Where Do I Begin?

I haven't been too hot on blogging lately. I feel no guilt about it either. But I figured it's time for an update. Where do I begin? I never really blogged about Christmas, New Years, or even the day to day stuff, so I have a lot of ground to cover. I guess I'll start with Christmas. It was a Jackson family year so we stayed in Spanish Fork for a few days. I was so excited to give Vic the denim quilt I had secretly and religiously been working on at home. I have to say, for having no pattern, no help, (OK, my mom and Marlene helped a little!) and for it being my first ever quilt...IT WAS AWESOME. In fact, we sleep with it on our bed every night now. The weight of it really keeps us warm and we both are sleeping better now. Go figure. Because of the top secret mission of this quilt, I had to lay out all the pieces like a puzzle and take a picture of it so that I could get all the fabric out the next day and recreate it. It was a tedious process, but worth it. Here's a sample:

I'll have to post the finished product....once it's finished! I still have to fix the border. Vic loves it and I must say that I'm mighty proud of myself. He's been holding on to some of these jeans for over 5 years. I'm glad to finally "get rid" of them.

Another highlight of our Christmas was the gingerbread house contest. If you don't already know, I am VERY competitive. I usually do whatever it takes to win (yes, that includes cheating) and I love to gloat. Last time we had a gingerbread contest at the Jackson's, Sam stepped in at the last second and created a two-minute Boy Scout scene, complete with tent, snow, backpack, and fire. With Le being the judge, there was no chance of anyone else winning. (He is an AVID scouter. I don't quite get it. But to each his own). I was bitter about not winning, to put it mildly. I was determined to win this year...but with Peter Pan, quilting, Xmas shopping, and everything else, I wasn't as prepared as I would have liked. In fact, Vic and I were downstairs hurriedly trying to look up ideas online while the rest of the gang was upstairs creating their masterpieces. We found a photo of an open doll house made out of gingerbread. (You know, where you can see all the different floors and the kitchen table, etc. It's like the house has been cut in half so you can see inside). Anyway, we tried to copy that idea. But when I say WE, I really mean ME, because Vic was too busy working on his little skier gingerbread man and left me to work all alone. I'll let the photos help me with the rest of the story:


We enlisted the help of the neighbors to be the judges. There would be no nepotism this year!Here they are looking things over and trying to decide the winner. After huddling in the corner for a moment, they came back to the table to announce the winner. Wait for it...




Paul and Kristyn! Damn them! Paul and his darn creativity, artistic abilities, AND construction experience. A little excited? I love it! (not that they won, but that they are thrilled!)


Look how long Kristyn's hair is! Gorgeous!

Vic placed second. (Peggy sees the injustice).


And here they are for your viewing pleasure:



Paul and Kristyn's pirate ship. Note the creative sail made with a tortilla.


When Sam left the house to go on a walk right in the middle of the contest I was a little confused. He triumphantly returned with this branch in hand. Once he placed all the parts together and we could see that it was a tree house ("No Girls") I thought for sure he would take the cake again this year. He didn't even place!

Here's my sorry attempt at the doll house. I was trying to recreate the Jackson Household. I placed the tree in the corner, tried to do a stone fireplace (Jelly Belly's), kitchen table with wreath over it, marshmallow toilet downstairs and the chocolate couch. Umm...it's a good idea, but didn't turn out so hot. I've already started preparing for next time. Look out!

And here we have Vic's little skier. It is a rear view of a skier going off a jump. He's wearing a chocolate helmet and backpack. It's aight.

Other fun Christmas activities included:

Playing in the cardboard house that Grandpa made,


Watching "White Christmas",

Wrapping gifts in our traditional brown paper,

Opening gifts,

Vacation days off of work!, (Isn't he hot!?)

Sledding,


Playing in the snow,
Eating the snow,

and relaxing. (as much as you can with a toddler). It was a great Christmas! Many thanks to Le and Marlene for hosting all of us and for inviting my parents over for Christmas Eve dinner. What a treat for me to be with both families at the same time!