Gingerbread Houses

At Christmas time, we each participate in a variety of traditions with our families and friends. Gingerbread is not foreign to me, but it hasn't been a yearly event. I have to admit, it really is a lot of fun! On Monday night, Kyle and Janae (who got engaged on Saturday!!!!) came over to make houses with us. Between mixing the coloring into the icing and putting on the final touches, we had a ton of fun. The boys kept punching holes into our "decorating bags" while squeezing out the icing, so we banned them for a bit. Until the red started to leak on me, and Janae pretty much split the blue bag entirely open, and then we figured, hey, it could happen to anyone! **note- don't use sandwich bags, they aren't really that dependable.** But you know, the hardest part about making gingerbread houses is NOT eating all the candy before the houses are finished. Ian kept eating the twizzler twists by the twist-ful!! Not even just a piece or two, he ate the whole thing!! haha. But as you can see, the houses turned out great.



Kyle and Janae must have dreams of their future house. You can see there is a hot tub in the back of the house with a few naked gummy bears taking a dip (Ian threw an orange M&M in and said a coi (goldfish) must have gotten inside, and Kyle threw in a brown one....eww, gross.) There are a ton of carolers singing on the front lawn, and a few lettuce heads growing on the side of the house. Also, note the gummy bears making out on the porch. Love it!




Ian and I went for a more traditional look- complete with chimney! I decided to smash the broken candy cane pieces almost to a powder and sprinkled them on the path, and it actually turned out pretty good! (Kyle asked us why we didn't have gummy bears making out in front of our house. Almost in unison, Ian and I both said "they're already married. Our bears are inside the house." Haha!) Gingerbread houses are so fun! Lets do it again next year!!

The end of the world

I'm pretty sure the end is near. I just heard a TV commercial that convinced me. The woman was saying how glad she was that she got an X box and guitar hero at Wal*Mart because "now our family is always together!!" Seriously?! Wow. Talk about being a little confused. I thought eating dinner together brings the family together, but I guess X box works better.... my bad.

This event is truly "postworthy"

I haven't posted from a pure lack of exciting events, but now, oh boy, do I have a REALLY fun post! Ok, so the post isn't that fun, but what is the fun of a birthday extravaganza without the bragging about it!? So, here goes....

Saturday was my birthday. I turned 24, and it was fabulous! It all started with a nice long wake-up. Sleeping in until 11:30 really makes for a relaxing morning! I actually woke up to a phone call from a really weird number (1234567890 or something like that.) I didn't get to the phone in time because it was in the other room, but I had a message from my fantastic brother and his beautiful wife singing me a splendid version of "happy birthday." So Ian checked for me, and yep, they were online! Then the google video chat started- thank goodness for the guy who invented web cam!! After a divine breakfast spread prepared by my sweetheart, I was surprised by a vase full of "bird of paradise"- my favorite flower!



Ian brings me flowers every week, so the flowers were definitely appreciated, but not too surprising. The amazing part was that they aren't in the flower shops here in Utah. Ian special ordered them for an added birthday bonus! I also got some SWEET Pampered Chef items. (I spent all of September begging Ian for some things I found online. I guess he heard me!) After the flowers and presents, we just played around the house until 4 PM when we braved the snow to head to Salt Lake. That was my birthday gift from the "big man." It snowed for my birthday last year too! This year, it started snowing in the early morning, stopped briefly for the afternoon, and then started again- but not until after we were at our dinner reservations!!!



We went to dinner at The Melting Pot- an amazing fondue restaurant in Salt Lake. I'd been to one in Virginia, but my friend's mom had paid for us. I knew it was an expensive place, but wow! We decided that if we wanted to justify it, we'd have to be celebrating Ian's b-day, my b-day, Christmas, and maybe even Valentines day! It was delicious though!!!!!! I can't say enough! Four course meal- yummy cheese fondue, next the salad, and then a Caribbean seasoned broth to cook our entrees (chicken, salmon, prime rib, shrimp, and pork- marinated to perfection!), and finally a cherries jubilee chocolate fondue that was truly spectacular!! We were in heaven! (We even splurged for valet parking- and we were glad we did when we got out and it was snowing. Car service at the door is nice!) On the way home, we stopped at Thanksgiving Point to drive through the millions of Christmas lights they have set up. It took about 20 minutes to get all the way through, and can you believe it, they elves, bears, and penguins all waved at me! The deer even jumped over the road :) I had a fantastic birthday, I really did.



We even had a fun time putting our little parakeet Vashti into the Christmas tree. She seemed a little skeptical at first, but I think she's getting used to it :)

All in all, December has been good to us, so far. I can't wait for Christmas!! I can't believe its next week! But at least I sent out all my presents already- one less thing to think about! I spent a lot of time working on Christmas presents this year because we don't have a lot of cash to play with, and I really enjoyed putting in the time and effort! I'm sure Ian is glad I'm done though- I guess when I focus on a project, I really focus. We went a week without doing any dishes. And we don't have a dishwasher. Yea, gross. But I guess so long as I'm the one doing the dishes, I can decide when to do them, right? Alright, fine, I guess I'll wash the dishes more often.

So finals are finally over, and Ian and I are going to try to be responsible adults and work as hard as we can over the Christmas holidays to save some money for next semester. I'm sure we can put in the hours, but I'm not promising anything about being responsible. We love sleeping in. And goofing off. Meh, we've got time before we need to grow up :)

Thanksgiving weekend!

Its such a great holiday. Honestly, I don't know a soul who completely dislikes it. Who doesn't like the chance to play with family and eat all day long?! Now, my little sister would object on that last part- she complained about having to wait FOREVER to eat dinner, and a few of us would agree, but even those who spend the whole morning "slaving over a hot stove" seem to enjoy the day. As this was the first official Thanksgiving that we've had together we decided it would be fun to play alone this year. We had a BLAST! With just the two of us we didn't need much of a turkey, so we opted for Cornish game hens, and Ian did a wonderful job- lemon pepper and BBQ (Sweet Baby Ray's, of course). The meal was definitely more than we needed, but so much fun! We purchased a holiday tablecloth, placemats, and centerpiece, and set the table as fancy as our kitchenware allowed. The result was a spectacular holiday, complete with the feeling that we had eaten quite enough in one meal to get us through the rest of the month!


I did have a funny moment though, I accidentally cooked up too much sweet potatoe for the sweet potatoe souffle. Ian mocked me for a bit, reminding me that he could have done without any yucky sweet potatoes in the first place, and I assured him that this was no ordinary sweet potatoe recipe!! In the end, I had enough for two dishes, and I froze the second for later. Or perhaps I'll take it to the ward Christmas party in two weeks. Is it considered odd to have sweet potatoe meals for Christmas? Hmmm.

Speaking of Christmas- we are officially in the Christmas season!! Ian and I stood in line at the Wal*Mart Black Friday sale, starting at 3:30 AM for the doors to open at 5 AM so that we could be the proud owners of a $25 6.5 ft tall pre-lit Christmas tree. We managed to be the first people out of the store (the receipt reads 5:00:56 AM), and after getting home at 7 AM, we caught as much sleep as we could before I had to go to work at 2 PM. After work we couldn't contain ourselves!! We set up the tree, decorated it, and then gazed at our work in excitement. I love Christmas! And I love Christmas lights!! They give off such a happy glow. Oh! And the best part! We needed a star for the top, because what is a tree without a topper, right? Well, we have ornaments that were mine from when I was little and one of them just happened to be a star! Haha, so you can't really tell, but the star says "Christen" on it, and that just makes me feel special.

So there you have it- Thanksgiving weekend with the youngest Pierce Family. What fun!

It Has Begun

Its an addiction, you know. And I knew it. I tried to hide. But they were relentless! "You should start a blog," they said. "Its such a good way to keep in touch," they said. "You guys do such fun things. You need to document it!" they said. I was no match for all the extra temptation. So it has begun, the Ian and Christen Pierce family have entered the blogosphere.

What, you don't think its an addiction? Well how about the fact that I started this process (with an extra push from Ian) at midnight. And all I've really done is scratch the surface of the basic layout. It is now 2:18 AM. Seriously?! Hi, my name is Christen, and I have an addiction.

PS- I need to make friends with someone who knows html stuff. I need lessons.