Christmas Eve

Bruce and I spent Christmas Eve with my parents, all of my siblings, in-laws, and nephews. It was a full house, but as my 3 1/2 year old nephew Brady remarked just before we sat down to eat, "This is a lovely dinner!"

My dad made our traditional Christmas dinner. And we had our traditional English Crackers to open. The toys & jokes were great this year, but I miss the colorful tissue crowns. This year's were silver and they were not silly enough for me.

Starter:
Mushroom and leek soup
Cheddar and dill scones (this year the scones were served with honey butter)

Entree:
Prime rib with creamy horseradish sauce on the side
Roasted red potatoes
Steamed asparagus with Hollandaise

Dessert:
English trifle (fruit, lemon cake, custard)

After dinner we sat around the fire and my dad read Dylan Thomas' "A Child's Christmas in Wales," after which my brother-in-law Brock read Dr. Seuss' "The Grinch." We then sang Christmas carols with my dad on the guitar, and then Alli sang Suo Gân (a traditional Welsh lullabye). It was gorgeous.

Quote of the Day

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
Corrie Ten Boom

The Hunger Busters

I went with Bruce to buy food for Second Harvest
on behalf of Google this morning - it was pretty awesome.
We got $300 cash to buy food at Costco.

My office is having a little 'competition' to collect canned food. We have four teams and since no one else volunteered, I am the team captain of Team 1 AKA The Hunger Busters.

The CEO stopped by my cubicle yesterday with concern that my team's barrel was lagging behind the others (to be fair, on one of the office floors we are in the lead!). He offered to match our team's donations for the next week to encourage us in our donations AND, if he judges us to be taking advantage of that match, he'll continue it through the end of the competition (December 30th).

If you have any brilliant ideas on how to increase donations, I'd love to hear them! Right now I'm going to each person's desk to personally plead with them to donate something.**

If you haven't had the opportunity to donate to your local food bank, or if you would like to donate even a dollar more to the Second Harvest Food Bank, you can take advantage of my CEO's match by donating on behalf of my team! (Don't worry, he WANTS this to go beyond the employees.)

How to donate funds online:
o Go to www.VirtualHarvest.net
o Choose: Companies - under 250 employees
o Choose: Intacct Corporation
o Choose: Hunger Busters

** So, you might say, why do you care so much? You love the food bank? You love winning? Well, yes, but also I know the CEO will heckle me all year long if I fail. Ouch.

Quote of the Day

“Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory.”
William Barclay

The debut of the shelves!

Read Bruce's blog post about it here.

yessssss

Bruce and I finished the shelves last night & put them up - they are the most attractive shelves I've ever seen. I'll post pictures as soon as I get them.

Meanwhile, one of the most unusual wedding gifts Bruce and I got were a set of spices from The Savory Spice Shop -- and I love them! It was fun to get both gifts from our registry as well as things we didn't even know we needed / wanted. This is the set we received.

Do You Believe in Magic?

 For our family it happens every Thanksgiving.

This is where the magic happens:

Recipe here.

And this little guy ate about half of it in between hunting ghost(es) of the striped, paisley, houndsteeth, and seersucking varieties.

Introducing: Our Apartment

So, for the second time in my life, I live with a man.* And I feel that I should tell you that we live on the street of ROCK.

As awesome as it is living our rock and roll lifestyle, it has been a herculean effort getting our apartment in order. In fact, the kitchen is the only room that I'm going to show pictures of today. Mostly because it's the only place where we have won the battle of the boxes. Everything is unpacked and everything is in order. The only things we have left to do are to get a mat for in front of the sink (getting that at Target today) and to finish painting and mounting our custom-made, er, home-made spice shelves. (Which Bruce and I are ridiculously giddy about. I'm sure I'll post it later. hehe.)

My sister-in-law Amanda asked me in my last post if we have a kitchen color, which question inspired this post. I am going to answer in pictures. The answer is yes. Er, I mean no.

Introducing, Our Kitchen

This is me greeting you from the kitchen when you walk in the door. That is, the front entry is in the far left. You can see the dried orange chinese lanterns I mentioned yesterday on the table with some clementines and, yes, some half eaten brownies. Thank you, Ghirardelli.

We use the bookshelf on the left for storage of most of our serving dishes since we have almost no cupboard space in the actual kitchen. I LOVE the red clock and still haven't sleuthed out who sent it to us as a wedding gift. I'm trying to bully Bed Bath and Beyond into telling us since they are the ones who neglected to include a packing slip... Regardless, I am delighted with it and its currently undisclosed donor.

 

I forgot to take a picture of the actual cooking area... sorry. But as consolation here is a close-up of one of our more attractive cupboards. We didn't go for any special china or place settings, but just did bright, happy colors. I already owned the bowls and my sister thrifted the orange juice pitcher for us. Did everyone have one of these in the 70s / 80s? Our family did :)

Over the sink is the stained glass that Bruce made in our stained glass with Tom Stanton & Holy City Art Glass this fall. We LOVED the class and as you can see, Bruce is good (he's soldered before).

My magnet collection is on full display on our refrigerator. Poor Bruce. There's always some 'surprises' they say when you get married. This was one of them. hehehe. (He admits, however, that he likes the strawberry. Everyone does. It looks real!)

And, of course, I brought my little salt & pepper shakers. Love these little guys.

They reside over the stove. Just above their heads is where we're going to mount our spice shelves when they're completed. (Hopefully this weekend).

That's the grand tour documented for posterity and the interwebs. Until next time!

love
kt


*When I graduated from college and moved into my first real apartment with my first real job, my older brother Gordon and I were roommates. So different from living with women, but not in a bad way. Just different. One thing I do like about living with a man is being the primary feminine influence in the home. So awesome.

Hello. Greetings. Hi There.

I wanted to let you know that after pretty much no blogging for a-number-not-to-be-named months, I will likely be blogging again.

or something.

maybe.

p.s. I just got some dried orange chinese lanterns for our kitchen table. They make me happy.

Wedding Pictures

We just got our pictures posted. Check them out here.

Guess what

I'm getting married on Saturday

(!!)

After approximate 7 weeks of stress my week of giddiness has arrived!

pics to follow later....

Quote of the Day

“When in situations of stress we wonder if there is any more in us to give, we can be comforted to know that God, who knows our capacity perfectly, placed us here to succeed. No one was foreordained to fail or to be wicked. When we have been weighed and found wanting, let us remember that we were measured before and we were found equal to our tasks; and, therefore, let us continue, but with a more determined discipleship. When we feel overwhelmed, let us recall the assurance that God will not overprogram us; he will not press upon us more than we can bear."
Neal A. Maxwell

A Late Walk by Robert Frost

When I go up through the mowing field,
The headless aftermath,
Smooth-laid like thatch with the heavy dew,
Half closes the garden path.

And when I come to the garden ground,
The whir of sober birds
Up from the tangle of withered weeds
Is sadder than any words

A tree beside the wall stands bare,
But a leaf that lingered brown,
Disturbed, I doubt not, by my thought,
Comes softly rattling down.

I end not far from my going forth
By picking the faded blue
Of the last remaining aster flower
To carry again to you.

oh, by the way...

Bruce and I are getting married in October!

January 2010, Santa Barbara, California

The Life that I Have by Leo Marks

The life that I have
Is all that I have
And the life that I have
Is yours

The love that I have
Of the life that I have
Is yours and yours and yours

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause
For the peace of my years
In the long green grass
Will be yours and yours
and yours.

Quote of the Day

Happy people are beautiful. Especially happy ones.
- Stephanie Nielson

Quote of the Day

“There seems to be a superstition among many thousands of our young [men and women] who hold hands and smooch in the drive-ins that marriage is a cottage surrounded by perpetual hollyhocks to which a perpetually young and handsome husband comes home to a perpetually young and [beautiful] wife. When the hollyhocks wither and boredom and bills appear the divorce courts are jammed. …
“Anyone who imagines that bliss [in marriage] is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed.
“[The fact is] most putts don’t drop. Most beef is tough. Most children grow up to be just people. Most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration. Most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. …
“Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed.
“The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride.”
- Jenkins Lloyd Jones  (“Big Rock Candy Mountains,” Deseret News, 12 June 1973, A4).

Quote of the Day

When we pluck the roses, we find we often cannot avoid the thorns which spring from the same stem.
- James E Faust

Quote of the Day

When we enlarge our capacity to love, other people become real individuals, not merely functions. Gospel duties cease to be mere routine and become, instead, doors to delight. Every doctrine of the gospel is a door to delight that, when opened, exposes us to a vista of things we have not yet fully comprehended. Joy not only helps us do our gospel duties but increases our individuality. It is sinners who reflect such a stale sameness. Righteousness lends itself to individuality.
- Neal A. Maxwell

Quote of the Day

When we are racked or harrowed up or tormented by guilt or burdened with grief, He can heal us. While we do not fully understand how the Atonement of Christ was made, we can experience “the peace of God, which passeth all understanding.”


We know that some anxiety and depression is caused by physical disorders, but much (perhaps most) of it is not pain of the body but of the spirit. Spiritual pain resulting from guilt can be replaced with peace of mind.

We all make mistakes. Sometimes we harm ourselves and seriously injure others in ways that we alone cannot repair. We break things that we alone cannot fix. It is then in our nature to feel guilt and humiliation and suffering, which we alone cannot cure. That is when the healing power of the Atonement will help.


The Atonement has practical, personal, everyday value; apply it in your life. It can be activated with so simple a beginning as prayer. You will not thereafter be free from trouble and mistakes but can erase the guilt through repentance and be at peace.

- Boyd K. Packer