More Updates

Tis the time...for more happenings.

20. More photos of my cutest nephew. Teagan has been busy learning about some traditional family activities. For as long as I can remember my sister and I were subjected to an annual visit to the Santa Claus photo courtesy Country Village. I remember harboring this deep dark secret from friends and classmates alike. Especially in those junior high years where it was so uncool to still be going to visit Santa. But I will admit (but deny if asked) that it is fun to see the same Santa scene each year, with us growing up over the years. Anyway, a year or two ago, my sister and I protested enough so as not to be subjected to dressing up and getting that picture taken. Hence, Teagan's first year to meet the Jolly Big Guy. He is so much cuter at it than I ever was.

For your viewing pleasure.

Not afraid of Santa...seemed to be very in tune

with the camera taking their picture.

21. As to some of the more new traditions. We are a game playing kinda family. It has turned into "Reindeer Games" during the holidays. This means that as soon as the Thanksgiving dishes are washed and put away, the card table comes out and the board games take up a temporary residence in the living room. Games that have made a recent jump in popularity: Blokus, Triominos, Roll the Bones, and TriBond. The tradition continues on so that new "members" of the reindeer game club have to wear The Antlers; so as to further entertain other members of the reindeer game club. Hence the fascination with reindeer...

-Visiting the Reindeer Farm-

22. and making Christmas presents for the family...

23. This past weekend my parents attended my great aunt's Hanukkah celebration. This has become an annual party for my mom, and this year she brought my dad along to dance, eat, and Spin the Dreidel. This party is potluck, and among the traditional Jewish dishes, my mom typically brings a fruit salad or some other non-denominational dish. Until this year. As I was baking cupcakes for my birthday-movie night, I offered to bake some extras for her to decorate and take. The issue was that I would need an additional box of cupcake mix to do this.

*Fast forward 30 minutes*

After pulling out the necessary ingredients like eggs, water, and oil, I went to pull out the box of cake mix from the plastic shopping bag. Leading me to wonder- Is it faux pas to bring German Chocolate cupcakes to a Hanukkah Party?

24. For my birthday celebration I rented a projector and set up the family room in a Theater configuration. I had put out a facebook invitation for "Movie & Cider Night" and was expecting anywhere from 10 - 15 people. I researched online for the best projector price and went on to order one to be shipped and received by December 11th. Happily the projector was mine for the entire weekend, for the price of 1 day. Bonus. And as I was reading the contract for the projector, I came across this:

Security Deposit

...If you return the equipment on time with no damage, your security deposit will be fully refunded.

If you return the equipment with damage, you will lose your security deposit (or the cost of repair, whichever is less). If the equipment is lost or stolen, and/or you do not return the equipment at all, you are responsible for the full value of the equipment and we will attempt to collect that balance from you. Deliberate or fraudulent damage to the equipment is not covered, and may be prosecuted as vandalism.

Examples:

The viewfinder breaks off the camera, and you return the pieces to us. You will lose the security deposit, and will not incur any additional charges.

Someone drops the camera in the ocean during your rental period and you cannot find it. You are responsible for the full value of the equipment.

The camera is stolen from your hotel room. Your are responsible for the full value because you have nothing to return.

The camera is run over by a bus. Sweep up the pieces and send them back. You will lose the security deposit, and will not incur any additional charges.

I was also able to return projector on-time and all in one piece. No sweeping up of pieces or deep ocean diving to retrieve said projector was necessary. Should you be in the market to rent a projector, I recommend this company: http://www.atsrentals.com/ As a result, 20 party attendees enjoyed watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where Harrison Ford was larger than life in all his archaeologist glory.

25. I tried something new for the birthday. Instead of serving cake...which is a delicious favorite of mine...I baked cupcakes.

Almost too cute to eat...almost

Courtesy of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes book, I came across the idea to make them into Christmas ornaments.

26. Now 'How to' serve those Ornament Cupcakes? A quick search on Google lead me to directions on How to Make a Cupcake Stand from this lovely little website. I used scrap booking paper and ribbon. Which gave the movie munchies table a bit more flair than the typical refreshments table. At least in my opinion:

Cupcake Stand filled and tempting

Just beware of how impossible it is to find the cake dummies. I went to 4 different stores looking for them. For those uninformed (such as I) cake dummies are simply cylindrical styrofoam pieces that cake decorators use to practice decorating on. I ended up using graduating tins instead...and they worked beautifully.

Summer Happenings~

27. The latest and greatest Harry Potter movie was released this past summer. My dad and I had tickets well in advance and planned a group dinner and movie night. The dinner at Claim Jumpers was okay...while the conversation was much better. Of course my nephew is being introduced to the wonderful world of Harry in his custom onesie:)

28. Reaching further back to this spring, Ronald and Teagan's trip to Utah was uneventful. Teagan travelled like a champ.

In fact it added some new excitement to the travel time. Ronald has always been an excellent traveller...whether by plane or car. It was interesting to watch him adjust to our newest little traveler. He wanted to be as close to me as possible during the drive. When I was holding Teagan he had to settle for the car seat while my arms were full of Teagan, but Ronald's transition back into my arms after putting Teagan back into the car seat was a tad lost in translation.

Cat as the Hat

...until next time...