Cake Class

This week we had another fancy Christmas date! Daniel really wanted to do a class, and he thought that a cake decorating class would be an awesome choice that we would both like. After looking at the prices of Joann's Wilton classes we were going to say "No Way!" Fortunately, a friend of mine from the ward is amazing with decorating cakes, and she said she would totally teach us for a few hours about the basics of decorating a cake.

We learned how to cut a large cake in half and what you would do if you wanted a filling (like pudding or jam). We tried our hand at making a frozen transfer which, by the way, is a super cool trick. Then we learned to make a crumb coat which we had never heard of before. (In case you were wondering that is the first layer of frosting that catches all the crumbs. It isn't how your jacket looks after eating a delicious cake or cookie.) Finally, we iced the cake and learned some fancy decoration!

And, in case you were wondering, the cake not only looked great, it tasted great too!

Our First 'Christmas Date'

What is a 'Christmas Date', you ask?  Well, we mentioned a few weeks ago that we had pre-planned some dates as a Christmas present to each other this year.  This weekend we did our first one, which was a lot of fun.

As a background, we decided to watch the Amazing Race this season, and we had a lot of fun watching and talking about how we would have done things different (or exactly the same).  So, I decided to plan a leg of the Amazing Race for us to do (albeit not as exciting or exotic).  In the picture you can see all the clues we found as we went about:

We weren't very successful at doing our 'Detour' activities because of the weather and the fact that I chose the wrong kind of park, but the rest turned out about how I had planned.  Elissa even found 2 cute things at the outlet mall instead of just one.

The Salt Lick was one of the last 'Must-see Austin locations' we hadn't been to (that I know of).  We find this a little strange, because it's in Driftwood, which is like the middle of nowhere about an hour from Austin.  We're thinking they like the location for the low taxes.  It's this BBQ place that was supposed to have the best sauce and really good meat.  We usually get brisket, but this time Elissa decided to get pork ribs (and I figured I'd have some too).  It was a good thing, because the pork ribs were way tastier than the brisket (which, wasn't disappointing either).  All in all it was very tasty and we had a good time.

As we've been moving in, we decided it was finally time to start a few minor projects around the house.  We were particularly proud of our new shelf for our TV/monitor:

Well, that's all for this blog post, but since this one is late, I already know we have a good one coming next week, so check that one out too!

New Adventures

This week was my first week helping with the Sunbeams at church. The kids are really cute. It was the first week, so of course we had a couple that weren't super excited about their first Sunday out of Nursery. This week I'm giving the lesson. Hopefully that goes well!

This week we decided that it would be fun if I picked up Daniel and took him to lunch at our favorite Chinese food place. They have this great lunch special, but we hardly ever get to take advantage of the special because Daniel is working. It was fun to go out for lunch together.

Anyway, after lunch Daniel dropped me off at the library. He checked out this month's book club book which we had reserved on his library card earlier. So I sat down and read that book. Then, I decided I needed something else to read, so I pulled the first of the Hunger Games book off the shelf. I've never read them, and they were pretty good. Fortunately, just as I was finishing up the book, Daniel got off work. It was good to get out of the house for the afternoon, even if it was just at the library.

New Years

In case you were hoping to see a list of all our New Years' resolutions, I have to warn you that there are no resolutions in this post.  We did, however, have a good New Years Eve.  Elissa just wanted to go to bed and say 'oh look, it's a new year' when we woke up, but I made her stay up with me and have treats (specifically popcorn and breakfast cake).

There were several mouse sightings in our building at work, so they have asked everyone to avoid eating in their cubicles (and a few other things).  This wouldn't be frustrating except that I've made a habit of eating my lunch at my desk and chatting with Elissa during lunch.  I guess I'll have to find something else to do instead.

We also finally got around to taking down our Christmas decorations, and our house once again looks a little bare because we haven't put up any of our pictures or non-Christmas decorations yet.  That is definitely on our list of things to do soon.

Oh, Elissa just found out that they'll be having her co-teach a Sunbeams class at church.  I think she's nervous about it, but she'll do great.

The Days after Christmas

Christmas was earlier this week. Daniel and I both got wonderful gifts from our families that we opened along with a few gifts from Santa. Daniel got a new razor and I got some kitchen things. Daniel must have been extra good this year because Santa brought him some cinnamon rolls to bake for Christmas morning breakfast.

This year, instead of getting physical gifts for each other for Christmas, Daniel and I each took six months of the year and planned one exciting date per month. Then we put all of our ideas and plans into envelopes and opened them Christmas Morning.  Daniel made some excellent plans, and I'm pretty excited about some of mine too. I think that I'm going to wait until they come to tell you blog readers what they are. It will make for a lot of great suspense for all of you blog readers.

This week Daniel went to his first boys' book club. They read the Hobbit. (We went and saw the movie Christmas Eve. It was a good movie, but I didn't realize they were going to make 3 different 3 hour movies for the book. It was well made, but I'm not sure I can handle another 6 hours. Daniel will probably convince me to see them somehow. ) I think he had a pretty good time at both the movie and at book club.


While Daniel was at book club, I finally got around to organizing our pantry. In all our descriptions of our house, I'm sure that some of you didn't even know we had a pantry. And, until last night, it was pretty empty. Now it is full (thanks mostly to my mom and her Christmas gift),and it is fairly organized! It probably needs more of a system, but at least all of the food is out of the garage and boxes and into the pantry.

Cold Nights but No Snow

With Christmas just around the corner the temperature here in the house has definitely dropped.  Unfortunately there hasn't been any snow (or maybe it's fortunate because no one down here knows how to deal with snow).  I just worked my last day before Christmas and was able to wrap things up pretty well for a long weekend/holiday.  Now we're just making last-minute preparations.

This last week there really hasn't been very much to talk about.  I found out that there's a book club in our Elders' Quorum and the book for December is The Hobbit (thanks to the new movie), which I've been trying to read since I found out.  I don't think I'll make it before we get together, but I've already read it, so no worries.

One highlight of the week was that I came home yesterday and Elissa had made some really good potato cheese dill soup (or whatever they call it).  It was really nice with the colder temperatures and was seasoned really well.  I think she got the recipe from Mom.  Anyway, I won't drag this post out forever since we don't have much more to say.  Merry Christmas everyone!  We wish we could spend it with all of you!

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

This last week we had a cold front sweep through Austin. (All of our friends in Utah and Idaho are going to roll their eyes) It froze for 2 nights in a row, which is pretty cold for here! We decided that we should try out our new fire place while sipping hot chocolate. It was lots of fun. I even made Daniel start reading one of the Ramona Quimbey books with me while we sat by the fire. It was a lovely evening enjoying our new house! It seemed very Christmas like because we were in front of a fire with coco basking in the lights of our decorated Christmas tree. We could have been in a Christmas movie (except we would have been reading a Christmas book and it would have been snowing outside for effect.)

Saturday was our ward Christmas breakfast. Daniel volunteered to bring a dozen scrambled eggs, sausage and our griddle to help keep it all warm. I admit I wasn't too excited to wake up at seven o'clock to cook up eggs and sausage and be to the church by eight. Daniel took my complaining in stride, and we did get up and get everything to the church on time. The breakfast ended up being pretty good, and it was fun to see every one around before they left for the holidays. Also, all of our eggs got eaten, and our griddle stayed clean because they ended up not needing it.