Christmas 2011

So this year was pretty crazy busy trying to fit time in to see everyone but it was great being so busy with family. Friday I took the day off work to get the house ready, last minute shopping and wrapping. That night Jace and I went down to my cousin Krista’s house in Provo with my family, cousin Nicole and Dillan’s girlfriend Kami. We had dinner with Krista and her family along with my Aunt Sharon. Then we played the Christmas game that Jace introduced to our family a few years ago when he joined the Lewis/Burt clan. You take tons of different little gifts (this year we had each family bring 3-5 gifts) and wrap them up in newspaper and packaging tape. Then you put it all together in a giant newspaper ball. Then everyone sits around in a circle and when you roll a 7 or an 11 you get the oven mitts and try to open any present inside the ball. What you open you get to keep so you have to be quick before someone else gets the mitts. It’s always entertaining to watch people try to open everything.

Sharon, Kami and Nicole. 

Anna trying to open the gifts.

Then Saturday Jace had to do a little last minute shopping while I worked on getting food ready. I made some bean dip for my mom’s house that day along with Apple dip and Spinach dip for Christmas day.

Touchdown Bean Dip-Karen Lewis

16 oz. refried beans

1 8oz. package cream cheese (softened)

1 pkg. taco seasoning (25 oz.)

2 garlic cloves pressed

½ cup shredded cheese

Pico

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bottom of pan spread beans in bottom. In bowl combine cream cheese, taco seasoning and garlic. Spread over beans. Top with pico mixture and cheese. Bake 25-30 minutes. Serve with chips. (I would double the recipe if you’re going to use a large pan). (Didn't get a picture...)

Apple Toffee Dip-Janalyn Olson

1 8oz. package cream cheese (softened)

½ cup brown sugar

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

11 oz. Heath toffee bits.

Mix until fluffy. Serve with apple slices.

Notice my cute new serving dish from Jace

Then I went over to my mom’s for a bit since my Aunt Paula and Uncle Mark from California were there along with my cousin Nicole, Uncle Dave from Vegas and my grandparents from Idaho were all here. We just ate a lot of food and played cards until it was time to go up to Jace’s moms. We were up there for Christmas Eve and had a really yummy dinner and also played the Christmas game with Jace’s family. We also watched the Christmas videos each of the families had made. (Earlier this month, Janalyn gave us all a stocking with props to make a Christmas video with). They turned out hilarious! 

Owen jumping on Jedd. 

Jace did this to Noah while playing the Christmas game. 

The Christmas game 

Jake, Marci, Noah and Owen. 

Jace and I on Christmas Eve.

Then we went home to sleep and the next morning went over to Jake and Marci’s house to watch the boys open their Santa presents. We had breakfast over there and I brought over Coffee cake that my mom makes every year for Christmas.  

Coffee Cake-Karen Lewis

18 Rhodes rolls

¾ cup brown sugar

1/2 -1 tsp. cinnamon

1 pkg. butterscotch pudding (NOT instant)

Cube butter (melted or cut up into chunks)

Spray Bundt pan with PAM. Lay rolls and sprinkle with dry mixtures (including butter). Let rise overnight. Cook at 350 degrees 25-30 minutes (first 15 uncovered, cover the last). Best to cook on cookie sheet to prevent boil over/mess.

We spent the morning with Jake and them and Jace’s mom and Russ came down as well. Jace spoiled me again on Christmas. He picked out this amazing center piece for the kitchen table. He knows I love Z Gallery so he went and picked some stuff up since I’ve wanted something on the table since we got it before Thanksgiving. Love him!

Owen and Noah opening Santa presents. 

Noah didn't know what to do with all the presents. 

Janalyn and Russ-Christmas morning. 

Noah riding Owen's toy.

The center piece

Then we went over to my families place for the night. We got to talk to my brother Dillan who is on his mission in St. Louis, Missouri. It was great to hear from him and hear how well he is doing. He has been gone 7 months already. It’s flying by. We played cards, opened gifts and ate a lot of great food again all day. We also ran over to Jace’s dad’s house for a little bit to see them and exchange gifts. It was great seeing everyone for the holiday and we were defiantly spoiled. Love Christmas and sad it’s already over this year but glad we got to see everyone and it was such a great holiday weekend.

Jace and I Christmas morning at our house. 2nd Christmas in the house together. 

Christmas Day at my parents with everyone.

Carmel corn

So I love this Carmel corn recipe I got from mom and decided to make a bunch for some neighbors, in-laws and my visiting teaching people. Its super easy and really soft Carmel corn.

Carmel Corn-Karen Lewis

2 sticks butter

1 cup brown sugar

2 cups marshmallows

Popcorn (can use plain microwave popcorn)

Pop your popcorn in the microwave or if you have a popcorn maker use the regular kernels (I like this way best). Salt the popcorn a little. In a large saucepan melt butter on stove. Add brown sugar and marshmallows until really smooth and all melted together. Will need someone to pour carmel over the popcorn while you mix in softly (try not to crush the popcorn). Pour carmel over thoroughly or until all popcorn is covered. 1 pan typically will cover 2 large mixing bowls of popcorn.

Supplies 

Melting everything 

The final result!

Busy Weekend

So this weekend was super busy but lots of fun. Friday night Jace and I did nothing all night. It was great just to lay on the couch and relax after a long week of finals and everything. Saturday I cleaned the house, did some grocery shopping and laundry while Jace worked in the garage and on his RC cars. Then Saturday night we had my roommate from college, Stephanie and her husband over for dinner. Then we went to the new Mission Impossible. It was great to catch up with them. It had been over a year but so glad we got to see them. The movie was also really good.

Stephanie and I

Sunday we had church and then went to my parent’s house for “The Second Annual Lewis Gingerbread Wars”. It was my youngest brother Ridge, Jace, my cousin Nicole and I against my younger sister Paige, my older brother’s girlfriend Kami and her younger sister Taylor. Naturally our gingerbread house was the best J It was fun though to put them together. Jace helped with the construction of keeping the house together and then let us do the decorating while he supervised. Then last night we went to dinner at Olive Garden with Jace’s brothers and the wives along with his cousin Cody and his wife Christine. It was great seeing them since it had been awhile. I love how at the holidays everyone gets together even though it gets crazy busy. Looking forward to the rest of the crazy week to come ahead and getting to see everyone and the family coming in town.

I love Kami's face in this. 

Jace, Ridge and Nicole working 

I had icing all over my hands and was obviously confused... 

Our finished product. 

Kami still working on theirs. 

Me, Jace and Nicole with the gingerbread houses. 

Ours on the left, the competition on the right.

The Wedding Wish

My friend, Elise Curtis asked that I get the word out about “The Wedding Wish” so look below for details regarding this great gift she is helping put together.

“The Wedding Wish”

Lala's Lens and Twigs and a Pearl Videography are collaborating this Christmas Season to give a deserving Bride a wedding of her dreams!  Do you know someone who has had a sudden financial struggle, someone that has had tragedy strike, or someone that is always giving of themselves but not getting much in return?  We are looking for those Brides that want the wedding of their dreams but won’t be able to have it otherwise!

We would love your help in spreading Christmas cheer this season!  Please join us in this great effort and post this on your Blog, Facebook, or Twitter in order to get the word out about this amazing opportunity!  Let’s work together in order to help grant A Wedding Wish!

What the deserving Bride will win:

Full wedding day photography coverage by Lala's Lens

Free Bridals and Engagements by Lala’s Lens

Free Wedding Announcement Voucher

Full Wedding day video coverage by Twigs and a Pearl

Free Love Story by Twigs and a Pearl

Free Bridals by Twigs and a Pearl

Free Raw Footage from the Wedding Day

Free hair and makeup by Kelsie Ball

And more wedding goodies to come! 

Totaling over $5,000 in free Wedding Awesomeness!

Please refer below as to how this will run:

Rules:

- You cannot nominate yourself or immediate family

- Bride's ceremony must take place within 80 miles of Salt Lake City

- The wedding must take place in 2012

- We (The Wedding Wish) deserve the right to select the Bride according to our digression.

How to nominate a Bride:

Send an email to theweddingwish@gmail.com with the following information:

1-      Your name, phone number, and email address

2-      The Bride’s name

3-      The Bride’s wedding date

4-      Why this Bride deserves this Wedding Wish

More info at Utahweddingwish.blogspot.com or The Wedding Wish on Facebook

Lala's Lens and Twigs and a Pearl will choose the winning Bride based on needs by December 31^st, 2011.

Once again, let’s join together this Christmas season and spread the word about this great opportunity!  We have included The Wedding Wish button and the links to our blogs and our Facebook Pages for more info.

Thanks for your help!

Lauren Adams (Lala’s Lens)

Elise and Andrew Curtis (Twigs and a Pearl)

Relaxing Friday

Finals are all done!! Now that they are done I’ve actually had some time to get things done I wanted. Last night after work and finals I came home and wrapped the pile of presents that had been stacking up. I got everything wrapped, under the tree and then moved onto my little goodie bags for a few friends. I got the cute idea from pintrest here. I did the “We Wisk You A Merry KISSSmas”. It was super easy and really cute in my opinion.

Then today I did a half day at work since my father in law took the family to Little America buffet for lunch. It was yummy and fun to get together with Jace’s brothers and the wives.

Jace and I at lunch.

Bonnie and Jedd.

Owen acting silly.

Noah loved taking pictures by Santa with Marci.

Tonight Jace and I are excited to just sit back and relax. Jace is working on his RCs and I’m catching up on my TV shows, reading magazines and browsing pintrest while munching on chips and queso and virgin pina coloda’s. Such a great break!

What my night looks like!!

Food and Finals

So the holidays really makes me want to cook. My mom is such a great cook and always made tons of goodies and homemade meals for us, especially around the holidays. So over the last few days I’ve been cooking up a lot of comfort food.

The other night I made some Spicy Buttermilk Chicken, another recipe from our good family friend Carol Kalar.

Spicy Buttermilk Chicken-Carol Kalar

2 ½-3lb cut up frying chicken (I just used regular chicken breasts)

1 ½ cups buttermilk

¾ cup flour

1 package dry Italian salad dressing

¼ tsp pepper

½ cup butter

Dip chicken in buttermilk and roll in flour seasoned with dressing and pepper. Then it says to melt the butter in frying pan, add chicken and bake covered at 350. I melted butter in the microwave, brushed my baking dish with it then placed the chicken in the pan and just baked at 350 degrees for 30 minutes covered the turned chicken over and baked for another 30 minutes uncovering the last 10 minutes. It turned out good that way so I would do it again.

I served it with baked potatoes and cornbread. I got the idea from my mother in law Janalyn when she had made it a few Sundays ago. I love Z Tejas cornbread at the Gateway mall and this tastes very similar to it.

Z Tejas Copy Cornbread-Janalyn Olson

Use 2-3 cups cornbread mix (I used Marie Callenders mix)

1-2 cups yellow cake mix

Handful of corn

Mix and add water, egg, milks, etc. according to directions on cornbread box. (I just made mine until I liked the texture of the mixture). Then pour into pan and bake according to cornbread box or until golden. It turns out so yummy and really moist.

Because I’ve been studying for finals all week (just took one this morning and have only one more to go tonight!) I’ve been craving goodies to snack on while I study away so I decided to make some Fudge this week as well. I love this recipe from my mom.

Fudge-Karen Lewis

3 cups sugar

¾ cup margarine

2/3 cup-6 oz. evaporated milk

2 6-oz. pkg. chocolate chips

1 jar marshmallow cream

1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1 tsp. vanilla

Combine sugar, butter and milk. Bring to boil. Stir 4 minutes over medium heat. Stir in chocolate chips. Add marshmallow cream and vanilla. Beat until well blended. Pour into greased 9X13 pan. Its just like the recipe on the back of the marshmallow cream bottle.

Now that I’m so close to finals being done I’m getting excited for the break. I’m excited to get everything all wrapped up for everyone, get the house all together and go to my mom’s to make some cookies and goodies for the upcoming week! After tonight nothing to worry about since 98% of my shopping is done and then no school for awhile! Can’t wait for Aunt Paula and everyone to come visit us soon either. I love the holidays! J

White Elephant

This weekend was pretty busy but good. Friday Jace and I went downtown to have dinner at the Blue Iguana (one of our favorite’s downtown). We had a groupon deal we needed to use up this weekend and apparently so did a lot of other people. It was about an hour wait but once we finally sat down it was worth it. Then we went home to relax. Jace played with his RC cars and watched a movie while I studied for upcoming exams (this week, have 1 down 2 more to go and a final project!) Saturday morning we had the ward Christmas party. It was “Christmas’s around the World” there were different booths for different countries and lots of breakfast food. The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house, doing grocery shopping, and Jace playing RC cars with his brother Jedd in the backyard. Saturday night then we went to do some final Christmas shopping (I hate shopping the weekend before so like to get it done early). We also went to dinner in Bountiful at The Salt Lake Burger Co. because our happenings book had a buy one burger get one free. (I love having 2 meals for the price of 1!) We got everything we needed except for a few small things I will pick up this week. Then Sunday we had church and went to Janalyn’s for dinner. It was super yummy! We had Olive Garden salad (I didn’t know you could buy their dressing there, I need to go pick myself up a bottle!) Then we read Christmas stories and did a white elephant exchange. It was a lot of fun and made me ready for finals to be over and celebrate Christmas. I’m looking forward to taking some time off from work, not having school to worry about and spending lots of time with lots of family! I’m also looking forward to getting to talk to my brother Dillan on his mission in Missouri. Its been weird not having him around for the holidays so it will be great to talk on Christmas. Looking forward to lots more picture taking over the next few weeks and lots of yummy food!

Storm/Santa Hat's

So I’m just getting around to catching up from the weekend. Last Thursday there was the big crazy wind storm through Farmington that caused a big mess, lost power and such. Luckily our home only lost a few shingles, nothing too bad. There were quite a few houses around the neighborhood that were a lot more damaged. Luckily no one got hurt too bad though. The only major thing was being without power for majority of Thursday. (There were others around Davis County who had to go a few days). Since it was freezing we decided to climb into our trailer and turn the heat on in there. It worked out good because the trailer was parked next to our house and wasn’t getting hit by the wind. We were able to watch movies, eat some dinner, stay warm and do homework in the trailer until the power came back on probably around 10pm.

Then Friday Jace and I both worked then came home. I felt sick Friday so crashed on the couch early. Jace just hung out with me on his laptop bored to death I’m sure. Then Saturday we did some clean up from the storm and Jace worked on fixing the RZR in the garage while I went up to my mother in law’s house for her new step-daughter’s bridal shower.  It was fun and I’m excited for Jake and Carly who get married next Tuesday. Saturday night I had agreed to go see the 3 Musketeers that was at the dollar theater with Jace. He had been looking forward to seeing it for a while but it was awful. I would defiantly not recommend seeing it.

Sunday we had church and just relaxed. I worked on some homework (finals are next week-cant wait for the Christmas break!) Monday work again then Monday night there was a neighborhood ugly sweater/cookie exchange. I made these quick and cute “Santa Hat Brownies”. I got the idea on Pintrest at this blog. I just used store bought brownies (I didn’t have time to make homemade), put a little icing (again store bought) to hold the strawberries on and a little on top. I knew I didn’t have the skills to ice all the way around the strawberry and have it turn out nice so I left that part off. They still turned out pretty cute and they actually won the “Best in Show” award at the party ha. Thank you pintrest!

Not as cute as the ones from the other blog but they worked and were quick to put together! The middle ones were cookie and cream store bought brownies

Creamy Italian Noodles

Ok so real quick the other night Jace and I had finally made it through all the Thanksgiving leftovers and I had to cook something or we were eating cereal. So I looked through a few different recipes and found this super easy and fast one from a good family friend, Carol Kalar. It’s called Creamy Italian Noodles. It was so quick and easy and really yummy!

Creamy Italian Noodles

1 8 oz package wide egg noodles

½ cup half and half

2 ¼ teaspoon Italian dry salad dressing mix

¼ cup butter

¼ cup grated Parmesan cheese

Cook noodles, drain and add all other ingredients.

(I doubled the sauce ingredients since Jace likes extra sauce).

I then made some Easy Grilled Garlic bread from this blog. So quick and good, went perfectly with the noodles.