The One with the Presents

This year (like every other when I've made the gifts) I had a whirlwind final two days before Christmas crafting up a storm.  Here are the presents from this year:

Justin and I "bought" for James and Wendy and I had a lot of fun making this family subway.

I can't remember where I got the idea for this, probably Pinterest :)  I made it for Guissela.  I love the fact that my Cricut cuts vinyl!

 
Finally, the big time consumer.  I made family birthday calendars for everyone.  These took for-e-ver!  We have 32 birthdays on this calendar!  And I made six.  I'm crazy.  I actually finished these in my parents' garage on Christmas Eve.

Final product and a good reference for family members on chronological order :)

The One with the Trees

Justin and I made our annual trip to the Festival of Trees the weekend after Thanksgiving.  I love this tradition and I'm actually a little sad to think we won't be able to do it anymore if we move after graduation :(

There was a definite animated feature theme in the gingerbread houses.

The Lorax

Hogwarts

Tangled

The Hobbit

Ok, this one was just funny.

 I saw a tree right up Dad's alley.

And a quilt for Mom.

How cute are these Santas!!

My personal favorite- the Chemist Tree!!  Bwahahaha!!

I am so making these for our tree next year!

How have I never thought of this before?!

 And here is the rest of my holiday inspiration.

 

The One with All the Food

The end of last year was so crazy!!  Here's a post I actually did start before Christmas but am just finishing now.  Hopefully the Christmas post will be up soon too!

Justin and I went to Florida for Thanksgiving this year.  I did take the camera but frequently forgot it in the car.  I am so bad at taking pictures!!  Most of the time the pictures would have been me in a food coma anyway.  I'm pretty sure I gained 10 pounds over that weekend!!

We actually had a crazy busy weekend before the holiday trip.  The Friday before Thanksgiving Justin took me to a Vocal Point concert.  That's the all male acapella group from BYU.  They are so good!!  They competed on The Sing Off last year (one of our favorite shows that got cancelled!) so it was fun to see them live.  The next day we went skiing, I went to Grandma's house to finish sewing a baby blanket I was making for Jared and Andrea (somehow I lost track of time and almost didn't finish it in time to take it to FL with us) and then Saturday night the Arizona football team came to visit.  We had student tickets to the game but Justin's friend called and had some extra tickets.  25 rows up on the 40 yard line, awesome!!  Arizona won too which made it even more amazing!!  Love my Cats!!  On Sunday we had dinner with Justin's dad and sister before heading out of town.  I told you it was crazy busy!!

So finally, Sunday night, dinner is over and we are packing.  It's about 11:00 and Justin logs on to check us into our flight.  Then I hear "uh, Cindy- our flight is at 9 o'clock tomorrow morning."  Morning!  As in we need to be at the airport in 8 hours!  Are you kidding?!  Somehow we made it and the good part about the mix-up was we got to Orlando in the early afternoon.  Which gave us time to meet up with Gordon, Jared and Andrea for dinner.  Yay!!  Before we left I gave Andrea the blanket I had just finished.  She and Jared have 3 boys:
Ethan,

Grayson,

and Landon.

And now they're having a girl.  I love how this blanket turned out!

We all went to Gator's Dockside for some tasty wings.  It was all-you-can-eat night and the boys definitely got their money's worth!!!

The after picture actually looks pretty unappetizing huh?

Gordon won.  They brought the wings out by the dozen and he ordered one more plate than everyone else.  I think I had more than 2 plates myself!
 

I think this is where Jared thought all you can eat wings may not have been a good idea :)

The next night Gordon, Justin and I kidnapped Jared from work and took him to the Gator's basketball game.  Justin loves to hit up at least one Florida sporting event while we're out there.

We got there after the 2nd half had already started so we got in for free.

Then we went to The Swamp for dinner.  This was only the second day and I could already feel my waist expanding so I ordered a salad.  It was tasty!

Justin on the other hand ordered this burger called "the Freshman 15."  I think it weighed 15 pounds!!  Look at this thing!

Justin and I love the "most interesting man in the world" commercials so I had to take a picture of this when I saw it.  In the women's restroom!  "Stay thirsty my Gators!"

And for some reason, this is where the pictures end.  We did eat a delicious Thanksgiving at Tia Nancy's house

Justin had this on his phone!

and later Tio Carlos barbecued for us again.  That man can grill!!  Justin and I got the recipe and have tried it once.  It was good but not quite the same.  It may be a while before we try the marinade again.  Just writing this post makes me feel like I just ate a whole turkey by myself!

The One with the Compliment?

I sure hope Justin was trying to be funny when he told me this morning as I was filling in my eyebrows "Oh there they are!"  It reminded me of another time when I was "concealing" a zit (I know you won't believe me but I get them too.  Hate it!) and Justin said "Wow! That stuff is awesome!!"  I know it was meant to be a comment on the effectiveness of the product but maybe there's a different way to word these comments that doesn't sound like I'm hideous!  Good thing my response is to just laugh at his enthusiasm and awe of makeup.

I'm also quick to forgive right now because Arizona beat Florida last Saturday!!  Woot!!  Now we're even and I hope our teams never play each other again as long as we live!!

The One with the Letter

I do have some other posts in the works but I feel like this one is pretty important :)

Dear Sean Miller,

First off, let me say how pleased I am with what you've done with my Cats after the great Lute Olson retired.  Most impressive, keep up the good work.  Oh yeah, and well done picking up Tarczewski, Ashley and Jerrett.  Nice!

I just have one small favor to ask, please please please beat the Gators on Saturday!!  You see, my husband went to the University of Florida and, while I have the utmost respect for Billy Donovan and his team, if we lose to them again this year, at home, he may encounter some "irreconcilable differences."  So for the sake of my husband, our marriage, the presents under our Christmas tree labelled "Justin" that can easily be returned, the daily tasks of cooking and cleaning that will then be labelled "Justin" and most importantly my space heater* you have to WIN!!

*After pulling off a questionable overtime win in Gainesville last year, Justin threw his shoe.  Which hit the space heater and bent the heating element.  So then my team had lost and I was cold.  It was not a good night.  Justin actually went out and bought a new one that night but was able to fix the other the next day.  I don't think we'll be watching the game together this year.  The trash talking has already begun.  Ok, it's a little one-sided- mine.  Come on Cats!!!