M|m: LP

This is my December

This is my time of the year

This is my December 

These are my snow covered trees

Linkin Park

A little taste of my awesome birthday gift from Matthew. Birthday post will follow soon. 

Christmas 2010

12.12.10

Christmas for Matt and I is split between our presents, the parents, and the in-laws. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents with a tasty baked ham and my dad's famous pineapple sauce for dinner  (among other things). Before we headed to my parents, Matt and I went to Best Buy as sort of a surprise to my parents, in order to find a Playstation Eye so that we could visit with my brother and his family who live in Washington.

Unfortunately, it took about an hour and a half to set it up due to internet difficulties and Emily and the boys weren't able to be there when we finally got it working. It was pretty neat to see my brother and his family while visiting, especially since I've never seen baby Evie except in a few pictures.

On Christmas we woke up in the morning, got ready, and did our own presents for each other before going to Matt's parents. This is one of my favorite parts about Christmas because I'm always excited to see what Matt has picked out for me. After we opened our stuff, we went and had some Lasagna for lunch at the Kaefer's and then opened presents for the THIRD time. It was fun! : D

We got some pretty great stuff from both sets of parents! Thanks to them, we are able to have a new set up in our bedroom rather than the hand-me-down stuff we had been using since we got married. It's lookin' pretty nice! We also got spoiled with various gift cards (love those), new sheets, cds, dvds, and some clothes. 

I didn't take pictures at any house except ours, so here's a few from Christmas morning. My mom has some pics on her blog of Christmas Eve if you'd like to see those.

Go Utes!

Getting some Kid Cudi Cd's

Modeling the new hoodie

My presents from Matt:
3 tops, "Hurley" Weezer Cd, new purse, MAC make-up, hat, key caps, and pretzel M&M's
Yipee!

Christmas Party

This is a little late, but I thought I'd post some pics.

We hosted a Christmas party on the 18th and invited our friends. It turned out to be a really fun night. Matt even mentioned that we should do it more often! We had a friend of ours cater some delicious yellow chicken curry and rice for the dinner. Shout out to Woot the owner of Ekamai Thai Curry! We also had egg rolls and spring rolls, salad, cheese and crackers, apple cider, hot chocolate (courtesy of my Keurig) and some awesome red velvet cake bites my sister brought.

We watched A Christmas Story, did a white elephant gift exchange, played games, and just had a good time visiting with everyone. Thanks so much to everyone who came and made it a good time! We'll for sure do it again.

More couples came after this picture was taken. Sorry I don't have one with everybody. :(

T-4 days

Is it weird I usually get more excited for my birthday than for Christmas?
One year older and wiser right?
Maybe next week I'll look more like I'm 17 instead of 16...

M|m: Too bad we didn't have Planters Peanuts at our party

M|m: Nota

There is this show that I love called The Sing Off. It's a competition between A Cappella groups around the country. This is not your typical choir sounding A Cappella though, it's much cooler. I'm so impressed that the music made by the groups in this competition is strictly from them and no instrument accompaniments.

This is last season's winner, Nota, singing their version of "Down" by Jay Sean.


If you would like a little Utah tie to this show, last season there was an all girl group from BYU called Noteworthy. You can learn more about them here. Unfortunately, they didn't make it near as long as I thought they would, but I really liked them. Two of the girls from Noteworthy actually joined another group and are singing again this season with The Backbeats.

If anyone is interested, The Sing Off is on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7pm on NBC.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas in here

Getting ready to get that tree out

Here we go...

Preparing the top for the star

Stringing on the lights

Finished product

We also decorated a gingerbread house. It was pretty fun. I think this gingerbread kit was my favorite because it came with pre-made frosting. I'll have to keep that in mind for next year.

Matt's side

 All the Christmas decor is up now as well. I definitely did more decorating this year than last. It may or may not look like "Christmas" threw up in our front room. Eh, it's only once a year, might as well enjoy it to the fullest.

M|m: A place with peppermint wind

-Shel Silverstein 

Annual Festival of Trees Visit

Matt and I have been going to the Festival of Trees every year since we were in high school. It is a great way to kick off the Christmas season. I love seeing all the trees, gingerbread houses and other homemade items. It's also nice to know that it benefits those in need just by us attending; which I think some people forget.

*Beware, the next few sentences are ranting*

There was a lady and her kids in front of us waiting to buy tickets and when she found out that each ticket was a dollar more than she expected she had a fit. Of course she still bought them, but I'm pretty certain she made the ticket lady give her a discounted rate because she complained so much. On top of that, one of her younger sons left the line while making some rude comment about them trying to charge extra and take advantage by asking for $5 instead of $4. I thought it was awful that she had made such a big deal about it and then passed that attitude on to her kids. This whole thing is a charity event for the Primary Children's Hospital people! Talk about no Christmas spirit.

Anyway, Matt and I had a good time scanning each aisle and eating our scones. After attending the festival, I now have a few ideas I'd like to try out on my tree this year...bring on the craft store and coupons!

I loved the cute elves people used in their displays this year.
I wonder where they got them. Anyone know?

The best gingerbread house, obviously.

Scones!

Our friend, Mr. marshmellow snowman

Holiday Scarves

A while back when Matt and I had just gotten married and my parents were moving, I noticed bags of yarn my mom was wanting to get rid of. There wasn't anything wrong with the yarn, but my parents were downsizing and my mom was trying to lessen some of the overflowing items from hobbies she has. Instead of giving the yarn away, I told her I'd take the yarn and use it to make scarves to give away for Christmas. So the yarn was packed up and moved to our apartment where it stayed in a closet and I eventually forgot about it. Two Christmases came and went and I didn't even remember. Then a couple months ago I was digging through the closet for something when I realized I still had it all. A little after that, a coworker told me she was going to be making fleece blankets for the Ronald McDonald house in Salt Lake. I thought it would be perfect if I could get some scarves done for her to give them along with the blankets. Unfortunately I didn't get to make as many as I would have liked (it had been years since I crocheted, and I was much slower than expected) but I'm still happy I was able to give them to people who might really enjoy them. Hopefully they're long enough for the people who receive them...I measured them based on how long they were on me, but then realized I'm shorter than most. Oops.

I almost wanted to keep that blue one...

I made 7 scarves in all. This picture just shows a couple more I had finished since I took the first.

Happy Birthday Deeanna <:D

Today is my oldest sister's birthday so I thought she earned a blog post. I don't think she really reads my blog, but oh well. Since she is 13 years older than me, I don't remember much time actually living with her but I still have my share of memories.

Here are some things I know/remember about her. 

- When I was little she let me sit on her bed and hold a stuffed white poodle she had 

- She is a health food nut

- When she lived in Layton I used to spend weekends at her house and I was always so excited to eat her cooking. (She always used lots of veggies which I love)

- I don't remember her ever having long hair, although pictures I have seen have proved she did once. 

- She can be very stubborn (who in the Toy family isn't?)

- She always dresses up for Halloween

- Sometimes I'd ride in the car with her and we'd listen to Beastie Boys "License to Ill" which I still find hard to believe

- She loves her china flats

- She makes an effort to be unique and doesn't have a problem going against the grain

- She hates being cold!