Saturday evening was spent with Emily, and I stayed the night at her place. She was so excited for me to be her first overnight guest! Sunday morning we awoke and headed out to get ingredients to make cookies for the cousin gift exchange that night. Each family was to bring 4 doz of their favorite cookies. Emily and I made chocolate candy cane cookies. Our first attempt failed as the oven was too hot for the candy canes and they melted and burned. We tried lowering the temp by 75 degrees and shortening the cooking time by 2 minutes. The oven stopped smoking and the cookies weren't flat, burnt, uneatable objects. We then headed into SLC to go to The Nutcracker with Joe, Gma, Jennifer, Gedion, Jozua, Daniel, Vanessa, Stephanie, Gedion, and Olivia. It had been quite a few year since I have been to the Nutcracker, so it was an exciting treat to see. Afterward Jennifer had tickets to the SugarPlum Party which takes place on stage and allows you to see behind the scenes and meet some of the cast. You also get a Nutcracker ornament, a sugar cookie, and red punch. Yummy!
I headed home with my Gma and we later headed over to Danny and Julie's for cookies and the cousin gift exchange. I believe there were 19 cousins participating this year, but only 18 attending as we were unable to successfully kidnap Sara from her mission in Chicago. I had spent the past day knitting a face mask for Jozua to wear while snowboarding. Gayle was going to teach him, Daniel and Vanessa while they were in UT. Apparently there is not much of a chance to snowboard in South Africa. Vanessa had my name and got me a pair of Ed Hardy flip-flops, some Ed Hardy lotion, and a beautiful handmade leather notebook from Austria. Afterwords we dug Joe out of a snow drift he had driven into and headed back to Farmington.
Monday morning I spent finally finishing Dad's vest and then Dad and I went to China Platter for lunch. China Platter is a family favorite in Bountiful and a must go to when I am in town. Gayle met us there and the he and I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for xmas gifts. He was quite put out that no one had called him this year to go in on gifts. He hats shopping, so his bright idea is to either have you tell him EXACTLY what you want and he gets it, or he takes you shopping and tells you your limit and you pick what you want. So I ended up with a can of candy cane Roche, a new makeup bag, and a pretty peace sign necklace. We headed into SLC to pick up Gma from work and then went back to her place.
Tuesday, my last full day in UT. I drive in with Dad to his work and then borrow his truck to pick up Gma and take her out xmas shopping. We head over to the gateway mall and spend the next half hour looking for parking. We finally find some in front of a snow covered red curb (so no one was the wiser) and went into Old Navy to get matching pjs for Emily and Joe. Gma then spies the door buster special, fleece blankets normally $10 marked down to $3. We had to get a couple. Next stop was Smith's Market Place to see if there was anything I would like. We decided it was easier to get a soft cozy blanket online and have it shipped to my in CA then trying to pack it back. Lunch was spent at Paradise Cafe and then it was time to drop her off at work and return the truck to Dad. The rest of the afternoon was spent frantically knitting a face mask for Joe for the family gift exchange that night. It was to be at 7, and I finished the mask at 7:30 with Emily's help. Dad and Momki gave me a can of dried apples and a lavender eye pillow. Their other package was awaiting my return to CA. Emily got me a t-shirt of a pirate ball of yarn declaring Yarrrn! and the movies Across the Universe and Royal Tenanbaums. Gayle, well he surprised me with a necklace and makeup bag (how did he know) and I gave Dad his vest and Momki her snowflake pin and Osmonds CD. Dad's vest somehow had the buttons sewn onto the wrong side, so Momki will need to fix it before it can be worn. Despite Dad's current inability to button his vest, he said it fit otherwise and he was very pleased. Gayle received a sushi set from me as he had expressed a desire to learn how to make sushi when we had spoken during the summer. He said the two bowls, plates, and soup spoons doubled his dishes and flatware.
Wednesday was spent flying back to CA, last minute shopping at Ikea, and then driving up to Bakersfield, all the while once again frantically knitting on a sweater for Landon. We had our annual ornament exchange that night, I brought a set of snowflake ornaments and went home with a snowman head.
Thursday started bright and early, like 4:00 AM early. We opened gifts till 10:00 AM and then had breakfast. I had put together a kitchen linens basket for Grandma and Grandpa; some Hawaiian black lava salt and Australian pink flake salt and a cutting board for Tom; and some iron-together beads for the little ones. Grandma and Grandpa gave all the daughters and daughter-in-laws and me very pretty charm bracelets from Brighton. The package awaiting me in CA was a Linus Blanket and a jewelry holder from Urban Outfitters.
For being out of work and on a very tight budget, I had a very blessed xmas. I was very lucky to have visited both sides of the family this holiday season. I hope you all had as wonderful a holiday as I and wish you all a Happy New Year's Eve.
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