Gingerbread Houses

We spent the first Friday night of December with some of our wonderful cousins. We met Emily, Jordan and their little boy Ben downtown for dinner and then we walked around Temple Square with them, enjoying the lights and the time with each other. It was a cold night for walking around Temple Square, but we planned ahead and bundled up warmly. When we got to the North Visitor's center (we started on the southeast side of the square), we went inside for a little bit to warm up, but didn't stay too long since we didn't want to get too warm and start sweating. We completed our route through the square, walked through the Joseph Smith Building, and split to go to our own cars.
We then went out to their place in Sandy, where we joined up with Tyler, Em's brother, and his wife Sara to make gingerbread houses. Em had made all the gingerbread and the glue (white and green frosting) for us, and Michael and I brought the candy. Tyler and Sara weren't sure if they would be able to make it, but we were glad to know that they would, and we were happy to see them. It doesn't happen often because they are so busy! Here is how we decorated our house. I think it was a unanimous vote that ours was the most festive with the colors. :) We have red & green twists all around the door and the roof line, as well as the "dead" red & green bears on top of the roof. We also appreciated that Em made us a dog (freehand! No stencil) for the front yard of our house.

Festival of Trees

This year for her Christmas present, my mom requested that we do a tree for the Festival of Trees since she is in Russia. Becca, Melanie and I went shopping after Christmas last year to find items that we would want to decorate the tree with. Definitely the time to go since most of it was part of their after-Christmas clearance. :) Melanie came up with the name of our tree (in addition to her help shopping), Heather made the tree skirt, and on the Monday following Thanksgiving this year, Michael and I joined Jeff and Becca and our cousin Em at the South Town Expo Center to decorate the tree. Michael and Jeff did the structural part of the tree, making sure it was sturdy and would stay together during transport (after it was purchased), and the girls did the decorating. I only have one picture of the final product, so I'm going to link to the other posts that have been written about it so that you can see more pictures (although some of them are duplicates). It was a lot of fun to do, and there were a lot of "Well, next year we should do this" or "Next year will be easier because..." or just plain "Next year..." :)

We were glad to see that our tree sold, and to hear that it sold for so much! It was a fun experience and a fun atmosphere to be in with everyone else who was there on "Decorating Day."