Christmastime is in the air!

With Christmas around the corner I have started decorating our duplex:

 Notice the vase with Christmas ornaments in it? I came up with that idea all by myself :-) The nativity scene is something we got last year from Jim and Joy.

Our week so far has been great. It started off with receiving this package last week from Grandma and Grandpa Ashcraft:

Thank you both so much for the dried fruit and jerky. Dan and I have demolished the elk jerky and I am loving the dried pumpkin!

On Friday I had my intern friends over for a baking party. We made chocolate chip cookies, lemony raisin oatmeal bars, and gingerbread cookies! For some reason I still to this day cannot perfect ANY chocolate chip cookie recipe I try. They ALWAYS turn out flat and hard. YUCK.

Here they are rising...starting out perfectly!

Out of the oven... somehow between picture 1 and 2 the cookies changed their mind and wanted to disappoint me. Despite the lack of appeal I still took them to our Ward Christmas dinner Saturday night. To make up for these cookies I also made chocolate, white chocolate chip cookies. These cookies are always a hit!

Anna cutting the oatmeal bars. YUM!

Decorating the gingerbread cookies

RPK

The last picture is of our professor. Pictured are high heels and cell phone in hand. Amy also put on some nails after this picture was taken. I'd say it's a pretty accurate take of our professor ;-)

Amy also gave Anna and I lovely Christmas gifts:

My gifts

Amy is a very talented artist and hand-painted designs on wood cut-out letters. On the back she wrote a little note. I also got super cute bookmarks, a portable 3-ring hole punch and Christmas lollipops. Thanks Amy!

Saturday I had the best intentions of being productive. I had requested the day off so Dan and I could go to our Ward Christmas party. Well it started out great with a bowl of oats and driving to the gym for my spin class. After a 20 minute drive I arrived to a closed campus gym. Apparently Saturday started the new Christmas break hours and the gym is only open Mon-Fri 10am-8pm. You won't believe how sad I was. I get so excited and stuck on a plan that when something changes or destroys it I get upset. So after a few minutes of huffing and puffing outside the gym and rechecking the locked doors I gave up and drove home. After telling myself that it was ok and with it only being noon I still had much of the day left I felt better.

After arriving home I decided to be brave and run outside. It was sunny and the roads were mostly clear of snow. I ran to our neighborhood track, ran 1 mile on the track (which was not snow-free), and ran back home. Overall, I say it was a successful run. I tested out my new running beanie and I LOVE it. My favorite thing about it would have to be the hole in the back that serves in place of a ponytail. Thanks mom!

Saturday night Dan and I went to our ward's Christmas dinner party. We arrived late so we ended up sitting at the last table to get called for food. I was starving by the time we sat down to eat. During dinner, a show was provided. A few families from the ward got up and shared how they remember Christ during the holidays. Here's a pic of my visit teaching companion and her husband:

I had so much fun. We left the party early to meet the elders at an appointment they had with a couple. I think I've mentioned them before on the blog. We've met with this couple before. They're engaged and the guy is planning on getting baptized in January. While the girl is not interested in investigating she sits in on the discussions and goes to church with him. We're hoping to invite them to dinner sometime soon. They're both very nice!

Sunday night Dan and I played the bean game (not the real name of the game). We decided to include one more player to make the game more fun and interesting. See if you can pick out who we included...

Dan and Leo the Lion

Overall it was a pretty close match. Leo came in third while Dan and I tied for first!

Today Dan and I received some more games:

Last summer Dan and I had several game nights with a few other married couple friends. We played this game every time! I'm looking forward to a game night reunion soon!

Well that's about it. Tomorrow my agenda includes cuddling with the hubby, making funeral potatoes for a funeral, going to a fusion strength work out class, and going to our relief society Christmas dinner. There's a contest for soups, breads, and desserts. I'm entering peanut butter kiss cookies: http://www.bakedperfection.com/2008/12/peanut-butter-kiss-cookies.html. Can't wait and I hope they turn out better than my chocolate chip cookies. Have a good night!