Getting My Craft On For Christmas

For Christmas I made Jake a 52 Things I Love About You book, it was so much fun to make and it was super easy once I figured out where to buy everything I needed!

I bought a deck of cards from Elf Magic so that they would be Christmas cards, I got blue 1 inch binder rings from Porters, red and gold polka dot scrapbook paper from Michaels, and then double sided tape and photo printer paper from Staples. Oh, and I borrowed a hole punch with adjustable hole punchers from my inlaws which made the hole punching SO much easier.

I made the two joker cards the front and back covers and hole punched all the cards.

Then I cut out random sizes of my scrap book paper and taped them to each card (the double sided tape worked really well! I thought I was gonna end up modge podging them but I didn't). I did every other page gold and red. If I were to do this again (which I might because I made a list of 128 random things that I love about Jake so..... I might make a volume 2 later.) I would make them all the same size because it's kind of bugging me that they aren't when I flip through it. OCD. Er, CDO. I also would find cute paper that isn't textured, I don't know if you can tell in these cell phone pics but the polka dots are raised. It was kind of hard to write cute on.

For the 52 things I did some serious, some funny, some physical, some characteristic..... All sorts of random. Luckily, the red shows up much much better in person. This picture makes it look like you can't even read it. Oh and anyone who has met Jake has heard the duck voice I'm sure....

Then for the cover I used red and gold. For the inside of the cover I used gold and red.

For the back cover (this part was the hardest for me because I am technologically challenged and I had no idea how to print a size that would fit the card!) I printed one of our engagement photos (the one where I'm giving him the I Love You sign, get it?) and taped it to the card. Then I hole punched the card/picture. I don't know if I like that better or if I would have liked it better if I made the picture smaller so it didn't cover the entire card like I did with everything else.

So that's what I did! Super easy, super fun, Jake loves it. The other hard part for me was finding the time to make it when Jake wasn't around! And keeping it a secret until Christmas! I just wanted to give it to him right away! So much fun!

Louisiana, Christmas 2011

Here's everything we did while in Louisiana that didn't get their own post.

We flew in Tuesday afternoon. Everything went so smoothly! I'm so glad I have no traveling horror story to report! We ate Canes for dinner. Yum! Then on Wednesday we just hung out. I pretty much flew this helicopter around the house the entire day....

On Thursday we went to New Orleans! We went to a WW2 Museum. It was very cool. First we watched a movie about it and then we went through the museum. I only took one picture while we were there though! Ugh! It's just a sad brick that was outside the museum. Too many deaths in one family. But here's some pictures of us in the car on the way there....

On Friday it was Dad Sant's birthday (scroll down to bottom) and Jake, Daniel, Sari, and I dropped a little Christmas goody off to someone who I hope doesn't read this blog...

Then it was Christmas Eve and Christmas day which both have their own post. Then Monday, the day after Christmas we hung out and went to the mall to update Jake's closet from high school/mission.

On Tuesday we slept in (cue hallelujah chorus people!!) and then Jake taught Daniel, Joseph, Matthew, and I how to shoot BB guns! Now I REALLY want one!! If I was stronger I would want a bow and arrow too.

On Tuesday we also got family pictures done by Erika Degraff. But that gets it's own post.

On Wednesday Jake and I met Dad at the shooting range during his lunch break. We shot a 22 pistol and 22 long rifle. It was so fun! Add the pistol to my Christmas list!

After we got back from the shooting range we finished our gingerbread houses! There's a separate post for that, though.

Wednesday night my mom taught me how to sew little sleeves to put the puzzles that Jake makes in! They're so cute and they're unique from what other personally made puzzle sellers do. I'm excited!

Puzzle sleeves:

Fitted number game sleeves:

Thursday was the sad day we flew back to SLC. We left my parents house at noon and landed in Salt Lake City at 7:40. It was a long day but everything went smoothly. When we checked our bag in New Orleans it was 6lbs over and she was like, "you need to move something to your carry on bag." Jake said,"there's no way. It was a game of tetris just to get everything to fit the way they are!" She pushed it a few more times and then I said we'd just pay the extra money and she said, "oh y'all don't worry about it we'll just ignore it. Put the bag over there and have a good flight." So nice!! From New Orleans to Denver Jake and I couldn't sit by each other. We tried but it just couldn't happen so many people were flying together. Luckily from Denver to SLC we sat by each other, after everyone moving around for us.... Now we're at grandma and grandpa Hathaway's house and this afternoon we'll drive to Bear Lake to celebrate New Years Eve with the Cromwell family!

P.S. I have a really mean cold right now. And it feels like I have an ear infection. Colds suck! Boo! I always get sick when I fly.

Here's the links to things that we did that got their own post:
Dad Sant's birthday
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
Gingerbread houses
Family Pictures (when Erika gets them to us I'll post them.)

Gingerbread Houses!

We decorated our gingerbread houses the Wednesday after Christmas! Better late than never people! It was so fun. Jake and I shared one. Everyone got to design their own and then cut out their designs. This was our first time doing this. Jake's family doesn't make gingerbread houses and every other year when I lived at home my mom made the houses beforehand and then we just decorated them. It was fun to get to make them this year!

Please note the huge red burn on my cheek in this picture. It was very tragic and painful and sad. When we were cooking the sugar to glue our house together a chunk dropped on my pinky (I have a huge blister there, too) and I flipped my hand and it dropped on my cheek and then I ripped it off. It's cringe worthy, I know.

I love Christmas traditions! I wonder if Jake and I will continue this one. After burning my finger and cheek today I'm not so sure!! ;)

Christmas Day!

Christmas morning we all had to get totally ready for church but stay in our pajamas. Then we ate breakfast then lined up on the stairs

After the picture we went in and saw that Santa did come! We had already opened up most of our presents on Christmas Eve so we wouldn't have to hurry before church at 9 am. So we opened the rest of the gifts and our stockings. Then we went to church. They had a beautiful Christmas Program. I got to see some people who I just love. After church the Paleilei family, the Sisters, and the Elders all came over. We had brunch/brinner (bruncher? brunner?) and it was delicious!! The missionaries all got marshmallow guns from us for Christmas and then everyone went outside for THE war. Here's the pictures I have of all that.





While all that craziness was going on, I was loving on this little cutie:




After the missionaries left we played Blockus with the Paleilei's and hung out. My mom and I both got to snuggle with Breeze again. Lovely, Pumpkin, and one of the Paleilei boys whose name I don't remember all sang us a song while pumpkin played the ukulele.




Here's our family pictures from Christmas 2011


I am SO happy that Jake and I got to see my family for Christmas. This has been the best break from work/school/life ever! We're so sad that it's going to be so long before we can come back again. The next time we visit will probably be in April or May of 2013! But we are excited for my first Christmas with the Cromwell's next year!

Merry Christmas!