From Autumn into Winter

The insanity that has been December has prevented me from documenting our last few months.
Here is a little snippet of the latest haps...

I convinced my sisters to skip out on school (such a good example) to go to the store opening of H & M, the first one of its kind in Utah.

Someone asked if we were twins.
For the record, I got dressed first.

The line behind us.
We almost were in the first 500 but our dreams were thwarted.
The people in line with us were great and even bought us hot chocolate.
Sadly for them, they thought the store opened two hours before it actually did.
They were in for a loooooooooong wait.

An H&M opening is usually a pretty big deal. Fire code with hit early on, so the line continued to grow as shoppers filtered out. There was a line to get in all weekend.

We made up for the wait by shopping our little hearts out.
This is just my bag for trying things on.
My wallet's only relief is that the store is not close by.

Our annual Young Women in Excellence featured a cooking theme, hence the aprons.

I am currently working on my Personal Progress award (I was a delinquent youth and never earned mine).
For my first project I stitched two dresses, one of them entirely on my own! (If you don't look too close, you won't find any mistakes.)


And on to the hour we had a kitten....

We found this adorable little kitten outside of our church one night.
She would meow and peek her little head against the glass door.
Jacob said if she was still out there when we came out we could think about taking her home.
And would you believe it? He let me take her home!
At least until we found her a home.

We had her for a whole hour before we found a neighbor who would take her. 
But in the short hour we had her our lives were halted.
We ridiculously followed her as she explored the house.
And in that short hour she already knew the personalities of the house. She would snuggle with me and play with Jacob.
Nothing got done. Is this how parents feel?

Note: I'm glad she was able to find a good home. Within the first 2 minutes she had eaten a Cheerio off our floor. I don't think we are ready to be cat parents.

 The real kick off for Christmas was visiting Temple Square for the lights with Young Men/Women.

My car full of girls was hilarious.
I kind of wish we could ride together every time.

Jacob and I drove up to the Pioneer Theater for "Annie," our annual holiday show.
Thanks JoEllen for picking us up the tickets! (We are accepting applications for U of U students who will pick up tickets for us when JoEllen graduates. Any takers?)
The show was as wonderful as always, and continues to be one of my favorite ways to get in the holiday spirit. Previous holiday shows at the Pioneer Theater have included "White Christmas" and "A Christmas Story."

We spent a few Monday nights at Thanksgiving Point for ice sculpting.

 Each week the sculptor hauls out a 300-pound chunk of ice and starts pounding away to the delight of the crowd.

Two weeks worth of sculptures.
I'm kind of dying over the intricacies of the sculptures.
What a really cool talent.
"Hello, I'm a professional ice sculptor."
Now that's a conversation starter.

And the Christmas spirit was kicked up a notch with reindeer.
That just laid there amid the shrieks of children begging them to fly.
(Really. The kids loved them.)

Once inside the Thanksgiving Point store Jacob found an elf hat.

Thanks to Loralee and DJ for coming with us!

We finally attended our ward Christmas party. The Young Women were in charge of the decorations.
(See the little paper snowflakes hanging from the ceiling?)
The food was good and the entertainment hilarious, provided by the Primary children.

We've started a new family Christmas tradition.
When given an ornament that doesn't fit on our tree theme (red and gold) or is unsavory, we secretly stick it on the trees of our friends and families.
Without them knowing. A reverse stealing, if you will.

Beware if you invite us over during the holiday season.

No tree is safe.


* The photo above is of an ornament we left on my sister-in-law's designer tree. Read: fancy tree with all alike ornaments. We stuck this right in the middle before we left, sticking out like a sore thumb. And somehow no one has accused us yet. And no, I don't think she reads this blog.