merry little christmas

  There are a lot of really good things about my job, and quite a few not-so-good things . . one of them being no vacation days and another being any time the residents are sick, I get sick too (I am just now recovering from two days with the flu)!  BUT, I managed to smile/beg/coax my way into getting three days off for Christmas and we just had a splendid time with my family in Merced!

For our Christmas presents to each other, Ben and I bought tickets to see the San Francisco Ballet's Nutcracker.  It was awesome, if I do say so myself!

It was my parents' turn to host the Rowan Family Christmas Eve party and Ben and I were in charge of games.

Aunt Ellen won this Willie Mays "The Catch" Christmas ornament and Uncle Creed was so happy.  The game was "Who Can Name the Most Christmas Songs in Two Minutes" and Aunt Ellen was a shoe-in.

 The next game was two teams against each other in a race to unwrap all the Hershey's Kisses first . . while wearing mittens.

Then we played "Throw the Marshmallows Through the Christmas Wreath" and whoever got the most through in 30 seconds won.  Good times.


The usual "program."

Tommy wrote a *very lengthy* poem about his favorite soccer team - Manchester United.  It was hilarious.

Ty played the bagpipes.  Did you have that at your Christmas party?

Grandma read from Luke 2.

Then it was time for presents.  All the ladies received stained-glass pendants hand-made by Grandpa.

Christmas 2012

Christmas morning - I think we set a new *late* record with 8:00 AM.

Mom & Dad both bought each other new sheets.

Traditional Nerf guns in the stockings.

Emily bought everyone a present at the "Secret Santa Store" at her school.  Dad got a new tool set!  It was tender.

I got Ben this Colts Huddler.  No, not Snuggie,  Huddler.

My adorable new apron from Randy & Sandra.

We got to Skype with Elder Rowan, all the way from Pascagoula, Mississippi.  He's doing great, folks!

Before we drove back to Walnut Creek, I wanted to go "shopping" at Grandpa's Glass Shed and pick out a few more pendants.  Pretty awesome, huh?

~

The day after Christmas, my old roomie, Mckenna, had her wedding open house just down the freeway.  She looked totally gorg and it was awesome to see her and Joanna/Jack/new baby Molly!  Sometimes I wish my roommates and I could all live together again for just one week and it would be so much fun.  ...  But then I remember how I got annoyed by them and I'm glad we are happily married, living with our husbands, and still great friends!  ;)

Christmas Beginnings

Christmas time is here!  And it is so fun to decorate!

We love our little pre-lit four-footer!  At Christmastime last year, we gathered all of Ben's personal Christmas ornaments and when we unwrapped and put them on our tree this year Ben was so happy I thought he might cry!

Also, Ben's sister Kristi made this angel tree-topper and gave it to us last year.  Isn't it so perfect?

Kristi also made us these Christmas stockings and gave them to us when we got married.  They are too cute!

Ben's other sister, Ashley, made us the advent calendar.  Apparently it was a pretty big deal in their house growing up because I have heard so much about it!  The poem reads:

December first to Christmas is the longest time of the year.

Seems as though Old Santa never will appear.

Untie a candy every night when the Sandman casts his spell,

And Christmas will be here by the time you reach the bell.

Ben can recite it by memory.  You should ask him.

I sewed a piece of candy to each date's little circle thing and we get to take one off each night.  Attached to the final date is a bell that we can ring on Christmas day!

I am super impressed by Ashley's cross-stitching; the advent calendar is gorgeous.

I made this pennant banner one night and I am really proud of it!  Just a little ribbon, some cute paper, some hot glue, and a brown colored pencil!

I love our Christmas centerpiece, too!

Okay new topic.

Ben's company had their Christmas party on Saturday!  It was at the Exploratorium in San Francisco - how cool is that?  The dress code was cocktail attire/black tie optional and that proved to be a bit of a struggle.  I borrowed a dress from Mom and two from a friend in the ward, as well as some jewelry and tights.  I decided to actually try things on the night before which wasn't smart because nothing was really working.  Two of the dresses, I couldn't even zip up!  That has never happened to me before.  So it was like 9:30 the night before and I'm swearing off of ice cream (but not really) and wondering what to wear.  We decided we could go out shopping the next morning before I went to work but that was kind of stressful, so we were looking online to get an idea of where we could go and what we would find.  Then we saw that Kohl's is open until midnight, so we got out of our pajamas and back in our jeans and did some late-night shopping!  We had such great luck!  We found an adorable, affordable dress.

The party was fun.  Good food, good live band.  It was just so fun to have a dressy night out with Ben, and of course, I got to meet all of his co-working and they all raved about Ben's work.  No surprise there!

And last but not least, on Sunday we had our traditional Christmas sugar cooking decorating evening.

YUMMY!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving in pictures.  [I'm too sick to write anything clever.]

BYU vs. SJSU

BYU football came to San Jose!  Ben said it's like we're being slowly weaned off our BYU experience.

We were on TV!

Ben is cute, even when he photo-bombs.

I Got Crafty!

Ben had to travel last week for work (I don't know how you women with husbands who travel every week do it), so to keep myself busy after work I made some things to help me organize my jewelry.  I'm totally pleased.

For my necklaces, I covered a cork-board in a pretty frame with some fabric I bought last summer when we lived in the Sunset District.  I think the fabric is to die for.  I also had some flat pearls I bought last summer at Michael's and I hot-glued those onto the top of white thumb tacks to hang my necklaces on.  It probably would have made more sense to secure the fabric onto the cork-board with thumb tacks, but I just hot glued  it on in a few places around the edges.  Ben says it looks like something you could buy in Anthro and that is the ultimate compliment.  The bracelet stand is from Target.

For my hair accessories, I did a similar thing.  I hot-glued fabric onto a cork-board and then hot-glued ribbon cross-ways on top.  I hot-glued the ribbon at the ends and whenever it crossed another ribbon.  Now I can just slip the clips onto the ribbon.

Earrings.  Okay I couldn't get this picture to rotate so you'll have to turn your head.  I just used the same fabric I used for my hair clips (also from the little shop in the Sunset District) and secured it tightly in two embroidery hoops.  Totally easy and totally cute, right?

Our apartment contract is up in January and we are hoping to find another, less pricey place to live so I'm not going to bother putting holes in our walls for these now, but when we move I will hang them all up gallery-style and I'm excited for that.

And at the end of the week, I was done crafting, and this is how I knew Ben was home.  Within the first hour he was home we had popcorn.

I was also a little artsy last month and I entered this in an art contest for art work to hang in the new Zachary's location in Pleasant Hill.  Totally out of my comfort zone to enter an art contest.  Even more so to blog about it.  Eeek.  We'll find out this week if my art gets to go in the new restaurant and if it doesn't, Ben wants to save it for his future "man cave".

And speaking of Ben . . in case you were wondering what the two of us are going to look like in old age, here you go!

can't wait

I can't wait to wear THIS shirt!

Go GIANTS!!

toots

When I lived with my lovely, girly roommates, one of them (I think it was Joanna) described me as "the little boy of the apartment."

If the fact that I laughed so hard tears streamed down my face at this article doesn't prove my little-boy sense of humor, I don't know what will.  This is just too funny not to share.

The Fart That Almost Altered My Destiny

Gosh, I sure hope we have sons.

Sideburns & Such

Yes, my Facebook status is true.  The other night, I did remove part of Ben's right sideburn.  Ben gets his haircut every so often at SuperCuts or wherever, but in between when he still likes the top but feels sheepish about the back and the sides, he has me give him a little trim.  This is not the first time something has gone wrong.  Once, I cut what looked like an elf ear shape into his hair over just one ear.  Unfortunately, it would have just been worse if I did it to the other side.

This time, I was doing a great job.  I was feeling proud and confident . . but those feelings always come before the fall, don't they . . ?  When I got to the last part, his right sideburn, I got a little "loose" with my handling of the clippers and I slashed a horizontal space in the middle of his sideburn.  We then had to shorten it; it was just too bad to let it be and hope no one would notice.  Fortunately, this time we could fix the other side to match and it's not horrible.  Buutttt . . it was pretty bad.  I'm not sure I'll be trimming his hair anymore.

In other news . . 

Mom came up last weekend.  Have I mentioned that I love living 2 hours away from my family?  It rocks!

&

The other day I was just filled with the joy that living the Gospel brings.  So much so that I wanted to blog about it!  I don't normally blog about things like that . . but the Church has been making a big push in the last few years about sharing the Gospel and our testimonies using technology and social media, so I guess I should.  Except that I'm pretty sure that the only people who read my blog are already LDS . . 

&

I think THIS is pretty awesome:

Do you think I could get matching pointe shoes?

forever & ever

Yesterday at work we were playing balloon volleyball.  One lady just couldn't figure out the game and she kept asking things like "Well, what's the point?" and "What do I do with the balloon now?"

Then she asked "How long is this gonna go on for, anyways?"

I said "Foreevvvver and eevvvver."

Another resident then said "Aahhmen."

Haha!

Ben & I just had a fabulous week with his parents, Randy and Sandra.  We love them!  We had some good adventures, some good eats, and lots of good conversation.  ;)

Thursday, Ben took his parents to Muir Woods to hike, and we dined at Back Forty Texas BBQ that night.  Back Forty is right next to our apartment building and our parking garage always smells heavenly.  It was nice to finally satiate our sense of smell with our sense of taste.

On Friday, Ben, Sandra, and Randy went to the Oakland Temple in the morning and explored Berkeley and the delightful Cheeseboard in the afternoon.  They came and visited me at work and then I was ready for vacation - no more work!  We ate in downtown Walnut Creek that night and had dessert at our ever-favorite San Francisco Creamery.  Randy even bought Sandra and me Creamery t-shirts.

On Saturday, the four of us explorerd Chinatown for a couple of hours.  Ben was an excellent tour guide as he gave us information from our Frommer's guidebook and from his personal Chinese experiences.  Isn't this tour group so cute?  We had a dim sum lunch at Great Eastern in Chinatown - a restaurant we have heard rave reviews about and have wanted to try for a long time.  The wait was long (but that turned into a theme for our entire week) and the fare didn't disappoint!

Then, we did the one of the most fun things I have ever done!  I repeat - most fun ever!  The four of us rented GoCars and toured around San Fran for a couple of hours.  These itty bitty cars have a GPS in them that connects to a guided audio tour as your drive.  It was awesome.  We loved it, and everyone around us loved it; we got so many smiles and waves and we just waved right back.  I even saw one man take a picture of us.

 I couldn't decide which picture was better, so we have the far-away and the close-up with my finger.  Either way, these two were so cute!

They were even cuter when it was discovered that their car was a little baby and couldn't make it up the hills.  Every time we went up a hill Ben and I would look behind us and see Sandra in her pink sweatshirt running beside the car or pushing the car up the hill with Randy and his sunglasses in the driver's seat.  It was hysterical.

Their car eventually went ka-put when we got to the Golden Gate Bridge (and, of course, it had dropped about 20 degrees).  Ben and I went back in our GoCar and met them back at the drop-off place.  We dined that night at Il Pollaio in North Beach.

On Sunday we did the normal Sabbath Day things . . oh except I taught Relief Society when my mother-in-law was there.  Talk about pressure.  :) 

Monday was another great day!  We went into the city for breakfast which was more like lunch because we had to wait for 1 1/2 hours.  But let me tell you, it was so worth it.  It was, hands down, the best breakfast I have ever had!  Dottie's True Blue Cafe.  Next time you are in SF, you've got to check it out.  Order "The Open Road" - orange juice, two eggs, bacon, the best home fries to ever enter my mouth, and pancakes - wholewheat buttermilk pancakes spiced with ginger and cinnamon, served with pure maple syrup.  Mmm-hmmm!

After break-lunch, we went to the Giants game.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day and the Giants pulled out a win in the bottom of the 10th.  We couldn't have asked for more!

For dinner, we took Randy and Sandra to one of our favorite pizza places in East Bay - Zachary's - deep dish Chicago-style pizza.

On Tuesday we had lunch at another place we have heard all about - Bakesale Betty's in Oakland.  It came with another long line, but that is just a sign that the food is yummy.  I was cranky this day, but we had fun biking around Golden Gate Park in the afternoon.  We had our last dinner at P.F. Chang's and that just never seems to disappoint!

Thank you Randy & Sandra for making such an effort to come visit us and for treating us to a spectacular week!  We love you!