Christmas gifting

At least 4 weeks before christmas...

me "What should we get your parents for christmas?"
Rillz "I don't know"
me "What about Idaho coffee or something?"
Rillz "No, they have the best coffee in the world. Don't worry about it. We don't need to get them anything."
me "Ok then..."

The morning 4 days before christmas

Rillz "I need to get my parents something"
me "You said we weren't getting them anything"
Rillz "Yeah, but we should... What about a bag of coffee or something?"
me.... no comment.....

Lesson learned.

Breakfast Cranberry-Walnut Quinoa Cookie and x-mas gift

I was reading Bon Appetit magazine yesterday and saw a recipe for Breakfast Cranberry-almond Quinoa cookie and said I must try that! So I did.

I had to make alterations to what I had on hand. Used white flour instead of white whole wheat flour, used coconut extract instead of almond extract and used walnuts instead of almonds.

These turned out so yummy! Definitely a good breakfast cookie. Not very sweet and kind of bready. I was just so curious because Quinoa in a cookie?!? But, yes, it really is tasty and a nice consistency.

This is a christmas gift I made for my 2 best girlfriends. I found the mason jar with a handle at goodwill for $ .25 a piece. Etched the beehive in the glass with etching cream. Kristi found the honey dippers for $2 a piece at a craft fair that she was selling jewelry at. A normal mason jar lid wouldn't fit so I started raiding the lids in the fridge to find something that would fit. The one in the picture came off of a salsa jar and the other one I made came off a mustard jar. I just spray painted the tops black. The salsa lid already had that cool yellow design on the side so I left it. So for a couple bucks and some change... I have a nice x-mas gift to give.

The most wonderful time of the year...

I love christmas!! We have so many traditions as a family.


*The Caldwell night light parade. We always eat taco soup before the parade and apple cobbler after. So Much Fun! It only gets better with all the babies!


*Christmas Eve is when we get together with my family. A movie and then a breakfast dinner together. And, also, opening the sibling and parent gifts that night.


*Christmas day in the afternoon we always go to my Great Aunt Nancy's house with the Hollingsworth relatives. We play an awesome roll the dice gift game and just really enjoy the company of everybody!

Waiting for the Caldwell parade to start... Brecken didn't have gloves so Heidi loaned him some. They fit just right ;)

Me and my daddy!



Mom, Heidi, and Cami Girl

Me in front of the huge lit up tree in Caldwell

Mom and Dad in front of a bunch of lit up lights along the water.

Christmas decorations are always fantastic to look at and I am strict about the day after Thanksgiving my decorations are out of the shop and ready to put up! They need to be up for the max amount of time!

My christmas tree looks a little sad in this picture. But at night... I love it. I decided to use the old fashion c9 bulbs on it and put less ornaments. (Mainly because I got lazy hanging ornaments). I didn't even try to put the star on top this year because our fake tree is just to tall and goes right to the ceiling.

My stockings

A random shelf I decorated. I just used stuff I had laying around the house or extras of stuff in the x-mas boxes and kinda came up with this look.

Love my bear advent calendar. Just like the one I had growing up! It is ugly but full of memories!

Two days ago my boss saw these light up reindeer that they never use and asked if I wanted to take them home.. Ummm, YES!! Rillz, I, and the dogs went out in the cold this morning to assemble them. I love them!

Aren't these great! We put them closer to the front door because we don't live in the best neighborhood and I don't want them to get stolen.

Rillz staking the reindeer down so they don't blow over. These things were SO easy to assemble!

Miss Malu helping in the front yard. Yes, she has a coat. She gets so cold so quickly and just starts shaking. So Malu gets a coat.

Little Simon boy.

Jersey... she was let out in the front yard with no leash for the first time and did GREAT! She stuck around the whole time. She has been a great addition.

Also, Pandora on my phone has been AMAZING! I put it on the She and Him Christmas channel and just love the tunes! Oh I love christmas music but the radio x-mas channel gets a little boring. Pandora is truly fantastic!

Christmas is in exactly one week! Crazy. Still no snow in Boise, Idaho (which is a little weird for this time of year). But snow or no snow... Merry Christmas everybody!

Locks of Love and Deep frying a turkey

Two things on my bucket list that I did this last week. Donate my hair to locks of love and deep fry a turkey.

Yep! I always wanted to donate my hair to locks of love. I grew it out for 3 years. This week I decided it was long enough and time to donate it! My hair was just long and unmanageable.

Long hair (obviously)

I will miss it. This has been a long time in the making!

I got it cut today. At first, while in the salon, I didn't like it. I LOVE my hair stylist! He asked how I liked it and I told him I wasn't sure. Looked boring. He became kinda sad. I felt really bad. When I left the salon and looked at it at home, I started liking it more. I think it was just such a big difference to me I didn't know what to think. Now, I am loving it!

The back! It feels so healthy and soft! Loving it.

I hope some child loves their new wig made out of my hair!

Bucket list #2: Deep fry a turkey. Ren and I have been wanting to do this for 2 years now! It finally got done! I don't even like turkey but I really wanted to try it deep fryed.

Finished product

Tasted the same to me. But still fun and bucket list item checked off!

Happy Holidays Everyone!