Capturing the Holidays

Before we hit the second major holiday of this new year, I wanted to catch up on the holiday season that closed the 2008 year. My 2008 Christmas holiday season was not like it ever has been in the past. Each year of my life I have been blessed to be home with family, even if it was a few days late because of my decision to spend Christmas week in the middle of the Arizona wilderness with a group of amazing kids; an experience I wouldn't ever trade. This year I was thousands of miles away from my family, which definitely brought on a whole new perspective and experience for me.

Knowing that I would not be able to be home with my family for the Christmas holiday I still had the desire to continue on many of the traditions that my family does together. One of which is making platefuls of an assortment of goodies and then dig-dong ditch them on friends and neighbors doorsteps.

This year I made several different goodies that left each plate spilling over with sweetness. My goodies consisted of gingerbread cookies, peanut blossoms, scotcheroos, rice krispie treats, mini black bottom cupcakes, and double chocolate cookies. There was definitely plenty to go around with an abundance of left overs! Sadly, I did not ding-dong ditch the plates on doorsteps this year, but was still able to give several of these goodies plates anonymously, while others were given in person. It was still enjoyable to make and deliver these goodie plates and to see the smiles that spread across the faces of recipiants.

A tradition coming from my dad's childhood is the bulding and decorating of a gingerbread house. All growing up my mom would bake the gingerbread house pieces as well as put the house together. Her talent and skills of doing this are incredible! We just had the fun of decorating it with tons of different candies that we also enjoyed nibbling on in the process.

Last year the house that my friend and I made ended up looking like a flat-roofed adobe. We had to use the aid of a large salt container to hold up the roof. It was kind of sad, but a still really fun experience. This year's inspiration came from my dream of one day having a log cabin in the mountains. I was actually able to see a variety of different style gingerbread houses, a few being log cabins, on display that the community members in the surround areas had made and contributed to the Idaho Falls museum. Seeing such a variety of gingerbread houses sparked ideas for my gingerbread house.

I made the pieces to my gingerbread house but it didn't get put together until Christmas Eve. With the help of a friend we were able to completely cover the house with logs, put on the lights, create the small wood shed, and build a snowman between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. (Note: You cannot see the snowman in the pictures above because I ended up mumifying him; he rests in peace in the middle of the tree....As we were building him the plastic bags we were using to squeeze the frosting out of split [which was the start of a intense frosting fight]; to say the least he looked like a pretty pathetic snowman. I am sure he felt pretty humiliated too. We both happy with the solution).

The rest of the details were finally accomplished several days ago to make the gingerbread house complete. I am satisfied with it and admire the finished product on display. I don't know if I have one favorite part of the house because everything together adds to it overall. I like everything, but want to especially point out the stained glass windows (a trick from my mom), the construction of how the logs were placed, and the fish hanging from a string on the side of the house.

It is tradition as a family to gather around the gingerbread house in the minutes nearing the New Year and at the stroke of midnight to demolish the gingerbread house. That tradition wasn't followed through this year since my gingerbread house was still being built on New Year's Eve! I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with it....maybe begin the demolishing act by nibbling on things here and there.

I was able to spend half of Christmas day at work with the sweet residents that I work for. My co-worker and I were able to get ahead of schedule, which gave us the time to sit down and spend some quality one-on-one time with the residents that were present. I enjoyed watched them open gifts that they had received from distant family and friends. It was fun to relive a little of my childhood by sitting and watching some of the old-school claymation Christmas movies on TV that I had watched as a kid.

Shortly after arriving home my family had the great blessing of being able to have a conference call with my brother who is serving his mission for the LDS Church in Guadalajara, Mexico South. He had been in the field for only a couple of weeks. It was fun to hear his stories and experiences up to that point. He is doing amazing and exceeding all of our already high expectations of him as a missionary.

Next, my parents and older brother and his wife, who were home in Texas, were able to have a virtual Christmas over the internet using web cams. Unfortunately, Daniel was unable to join us for this virtual Christmas as he was with his son Ryan during that time. It is awesome to be living in such a day where technology allowed us to have Christmas 'together' even though we are thousands of miles apart, but it is definitely not the same as being with them. I am still grateful that I was able to spend Christmas this way with my family or it would have felt very lonely otherwise. It was different, yet memorable! I enjoyed everybody that I was able to spend Christmas with!

December Challenge: Complete Spa Treatment

I didn’t get a complete spa treatment and have yet to do so in my life – if ever – but I did give a complete spa treatment to a turkey. Yes, a turkey. The ones that go ‘gobble gobble.’ But mine didn’t because, well, it was dead. And no, I didn’t kill it but it definitely would have added to the learning experience! I decided for my first challenge I would learn how to prepare, cook, and cut a turkey.

I was looking forward to learning how to cook a turkey this past November for Thanksgiving – it being my first Thanksgiving away from home – but circumstances had it where I was unable to. Plus, recovering from food poisoning on Thanksgiving I was also unable to partake of the turkey that was prepared by my roommate. All the more reason to learn how to cook one! Who needs a holiday as an excuse to cook a turkey anyway? Turkeys don’t just grow in the month November.

To be honest, I was quite intimidated by this challenge because I had never done it nor had I ever seen anybody prepare a turkey before. I’ve just seen it come out of the oven each year. Thus, my research began – I found a recipe online that looked tasty and that had also received many 5 star ratings. Plus, it was classified as ‘easy.’ Can’t go wrong with that. The recipe: Oven Roasted Turkey with Sage Butter

First mistake: I bought a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey. Now, I can blame this mistake on lack of sleep because I purchased the turkey breast right after getting off of my 12-hour long night shift on Monday. (The day has significance because that means I had just completed three 12-hour night shifts). But when I was in the store I was more concentrated on finding a turkey that weighed as little as possible; I wasn’t focused on the label as long as it said ‘turkey’ somewhere on it. Needless to say, I now have a turkey breast in my freezer and I made another trip to the grocery store.

The complete spa treatment began this afternoon by first undressing it of its plastic wrapping and removing the neck and giblets. I then thoroughly washed the turkey inside and out. This cleansing prepared the meat for the next spa treatment stage.

I began the exfoliating process by sprinkling sea salt and pepper on the inside of the turkey. Spreading olive oil all over the outside of the turkey, I then rubbed sea salt and pepper over the entire turkey. The next and most time consuming part of this spa treatment was the full body massage. (Since when do turkeys get full body massages!?!) I had to separate the skin of the turkey from the meat beneath in order to spread the Sage Butter over the meat. This part of the treatment ended up being the most fun for me. It was something that I never imagined or thought possible – but I was actually doing it! It was interesting to feel how the skin and meat were separated, but even more fun to see the turkey have saggy skin afterwards! (Thanks goodness this doesn’t happen after human body massages!).

After the massage, the conditioning and soothing lotion (Sage Butter) was added in between the skin and meat. And by way of suggestion, I rubbed minced garlic over the outside and inside of the turkey as well as sprinkled some additional salt and pepper over it again. I stuffed the inside of the turkey and the bottom of the cooking dish with sliced up potatoes, carrots, onions, and garlic for added nutrience and supplement. Covering it up with tin foil, it was ready for the last portion of its spa treatment, 3 hours in the tanning bed!

I had absolutely no idea how to carve the turkey once it came out of the tanning bed, but lucky for me the same website that provided the recipe (foodnetwork.com) also provided a video on how to carve a turkey! The video gives great instruction, but I had a difficult time getting good clean cuts because the meat literally fell off the bones! This made getting the meat off of the bones super easy. I guess that’s when you know you’ve done an excellent spa treatment! The meat was absolutely mouth-watering delicious!! It wasn’t dry at all, but burst with flavor! It made my taste buds sing and dance all night long. The turkey along with the cooked vegetables and some stuffing to complete the meal was a little bit of heaven on earth. I will be enjoying the turkey for days to come!

After all is said and done, I think the one who gives the complete spa treatment ends up with the better deal….

Bon Appetit!

December Challenge: Success!

(The recipe is included under comments for your convenience)

The Challenge

We often hear people quote the saying, "You learn something new every day!" And as much as that may be true, I would say that it is more passive learning than not. There is academic learning, but that is more of a 'comes with the territory' type of learning, which is mainly concentrated within the first 30 years of ones life. To me, it seems rare to find an individual who is constantly seeking to learn something new; somebody who is actively learning just for the sake of learning.

There are many things in this world and in my lifetime that I would love to learn how to do or learn about whether through experiential education, studying, or by other means. So to kick off this desire I have to become an active learner I have challenged myself to learn one new thing each month for the entire year.

The list is endless and the possibilities are mind boggling, yet somehow I don't know where to begin or what to choose to start off this challenge in January. Nonetheless, I am excited! And don't worry, I will be blogging about the new learning experience of choice each month. So, stay tuned...

Suggestions are welcomed

Fun-Filled Celebration!

Usually my weekends mainly consist of sleeping and working, along with a few other items of accomplishment from my to do list. There isn't much time to play on the weekends; the majority of my play time takes place during the week days. But today was a rare occasion wherein I was able to spend most of my Saturday playing and enjoying the day to the max!

Today was a celebration of sorts, but mostly dedicated to my amazing friend who just passed the state test and became a CNA. A great accomplishment! After a interesting experience, but rather filling lunch at Sizzlers we began looking for hills to go sledding down. This was a last minute idea I had as I was running out the door, but was met with much excitement upon my suggesting it. Idaho has finally received it's first real snow fall over the last few days and my friend and I were both really excited to try out the new powder. We drove around looking for a certain hill, but ended up going to a park that had the perfect sledding hill in it. It wasn't a huge hill - but it was perfect to satisfy the adventurous spirit we had inside.

Our 'sleds' consisted of a long, body-width piece of plastic with hand holds around the edges. I had never used them before and so I didn't know how well they worked. But with snow falling heavily around us we didn't hesitate to jump on and give it a whirl. To my surprise the sleds worked fantastic, which only added to our fun. We slid down the hill in as many different ways you could possibly think of! It was sooooo much fun!

I think I had forgotten or had a bit of a bad taste for sledding in my mouth because of last year's winter experience. I had broken my tailbone mountain biking in October and so my winter activities, which consisted of sledding and snowboarding, weren't so enjoyable especially when I went over a bump or got any kind of air on a sled or when I would fall (which I did quite often) snowboarding. (I am grateful for the patience and love of those who were with me on these occasions!). Sledding today brought added excitement, fun, and new limits because it wasn't painful anymore and I could enjoy it to it's absolute fullest, especially since my friend was with me last winter as well in my attempt to go sledding.

Today was such a fun day of celebration and making memories! It was a perfect way to kick off the snowy winter wonderland. I look forward to many more similar fun adventures this winter may bring. Thanks for an amazing day today!!

Keeping Christmas Traditions Alive

This year's Christmas season won't be like any other Christmas season that I have ever experienced before. This will be the first Christmas that I will not be traveling home to spend this holiday season with my family, but instead will be spending the season in Idaho by myself. As I have accepted the fact that I will not be going home I have contemplated the things that I would like to do to bring the spirit of Christmas into this holiday season. My mind went immediately to what Christmas is all about - Christ. I began to think about Christ's birth, who Christ is, and the life that He led. From a young age til His resurrection Christ served and ministered unto others; He embodies charity. I decided that I want to fill and celebrate this holiday season by also giving service of sorts to others.

One of the things that came into mind of something that I would like to do also happens to be a Christmas tradition that my family has: ding-dong-ditching a plateful of homemade goodies. Each year as my family gathered together we'd each pick one goodie to make in order to create these Christmas goodie plates. After a lot of knocking elbows and bumping into each other as all six of us were crammed into the kitchen an array of Christmas goodie delights were created. The next fun part came when we each had an opportunity to sneak up to our neighbors or friend's front door, ring the door bell, and then run like there was no tomorrow, often having to jump into bushes, hide behind trees, and dive behind parked vehicles! If we got daring enough, we'd egg on our Christmas goodie victims to come out and chase us by throwing things as they looked into the darkness of the night with puzzled expressions on their face. Doing this alone will definitely not be the same, but the joy of this tradition and it's purpose will still be there and felt.

Not only is giving service this holiday season something that I want to do, but also keeping the Christmas traditions alive as much as I can that I grew up with in my family is a desire I have as well. Since my roommates will both be out of town, I am still trying to figure out who will secretly drug my egg nog Christmas Eve night with alka seltzer or benedryl and who will sneak into my room in the middle of the night to tie me up? I am wondering if Mrs. Clause will get the memo that I will be in Idaho this year and still swing by to drop off her Christmas Eve gift? And I hope that Santa enjoys the cookies and soymilk I'll leave out for him, along with some carrots for his reindeer.

The yearly tradition of making and decorating a gingerbread house is also a must on my list. Although I am not as skilled in constructing a gingerbread house as my mom is (SHE'S AMAZING!) I will not let this stop me from making one of my own and having the fun that accompanies this tradition. I have decided to make my gingerbread house this year into a log cabin because I have always loved log cabins and hope to live in one in the mountains some day.

Another tradition that I am looking forward to doing is my personal gift to Christ. As Christ gave his life for me, I want to give Him something. Each year I pick one thing specifically that I want to spend that year giving to Christ. I write this gift down, place it in a small box, wrap it, and put it under the tree. When the holiday season is over and all of the decorations get boxed up and stored away for another year, this wrapped gift to Christ is left out serving as a reminder to me throughout the next year of my gift to Him. The following Christmas season I open it and take some time to reflect and ponder upon this gift and what I did over the year to fully give that gift away to Him. I pray that my gift to Him this year, as I strive to do all that I can, will be fulfilled and completely given to Him.

With different acts of service and these fun traditions and many other meaningful ones, I hope that this holiday season is as enriching as in years past.

I am looking forward to having my very first white Christmas this year and also to have the new experience of sharing Christmas morning virtually with my family through web cams. The blessing of modern technology is allowing my family to spend Christmas morning together even though we're thousands of miles away from one another.

I wish everybody a wonderful Holiday Season this year and hope that you are filled with spirit of Christ and that lasting memories are created with you and your loved ones. And may this coming new year bring you the many blessings heaven has to offer. Merry Christmas and God bless!

Taken for Granted

Whether it's a quiet, full heart or an outward expression of some sort I think we all take time to feel the gratitude for the things in our lives during this holiday season. Over this past month I have taken many opportunities in my quiet moments to ponder upon the things in my life that I am grateful for. The list never seems to end for the blessings the Lord gives are continuous and eternal. My list of things are probably very similar to the things you would or have included on your own list: a loving and supportive family, true friends, truth, health, the basic necessities of life (clothing, food, shelter), a beautiful earth, etc., the list could go on and on.

An experience I have had and am still going through currently has slightly altered my way of thinking in regards to my perspective on the gratitude list I have been making in my head. Tuesday evening while having a pleasant conversation on the phone with a dear friend I began to feel sick. As the night continued on the feelings of sickness increased and the symptoms began to manifest themselves to a greater degree. Nausea set in and my stomach felt like bubbling swamp. Then with almost no warning at all the race to the bathroom commenced in an effort to beat the strike of the Double Dragon. With only seconds to spare I had successfully made it into the bathroom ready to face the fury of the Double Dragon. This wrath was fierce and the battle was long and weary.

I have had three prior experiences with the Double Dragon before, the first being manifested through the effects of giardia, the second from food poisoning, and third from a liver cleanse gone bad. Revisiting this a fourth time due to food poisoning (from one of two restaurants that will remain unnamed) gave me the opportunity to think back on my previous experiences. This most current experience beats out experience two and three hands down, but is quite comparable to experience one - giardia. The only difference between this experience and my episode with giardia is that I didn't have to dig a hole in the ground and I had the comfort of modern convienences at my fingertips.


So, a few of the things that I am grateful for that most of us take for granted include: a toilet, toilet paper, trash cans, never-before known comfortable bathroom floors, Pepsi (stomach settler), 'Rachel's Remidies (thanks M2/D2!), a true friend who stayed on the phone with me through the worst of the worst and who helped and comforted me, and two roommates and a brother who came to my aid in various ways.

And as I still suffer from the effects of food poisoning in various ways my list of gratitude for things that I have taken for granted in the past continues to grow and I find a lot more appreciation in the small, simple, and unrecognized things of life.