A Christmas Post

I have been neglecting our blog lately. Alan has had a couple weeks of time off for work, we have had family in from out-of-town, and we have been having so much fun that I didn't dare take precious family time away to do some blogging. :)

Here are some of our recent goings-on:

• visiting with Grandma Mason from California
  
• visiting with Alan's sister Marilyn, who lives in New York
• visiting our new niece Natalie, born a couple of weeks before Christmas
• playing games and watching Christmas movies
• making delicious treats like cinnamon rolls, Oreo bark, and fudge
• singing in a community production of Handel's Messiah
• enjoying lots of family dinners (yummy ham!)
• riding on the Heber Creeper (for FREE, thanks to our almost-brother-in-law, Steve)
• TRYING to find a day to go skiing--we are planning on going (we have never been together!) but there has been too much family stuff, bad weather, and sore throats going around. We will go soon, I hope.
  

Christmas morning

Christmas morning with the Stout clan

Jared loving one of his many new toys

Jared and Jenny with Grandma (and Elmo)

A very blurry and bright family photo on Christmas afternoon :)

We have also been getting excited for Alan's sister Alana's wedding this week. Her fiance, Steve, has an uncle that works with the Heber Creeper, and he got us all free tickets for an afternoon ride! We had lots of fun, drank hot chocolate, and ate yummy hot dogs.

Jenny, Alan, Marilyn, and Rachel on the train

Amanda holding the Buddy on the train
(thanks for letting me steal your pics, Amanda!)

Haircut

I feel so silly taking photos of myself, but I have to show off my new haircut! We are so lucky to have a professional cosmetologist (is that how you say it?) in our family. Alan's sister Alana does such a great job on all of us!


I haven't had my hair this short since the summer before 12th grade. We both like it a lot! What do you think?

Temple Square Lights

This lovely photo was taken by Alan

Last weekend we bundled Jared up and took him to see the beautiful Christmas lights at Temple Square. We hope to make it a tradition. It was so freezing, but Jared was a good sport.

Blurry photo taken by strangers :)

Jared wasn't really as miserable as he looks

One Serving of Chocolate Cake ANYTIME

5-MINUTE CHOCOLATE MUG CAKE

1 coffee mug
4 T. flour (plain not self-rising)
4 T. sugar
2 T. baking cocoa
1 egg
3 T. milk
3 T. oil
3 T. chocolate chips (optional)
Small splash of vanilla

Add dry ingredients to mug and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil and mix well. Add the chocolate chips and vanilla and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 min. on high. The cake will rise over the top of the mug, but don't be alarmed! Allow to cool a little, then tip out onto a plate if desired.

I found this recipe off my friend Michelle's blog. I haven't tried it yet, but I plan to soon! It sounds dangerously delicious to me. :)

Weekend Goings-on

Well, we had an eventful weekend. Probably the coolest thing we did was go to the Festival of Trees with my mom, but unfortunately I couldn't find my camera when we were running out the door (late).

But here are some other things we did...


In preparation for tomorrow night's Relief Society Enrichment dinner, some women in my ward and I made 100 of these clementines wrapped with ribbon and cinnamon sticks. The original plan was to make orange pomanders, but it took way too long to poke the holes for the whole cloves and went rotten quickly because of juice dripping down, so we made these instead. They are kind of cheesy and don't smell nearly as yummy, but it will do for our little party favor for Enrichment, since our theme is service and the Christmas Orange story.


We also spent 4 hours last Friday night assembling our CHRISTMAS PRESENT to each other! (Well, Alan did 95% of the assembling but I helped move around the darn thing when we needed to turn it on its other side.) We bought this treadmill from a warehouse for a smashing deal during Thanksgiving week, and it was shipped free to our house. (Added bonus: Alan's company will pay for half of it--it is part of some kind of plan to encourage employees to stay in shape.) I seriously wish I had taken a picture of the box before we opened it! It was freaking HUGE and so incredibly heavy.

We put it in our bedroom, and it takes up quite a bit of space...

but fortunately, it folds up nicely.

We have both tried it out already! I have been so anxious to exercise since the weather has gotten colder. I use to take Jared on a long walk to the park every single weekday during the summer, but it has been cold for several weeks now. I have felt so lazy! Alan is also excited to be able to exercise after a long day of sitting at work. We think it was a good investment. Merry Christmas to us!!!

Splashing Fun

Okay, here is a cute video from a few weeks ago that I just found. I never truly realize how totally dumb I sound when I'm talking to Jared until I hear myself on video. I will try to work on that.