More Holiday Happenings...

We had lots of fun things going on this last holiday season (see part 1 here)!  

I celebrated my 23rd birthday.  It was a great one!

We attended two Ugly Christmas Sweater Parties!  One at the Allen home, where we played Minute-to-Win-It games and had some yummy snacks.  The other was at the Whiting home where we had a really cool hot chocolate bar with some yummy food as well (to see more of that party, go here).

Tacky never looked so good...eh?! 

Christmas Eve Dinner with the Clark side of the family...

Landon got to be baby Jesus...so by default we were Mary and Joseph! 

Didn't you know, baby Jesus sucked his thumb?!

On New Year's Eve, we hung out with Aubrey and Thomas.  We let off the flying lanterns and sipped bubbly at midnight (I need to get pics from her, they got a nice new camera for Christmas that we used that night!).  The next day, we ate breakfast at their house and then went out to the desert to go shooting.  Unfortunately, we couldn't find anywhere to "legally" shoot.  We need to do more research before we head out of town next time!

He makes me swoon in his flannel shirt and vest.  Love my little outdoors man!

Expecting baby girl Whiting here at the end of January! 

Thomas and Aubrey with cute Sasha!

We tried the Moby on Dad and went on some walks around the neighborhood (we tightened up the Moby a bit after this, it is hard to tie it on someone else when I can't feel how it is fitting them). 

 

We have tried to stay warm in our pajamas when we hang out at home watching movies!

Tamale Time

Christmas Time = Tamale Time

I don't know if you've ever had an authentic tamale, one from a restaurant doesn't count!  It must be homemade by someone who has perfected it!  Seriously delicious!

One of my good friends, Makayla, invited me to come along and learn how it's done...the right way! 

The night before, all the men in the family got together and prepped the meat.  Folks, we are talking 85 POUNDS of meat WITHOUT bones!  That is a lot of meat...a lot of tamales! 

The next morning, all the women get together and make the tamales, and then the men steam them.  This is a huge operation, when you are dealing with 85 pounds of meat.  Everyone has a job and things just keep going right along.  I also loved that there were some tortillas there, you could scoop up a little of the meat and chile into a tortilla for a tasty snack!

Making preparations (while eating some Bosa Donuts of course!)

Everyone must wear a hat or scarf while prepping the tamales!

This little munchkin looked like this most of the time...

Making some final preparations before getting things going...

Mixing the masa.  This is his job every year...he does it by taste, there is no recipe.

Spreading the masa on the smooth side of the corn husk (which can be hard to determine, both sides usually feel rough, but there is a smoother side).  This was my job!

They start the girls young!  They are wrapping the tamales.

This is the meat and chile being scooped into the middle, and then they are wrapped up.



After all of this goes on, they are taken outside and steamed by the men. 

These are truly a labor of love, and what a good time it was!

Some Holiday Happenings...

We've been up to a lot of fun things lately! 

We went to go visit my Great Grandpa Breinholt, and let him meet Landon for the first time.  We took Grandpa a chocolate milkshake--his favorite treat. 

It was fun watching him enjoy it.  Doesn't he look sharp!



This is how it looks when I am knitting, more often than not...

And we just love our Moby wrap, we do all sorts of stuff in it!  Here we are about to take an afternoon walk, and then doing Saturday chores vacuuming the house.

Look at those cute little ears sticking out, ha! 

He doesn't always face outward, sometimes he'll take a little nap all snuggled up facing me, while we are out grocery shopping or running other errands. 

Landon and our good friend, Thomas, were twins at church, sporting bow ties! 

Such fashionable fellows.

We attended the wedding reception of Brett's good friend, Collin.  Katie made a beautiful bride, and we were so excited to get to celebrate with them!

And of course, Landon has gotten some good snoozing in as well...often times with his thumb in his mouth.

Gotta love the cuddling with the sock monkey, one of his Christmas presents. 

We've been keeping busy and having lots of fun! 

We love the holiday season--great weather, family togetherness, and good food,

along with celebrating the birth of our Savior.

Update--We Are Still Alive!

Well, I obviously took a break from blogging for a while, we just had too many fun and exciting things going on! 

Lots of Holiday get-togethers and celebrations with family and friends.

We got hot chocolate with the Whitings and drove around and saw Christmas lights.  We saw several decked-out houses, and even saw a house that coordinates the lights to Christmas music on the radio--it's crazy!

Here it is without the flash,
so you have a better idea of how "decked" these halls were!

We attended the annual Brown Family caroling party on the 23rd.  Complete with a delicious Mexican dinner and all piling onto the flat-bed truck to carol.   It was a blast!

Me & the adorable Breckyn on the trailer caroling

I had a lot of baby cuddling time...

Meet baby James (offspring of Jacob and Xanga) born December 9th

Meet baby Case (offspring of brother and sister-in-law Michael and Kami) born December 15th

Love those newborns! 

(And I'll have a couple more here to cuddle with soon, two more cousins both due in January!)

We got to play "Santa's Elves" on Christmas Eve in Willcox.

Putting together a trike and a train set

And the long-anticipated Disneyland trip with the whole Allred crew! 

We are talking all 45 of us (including 12 day-old Case!).

We are already missing Calvin & Susan, who are on their way to Chile as we speak.

We were the lucky ones that got to take them to the airport...

2 years feels like it will be forever, but we are grateful we get endless phone calls and skyping!

Gingerbread Houses

We made a gingerbread house the other night with our friends Cory & McKenzie!

We bought a kit, but they opted for the homemade graham cracker house.  They both turned out cute!

I investigated online to find an easy and entirely homemade version of a gingerbread house and came to the conclusion--too much work!  In order to be successful you bake one day and allow to cool, cement everything together the next day and let it set-up, and decorate the following day.  I am not a good enough gingerbread house maker to commit to three days worth of work.

It was really fun, and Brett is creative when it comes to the decorating,

I just copied the ideas on the box, ha! 

Hopefully this is a tradition we carry on throughout the years.