I saw this on Jay Leno and thought it was really pretty:
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Some holiday recipes

Sorry, I meant to get these up earlier, but I've been so sick the last few weeks I've hardly even felt like being on the computer!!! This is the worst cold I've had in years. It's stolen my voice, made me tired all the time but not able to sleep at night because of the coughing, and given me the worst sore throat I can remember. Watch out for this horrible bug! And I wanted to do so many Christmasy activities with friends, too :( . . But the good news is, I'm finally feeling a bit better and am hoping to feel great in the next few days.
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I finally got my Christmas music up--ecclectic mix, as always. At least check out "In the Sun They Melted"--it is so clever!
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I did these recipe cards for a recipe share and wanted to post them for you. You can click on the card for the larger version and then you can right-click and save to your computer:

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(Leave a comment if you want the credits for any of these digi layouts.)

An inspirational story for this time of year, not a Christmas one, but one I hope you'll enjoy. My favorite quote from it: "...great moments often catch us unaware—beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one." Enjoy!
The Cabride I'll Never Forget

One thing we have been enjoying lately has been pomegranates! As soon as they come in season, we go through 2-4 per week, even though they are quite expensive. Tony and I both grew up loving them, so we continue to be surprised by how many people haven't heard of them or do know what they are but haven't tried them. Not only are they delicious, the seeds take awhile to get out of the skin (so they make for great TV snacks!) and researchers have recently found that the super antioxidents in them help prevent heart attacks. Go get some today!!

When I saw this picture for the first time (you can see it full size if you click on it) I thought, "man, that looks like high-velocity blood spatter on his face!" Obviously, I've watched way too many hours of CSI :D

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The weather has been so mild lately that our flowers continue to bloom! This picture was taken November 22nd, but as of three days ago we still had quite a few. Monday it snowed most of the day, but it was too warm to really stick.

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Here are the kids later that day enjoying some crazy big wheel riding. As much as I hate cold weather, I'm ready for a white Christmas!

On November 25th we went with Tammy and Zach to Classic Fun Center for Faith's school family fun night. The kids rode their scooters around the rink for a bit, then we ate and they played in the arcade.

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I HATE how crowded and noisy that place is and I can't believe I let Faith talk me into it again, but the kids enjoyed themselves.

Thanksgiving Day was a lot of fun and a whole lot of food.

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First we went to my parents' where I brought my Grandma Quinn's Party Vegetables (recipe in an upcoming post). Sarah gave her girls and Faith these adorable dolls that she had hand made!

You just flip the skirt up, turn it upside down, and the doll changes from Pilgrim to Indian. She had seen the idea somewhere and wanted some for her girls, and decided that Faith would feel left out and made one for her also. The thing is, she started making them for last Thanksgiving, couldn't complete them in time, and then spent countless hours working on them to finish them this year.

Sarah is so incredibly talented! She made up the pattern herself and embroidered on each of the little faces. Faith loves this little doll and it will definately be a treasured heirloom for her.

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We had a great dinner and a lot of fun there, then we drove on over to Tony's parents' for a second Thanksgiving spread!

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More delicious food and fun were had, and then Buddy fell asleep in Tammy's arms as she read him a story. We used to love to play dominos and card games, but couldn't with a medlesome two-year-old, so we were excited to get to play again! Faith felt so mature because she was finally old enough to learn the games and play with us.

The next night, my mom had invited Faith & I and Sarah & her girls to Ballet West's The Nutcracker Ballet. We dressed the girls up fancy for their night out on the town, but little did we know that they would all match so perfectly!

Sarah really gets into the girly stuff and had seen to every detail, including providing her girls with bejeweled little mint boxes!

The girls were complete angels for the performance and entirely enjoyed it. Celeste had been twice before and Faith had gone with Tony & I last year, but Alaura was there for the first time. After the show, grandma gave them each a satin box containing a beautiful "Clara" ballerina ornament.

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The next week contained such fun events as singing in Sacrament meeting (see post below), getting a new calling (1st counsilor in the Primary presidency), a Christmas PTA meeting brunch, Relief Society "International Christmas" party and an awesome girls' night at Brandi's house.

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Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of any of these, so I'm moving on to our Stake Christmas Extravaganza. Grandma & Grandpa Peterson, Grandma Braegger, Tammy, Zach and Tina all came! (Here's Tina taking care of my little guy.) It all begins outside with carolers and musicians,

a live nativity, girls bringing around bread in baskets,

a mini Dickins village, hot chocolate, a jingle bell craft,

horse drawn hay rides, and fresh, warm cinnamon almonds.

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Then you move inside the stake center for a program featuring adult, children's, and young women's choirs and a twenty five piece orchestra! It truly was an amazing concert, and I'm not just saying that because my little Faithy was in the children's choir! Below are two short, shaky video clips from it. (I need to get a bigger SD card or an actual camcorder one of these days--sorry!)

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It was a great night and everyone was impressed with all the talent, especially Faith's :) Somehow, we completely lucked out and Christian slept through the program in Tina's arms so we didn't have to hear "Go, now!" a zillion times during it!

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I've been meaning to put up some pictures of our overload of Christmas decorations, but since I've been so sick, the house isn't looking it's best this week. But I'll at least put up pics of three of our four full-sized trees (yes, you read correctly, FOUR):

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This one's in our formal living room-->

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<--this is our family room tree

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and this one's in our master bedroom.-->

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We also have one up in the playroom, but it has mostly lights since we used up our ornaments on the other trees. Tony put that one up because our neighbor has a tree showing in his bonus room window, and Tony thought that was an excellent idea for our extra tree that was just sitting in a box in the basement.

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I need to still get pictures of our plant shelf, railing, kitchen cabinets and the outside of the house for you to truly understand the insanity that I endure! It is fun right now, though, (just not putting it up and taking it down) and the kids love it. I'm surprised that Christian has even been pretty good at not messing with it too much.

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I'm hoping to get posts up with recipes and some Christmas movie & book reviews in the next few days, so check back!

Lots of singing going on

One of the things we have been so busy with are choir practices. I was practicting to sing with three other ladies in Sacrament meeting (which we did on November 30th), Faith was practicing for our stake Christmas program (which was December 6th--info & pics in next post!), and I'm singing in our ward choir the Sunday before Christmas.

I love the arrangement of "Abide With Me" that I sang in our little quartet. Here is a little video montage with pictures of Christ and a professional (obviously) recording of the song:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I've had so much going on (and now I'm sick with a horrible cold) that I haven't posted all of the things I had planned! I want to start today with a "thankful" post that I meant to get up in time for Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for everything in my life!! Of course, the thing I am most thankful for is my family.

A few months ago, Oprah showed a YouTube video on her show about a couple who was pregnant with a baby that had trisomy 18 which is a birth defect that causes most babies who have it to be stillborn. Baby Eliot lived through birth and his parents celebrated every single day they had with their son. I hope we can all celebrate every day and remember how precious each one is.

(WARNING--do not watch this video at work, just before driving or operating dangerous machinery, or if you don't want to have a good, hard, cleansing cry. It truly is more uplifting than sad, but even Oprah and Celine Dion were doing the "ugly cry" after seeing it on the show that day.)