The Holidays

     I love traditions, especially for holidays and if there is one tradition that I grew up with that has stuck is making Christmas Candy!!!!  I love to bake and I love the goodies I am allowed to make during the holidays.  Since every batch of candy I make is huge we decided that in order to help save our figures we would make little candy plates for our friends.  This way after we delivered to everyone their candy, the leftover would be ours!  It was so good and fun to make!

     We made some peanut brittle, english toffee, barvarian mint fudge, peanut clusters, and caramels!  The only thing missing is our cinnamon caramels. I didn't have enough flavoring, but don't worry, we'll make it next year!

     After a couple of tests were taken, we were ready for the Christmas celebrating to really begin for us students. We decided to start the celebration out right with going to Texas Roadhouse with some of our good friends.  The food was delicious as always!  I even kind of missed working there, it is just a fun environment, good people, and good food....

The Horrock's, The Sirueck's, and The Finn's

We decided to say it was Austin's birthday!  He was such a good sport!

     After dinner we went to downtown Glendale to go and see the Glendale Glitters.  They hang over a MILLION lights in a park and on some of the main streets  It is a fun place to go! The railroad which used to be the lively hood of the town runs through there.  While there with the Sirueck's, lil' Madi wanted to take a carriage ride, it was a lot of fun!

     Once again it was time to head home and go see family!  When we got to Idaho it welcomed us with the temperature of... 5 degrees!!! We loved it!  It was also a big deal to come home this time because Ryan's younger brother Morgan came home from his mission in the Dominican Republic.  I hadn't even met Morgan yet, Ryan and I met right after he left, so it was exciting to meet another in-law.

     We were also able to see some of my high school buddies and have a fun little get together with them.  Great food, competitive ping pong games, kinek competitions, and of course awesome white elephants gifts.  This was the first time Ryan really got to meet some of my friends since we have all gone away and not stayed in our home town, I think he now understands why I act the way I do sometimes, haha

 
     For Christmas we did a lot of traveling.  It is nice when your families live kind of close to one another but it sure makes for A LOT of driving, but it was worth it.  We went to my sisters for an awesome Christmas Eve dinner of steak, king crab, and jumbo shrimp.....AMAZING!  I decided to show them my culinary skills i've been gaining in AZ and made from scratch peanut butter chocolate cheesecake with Reese's on top....everyone was so impressed and it tasted awesome.  click here if you want to try it!

I also made a regular cherry cheesecake just in case my main one didn't work

My brother in-law Beau was super excited for them

     We did lots of reading with the lil' kiddos, especially Ryan

     After Christmas Eve dinner, we headed back to the Finn's for the sibling gift exchange and a movie that Ryan's sister Tania made for Morgan about what happened while he was gone for 2 years... Lil' Tanner loves to help bring gifts and open gifts.

   
     Once that finished, we headed back out to my parents before Santa came to have an early morning Christmas with my parents and then go to church with them.  After church we headed back to the Finn's for Christmas and then when to their church where Papa Finn was speaking.  It was a crazy 2 days of traveling across Idaho, but it was worth it.

     After the Christmas chaos it was time to get a little R&R and of course some studying as we headed up to the my family's cabin.

      I LOVE Island Park!  I was so excited for all the snow, but it was a little bit of a disappointment, there was maybe a foot of snow or so.  There is always TONS of snow up there during the holidays, usually you can hardly see the rancher's fences.  I was ready to go snowmobiling, snowshoeing, making snowmen, and running in the snow!  We didn't go snowmobiling which was a big disappointment or snowshoeing or make snowmen, BUT I did go running in the snow in my winter gear and I LOVED IT!  There is nothing like running in the cold, best feeling in the world.  I also made Ryan go on some winter walks we me at night.  It is so beautiful to go walking at night in the snow where everything is snow covered and white!

Forgive the cheesy picture

     We still had a lot of fun siting by the fireplaces, playing many card games, putting a huge puzzle together, eating way to much food, a lil' bit of studying of course, and just enjoying family.  We were entertained by the lil' ones running around and rearranging furniture...

Harper Jo and Gunner

     Before we new it, it was time for some Finn family pictures and to celebrate the New Years! Let me tell you we were so festive!  Ryan and I both came down with the flu on NY Eve morning!  We were such couch potatoes, as soon as family pictures got over with we never left the couch for 12 hours or so unless we had an "emergency" which occurred quite often.  Talk about the worst celebration ever, we were only thankful that we got it before we had to fly out the next day haha.  After the crazy flu, we headed back to sunny 82 degree AZ and picked school up right where we left it.  It was a great Christmas break and fun to see all of the family.  So long Santa, see ya next year!