Over-gifting

Do you see this box?  It's filled with books for Christmas for me and only me.  Seem a bit excessive?  Well, you should know my loving husband went overboard because of a slight misunderstanding.

If you know me you know that I absolutely love reading.  I borrow books, check them out from the library, and get them super cheap on amazon, but the books that tend to be hardest to get that way are some of my favorite LDS authors.  (Just a side note- some are over the top cheese and I can't take them, but I have a few authors that I really like).  For some reason the stars aligned and every author that I love had a new book out this Christmas.  I couldn't decide which ones I wanted (since I wanted them all), so I circled them in the catalog mailing and told Joel to chose whichever ones he wanted, so there would be some element of surprise for Christmas.
I thought he would buy 2, maybe 3 if I was really lucky....and then the box arrived yesterday.  Joel asked me if it was ok if he wrapped them in front of me, and I said I wanted to be surprised.  He looked a little confused, and I asked, "Joel, um, how many did you get?"  In the most pathetic voice possible he said, "I got all of the ones you circled.  I thought you wanted ALL of them."  Apparently he missed the whole selection process.  I couldn't believe he spent that much money!  When I asked him if he thought it wasn't a bit much when he was ordering them, his only reply was that he thought if I was ok with it then it must be ok. (I'm usually the penny pincher in the family).
So the long and the short of it is that we may have to live off of beans and rice for a couple of weeks, but I am stocked with LOTS of reading material for the winter.  Joel claims it'll only last me 3 weeks at the most, but I'll spread it out. :)

More Holiday Goodies!

 I had a few more people I wanted to give something to and they have little kids, so I decided to do a fun little variation for cupcakes.......  Meet the edible Rudolph and his reindeer!  They're quite yummy- um, not that I tried one to make sure they were alright or anything.......



(the ears are tootsie rolls- in case you were wondering)

Challenge Completed

Back in the summer I talked about the challenge we were given to read the Book of Mormon by the end of the year.  Well, this morning I completed the book and thus, the challenge.  I have to say that it was really enjoyable to just read it straight through.  I'd been studying topics and such for a long time, so it had been a while since I read it cover to cover.  It gave me a broad scope of the magnitude and over-arching themes that run through out the book, and renewed my love for these scriptures.
Joel and I are also on the verge of finishing the Old Testament together.  We should be done by the first of the year.  It's the first time we've read it together, and even though it's taken us a while to get through it, I feel like I've learned a lot.  We're moving on to the Doctrine and Covenants next- that shouldn't take anywhere near as long. :)

Edible White Trash

Want a simple holiday recipe?  Every year my mom would make this for our neighbors (by popular demand/request) for Christmas, and it's become a Stuetz Family tradition.  Since this is my first year with actual neighbors I thought I would spread the white trash love.  (My dad claims it's named after our family, but I'll let you be the judge).
Simply mix together:

2 c. Wheat Chex

2 c. Rice Chex

2 c. Corn Chex

2 c. Cheerios

2 c. Pretzel Sticks

2 c. Peanuts (unsalted)

2 c. M & M's

Melt 2 lbs. of Mercel's White Chocolate and coat the mix.  You can microwave the chocolate, but I like to use my double boiler.  I just have to say that any time I use one of my "luxury" kitchen items I have to mention it, because when I first wanted to get a double boiler (and just about any other non-essential appliance or gadget) Joel said, "What's that?  Are you actually ever going to use that?"  Well, I just did.  Wahoo- I'm justified!  But I digress.......

Lay the mixture out on wax paper-covered cookie sheets.  

When the chocolate has hardened again you can break it apart and serve.  I got some nifty, little boxes to use, but my mom always put it in tins.

 It's not exactly holiday baking, but it gets the job done.  Now if only the snow storm would stop, so that I'd actually want to take them to my neighbors.......

Done and Done

Yesterday I finished the binding and slip cover (for the rod) of the playroom quilt.  My husband was nice enough to put up the curtain rod in the wee hours of night after he got home from work.  (For some reason if it's a "quilt" rod 30 bucks gets added to the price tag even if it does the same thing as a curtain rod, so I went with the fun and cheap curtain rod variety).

(The Boston Red Sox blanket doesn't exactly go with the Dr. Seuss motif in the room, but it makes my husband happy, so it stays) :)

Christmas Cookie Sugar High

I hosted a mini-cookie exchange today, and it was a lot of fun.  I decided to try a new recipe- Oreo Truffles, and they are delicious!  Crushed Oreo mixed with Cream Cheese covered in chocolate.  How can you go wrong?

I also made a more traditional cookie.  We always referred to them as Snowballs in my family, but they're called all sorts of things- Russian Teacakes, Mexican Wedding Cakes, Swedish Teacakes. 
The kids played for a while and then went on a sugar binge.  It was like Christmas a little early for them with so many options.  Here's a little sampling of cookies......

In case the sugar in the cookies wasn't enough we had a little hot chocolate station for the liquid sugar fix.  I know Nathan was in heaven although he wasn't much into the hot chocolate.  He just wanted cookies and more cookies.

And here's a look at the Table Runner actually on the table.......

 

Project Table Runner Completed!

My task for the week was to finally make a Christmas Table Runner.  About 3 years ago I made a couple of Christmas Star patches with the thought that a table runner would be nice.  Of course, I had no idea how to make a table runner back then, so it got stuffed back in the closet.  As each Christmas would roll by Joel would ask, "What ever happened to making that table runner?"  My reply was always, "Um, next year?"  Well, I took out the patches (they were actually too large to work for our table), and I suddenly felt the urge to start over and make a real table runner.  Here are the results......

 (that's my coffee table- not kitchen table- to give you an idea of size)

Baby Thompson #2

Here's a hint as to the gender...... this is the quilt top I made for the baby (yes, I had a feeling for a while, so I went ahead and started a quilt).

 Yep, we're having a girl!  I figure that I did my duty to perpetuate the Thompson name with Nathan, so now we can have a girl. :)  As of right now we're going to name her Emma Irene Thompson.  (Irene was my Grammy's name).  She may not end up looking like an Emma, but for now, that's what we're naming her.

Fenced In

Nathan is now free to be master of his own domain, because our fence was installed yesterday, and I'm very happy and relieved to have it.  I felt bad for the workers because it was so cold out there and it was snowing.  They also had to hand dig a lot of the post holes because of all of the roots from the trees.  They did a great job though and actually got it all done in one day.  You can kind of get any idea what it looks like from a second story window.  Now all I have left to do is bundle all of the remaining tree limbs.  Bleh.

Haiku by Jo

My friend Jo Kemble recently started a business and had an open house last night.  It was fun to chat with the girls and I also got myself a new diaper bag (Nathan has done a number on the current bag), and a couple of rosettes for my niece since she's celebrating her 3rd birthday this week.

 Joel made me promise not to make it too feminine since he uses it as well.  He was good with everything except the flower.  We'll have to do Rock Paper Scissors on that 'cause I think it makes the bag. :)

  Happy Birthday, Mellie Bellie!  You're growing up way too quickly for your own good.

Decorations

I love decorating for Christmas, because for some reason the home feels even more homey. (Is that even a word?  Well, I suppose it is now.)  It just makes me happy and festive when my house is decorated.

The tree is up, and Nathan keeps "oo"ing and "ah"ing.  So far he's been content to just point at the ornaments, but I know it's just a matter of time until he'll want to play with them, so the breakable ornaments are all at the top of the tree.  Luckily he's still small enough that he doesn't care if it's a big tree or not, so we can still put it up on the end table and have it be mostly out of his reach.

We also got our Nativities out.  Nathan loves pointing at Baby Jesus and the animals.   

And of course there's the cute nativity (on the left) that my mom brought back for us from Puerto Rico.

Ornament Traditions

When Joel and I got married my mission president's wife sent us this ornament with an explanation of a tradition they had in their family with choosing ornaments each year.  Joel and I decided to do the same.  Each year we choose an ornament that has a specific meaning for us.  At first it was a fun way to try to fill up our barren tree, but now it's so much more fun each year looking at all of the ornaments that bring back memories.

We started with these ornaments from our honeymoon in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  We stayed in a cabin that was Smokey Mountain themed with tons of black bears- hence the 2 ornaments.

Another example would be our glass Hershey kisses.  We bought them at HersheyPark Candylane to remember our time living in Hershey and also as a reminder of taking my Select Choir to sing there every Christmas.

We also try to remember to get an ornament to remember our vacations- this one is from our trip to Williamsburg, Virginia two years ago.

This year Joel and I got a Buckeye Brutus because of our move to Columbus, Ohio.  Nathan's ornament is from the Columbus Zoo, because it's just about his favorite place ever.

Well, enough reminiscing-  I'm off to go sing some Christmas Carols as we decorate the tree.

Potter Review

We went to see Part One of "The Deathly Hollows" last night, and I have to say that it was intense, time flew by, and it did a really good job of sticking to the book.  I'm glad they've decided to split the book into two movies, so that they can do justice to the intricate plot. 
I will say that it was by far the scariest and darkest of the Potter movies yet.  My major complaint was actually about the movie viewers- not the movie.  A family with 3 children (I'm guessing ages 8, 5, & 2) sat in the row in front of us and I seriously could not believe they brought a toddler to this movie.  The poor boy is going to have nightmares for weeks.  It was most definitely not a kid's movie.  I mean seriously- I jumped quite a few times (the snake part, for instance) and it's all about destruction and death.  Why in the world would you take your little children to see that?  Ok- I've said my piece.  The movie was good.  Joel said it was probably his favorite of all the Harry Potter movies, and now all there is to do is wait for the final installment coming in July.  While I'm waiting for that I can enjoy the next installment of Narnia that comes out at Christmastime.  :)

Happy 4 Years!

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary, and what a wonderful, crazy four years of marriage it's been.


Joel had my quilt professionally quilted as an anniversary gift, and it turned out absolutely adorable!  I'm thrilled with the job they did at Red Rooster Quilts.  

My favorite is the bottom border of the hands and feet.  I'll give the final reveal when I finish it and hang it on the wall.  How fun!  Happy anniversary to me! 

Hungry Reading

My husband and I have completely different reading styles.  Joel usually has about 4 to 5 books he's reading at a time.  He reads maybe a chapter from one and then reads a couple of pages from another.  It takes him usually a couple months to finish a book.  His ADD probably has quite a bit to do with this approach to reading.  I am the exact opposite.  When I like a book I read it continually until it's done- usually in 24 to 48 hours (depending on how busy of a schedule I have at the time).  He makes fun of me for the number of books I fly through.  I can't help it though.  I love reading.

This summer I was introduced to the trilogy of books that begins with The Hunger Games.  I instantly fell in love with these books and read each of them in under 24 hours.  They are by far the best books I've read this year.  I told Joel he absolutely had to read them, but he usually tunes me out when I start talking about books (in fact, he tells me he has no recollection of me talking to him about these books whatsoever), so summer passed by and our lives continued on.  Until....a friend this past weekend starting talk to Joel about the books and it piqued his interest.  He started reading the first book Sunday afternoon and finished it the next day.  Welcome to the 24 hour club, sweetheart!  I was shocked, because I've never seen him engrossed in a book like that- ever!  He came down to breakfast this morning with the second book in his hands, and it made me laugh.  He blames me for his addictive reading behavior.  It looks like my baby has come over to the dark side after all. :)
If you haven't read these books I really recommend them.  They kept me biting my nails all the way through to the end.  I confess I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, but if you get to that point we'll discuss it- I don't want to give anything away!

Fabulous Prizes

 As a participant of the Bloggers Quilt Festival I won a prize!  This is seriously exciting because I never win anything.  I can't think of anytime except maybe when winning a gold fish at the school fair in kindergarten that died on the way home.  I got the Pure Fat Quarter Bundle from Above All Fabric!  It has some really adorable fabric that happens to normally be way above my price range (clearance at Jo-Ann's, anyone?), so I'm going to have to come up with a cool quilt for this fabric.  Oh the possibilities! :)

Sweet Times

A trip to Pennsylvania just would not have been complete without a trip to our friend's new cookie shop.  I was so sad when it opened AFTER we moved out of the state, so it was great to see her and her family and enjoy some amazingly, delicious cookies.  It was a quick drive by, but SO worth it!

If you haven't ever tried Missy's Ugly Cookies hop on over to her website and have some shipped to you today!  I have to say my favorite thing was the pumpkin roll, but in terms of cookies if you love peanut butter and chocolate you absolutely have to try the Pennsylvania Countryside Tango - it blends peanut butter cookie dough & chips w/ chocolate cookie dough & chips. Yum!  It's heavenly!

After our cookie run we came back to Grandma and Grandpa Thompson's home for naptime and some football.  It was the big Ohio State vs. Penn State game.  Our house is a little torn about which team to cheer on since we both have a degree from Penn State, but now Joel's employed by Ohio State.  I stuck with Penn State and Joel went for his new love of Ohio. :)

Dr. Seuss Love

I had been looking for an idea of what to do for the Dr. Seuss quilt I wanted to make for the playroom and then I came across the Country Cabin pattern on Quilt Dad.  The fabrics are completely different and I changed some of the dimensions to fit some of my scraps I wanted to incorporate from previous quilts, but I had a lot of fun making this quilt top.

It obviously needed to go with the rest of the room and also the pillow that I had previously made for the room.  What do you think?  I'm considering sending it out to have the top stitching professionally long armed, because if it's going to be hanging on my wall I want to absolutely love it and not be nit picking about my top stitching job.  We'll see.  I have to convince my husband it's worth the money first. :)  I love you sweetie!!

Blogger's Quilt Festival

 The quilt I chose to share for the festival is the first quilt I ever attempted to put together (it's not even top-stitched), but has the most sentimental value.  I made it for my mom - each patch is heat transferred pictures of our family (They all bring back memories of some pretty funny vacations and/or stories of our family while growing up).  There are also a couple pictures from my parent's wedding and of them when they were younger.

The top row consists of a square dedicated to each of the five children in my family with an "S" in the corner for "Stuetz" (my maiden name).  The colors match the colors of my parent's room (the back of the quilt is a forest green).  The quilt is completely different than anything else I've ever done, but it makes me smile every time I see it because of the memories it evokes.

What to do?

 For Amy's Challenge this week I was going to come up with some type of Halloween decoration idea with the fabric that I've had for years sitting at the bottom of my fabric bin.  I decided to put together a quilted wall hanging, but now that I've quilted it together I'm having quilters doubt.  I can't decide if I like it- I was thinking it was too wide and big for my taste, but then it didn't seem quite as huge when I put it on the floor to take a picture.  Bleh- what do you think? Should I bind it and hang it up?