We were so excited to go home for Christmas this past year. We hadn't seen our families in over six months! We spent most of Christmas break with Jake's family, but my family was able to come down to Utah for a visit as well. It was so fun to see everyone; we even got to stop in to visit a few friends while we were there. I didn't get many pictures while we were there, but I did happen to get a couple with our nephew Colin, whom we met for the first time.
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| So happy with his Aunt Brenna! |
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| Grandma who? Just kidding, Mom! |
I drew my mom's name for Christmas last year, so my big project for half the year was making her present. Seriously, I started in June. I cross stitched a family portrait for her. I made my own pattern and put people in clothes I've seen them wear. It turned out really cute, and I think my mom like it. The pictures aren't great - for some reason I always forget to take pictures of projects BEFORE I frame them. Once the frame goes on, reflection rears its ugly head.
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| Left to Right: Dad, Mom, Jason, Ryan, Will, Katie, Colin, Lance, Me, Jake |
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| Our Christmas tree back in Michigan |
I think Jake and I only ventured out one time in the Michigan winter to have fun (just kidding...sort of). It's easy to understand. One day we would open the door to this...
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| Snow collected in our doorway |
And the next day, we'd open our door to this...
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| At least they clear a path eventually? |
It gets depressing. And what you can't see is the cold, biting wind that accompanies the Michigan winter. It is completely miserable. Eventually I refused to go outside except to get groceries. We even stopped going out to eat on date night. We would order Chinese delivery from down the street. One time our food bag smelled like cigarette smoke - still worth it to not go outside.
We had to get creative coming up with things to do for fun at home. So one day, we went out and bought a set of four puzzles - one outing, at least four afternoons of fun. Excuse these dorky photos, sometimes you have to pretend that something is more fun than it is so you will want to do it again.
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| I wonder where this piece goes... |
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| Hey, it's Neuschwanstein! We've been there! |
Our single outing was to the Ice Festival (now you understand why we retreated to the indoors afterward). Seriously, the only fun thing to do in Michigan during the winter is to celebrate ice? What was that I said about pretending something is fun? Michiganders sure have that down. We tried pretending the ice was fun, but I was not convinced, hence hibernation quickly followed.
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| School spirit? Sure, why not? |
Okay, so the carvings were cool, but ice is still stupid. With all of the cold weather, Jake and I made a lot of hot soups. Aunt Martha gave us a recipe (okay, you caught me, we got it out of her magazine) for a lemon chicken rice soup. The first step was roasting this delicious chicken.
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| Before... |
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| ...and After! |
Next we just chopped up the chicken and threw it all in a pot of rice and chicken broth. It was delicious! But despite the wonderful soups, we're glad winter is finally over!
