DeVine Desmond, and Martinique.
(not pictured: Salty Winkle and Chutney Cheddar.)

Thanks for inviting us to your mysteriously murderous party! We had a lot of fun!

No More Mohawk

Today we decided to cut Vessie's hair. We wanted to trim it up a bit since the ends were getting kind of stringy. But since Daddy had the shears out anyway to cut his own hair today, we thought we might as well take them to Vessel's mane as well. I was okay with it, but when it was all said and done I felt like crying! At least I got a few locks of his baby hair to keep in his scrapbook. Here are some pictures of the momentous event.

Vess didn't even fuss. He just sat there kind of bewildered.

"The hair tickles my nose, Daddy!"

I couldn't get a real good "after" picture, my apologies. But maybe you can tell the shortness of his hair from this picture. I actually like the way his hair turned out and it's fun to rub his head. I think his shorter hair makes him look much more grown up.
p.s. you can thank Thomas, a boy in our ward, for the scratch by his eye.
Psh!

Tori Concert

Do you think just like that
You can divide
This
You as yours
Me as mine
to before we were Us
if the rain
Has to separate from Itself
does it say "pick out your cloud?"

---Tori Amos from “Your Cloud”

Last night we attended the Tori Amos concert here in Salt Lake. Mike willingly went with me even though he had no idea who Tori was or what her music was like. To prepare him for the concert I played a few of her CDs beforehand. After popping in the CD Under the Pink, I was immediately taken back to 7^th grade when I first heard the album. Strange how, with each album we listened to, a scene from my life played out in my memory. I remember many a day going home after a bad day at school, putting on one of her albums and laying on my bed just listening to her and that piano. I believe many of her songs literally got me through some of the most turbulent times of adolescence. I admired how fearless she seemed, exposing so much of her life through her music and lyrics. I adored her words and her talent. But I was a different person then. After listening back on her old music this week, I felt that perhaps I had outgrown it or that I had outgrown her. My taste in music has changed over time, just as my life has. I started to get the feeling that maybe her concert wouldn’t be as momentous as I had hoped. But as soon as the opening song reached my ear, I knew that her music, and yes, even her idiosyncrasies, still had a place in my heart. I may not agree with a lot of her ideas anymore, but I still appreciate her talent, because she undoubtedly has a rare gift. And the fact that Tori’s music has secured a spot on my life’s soundtrack won’t ever change.

So, the concert was amazing. It was my first Tori concert and she puts on an excellent show full of intense energy and fierceness. Her opening act was a solo guitarist by the name of Yoav, who had a remarkable sound. I told Mike that we needed to buy his E.P. and we had just enough cash to purchase it. I am eagerly looking forward to his upcoming album. Tori opened her show with Cruel from the album From the Choirgirl Hotel. After a few numbers in a silky green dress and dark hair (not sure if it was a wig) she went and changed into the most hideous silky, full-body, animal print get-up and orange hair. But I couldn’t hold it against her, because I mean, come on, she IS Tori Amos afterall, and she can get away with wearing just about anything. So, needless to say, I forgave her quickly and enjoyed the show. She played a lot of her old stuff, which made the crowd go crazy. She performed many of my personal favs, including Mother, Caught a Lite Sneeze, Cornflake Girl, and Precious Things. I also remember her playing Crucify, Pretty Good Year, Amber Waves, and Smoky Joe. She ended the night with Hey Jupiter, after a second encore. It was awesome to watch her play her “baby,” (her grand piano) as if it had been attached to her since birth. On some occasions she straddled the piano bench with one hand on the grand piano and the other on the keyboard behind her. Even Mike couldn’t disagree with her astonishing musical ability. We both had a great night….

Which is more than I can say for Conor and Jessica, our lovely downstairs neighbors who offered to watch Vessel for us. Apparently Vessel was quite the beast last night. According to Jessica, he was fine until he started to get tired, but he just wouldn’t go to sleep. He fought and fought to stay awake which made him downright angry I guess, and the exhaustion finally took over and he had a melt down. He cried and cried for nearly 2 hours until Jessica decided to take him up to our apartment and put him in his own familiar bed. He sobbed for about 5 minutes and then he magically fell asleep. We happened to walk in the door not more than 5 minutes after he eventually crashed. We met a frazzled Jessica sitting on our couch where she told us the story. This is a first for Vessel, so I feel very sorry that it had to happen to our friends. Lately Vessel has developed separation anxiety and has become very apprehensive towards strangers. My little boy is changing so rapidly. But it’s times like last night that I think we scare our childless friends from ever wanting to have children of their own. Sorry guys.

Anyway, here are some pictures and videos from the concert. Enjoy!

Uh-Oh Mommy...

Ever since Vessel became a part of our family, the number of things in our house that have been stained, smeared, stretched, ripped, and broken have increased by nearly 100%! Okay, I don't know the actual stats, but it's quite a bit. Here's a lovely example:

Mom's praying angel statuette from Mexico given to her by her best friend Candace is now in 2 pieces.

Moral of the story: Don't let your kid play with your sentimental breakables.
My excuse: Didn't know he could even reach it, the little booger.

You know it's going to be a good day when....

...you pour yourself a bowl of chocolate Marshmallow Mateys and the marshmallow to cereal ratio is exceptionally higher than usual. Mmmmmm, marshmallows......

Our Weekend and Stuff

On Saturday our friends Bekah and Chris from the Boise area paid a visit to our humble abode. Chris and I have been friends since high school and have kept in touch over the years. He married his awesome wife Bekah while Mike and I were in Japan. This past weekend was our first time meeting eachother and I have to say, it was not awkward in the least. :) It was like we had been friends forever. Well, we knew each other through blogging, emails, and such...so it didn't feel like I was meeting a total stranger.

And they came bearing gifts! For awhile Bekah had been talking about a secret crochet project on her blog and I was completely touched to find out that she was making it for me. I had no clue. She made me one sweet looking beanie with a matching short scarf. The girl is talented I must say. She also crocheted Vessel some poo (yup folks, you read it correctly..POO) and stuffed it. It looks just like the Japanese cartoon swirly poops! It is the coolest thing ever. We laughed so hard about it! Vessel really likes it and has been playing with it for the past 2 days. They also got Mike the DVD Evan Almighty, so we will watch that soon and I'll have to give it a review on my entertainment corner blog.


I really love the design and colors she used.

Unchi! (a.k.a. "poop" in English)

Vessie playing with his new found friend.

They are the most thoughtful people ever, am I right? I wish we lived closer. I'm glad you guys stopped by on your long journey home!

The rest of the weekend went pretty fair. I finally got my new shirt I ordered from Layers in the mail. I went to Robert's craft Saturday night to pick up some nifty boxes to use for my YW lesson. I swear I could spend all of my money at the craft store. Just let me loose with a thousand dollars in that place and every penny would be gone, no joke. I spent the rest of the night painting the boxes and tying bows on them for the girls. Well, that's a lie. I spent most of my night playing Dr. Mario with our downstairs neighbor Gavin. I am obsessed with that game and I am always bound and determined to beat him! I mean, sure I've beaten the guy before, but it was pretty much not due to my skill, but rather due to stupid mistakes he made during the game. Here I was thinking I'm all hot to trot, but Gavin is pretty dang good. He's also competitive. But I like the challenge.
Sunday was so-so. I taught the YW lesson and later that evening we went over to the Green's to watch Church Ball, which, by the way, was the corniest show I've seen in a LONG time. I also played more video games with Gavin. I'm pretty much a total gamer now, but not quite as much as Mike.
Things here have been going pretty well. Now that Thanksgiving has passed, Christmas is well on it's way. We've been trying to figure out what to do about a Christmas tree this year. We're just afraid that Vessel will pull it onto himself trying to grab the ornaments. Although, Chris mentioned we could buy a little gate to put around it to keep Vessel away. Mike joked that it would have to be an electric fence to keep him from getting near the tree, and it's true because that kid is so curious right now and wants to get into everything. Our fake tree finally gave up the ghost last year, so we will probably buy a real pine this year...that is if we get a tree at all. Maybe we can just get a small one and put it on one of the end tables out of reach. Also, I've been trying to figure out what to get Mike for Christmas. We've both decided to avoid the overabundance of gifts this year. We were thinking one gift each, maybe 2 tops, and then a few things for Vessel. So yesterday I was probing Mike trying to find out what he wanted so I'd have somewhat of an idea and he told me that for his gift he wants me to donate to a charity or to a homeless shelter. I thought that was a great idea since both of us want to shy away from all the Christmas gift hype this year and really focus on the true meaning of Christmas. I haven't even been out shopping this season. The stores are always a madhouse this time of year and I can't stand all the crowds of people and noise and lines. *grumble grumble* I'm planning on making most of my gifts anyway, so I guess it doesn't really matter. :)

Food is Good

Here's a plate o' food for ya. Turkey with cranberry relish, stuffing, sweet potatoes, dill carrots, frog eye salad, mashed potatoes, and a roll. That was just my first plate.

Baby's first Thanksgiving! I got these for Vessel because I thought it would be really funny for him to eat Thanksgiving dinner out of a jar. But alas, he ate what we ate, as he usually does at the dinner table.

Pie sampler plate. C'mon, you gotta try 'em all, right? Karen's delish homemade pumpkin pie, Mike's chocolate cheesecake, pecan pie, and another pumpkin pie. See, I had to compare the store bought pumpkin pie to the homemade pie. Consider it a science experiment. Don't judge me....I like sweets, okay?

Here we are on Thanksgiving day, happy as can be.

Thanksgiving Treats!

Cranberry Relish with Ginger

My husband is wonderful. He's always willing to cook, and I think it's awesome that he loves to try new recipes. So for thanksgiving he decided to make cranberry relish instead of that horrid cranberry sauce out of a can. :) It turned out very good. There are several alterations to this recipe, but this is the one we used.

Cranberry Relish with Ginger

The lively, clean flavor of fresh ginger is compatible with most fruits. In the market, look for ginger that is hard and heavy, with an unbroken peel that is thin, light colored, smooth and shiny. To prepare ginger, peel it with a vegetable peeler or paring knife before using as directed in a recipe.

1 orange, unpeeled and preferably
organic, scrubbed
2 bags (12 oz. each) fresh cranberries
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger



Cut the orange (with its peel on) into 16 chunks and discard any seeds. Working in batches, combine the orange chunks, cranberries, sugar and ginger in a food processor. Pulse to chop finely and evenly, stopping once or twice with each batch to scrape down the sides of the work bowl.

Transfer to a storage container, cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours to develop the flavors. Bring to room temperature and stir well before serving. Serves 8 to 10.

Make-Ahead Tip: This relish improves when made in advance, since the flavors have more time to marry. Prepare it up to 3 days before serving.

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma Collection Series,Thanksgiving,by Michael McLaughlin (Simon & Schuster, 2001).