"Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind."

Christmas this year has come and gone! It happened so fast that I am still not quite sure we've opened all the presents. The night before we had a nice Christmas Eve dinner involving fruit tarts and a yummy avocado tomato salad.

Every single year, without fail, we have gone and visited a family that lived nearby. This family consisted of an elderly couple that my parents have known the day they moved to America. And since I can remember, we would drop off our gift on Christmas Eve each year. This year was no different. We spent the night catching up on the news of the entire year. 

We started off Christmas morning with an early opening of presents. I hope and pray that as soon as my youngest sister is grown up we will no longer have to wake up before 8 to open presents. After some present opening, we had a nice luncheon with our Jacob, our other god brother. A stop to Temple Square {again} and then went home to set up the traditional Christmas Hot Pot. 

Then it was off to see Les Mis! If you haven't seen it yet, go now! I cried several times and I am positive I will be returning to the theaters to see it at least one more time. Yes, it was that good. 

Nights in SLC

Other than finals and work, I've spent most of my fun days up in Salt Lake. A group of us went up for a celebratory dinner, we had received some bad news about L's physical health and she needed surgery.

In order to brighten the mood, we had lots of food, laughter, and took some silly pictures. We had some deliciously spicy Mexican food and then enjoyed the too-cold SLC weather.

Another joyous event was the marriage of my good friend! A met his wife while serving in the Northern California area. And I have never seen him so happy as he was that day, I'm so glad I got to be a part of his wedding.

The variation in temperature, saturation, lighting, quality, etc...is due to me juggling pictures between my phone and my actual camera. I've got to be better with bringing my camera with me to these things! With that being said, I'm still kicking myself for forgetting to bring my camera to my annual Christmas sleepover-gift exchange at K's house. Her parent's house is BEAUTIFUL, especially during Christmas....and being the idiot that I am, this is the only picture I took that night.

After much chatting and gift opening, I headed home the next morning only to head back up to Salt Lake for the Temple Square lights.

I have lived here for almost two decades and every single year I am still blown away by the beauty of Christmas time at Temple Square. If you haven't been yet, you still have time. Just be sure to bundle up, it is super chilly!

In other news, I am done. Like done DONE with school. Now I'm just playing the game of waiting. Wish me luck. I'm going to need it.

Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown!

I know it isn't even Thanksgiving, but it might as well be Christmas with all the Christmas music and decorations going on! The Shops at Riverwoods are having their 2nd Annual Gingerbread competition and since we were THE 1st annual Gingerbread competition winners last year, we had to uphold our reputation.

So my sisters and a family friend got together to make a gingerbread house.

This thing was huge and slightly broken. Since we only had two days to complete the entire thing, we made some quick repairs and decided on a theme.

Can you tell what it's going to be?

Snoopy! We made Snoopy's doghouse complete with Woodstock, the sad little Christmas tree and stockings!

After pounds and pounds of fondant and royal icing, our gingerbread house is complete! Please vote for our fabulous gingerbread house at the Shops at Riverwoods. While our house is still by far the best, the other competitors have stepped up their game and we would love for that sad little Christmas tree to finally get some love :)

Smoked Salmon in the Snow

We didn't really smoke salmon in the snow. {I'm not sure anyone does} But I did make my favorite snack of all time while it was snowing, so that counts right?

We had a massive snow storm last week. Aside from my fear of driving in that white stuff, the entire town was beautifully covered in snow.

This was my sister's Halloween pumpkin. And that is exactly how I felt/looked when I realized there was that much snow on the ground. 

Looking back on this photo, I hadn't realized the amount of snow that was falling. But if you look at the heavy layer of snow on that pumpkin, that is an accurate depiction of just exactly how much snow we got that day. 

{I am not sure why these photos have different exposures on them, I'm still figuring out my camera so I must have done something...wrong? Nevertheless, they were delicious.}

The recipe is so simple, I'm not sure I could call it a recipe.

Salmon Salmon Crackers

You will need:

Smoked Salmon {however much you plan on eating}
Cream Cheese
Olives, pitted.
Crackers, preferably the buttery kind.

Spread cream cheese over cracker, place sliced smoked salmon and olives on top. Voila!

This makes me so happy...