The 12 Days of Christmas

This [past] Christmas I had a secret Santa that left me little gifts on my doorstep or in my mailbox the 12 days before Christmas. I've heard of people doing this before, but I've never been a part of it (on the giving or the receiving end). Although I'm definitely the kind of person that would much rather give than receive, I admit that it was really fun getting my little gift each day and wondering who the giver was and why they chose me to be the one they were so kind to.

The gifts weren't anything extravagant, just a small present with a little poem attached to it. I took a picture of my gifts once I had gotten all of them.

My secret Santa never did reveal themself to me which was kind of disappointing since I wanted my curiosity satisfied, but I completely understood because I know I would've wanted to stay anonymous, too. Thank you, secret Santa, if you're reading this!

New Year's Eve 2012

On New Year's Eve we had a family party to celebrate . My sister Sharon and her family were still in town, and my sister Laura and her family came over, too. Chandra's work is open every day of the year, but she was able to get off, so she was able to party with us, as well. Our party wasn't anything fancy; just an excuse to have some yummy food while we enjoyed spending quality time together.

We decided to have appetizers for dinner and everything tasted so good. 

We had buffalo chicken dip which is one of my favorite party foods (it went over well with the whole crowd) and veggie pizza. I'd never had veggie pizza before, but it was AMAZING! It was my favorite thing we had that evening.

Homemade cheese ball and homemade hummus. (I've never had hummus before and I have to say that I'm not a fan. It's probably just me, though.)

Laura made homemade rolls stuffed with little bits of ham and smoked gouda

My sister Sharon brought some blackberry chipotle pepper jelly and some cranberry wasabi sauce. They were very interesting. You pour it over a brick of cream cheese and then dat it with crackers. I admit that I was very skeptical, but the jelly and sauce were both actually really good. (I especially liked the blackberry chipotle jelly).

x

Elizabeth's 12th Birthday

My niece Elizabeth's birthday is December 27, so that means that we usually get to celebrate together when her family is visiting for Christmas. This year Elizabeth turned 12. Here are some pictures of the birthday girl.

My mom made Elizabeth a chocolate tres leches cake that was really yummy.

After we had cake Elizabeth opened her presents.

Whenever Sharon helps me update my scrapbook Elizabeth always wants to help, so I got her her very own scrapbook. I filled it with all of the scrapbooking essentials, like pretty card stock and neat stickers. I also gave her a framed copy of the Young Women theme since she is now in Young Women at church. (I was lazy and didn't wrap Elizabeth's birthday presents; I just told her to close her eyes. )

Elizabeth really wanted a suitcase for her birthday, so that's what her major present was. Sharon just wrapped up the makeup bag that came with the luggage set so that she didn't have to bring it all since there van was pretty fall as it was.

The Gang's All Here!

This year for Christmas my mom and I decided to buy Pillow Pets for Sharon's kids. I shopped around on the internet and found that Kmart and Drugstore.com (of all places) had the best prices on Pillow Pets, so I submitted my order and the Pets started arriving the next day. Three days later the last one arrived. (I was really impressed with how quickly they came because I just did standard shipping.)

When the last Pillow Pet arrived I had my mom take pictures of them and then I sent the pictures to Sharon and said, "The gang's all here!" in the subject line.

I was so excited for the kids to come downstairs on Christmas morning. Although they wanted Pillow Pets, I don't think they were necessarily expecting them, so they were really surprised.

These are the pictures that my mom  took of the Pillow Pets when they arrived.

We didn't want to wrap the Pillow Pets, so we just set them in front of the Christmas tree.

I made sure Chandra had the camera in hand when the kids came downstairs and she was able to capture some surprised faces.

The three oldest girls had all picked a favorite Pillow Pet, so it was easy to know what to get for each of them (a penguin for Elizabeth, a rainbow unicorn for Kate and a puppy dog for Sarah). Rachel didn't really say which one she liked, so I picked for her (a cow). I guess I chose wrong because she really didn't seem to have any interest in it, or any other of the Pillow Pets. Too bad. Maybe she'll like it better as time goes on.

I love elephants and I thought the elephant Pillow Pet was really cute, so I picked that for Emily. Sharon had told me to get the panda for Matt because she thought he would like it, but when Matt saw the elephant he made a beeline for it. Fortunately, Emi is accommodating, so we just switched Emi's Pillow Pet with Matt's.

The picture above shows Matt making a beeline for the elephant. He sure knew what he wanted!

Emi really liked her elephant, but was just as happy to switch to the Panda. Way to be a peacemaker! I'm so glad that the Pillow Pets were a success and went over so well!