What a Year!

December was a crazy month. It seemed like I couldnt find two minutes to sit down and write. Nolan had about a million Christmas concerts. He actually had a few carolling nights and 5 shows with the Colorado Mormon Choral and the Denver Pops Orchestra. That was awesome and amazing to hear them sing. My grandma said their first number, Joy to the World, was overwhelming. I am SO proud of Nolan. Lexa and I went to see her dance studio perform the Nutcracker. The Sugar Plum Fairy was from Ballet West, along with her Cavalier. It was really good and Lexa is determined to be in it next year. We had more fun game nights with our friends the Pippins, and watched CSU win and BYU lose. I threw a fun surprise party for my friend. It was fun getting people to my house from all over Colorado and still be a surprise. We ate a lot, played a lot of Wii and saw the Parade of Lights in Longmont, complete with fireworks at the end. I finished two baby quilts and scanned about 1500 + pictures. I started a project as a Christmas present to my family. It didnt get completed, but I am scanning all our family photos and putting them on a DVD for everyone. 3-5 pictures at a times takes a little while to do. I gave up on 600 resolution and went to 300. It goes a lot faster that way.
I actually got around to making English Toffee this year, a family tradition. The last few years my toffee has had the butter completely seperate out and couldnt figure out what was wrong. My wise grandma told me to get a new candy thermometer. So I did and made a batch with the new and old thermometer. Turns out the old thermometer was about 50 degrees off!! I was totally burning it. Well, now it has turned out well. We went to Washington state on Christmas day to be with Nolans family. I made a batch of the Toffee here and everyone ate it for breakfast toffee, after breakfast toffee, lunch toffee etc.... It was gone in about a day. I also made spritz cookies at home that turned out for the first time with my cookie press. Nolan and Lexa made pizzelles, some chocolate and some vanilla and almond flavored.
Since we flew out on Christmas day, Santa came a day early to our house. On the 23rd, my family came to our house for Christmas dinner. It turned out very well. Then they all spent the night, except Caleb because he had to work in the morning. The next morning, on the 24th, we opened all of the presents. We got great and wonderful things. Lexa loves her new Hannah Montana guitar game, but I'm not sure if Nolan was having more fun than her on it! Christmas Day was crazy at the airport. Apparently everyone has caught on to flying on that day. I was very nervous about flying with a 9 month old on my lap. Clara has learned to crawl and pull herself up on things this last month. She slept for a little while and played with Nolan and Lexa the rest of the flight and did fine. Now one more trip back tomorrow then I can stop worrying! Life in Washington is always interesting and fun. Its always a challenge getting people from different families and different backgrounds to always get along. Nolan and I had a small yet significant disagreement with someone else in the family that made things not so fun for a little while, but people go home eventually :). We played games at a friends house, have eaten out at The Shainghi and Red Lobster, watched Benjamin Button, Quantum of Solace and Bedtime Stories at the theaters and had fun playing and hanging out. Marilyn makes a great layout of food for New Years Eve. We played Carcassan and Settlers of Catan and ate until we were bursting. Nolan and I won the doubles ping-pong tournament. Lexa had her friend from across the street, Katie, sleep over in Grandma's attic. They did really well.
Today Lexa went ice skating and Nolan is out golfing right now. It will be good to get home to our own house but at the same time it is nice to just have no worries (like laundry, dishes, cleaning etc) and just be able to play and be with my girls. We also found out that Clara is the spitting image of Nolan's sister Sherisa. It is a little scary how much they look alike.
Hope everyone has a great New Year!!