The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

I L-O-V-E, love this time of year. Black friday officially rings in the Christmas season for me! I got up at 4am this year with less than 4 hours of sleep and was anxious to get started. I'm not so sure Mike was ready for my enthusiasm or the crowds. We started off our morning at Wal-mart. I got about 15 DVD's most of which were $1.90 and no more than $5. I love building out DVD collection. Mike doesn't watch movies as much but I love to put them on while I clean or while I'm relaxing. After Wal-mart we headed to Kohl's were we got a lot of good deals. I saves as much as I spent. At this point Mike was ready to go home but he stuck it out while we went to Target. By they time I got there at 7:45 the things I wanted were pretty picked over. Pretty crazy huh? We headed to the mall after target and there I pretty much finished my Christmas shopping!!

Saturday concluded my college football season with a Buckeye win over our arch rivals Michigan. I'm pretty sad for it to be over. I watched more college football and spent more time on ESPN.com than I think Mike did this year! Oh well next year I can feel a national title! ;-)

Today Mike and I decorated the Christmas tree. I love getting out all my old ornaments and remembering the stories that go with each of them.

What a pretty tree!

Aren't these sweaters a riot? I love them. They were one of my great Black Friday deals... $2.50 a piece! Not bad. Don't worry they will be sporting these bad boys all December long!

Rosalie hates clothes the most and acts like she can't move while she wears them. She has spent here night hiding from me under the tree.

My 2 favorite girls!

This year I have a bannister and I was anxious to spruce it up! I got this BEAUTIFUL strand of garland at Costco and am happy with the way it turned out!

"Deck the Halls..."

Finally, my little "Nativity Stand." I put it right between the TV and the tree to help us remember what we are celebrating this time of year!

JESUS IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON :)

The Martha Stewart Show

This past Tuesday I had tickets to the Martha Stewart Show. My friends Colleen and Corinne accompanied me. What a fun time! We had a quick lunch at Chipotle then headed to the studio.

The whole process of check in and being seated was very organized. We ended up on the front row!! When the show aired (on Thanksgiving) you could see us about 3 or 4 times. The studio is absolutely gorgeous!

The Kitchen

The prep kitchen

The garden

The show was about using your Thanksgiving left overs in creative ways. It was a fun show but I was really hoping for a Christmas show. I did however get a little christmas when the audience gift was a copy of Debbie Macomer's "Call Me Mrs. Miracle." The book was made into a movie and will premier tonight (Saturday) at 7pm on the Hallmark Channel. It looks like a cute movie.

After they had finished taping the show Martha took questions from the audience. I have been working on a project using her products and had a question for her. This is how the conversation went.

Kris: I have been crafting some wooden ornaments. I used your craft clue and glitter to decorate them. After they have dried I am noticing little patched were the glitter is falling off. I know I covered the bulbs well and am surprised to have this problem. What can I do to stop this from happening and keep the glitter on.

Martha: Humm, did you over them well with the craft glue?

Kris: Yep.

Martha: Then it is a mystery to me... (as they are passing the microphone to someone else) The application must have been faulty.

I got showed up by Martha. Haha. We couldn't stop laughing because that is just like her to make sure she has the last word!
I think I'll try going to her show again. It was a very fun afternoon!

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. I really love cooking and entertaining so having great friends come over for a feast is like my own personal heaven. We woke up in the morning and Mike went to go play in the "Turkey Bowl" and I turned on the Macy's Day Parade (I will make Mike go with me next year...) and starting my tasks.

I had made all the pies the day before so I was good on that front (I made 2 pumpkin pies from scratch this year (as in I made my own pumpkin puree out of 2 sugar pumpkins.) I also made an apple crisp pie and a cherry pie. So as you can guess we have a lot of pie laying around!) I got the turkey ready and started to work on the house. I was happy to get it all done and still have time to shower and put on make-up before everyone got there.

The place settings

This is me trying to be an artistic photographer... and failing... :)

We had 3 other couples come. They all brought something delicious to add to our feast so our meal was :

Turkey

Rolls

Yams

Green Bean Casserole

Mashed Potatoes

Gravy

Stuffing

Cranberry relish

DESSERT:

Pumpkin pie

Cherry pie

Apple crisp pie

Peaches and Cream cobbler

After our meal we visited and looked at the black friday ads going back and forth trying to decide if staying out all night was worth it. We also watched Elf and played the eternal companions game which I really enjoyed. You get to know the other couples a lot better and your spouse too!

I wish I would have taken pictures of our guests! Anyways this year we have A LOT to be grateful for. We really took a lot of big steps of faith the past six months. I quite my job not having another one to replace it so out cash flow was not very consistent. We also decided to move while I was unemployed and still in contract with our old place. And Mike and his CFA endeavors!

I'm so grateful for these challenges we faced this year. It really brought us to our knees and closer together. As we made personal and family scripture study and pray a priority the windows of heaven really poured down on us. Just recently we received another major blessing. I was offered a full time position in the school I have been substituting at. This is a great opportunity and I feel so blessed. So thank you Heavenly Father for all the tender mercies you have given us and answers to prayers you have bestowed upon us.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you thanked Father in Heaven for the blessings he has given us!!

71-100

71.) To invest in the stock market (obviously a Mike thing.)

72.) Atonement

73.) Gift of the Holy Ghost

74.) Spirit felt @ church History sites

75.) No Allergies

76.) Priesthood

77.) When we are happy

78.) Trails that make us stronger

79.) Cake and Cookies

80.) President Monson

81.) When you [Kristin] do things for me

82.) The opportunity to attend BYU-Idaho

83.) Airplanes

84.) See family often

85.) Facebook

86.) Family Home Evening

87.) Togetherness

88.) Naps

89.) Healthy food that tastes good

90.) E-Mail

91.) Winter

92.) OSU Buckeyes

93.) Blender

94.) Kisses

95.) Pillows

96.) Laughing and jokes

97.) Walt Disney

98.) Good Friends

99.) Ranch Dressing

100.) My Savior

BONUS: 101.) Being able to recognize our blessings

51-70

51.) The gift of tongues/ spanish

52.) Patriartical blessing(s)

53.) President Hinckley

54.) Good Bishops

55.) The charity of others

56.) My testimony

57.) Air conditioning

58.) Garage parking spot (before we moved...)

59.) When Mike finds a good spot

60.) Long talks

61.) Our humble food storage

62.) Frog PJ's (Mike hates these)

63.) Tony Hawk Shorts (Kristin hates these)

64.) Literacy

65.) When Mikes neck doesn't hurt while he shaves

66.) Cell Phones

67.) Ancestors

68.) Pioneers

69.) Home Cooked Meals

70.) Financial Stability

31-50

31.) Joseph Smith

32.) Church Music

33.) College degree(s)

34.) running water

35.) The warm sun

36.) Electricity

37.) Wonderful memories

38.) Temple

39.) Toilets

40.) Tender mercies of the Lord

41.) People who cheer you up

42.) Determination

43.) Love

44.) Missionary Experiences

45.) Space heater

46.) Eternal Marriage

47.) Holidays

48.) (nice-ish) clothing

49.) Sports

50.) The gift of Music

21-30

21.) To live in America

22.) Missonarires (my brother Bryant in Brazil especially)

23.) Good Examples (parents, leaders, siblings, friends)

24.) House to live in

25.) Gift of Faith

26.) The Vacations we've been on

27.) The ability to turn to the Lord for help and guidence

28.) Prayer

29.) Food

30.) The Book of Mormon

11-20

11.) Athletic ability

12.) To serve in the Young Womens Program

13.) Know that God Lives

14.) Johnsons

15.) Stokes

16.) Sacrament

17.) Cars (they we have 2 and they are paid off)

18.) To be taught the gosple in our youth

19.) The Murpheys

20.) Beautiful fall days

1-10

For family home evening awhile back Mike and I made a list of 100 things we were greatful for. It got pretty hard towards the end since we generalize a lot of our blessings. It was a lot of fun though, and I like to look at it when I'm feeling a little "ungrateful." Since Thanksgiving is only 2 weeks away I wanted to do a post each day (or so) with 10 things we are greatful for. When we did the activity we took turns, so Mike thouight of all the odds and I thought of the evens.

1.) The Gosple of Jesus Christ

2.) My Husband

3.) My Wife

4.) The Cats (Epps and Rosalie)

5.) Our Jobs

6.) McMomma (Kristin's Mom)

7.) Health

8.) Wonderful, healthy Granparents

9.) Awesome parents

10.) Siblings

Regis and Kelly

I have lived in the New York Metro area for over two years now and haven't taken advantage of the city like I should. So I decided since I'm not working every morning that I should apply for tickets to a few shows that are taped in the area. I was surprised how fast I heard back from them. I sent my envelope in requesting tickets to the Regis and Kelly show on Thursday and on the following Tuesday they called me and offered me 4 tickets to a show the following week. I was ecstatic. I found a few of my friends in the ward to join me and off we went. We left at 6:15 in the morning and drove down to where the temple is. Turns out that the show is taped just a few blocks away.

I was so excited to be in the studio that I see on TV everyday!

Gilman the director of the show who is so funny and manipulates the audience into their reactions!

The hosts of the show, my two favorite people on TV at 9am....

Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa...

The girls Lisa, Kristin, Camille and Corrine.

The guest on the show that day weren't A list but still fun to see. My favorite was when Regis and Kelly would come to the audience during commercials and talk to us. We had a short conversation with them. This is how it went.

Regis (talking to our section): Can you guys see ok, I know all these cameras can get in the way..

Kris: We are just honored to be in your presence Regis... (I know the eternal brown nosier)

Regis: Aww you are to kind (sends kisses my way.)

Corrine: Regis we live in CT too (He has a weekend home in Greenwich, one town below us)

Regis: Oh really, what part

Corrine: Close to you, in Darien

Regis: Oh Darien, thats a nice place. Thats where all the Hoyte-Toyte people live...

at this point he goes on about this and Kelly joins in about attending dinner at Judge Judy's house in Greenwich and how it was actually a castle and she felt underdressed the minute she pulled up.

It was a great time and since it was so easy to get tickets I'm sure I'll go back. So for all of you who want to come visit... new incentive is tickets to the show :)

The Pumpkin and the Pharaoh

We wanted the cats to get into the Holiday spirit this year. Rosalie was so against the idea of putting clothes on that she found a new place to squeeze herself! She is so tiny for a full grown cat.

Miss Epps Started off as an Egyptian Pharaoh, can you tell she loved it?

Rosalie was a pumpkin

They were trying to help each other get their customs off. lol. So funny.

After a while we switched it up and Epps was the pumpkin.

Haha-- She is so big! We just celebrated her 2nd Birthday!

Mike feeding Princess Rosalie a sucker... she really did lick it... and then Mike followed her lead...

And since Rosie was having a hard time keeping her custom on we put her in a Princess Dress... haha it was a little tight so she just crawled around the house all evening. It was pretty funny.

Halloween at Home

Since Halloween was a Sunday this year we kept it pretty low key. We just had Ben and Cynda over for some festivities. We had homemade chili, (a halloween tradition at mikes house) apple cider, pumpkin seeds and homemade coffee cake. We also had a pumpkin carving contest (but our judges didn't answer their phones (cough, cough STOKES!)

Ben and Cynda hard at work

Team Keeshkabob!

The Werewolf with Manges

By: Benda

Really living in the moment with their creation!

Mikes and I with our spooky house

Creepy thing isn't it!

Our yummy chili and Coffee cake

The Boys were acting a little silly (I think they had to much candy)

That bubble is HUGE!!

PaRtY TiMe!!!

Our Friends the Francia's throw a great Halloween party every year. They do such a great job decorating and with the food I look forward to it every year. This year was just as fun. The customs were fantastic and the company phenomenal. I love being able to visit with friends outside of church activities (since my new schedule hasn't left much time for socializing.)

We got a hold of a few extra M&M's from the school and used them. (I hate buying a custom for one night, and Mike really hates dressing up, so this was a good solution) We changed Mikes to be a scary vampire m&m. And yes I do know the green m&m is a girl (and Mike knows too) but green is his favorite color and he just had to be green.

Our friend Camille's Husband has been studying like crazy for some big tests so he couldn't make the party. She came with us and so we made her be an M&M too. Is was fun!

Ben and Cynda as the nerdy accountants. Love it!

Yes Antoine Dodson even attended our event. (if you don't know who he is go here)

Some of the pretty ladies visiting

Some more of the guests

Flashback to the 70's

Cynda and I

Corrine and Allan's customs killed me. She is pregnant and so she had her "baby" coming our and her "doctor" there to deliver. To funny!