Favorite Tradtions {Part 1}

(I hope that there will be a part 2 and 3 to this post, but I am not promising anything.)

Tonight we had our Andrus family Christmas party. It is always one that I look forward to. A while ago, we decided to stop drawing names and giving cousin presents and started doing a white elephant gift exchange. We all went to the dollar store and got a gift. One person starts and picks a present and then it can be stolen twice before it becomes safe.

One year there was this velvet rose, and my cousin Isaiah had it. My brother Dan (who is 5 or so years older) took the rose from Isaiah. Since it was a rose, he thought it would be fine to steal, but we got the opposite reaction and Isaiah started crying. It was so funny, and is the joke of the family now.

For the past few years, we have changed our present swap to a $5 food item. It's always fun to watch and see what the big hit items are each year. (Sams Club muffins, jumbo bag of Swedish fish, chocolate covered raisins, etc.)

This year Bob thought of his present early, he got 2 six packs of the bottled pop. He got Strawberry Crush and Cream Soda. I picked out the jumbo bag of Pretzel M&M's. This year we started out with youngest and went up to the oldest. The soda got picked early and was stolen until safe before we hit the 12-15 year olds. 

Someone else also brought the same M&M's as us, and I got them. Bob came home with a container of popcorn. He sure wished he could've brought home his pop.

Andrea and Brent: They got 2 awesome presents, M&M's and Gum.

 Bob and I with ours, Bob lovin on his popcorn, haha.  Andrea and I are twins with our M&Ms.

 Laken and Mike! Laken brought the chips, so she was happy to reclaim them. And she also wanted the goldfish for Mike's lunches. haha.

Long day....

I woke up this morning to my Mom calling about the snow. She wanted to know if my Dad needed to come over with the four wheeler to scrape the snow. What snow I thought. And then I looked out the window.

Bob and I spent the next 2 hours shoveling snow. We only got 2/3 of the parking lot finished. I quickly got ready, went shopping for a few things and then made lunch. Our good friends Alisha and Patrick came over with their cute baby Megan. We ate lunch, played games, and caught up. It was so fun. We wish they lived closer so we could do it more often.

Bob and I went to run a few errands after they left. We had a couple hours of down time before we had to leave to meet my family for dinner and a movie. We discussed on the way home whether we would watch a movie, or take a nap. When I got out of the car, I heard a weird noise, I looked down and saw my tire deflate.

Luckily Bob is mister handy (I have never changed a tire in my life....) and he got our little donut put on. We spent the next hour and 20 minutes waiting at Les Scwab to get our flat fixed. Basically our 2 hour "resting period" was over.

We met my family down in Spanish Fork at Pizza Factory. (I can't go there without thinking of Danielle and her million stories about working there.) Following dinner, my parents sent Bob and I to the Payson movie theater. We got tickets and saved seats for the clan. (All 12 of us)

When Bob and I walked into the theater, we found that there was no one there. When the rest of the family arrived, they just laughed. We ended up having the theater to ourselves for the whole movie.

We put on our 3D glasses and enjoyed the newest Narnia movie.

Family

Aunt Jana, Uncle Kent, and Dad. Do Kent and my Dad look similar, they are brothers.

Lyssa, Sydney (cousins), Ayrika, and Nicki

Newlyweds (sorry Andrea, I had to put that picture on here.)

Andrea's Wedding

Andrea and Brent got married last Friday in the Salt Lake Temple. They looked amazing, the ceremony was beautiful, and it was a wonderful weekend We are so excited to add Brent to the family! I'll post more pictures when I have some time.

spending time wisely

I came home from school with 1 million things to do. I listed a few in my last post. I am happy to say that the pile of laundry, is actually gone. Well part is put away, part is clean on the couch, and the rest is in the dryer. (I am progressing though.) Between loads of laundry I cleaned the kitchen, cleaned out the fridge, and swept the floor.

I still need to:
Buy Christmas presents
Make a few Christmas presents
Mail a few presents
Buy new shoes and jewlery for Andrea's wedding (12/17)
Bake treats for the neighbors
Print off pictures of my class for Christmas presents

.... and I am sure a few more things my brain can't process at the moment.

Instead of doing any of those things, tonight I did the following.

Wedding toenails,  her colors are black, cream, and gold. I do need open toe black maybe gold shoes to go with. Yes I am wearing my candy cane striped PJ pants. I love them.

Glittery JOY letters, that will be put in three 5x7 frames with red paper background. Need to buy frames when I go out and do all of my shopping. I found my inspiration and by that I mean the exact idea from HERE. If you would like to make it, buy your wood letters and come over, I have spray adhesive and a lot of green glitter leftover!

Reasons why I am ready for Christmas Break...

I used my car remote key to try and unlock my classroom door the other morning.

I've made 5 batches of soup for different potlucks this week.

I keep thinking it's the following day, and am always disappointed when I realize what day it is.

The laundry tower has tipped over a few times this week. And it's height is at an all time record high.

The presents that have been wrapped and ready to mail for the past 10 days are still sitting in my living room.

My patience is getting shorter and shorter each day.

My sub plans are made and ready for Andrea's wedding on Friday.

I've sang Jingle Bells, Up on the Rooftop, I'm Getting Nothing for Christmas, and other Christmas songs over 20 times each with my class.

I almost slipped on the ice 5 times when walking from my car to the school this morning.

Bridal Shower and Grandpa Stories

Yesterday my cousin Emily and I threw a bridal shower for my sister Andrea. Emily did mostly everything, she was so fun to throw a shower with. After my Turkey Cake Pops, she looked online and thought that the Cupcake Pops wouldn't be too hard. I warned her not to do it, but she made them anyway. They were super cute, although they did take a lot of time.

(These are Bakerella's, but Emily's looked almost identical.)

We decided to do soups for the main dish. My mom made her amazing rolls to go with them. All of the soups were amazing. My cousin JanaRae brought a Tomato-Basil with Orzo pasta, it was divine. Emily made a vegetable soup that had mint and lemon in it. And then I made my 2 favorite soups. White Chicken Chili and Pumpkin Curry soup.

 For dessert along with the cake pops, I made some chocolate cookies that I had found online at one of my favorite blogs. They were really good. I am excited to make them for school next week. (We all share a Christmas treat the last few days of school.)

During the shower, I meant to take pictures- but with talking to family members I didn't get around to it. The only picture I got was at the end of Andrea next to the banner I made for the shower.

Today on our way to my parents house for dinner, we stopped to pick my Grandpa up. My Grandma had knee replacement surgery last week, and is staying in a rehabilitation center near our house. Grandpa needed a ride home, so we picked him up. While visiting with my Grandma before we left, Grandpa showed Bob his IPad and let him listen to his favorite songs. Sick em on a Chicken, is his favorite song that he always has us listen to when we are visiting.

The ride to Mapleton went by quickly as Grandpa told us many stories about his past, along with Springville history. I love hearing his stories, and hope that I don't forget them.