The Family Cookbook

I took on the crazy project of redoing our family cookbook this year. Ever since I did the first one our family has talked about how much they use it but they've also commented on recipes that need to be added and ones that need to be taken out or changed. We've also had several people join our family since then and we wanted to add their yummy recipes too. I was hoping that everyone would be willing to pay for them if we did it instead of a gift exchange for Christmas. When I suggested the idea, everyone was on board. As a matter of fact, several people wanted to buy multiple books. I also had the stipulation that Todd help me with a database to easily put it into a book format. He suggested the family website and said it would be easy to do it from there. Little did he know what he was signing up for. I actually ended up with the easiest part, collecting recipes and entering them in online. Todd and Gale put in hours and hours of formatting and reformatting to get to the finished product. But it was well worth the hours. The finished product has arrived and I love it. It has around 300 tried and true family recipes. The book is half-sized (to help limit the amount of counter space it takes up) with a coil binding that allows you to fold the book in half. It has one recipe per page and includes several pages for adding recipes. There are indexes and pages of pictures. I love it and can't wait to start using it!

Bohman / Casey Christmas Party

This was my favorite Bohman/Casey Christmas party too. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Maybe it's because I put more work into it. Sara and I planned it and I think about 70 people came. Kevin's family was the only one missing. We had great food, good music (a last minute addition thanks to Jason and it really set the tone for the evening) and a ton of socializing. I'm grateful to have such wonderful immediate and extended family.

Hairdos

Sadie always has to see her hair from the back. So here are a few hairdos that we've tried over the last several months.

Christmas Dance Recital

I love that Sadie and her cousin get to be in dance together. Here they're practicing their splits. Check out the pained expressions on their faces.

Although this isn't a video of the dance, you get a feel for it from these four pictures. Sadie did an awesome job. I love her face in each picture because you can tell she's giving it her all. It's almost as though she's taking on a new character. It's so cute.

Lights at Temple Square

Sara and Jeff invited us to go see the lights at temple square with them this year. It was probably one of the coldest nights to go but it sure made it less crowded and the girls didn't seem to mind. As a matter of fact, we were doing all we could to keep them from playing in the snow so that they wouldn't be cold and wet.

Kali and I were happy to see that our favorite spinning tree has light on it this year. It isn't lit up every year but this year it is. It's broad enough at the base that when you stand under it and spin, all you see is a swirl of red lights. It's beautiful!

We love to see the temple and the nativity scenes that remind us of the true spirit of Christmas.

Bohman Family Christmas Party

I just have to say that this was the best family Christmas party ever in my opinion. A couple of months ago we debated what to do for the gift exchange and were running into all the same problems we had in previous years. This year, however, Molly suggested doing a sub for Santa in place of the gift exchange and everyone was on board with it. It turn out to be so much fun. Jesse got the name of a family in need. Mom called them and told them what we wanted to do and got details about their family. We then divided everything up and we got what we could. We tried to involve the kids as much as possible too. We brought all the gifts to the family party and had the kids help us wrap them. Kali is so proud of herself in this picture and rightly so. That is the first present she has ever wrapped on her own and she did an excellent job. The girls were so excited to be doing something to help out someone in need and so was I. When all was said and done we probably had four boxes full of gifts and food in addition to two laptops to give to the family.

 Then we sent some of the adults and older children to the home to drop off the gifts with a special visitor.

In the meantime, Sara and I organized some activities for those of us that were waiting. You could make snowflakes or marshmallow Olafs.

 

We ended up with some pretty creative Olafs. Some with two heads.

Some with long necks. And some that never even made it that far. Then Mom passed out gifts to the grandkids and everyone went home with a smile and their face and a good feeling in their heart.

Gingerbread Houses

We spent the evening tonight participating in the Smith tradition of making gingerbread houses. Josh's entire family participates and the girls really look forward to it. Kali is finally old enough that she was able to put a lot of effort into making a pretty cool house. I wish I would have gotten a picture of her finished product. It had a carport and a little balcony over it. Ashlyn liked making her house so much that I caught her sucking on the frosting bag. Okay, so maybe she liked the candy and frosting more than the house.

Josh and I also made one this year. Someone suggested that we make a village with our gingerbread houses and that everyone should pick a different building so we did a schoolhouse. Josh tried to help, but I pretty much took over. I love this kind of stuff. The only thing I don't like about this kind of stuff is that I never have enough time to do everything I want to. I had to hurry to put the finishing touches on, but it turned out pretty cute in the end. Too bad you can't see the benches inside the schoolhouse that I spent the majority of my time working on. Our village consisted of a nativity scene, a ship, a Christmas tree, a temple and our schoolhouse.

Santa

Oh boy did we luck out with Santa this year. I happend to walk into Harmons on a Saturday morning (which I rarely do) to grab a few things we were out of and Santa was there. He didn't have a line and was going to be there for several more hours. I quickly got what I needed, ran home, and loaded the girls in the car. When we got back to the store, there was only one person with Santa and we were next. Emma was pretty nervous about him so I made Kali sit with her as far away from him as possible so she wouldn't cry. He handed the girls bells to shake and told me to pull out my camera and start taking pictures.

Then he insisted on individual shots with each of the girls and me. I looked awful. I hadn't showered, combed my hair, or brushed my teeth and was still wearing my pajamas, but he didn't seem to mind. And I thought for sure Emma would start crying, but I think the bell he handed her took her mind off of him for a minute. It was perfect--no wait, no money,no crying and no stress.

Nature and Mining

Kali had her celebration of learning on her most recent expedition about nature and mining. Her grade put on a presentation for the parents and it was pretty fun to watch. Kali lights up when she is on stage. She loves the attention. They sang several songs and she sang them with every ounce of gusto she could muster. She also got to take part in the introduction and when she said her part it was very very animated. I have a feeling this girl will love drama class when she is in high school.

Snow + Walking

Ashlyn has been watching some family videos of the older girls sledding and playing in the snow when they were little and now she is dying to go out and tromp through the snow and make snowballs. I don't like the cold at all and avoid being outside as much as possible. However, she has somehow convinced me to walk to and from preschool in the snow. So here we are, walking home from preschool in the freezing cold. It's far from my favorite thing to do, but I've done it a couple of times now because I know she's in heaven. I only wish it didn't take twice as long to get home. Pushing Emma in the stroller in the snow is a little tricky when the walks aren't shoveled, and Ashlyn spends the majority of her time playing in all the yards along the way.