Christmas part 3

How many more Christmas's will I have like this?  I truly felt blessed to have these three together again.  I had a huge reality check this December. A friend in my stake that I worked with in Stake Primary, who was younger than me, had massive seizure and died just a week and a half before Christmas.  He left his wife and three kids.  His kids are a little younger than mine.  

 We had Christmas dinner at our house.  Adam was incharge of smoking some pork and he nearly burned down the house.  At 3:00 am he got up to use the rest room and decided to check on the meat.  We had had a major fire in the smoker and luckily the smoker shut down but not before there was a massive fire in the smoker. 

Surprisingly he cut off the burnt part of the meat and continued smoking it.  It turned out to be an amazing meal.  

And the left overs made an amazing nacho meal for the Bowl Games.  

Christmas part 2

This Christmas I tried out several new things and learned a lot. 

Mom taught me how to make her chocolates and I added a few new flavors.

I found an amazing recipe for candied nuts.

I made several batches of sugar and ginger bread cookies so I could practice frosting them.

 

Christmas Part 1

 I love Christmas! The past couple of years we have gone on vacation for Christmas so I haven't put up the big trees.  

I did several puzzles (my puzzle buddy Briggs was a little preoccupied this year with other things)

This was the Big tree.

This was the vacation tree.  The tree with all the ornaments from our vacations.  We started this tradition on our honeymoon.  

Tank liked having the Christmas tree up.  Can you find him?

And my favorite tree of all is my Jesus tree.  

3 Weeks!

 

We missed church for three weeks! I guess to clarify we missed going to our home ward for 3 weeks.  

1. we went to Avram mission comp homecoming

2. We went to a Spanish ward in Austin, it was so fun!!! 

3. We went to a Samoan ward when we got home because Avrams friend AJ had his mission farewell. It was strange being in a ward where we didn't understand anything and we just sang hymns without any clue on how to pronounce the words.  

They had a huge feast after church! it was amazing.  And yes, we were the only white people there but if there is ever a culture to join, it's the Polynesians! 

At the luncheon one lady asked me if Avram is is comfortable hanging around with Polynesians (she noticed we were the only white people there) I said, "Are you kidding.  Avram loves Polynesians!  In fact, I think he has forgotten he is white.  All his friends are Polynesian and he has informed us he doesn't want to be set up on dates with any white girls."  The lady thought it was hilarious.  She said, "Ok, when I see him again I will know that he may look white but in his heart he is Brown."  

Food, Food and more Food

 

Avram has learned to really appreciate family since going on his mission.  His P day was on Monday, which is Sunday for us.  He often called while we were at family get togethers.  It was hard for him to see everyone and not be part of it.  Last spring Avram called us while we were in Texas.  While talking to him we decided we would return to Texas with him at Thanksgiving.  

So for Thanksgiving we were off to warmer weather.  

This time we decided to to fly into Austin and tryout some famous BBQ.  

We ate some amazing BBQ....but Adam has gotten so good at it that there was one place that was comparable to some of Adams meat but for the price Adams meat is far superior.  

Luckily our Hotel was near this amazing walking path so I could go on a little walk in between each feast of BBQ.  

We went to a family comedy show, played a lot of card games and watched a little football during our little escape to Austin.  

After 3 days we were off to San Antonio to celebrate Thanksgiving.  

We took Avram to the San Antonio temple.  Its really fun having him with us at the temple.  

Mike and Adam smoked some amazing Brisket for our Thanksgiving dinner.  

The Boys escaped to play some golf and the girls did some black friday shopping.  Mike might regret having Ila around his girls. They all enjoyed learning the joys of shopping.