♫♪ Tradition.... tradition. Tradition.... tradition ♫♪

So one MAJOR tradition with my family is making graham cracker houses at Christmas time.  Every year we have about one normal "house" and then the rest are more of graham cracker creations.  These range from Mater to a plane to San Fran (yes a likeness of the city).  Now that Blake and I are on our own and I can't just hop on a plane to make a house and then come back we decided to give it a shot ourselves.  Let me tell ya, another ingredient search for sure.
First thing you need is a big box of graham crackers.  Well, sorry folks but no graham crackers in this hemisphere...  However, they do have some similar tasting crackers.  That's what matters right?  Only issue is they are only slightly rectangular with completely rounded corners.  But, what's the point of making a creative creation without having to be creative all around?  Bought.
Second is the icing.  Now this is very important as it has to stick to the cracker as well as harden relatively quickly so your creation doesn't completely collapse within 30 seconds flat.  Lucky me, my mom put the final result from years of practice and suggestions in our family cookbook.  Sounds good to me.  Now where to find meringue powder...  Checked a few stores, nada.  Thought about maybe trying a new recipe, but when you have something tried and true you don't want to vary from it.  So, off to ask the helpful store clerks.  Guess what!  Nobody has even HEARD of meringue powder.  Luckily, one smart manager was passing and asked if it wasn't the same as pavlova.  Of course!!  So, instead of coming home with a can/box of meringue, I come with this funky egg-shaped pavlova magic container.  Whatever works though, right?
Third is candy.  Okay, I'll be honest, no real issues there. :)  Not many of our standard materials at home, but m&m's and chocolate chips and the like go a long way.
I also decided to be super creative and make some fondant for cut outs and the like.  Now I'm sure you think that is pretty impressive, but it's pretty much straight marshmallows with powdered sugar.  Works for me!
Ready... Begin.
Go Blake Go!  For a first timer, I will admit he did a pretty good job.  It never really collapsed on him and I know for a fact that that has happened to just about everyone in my family at least once (one wall fell and one ceiling tile went crooked).  Here's his creation during, well, creation!

And here are my intermediate steps:

And of course, here are our completed creations:

It was a fun adventure (although it took me much longer than Blake....).  Hope you enjoy and have a very Merry Christmas!!

In Honor of the Season...

That is....weather season, not holiday season.... I cut my hair... again.  Yes, I know it wasn't too long ago I chopped it all off, but it was getting to that 'I can't do anything with this' stage.  Let's just say I really don't like that stage, so I either pull it up as much as possible, or chop it off again.  I'm far from a pro, especially on my own head, so it takes a good portion of my day to accomplish this feat.  However, after much drying, trimming, retrimming, washing, redrying, styling, and trimming again, here is my completed task.

Ta Da!

Now, I hate the pictures that look like 'here, I'm taking a picture of my hair front view' so I do apologize for that one.  What do you think?  Is it the perfect fit, or should I be waiting till it grows out and everything will be all better? ;)

Cold and Frothy, I mean Frosty...

Blake and I went to this Italian restaurant to celebrate surviving the last 6 months together and I got a fantabulistic drink!  It was rather addicting (and they don't have free refills) so I decided to figure out how to make it for myself.  Talk about sugar rush, but it was very very close to the restaurant version, so here you go. :)

Lemon Granita
3 lemons (or a bottle of lemon juice works, just not quite as fresh)
2/3 cup water
1/2 cup sugar (I'd cut this down to at least 1/3 if not to 1/4, but it is supposed to be sweet....)
Zest the lemons and put in with the water and sugar in a saucepan and heat until simmering.
Strain and cool to room temp.
Add in the juice of the 3 lemons (or a Tbsp of juice per lemon) and put in the freezer.
Check on the mixture every so often and if it starts freezing, blend it and throw back in the freezer.
Keep doing this till the mixture is nice and slushy.
Makes about 12 oz or so, so it was a nice small treat for us, but I'd double it next time for more joy

*Now for how I did it....
zested 1 lemon and added a tablespoon of lemon juice to the sugar/water mixture
strained as well as I could with a colander...  put in the lemon juice while still hot and put it in a metal bowl in the freezer
stirred it with a spoon every 20 minutes or so until it started freezing and then used the blender
**I also did it with raspberries the other day, but I used about 1/3 cup of sugar and put some whole raspberries in the pan to boil
I then put some raspberries in an ice tray, covered with water, and froze.
Once the mixture had cooled in the freezer, I put it in the blender with the raspberry cubes
Also a very tasty treat (a little better with some lemon juice mixed in too...)

So, for all of you freezing your tooshes off, sound good?  I'll make sure to enjoy it for all of you too cold to give it a shot. ;)

And by the way, aren't the flowers so perdy?!  I love lilies, so he did good.

♪♫ I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Unfortunately, the dreaming is going to be the only way I see snow this year.  Not that a green Christmas is all that bad; I loved Seattle Christmas's, but it wasn't exactly HOT there either.  It should be fun to see all the palm trees decorated though. :)  And yet, everyone still has pine trees in their houses.  You can't really go out and cut your own down, and I don't think you could buy any fresh ones, but they do have pine trees!  I saw a picture perfect moment one of my first evenings here and I'll try to recreate it one of these days, but it was of a sunset and you could see the silhouettes of both pine and palm trees.  It was a very cool shot (darn me not having my camera handy!!).  Oh well.
But on to Christmas!  We have a tree, presents, decorations, stockings, and even an advent calendar.  Sounds impressive right?  Right?!  Well, I'll let ya keep thinking that. ;D  However, I do want to share my advent calendar as I find it kinda fun and never-before-seen (by me)!   So, here you are:

Each little box has a note to Blake, so he has something to look forward to each day.  You can fill them with candy as well if you want.  Fun isn't it?

And for all of you newly wedders or tight wads... ;)  I found a cute decoration idea that is pretty inexpensive.  Now, we're great at our own specific artistic abilities, but.... it's the thought that counts.  So, I went and found some medicine cups and the glitter glue and what not and look at what we created!

Bells

Nativity

Can't complain about cheap and creative/cute...  We do have other decorations, but those are our more entertaining ones. :)

And now you have had the first of the Christmas posts.  How do you feel?  ;)

I Give Thanks...

For my last post before Christmas takes over, I wanted to share my thanks.

• I am thankful for a loving husband who supports, provides, and cares for me.
• I am thankful for an accepting in-law family who have welcomed me into their family tree.
• I am thankful for the knowledge of eternal families and the ability to remember my nephew with service and support my friend and her sister's recent loss.
• I am thankful for my calling to work with the sweet young spirits and help them gain their own testimonies.
• I am thankful for the freedoms the United States has to offer and the chance to realize them now.
• I am thankful for the trials that bring us closer together with firmer stances for the next wave to hit.
• I am thankful for the ability to believe how I choose.
• I am thankful for the knowledge I have received over the years and the usefulness it brings to my life.
• I am thankful for the daily blessings sent down from above.
• And lastly, I am thankful for Blake's family in helping me to enjoy my first Thanksgiving out of the country.

It was a great night and really helped me get into the spirit of the Holidays!

*Stay tuned for upcoming Christmas posts!*

Remember Remember the ...Month... of November

I miss Fall!! The beautiful color changing canyons, the smell of pumpkin and apple pie, the crunch of leaves on the ground, being able to wear a light sweater, feeling and smelling the crisp air... I could go on, but I'll spare you. Although November here means heat and humidity instead of crisp, dry, cool air, we've had a lot to enjoy and be thankful for already.

First off (in no particular order) it was Blake's birthday! This is almost our first meeting anniversary as he flew over last November two days after his birthday. *So technically today is... ;) * Plus, it's his big QUARTER OF A CENTURY (loud booming voice) year. Of course I had to do something for him so he wouldn't feel too old, so I bought him finger paints. Well, not quite. But I did buy him oil paints and most of the doodads that you need to create a work of art. And lots of nice socks so I don't have to do laundry quite as much. He also had some birthday money from my mom, so he decided to expand his collection and bought some acrylic paints and another canvas. I'm excited to see what comes of this!! It's pretty nice living close to his family too as we were able to throw together a birthday dinner at our local Hogsbreath stake joint. Gotta love the prime rib. ;) It was great having a good turn out and celebrating a little extra with the family. I'll have to beg and plead for the pictures of dinner as they were taken by other family members, but here are some of our apartment and him/presents.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Another great thing to be thankful for this month is my friend Julie and her husband have been approved for adoption!!! Congratulations you two!!! Amidst the struggles that come from not being able to have children, they have been strong and have grown in so many ways. I wish I were closer to help promote them more, but most of my friends who read this are in the US anyway, so check them out. Here is a link to their site:

The best way to find a birth mother is through word of mouth, so if any of you know anyone, pass this along! They are an amazing couple and I know would make wonderful parents for any child lucky enough to be adopted by them. Julie and Lance, I wish you the best!

And last but not least, I have been called to be our ward's Primary President! I'm nervous, excited, apprehensive, etc. We had our primary program today (planned and carried out by the previous president thank goodness) and these children are amazing. I will miss teaching my own class, but now I will get to help them all find their testimonies. As one teacher said, I hope this calling won't act as a natural contraceptive. And as Blake says, does this make him the first husband? The ward was a little shocked as I'm pretty young, but the Bishop stood up at the end and testified that I was called by God, and that they all need to support me. I hope they will look past the age as the Bishop is only about 26 himself and they all love him. So, if any of you with experience or good ideas could pass on some helpful hints, I would really appreciate them. :)

So far it has been a good month and I hope it will continue to be one full of thanksgivings!

Days of Our Lives, the Not-So Dramatic Version...

Alrighty, here's a translated version of my previous post.

Lately we have been house hunting so we don't have to rent anymore. Mortgage payments will be cheaper than our rent at the moment. So far, we have found a couple houses, but none have been right. We are still looking and following the Spirit best we can. For those of you worried, this doesn't mean we will be here forever, but will actually make it easier to come back to the states and buy a house there in a couple of years.

I finally got my driver's license! Driving legal is much more relaxing than otherwise. However, the card looks like a library card anyone could make. It's really nice to have ID that doesn't shout "not an aussie resident." No word on the visa though.

Aussie weathers heating up though. Most of my clothes were perfect for winter, but not summer, so we have been searching for summer clothes. Let me tell you, you think it's hard to find modest clothes else where.... try in a beach town. Even the hubby is getting frustrated. We are tempted to open a store that only has modest clothes and call it "Garments." Only select people would understand.

As for us, nothing new. We are just living life, and trying to enjoy all our time together without going too crazy. Not that this post is any indication of that... The next few weeks will be a bit more crazy as my sister-in-law is having an engagement party and I have to make a great deal of cinnamon rolls and lemon rolls for it. Wish us luck and no weight gain!

So, how'd you do? ;) Even give it a shot? And yes, I know I'm crazy, but it keeps life interesting. Since the engagement party is on Halloween, we really won't get to do anything for it. I did want to carve pumpkins at least, but then I saw this:

If you can't see it clearly, it's a medium-smallish pumpkin for $24!!! So... we're not going to carve pumpkins... We'll be too busy helping to set up and make all the cinnamon rolls that we wouldn't have time anyway. But, we do get lots of good food, so that makes up for trick or treating.

And for an extra special treat for all of you.... after downloading all the pics from Blake's phone, we discovered he had taken some pictures from our honeymoon, so here's what it looked like. And by the way, they were taken from inside. That whole wall was a window. :)

It was kinda chilly, but we had nice robes. :)

As we don't celebrate it too much here, I hope all of you have a great Halloween and party a little extra for me!!