The One with Christmas 2012!!

I'm so sad Christmas is over :(  It's just my absolute favorite holiday!  I love making presents and decorating our house and all the traditions from my childhood and the new ones Justin and I have started.  I could go on forever.  Here's a recap of our Christmas:

Our beautiful tree and many of the presents we hauled down to Arizona.  We tried ribbon instead of tinsel garland this year and I think it's gorgeous!  Even though we never could get the star to point straight up.

Lights on Temple Square

I love the pictures you can take at Temple Square this time of year.

I got to see the lights twice.  Once for mutual with Ryann, Anne Marie and Gabby.

And once with my hubby.  No pictures of that though, sorry.  It was part of our annual date night before leaving for the holiday.  Justin and I went to the Garden for dinner.  It's a restaurant on top of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and we had a table next to the window overlooking Temple Square.  Best view at dinner ever.  Then Justin took me to see the Nutcracker, as in the actual ballet.  It was beautiful!  The dancers, costumes, everything.  There's even a scene where little monkeys come out from under their mama's skirt.  Hadn't seen that before and it was funny!  Then we went home and opened one present from each other.  This box was funny because I wrapped it while Justin was out one night and it "appeared" under (or more accurately, behind) our tree.  A few days later Justin asked who the big box was for and was childishly happy when I said it was for him.

He's so silly :)

It was a set of TV trays!  Justin and I only eat at the table when we have dinner guests.  And, to be honest, sometimes not even then.  These have come in handy multiple times already.

I actually picked out these shirts from the Nike outlet in Orlando over Thanksgiving and told Justin they would make a nice Christmas present so my present wasn't quite as big a surprise as Justin's.

We drove the 12 hours to Phoenix the next day.  Neither of us particularly enjoy traveling that long in a car but time does pass quickly when you're driving with just adults.  The best part is being in a closed space with my hubby for an extended period of time.  This is when we have our best (and longest) conversations :)  The reason we made it a one day trip was because the next day we took Taylor family pictures.  How the photographer fit 31 people in one shot is beyond me.  She was amazing and the proofs look great.  So excited to finally have a family picture with Justin in it!  Ironically, the last family picture we took was right after Justin and I had started dating, over 4 years ago.  He was actually present then, but behind the camera.

After family pictures and lunch Justin and I continued driving to my parents' house Saturday night and were the first home.  It was really nice to have the place to ourselves for a bit and get settled in because within the next 24 hours 24 other bodies joined us.  So crazy!  We fit 26 people in Mom and Dad's house!  And with minimal crying and screaming all week.  This was probably due to M&D's genius gift to the grandkids of a deluxe swingset.  I mean this thing is nice.  And sturdy.  Justin and I helped with the assembling and it is solid.  All the little ones wanted to be outside swinging all day long which left the inside for us more mature family members and the teeny babies.

Like any other project, we had some disagreements.

Totally kidding but it was funny that when Mom took this picture Justin and I both pretended to hit each other with a hammer.  I think sometimes we may give people the wrong idea about our marriage.  We really do love each other :)

Steve helped us test out the swing strength.

Callie was one of the first swing testers.

You can see Justin up on the platform.  We weren't quite done putting everything together but it had been about 4 hours and the kids couldn't wait to swing any longer!

Putting on the canopy.

Super cute!!

We had a few days together before Christmas which were spent visiting, playing with kiddos and trying to keep them out of trouble.  Seth may look sweet in that picture above but here's a shot of his sneaky side!

And he got Timmy to join in!  Tsk, tsk.  Mom has many musical and moving ornaments on her tree and the one in Sethie's little hand plays "Let it Snow" and has skating penguins.  It was so hard to keep little hands away from it.  Thank goodness we got that swingset put together on Monday!

Steve being a good daddy and uncle.

Heather being a good mommy and aunt.  The younger cousins gathered every night for a bedtime story.  I think Heather is reading "The Elf on the Shelf" here.  It's super cute and she and Steve had brought their family elf "Buddy."  The kids had so much fun looking for him every day.  I got to hide him on Christmas Eve day.  I put him in a stocking so he could watch the kids and make sure they didn't open any presents early.

And some more cute pictures of the two youngest Taylors:

In addition to holding babies, we also spent a good deal of time cooking.  When we all get together it's like feeding a small army.  Our family is so big we actually have to eat in the garage!  We set up the dining table like a buffet and shuffle everyone through the line and straight into the garage with 3 long church tables and a small one for the kiddos.

Here's the dining/buffet table:

And the garage turned dining room:

 With the kids' table:

Please note that Lynlie and Callie had been playing dress up and were wearing some dresses Mom originally made for Wendy but worn by all of us girls.  Over 20 years ago!

We had planned out meals a little bit and I had volunteered Justin and myself to cook dinner on Christmas Eve.  I had ulterior motives in volunteering for Christmas Eve dinner in that I had given Wendy a few Peruvian recipes to include in the latest version of our family cookbook and knew that nobody would try to make them until they had eaten it themselves.  So Justin and I made arroz chaufa.  Four pounds of rice worth of arroz chaufa.  Special thanks to Heather who was willing to debone three rotisserie chickens!  I'd rather hold raw hamburger in my hand, touching chicken is so gross to me- even cooked.  I was worried that the little ones might not like it, but they all asked for more.  I think some of them even had thirds!  We were a hit!  And I'm sure other Taylor households will start eating more Peruvian fried rice :)  Just a tip- use plenty of soy sauce.

To be continued...

The One with Even More Snow!

I know I've already posted about the snow once this winter but we're on record track.  How much has it snowed in SLC since December?  Two truck beds-ful!!  Here's the second for proof:

Here's our front walk after the latest big snow. Our landlord is super nice and keeps it shoveled for us.

Here's a shot of the top of that tree next to our walk.  It's really pretty but flurries and snowballs fall off every time we walk underneath so we always keep our hoods up even if it's not actually snowing.

Our little street/Winter Wonderland.

And of course, the snow-meter, Jimmy.

I haven't driven him in a while and you can tell.  Look at the snow drifts built up around him.  The ground is clear underneath so you can see that the snow is almost 2 feet deep.  I scraped off a little snow so you could see how high it had piled on top of the cab.

That's the side mirror!

And my feet!  Where are my shoes?!

I haven't been driving my car because we take Justin's to school.  Which means his car looks like this.  Ewww.

Yep. That's right.  The snow has built up so thick the tire is rubbing against it as we drive!

Snow is not so pretty when it's dirty.  And turns to slush.  When the roads are slushy our cars look like this:

Then it freezes and I have fun kicking off an ice block the size of a transmission!  This thing was huge!!!

This is the stadium lot at school where Justin and I park every morning.  Last Monday they were still trying to clear out snow from the weekend.  They had a couple of plows and these front loaders that would pick up the snow pile and drop it along the edge of the lot.

The piles were taller than me!

This pile is actually at the top of a hill so the front side doesn't really look that bad...

but the back side is taaaall.  They pile snow up on this hill every winter to get it out of the way.  That slope is just grass and a few pine trees right by a couple of sidewalks.  In the spring when that snow pile finally melts you can find all kinds of goodies in the grass.  Like plastic bottle caps, hairties, even gloves.  If it's small and got dropped in the parking lot, odds are it's in this pile of snow and you can get it back in 4-5 months.

A post without a cute picture of Justin?  Nope.  Here he is!  I walk him to school every morning, drop of awesome :)

The One with Thing 23

**I almost forgot about these posts!  Working on the Christmas one and that should be up soon but enjoy #23 in the meantime :)

List your top 5 hobbies and why you love them.  (Again, sorry this is a close repeat to my favorite passions.  I tried to add different stories/details for ya.)

Reading.  I have always been a big reader.  When I was little Mom used to take all of us kids on trips to the library every Saturday.  She seriously brought a box to carry all the books home in and we always checked out the same number so she could be certain that all the books were returned.  I am definitely going to do this with my own kids.  I think I used to check out 8-10 books a week myself.  I read all the R.L. Stine Goosebumps and then progressed to Fear Street.  I’ve read every Babysitter’s Club and Boxcar Children book that the library had.  Sometimes I would choose a topic and read all the books they had on that subject.  The summer before my sophomore year of high school I really got into Greek mythology and then we did a unit on it in my English class.  At one point I (who never raised my hand voluntarily) interrupted class to tell my teacher that it’s pronounced Ag-a-mem-non and that Achilles dishonored Hector’s body by dragging it behind his war chariot.  Right now I’m working through a list of “classics” that I haven’t read yet and I’ve finally met a book I couldn’t finish.  Apparently I just don’t appreciate Hemingway.  I think the fact that I wrote a ridiculously long paragraph about reading and books is explanation itself that it’s my favorite hobby.

Crafting/DIY.  I’ve always liked crocheting and scrapbooking but I’ve recently really gotten into homemade gifts.  They’re not actually always less expensive but they are more meaningful.  And fun to make.  The siblings in my family have always done a Christmas gift exchange/rotation.  Mom started it when we were little and we’ve just kept it going.  A few years ago I had Steve for Christmas and since he’s the man who buys himself whatever he wants/needs, he can be hard to buy for.  Justin and I went to the Festival of Trees and I saw the funniest saying that I knew would be perfect for Steve so I made him a Christmas wall hanging using the quote.  That was the beginning and now I start working on Christmas presents in January.

Cleaning/organizing.  Most people probably wouldn’t consider this a hobby but I get in “cleaning moods” quite often.  I figure if it’s something you actually randomly have a desire to do then it’s a hobby.  I think I’ve organized our spare room (aka REI/Joann’s outlet) at least 3 times since we got married.  I actually enjoy the process (most of the time, no one likes cleaning toilets) and I love the end result.  I also google cleaning tips and follow organizational blogs.  I’m crazy.

Sports.  I don’t actually like exercising but I like being healthy.  Playing a sport is the best way to exercise because it’s fun so you don’t realize how hard your body is working.  Volleyball is definitely my favorite but it’s so hard to find 11 other people who all know how to play correctly or competitively.  It’s really hard for me to play volleyball with people who just “want to have fun.”  It’s fun when you play well!  I can totally understand the other side though because I really suck at Frisbee and am definitely just out on the field to run around and yell which probably ticks some people off.

Hanging out with my hubby.  Even though we live together I can still miss him and always want to be with him.  Sometimes when I’m making dinner I make him come sit in the kitchen and talk to me or I’ll sit next to him while I read my book.  Just because I miss him.  We still really enjoy doing things together as much as possible.  Obviously we bike and camp and ski together but we also take Sunday walks and play games.  Rummikub is kind of hard with only two people but we’ll play for hours.  We’re super cute :)

Other random things I like doing: crosswords, trivia games, hair (I am always braiding my nieces' hair when we're in AZ), shopping and woodworking.