A Very Merry Christmas

Since we have no little children at the Nordstrom household, we thought it would be best to sleep in, getting ready for church, come home THEN open our Christmas presents. The boys were NOT happy  about this idea, but the women over-ruled. :)

We all got ready for 10am church and took Christmas pictures in front of the fireplace hearth.

Nordstrom Family

FINALLY around 11:45am we started opening presents.

 In the middle of opening presents, I received an unexpected call from my sister WHITNEY! She is serving a mission in New York City in the Bronx. I got to talk to her for a few minutes. It was soooo good to hear from her.

 A few fun things Tanner received.... 

A camo truck seat cover from Mrs. Clause (me)

A graduation gift from his parents...

A very exciting gift: a chain saw! 

Santa gave Dad a gift he is VERY excited about!

Look at that after-Christmas mess. It looks like a tornado came through here...

What a nice Christmas! We find ourselves extremely blessed. Although I miss being with my family for the holiday, I am so fortunate to have such wonderful in-laws. 

PREPARE for Christmas Festivities

Tanner & I spent Christmas in California with his family this year! We packed the car and piled in (the dog included) and made the 10 hour drive from Provo to Redding, CA. A few days after arriving, as part of a long-standing tradition, the entire Nordstrom family drove to the beautiful Lassen National Park and cut down a Christmas tree! 

Dad & Laura stringing the lights for the tree!

There were lots of wii competitions!

Travis & Heather

 Another tradition is the girls having a "baking night". We all pick our favorite holiday treat to bake and add to Christmas plates to deliver to neighbors and friends. I found a recipe for Oreos and marshmellows (same recipe as rice crispy treats but replace the rice crispy cereal with crushed oreos.) It was not my favorite treat I've made but some others seemed to like it ok. :)

Sample as you go...

"Gross. what is that?"

The finished product!

 Christmas Eve morning, Dad makes a Danish breakfast called Aebleskivers. YUMMY

 After eating WAY too much from our delicious Christmas Eve Danish dinner, dessert is rhys-alamon (rice pudding).

We had a little mis-hap with the rice pudding.
Just bring in the dogs to help clean it up

 Part of the Danish dessert is when the Dane's prepare the rice pudding, ONE single almond is added, then the dessert is divided up and served. Each person is to eat to the bottom of their bowl and the person who finds the almond wins a little prize. Well.... I WON! I found the almond and my prize was a little Christmas bear!

Me & Heather

Family Fun

Tanner's Mom (Kim) came into town from California this weekend to spend time with all her kids! Her youngest, Heather, came down from Rexburg and Kristy from SLC. We had a back-to-back fun filled weekend!

Saturday afternoon was the BYU football game! We all had BYU shirts and little tattoo stickers as proud supporters of our team!

 Laura, Heather, me

Mom, Heather, Laura

Outside of the stadium, a large group of people (Tongan or Samonian) had a HUGE tailgating party and were roasting these poor pigs!  So much food! I did not expect to see that...

The whole clan at the game!

L-R, top to bottom: Matthew, Laura, Tanner, me, Kristy, Mom, Heather

 Sunday we attended Laura & Matthew's ward and Laura played a beautiful harp duet. She is extremely talented and brought a soft spirit to the room. Music has always been a way I use to express myself or my testimony and it's been fun to have a sister-in-law that shares my same passion.

After church, we met up at Matthew & Laura's for some good 'ol Halloween pumpkin carving before dinner. We were all hard at work on our creations!

Mom was hard at work on the meal :)

A weekend filled with family activities always helps remind me how grateful I am for family. I am grateful for my in-laws (we really missed Dad Nordstrom) and my own family in Boise. 

~Families Are Forever~

Conference Weekend

Here are a few pictures taken a few weeks ago in front of our house.

of course I'm in the flower bed pulling weeds while I wait for Tanner to take the picture

It is a tradition for Tanner & his Dad to go to pie after the Priesthood session of General Conference. He asked an old mission companion, Vance and his family to join us for pie after the session. I can't really replace his Dad, but it was fun to keep up the "pie" tradition.

Vance and his oldest daughter Jerica. She is a doll!

Sent theses pics to Dad so he knew we kept up the tradition. No ordinary pie for me: Chocolate peanut butter silk pie!  YUM

 Tanner's sister Kristy came down from SLC for the weekend and stayed with Laura & Matthew and they all came over the Sunday sessions. 

I made my Conference weekend traditional homemade ooey gooey cinnamon rolls. They went fast!

First Haircut!

So it's not really a first haircut ever, but it was Tanner's first haircut by ME!! Although it seemed like a good idea in theory, when it came time for him to sit down and let me start buzzing... he seemed a little apprehensive.Since our house was a little warm (when I say a little, I mean a lotta warm. No AC) we went down to our basement apartment and Shawn and Telly gladly let us in for this little project. Telly was more than happy to take lots of pictures!

   Let's read the directions. How do you work this thing?

 

I'll read the directions, you get everything all set out and ready to go.

Tanner: "Now Kenz, this is how you work this. Don't mess up"

Ok. Looking good.

Tanner: "You're not doing it right. Just give it here. I'll do it.

Now, Now Tanner. I can do this. Just let me figure it out.

This is a family picture! See Sadie in the window?! She always wants to know what's going on.

So we got to the blending part...I put my pride aside and asked Shawn for help. He stepped in and did a great job blending the back.

I finished the rest. I think it looks great! Thanks Shawn and Telly for letting us use the apartment!