Christmastime is comin

It's the day after Thanksgiving now, so I can start thinking about Christmas! But first, I must give thanks for everything the Lord has blessed me with.
I'm thankful for:

• My family. My mom and dad who have raised me the past 20 years in the way I should go and have helped me to always be a better, God-glorfiying woman. They have always provided for me and been strong. I love them dearly. My sisters who even though one is close and one is far away, I know I can always talk to them about anything. We have our fun, goofy, sister moments, and our serious discussions too. I so can't wait for Christmastime together again! Love you, my dear sisters! My brothers who even though I may find them annoying at times(Josiah) I still do love them all. My older brothers are very protective and just what big brothers should be. We always have a good time when they're home. My nieces who are the three sweetest little girls. I love my auntie time! And my little nephew of course too.
• My boyfriend. He's such a wonderful guy, who's always so encouraging and patient and a great listener. He's incredibly sweet and loving and respectful of me. We can talk about anything and everything and even when I tend to get a tad goofy(what? me?!) he still loves me for me. He's a strong Christian and we share the same beliefs which is of utmost importance to me. I love him so.
• My friends. Whether I've known them for 13 years or 3, they're the best. I know they're always there for me whether it's to just listen or give advice or just have a good time with. I love all my girls! And my guy friends too!
• My possessions. This may seem shallow, but yesterday we helped with Meals on Wheels and saw some people who are just living in the worst of conditions and it really made me thankful for all I have. For living in a warm and clean home and good food to eat every day and nice clothes to wear and all the other little luxuries I have.
• My faith. I don't know how people can live in this world without having true faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Just knowing that all is in His Hands and that everything will turn to our good and that at the end believers in Him shall have eternal life is the most comforting thing. I'm forever thankful that He brought me to know Him and covered my many sins with His blood.

I am so incredibly blessed with everyone and everything I have.

Now on to Christmas! As I sit here there's Christmas music playing in the waiting room(I'm at work) and I love it. Just puts a smile on my face and gets me so excited to decorate our house soon! Hopefully tomorrow we'll be putting up the tree! Yay! :) I found this survey over at Talia's and thought it might be fun!

Egg nog or hot chocolate? This is a tough one. I love hot chocolate on those cold, snowy days. Especially Starbucks signature. But Christmas day we always have egg nog with our dinner. So I can't make a choice.

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? I wrap all my presents. I just love that part. Buying pretty paper and ribbon and bows and tags and doing them up all nicely and seeing them under the tree all pretty. I like it. :)

Colored lights on tree/house or white? When we put up lights on our house, they're always colored. And we do a mixture of the two on the tree. White are so classicly lovely, but yet there's just something about the colors I love. So I can't say I have a preference on this one either.

Do you hang mistletoe? We never have. Although once I'm married, I'm pretty sure this will be a must. hehe.

When do you put your decorations up? Oh right after Thanksgiving. I love seeing them all up for the whole month of December and sometimes even some of January. haha. I can't properly start Christmas shopping and everything without the tree up, where would you put the presents anyway? So the sooner, the better! Although definitely not before Thanksgiving, that's not allowed at our house. :P

Favorite holiday memory as a child? Let's see. Well whenever we went to Grandma's for Christmas I always loved the red and green jello with whipped cream on top. It just always seemed like the perfect Christmas food to me as a kid. Who knows why. And then there isn't a specific memory with this because it's basically every year. But just when as family we all hand out our presents to each other and sit down on the couches and the floor and we all take turns opening one up, from youngest to oldest. And we take turns until each present if opened. I like that better than just the crazy everyone ripping off the paper at the same time ordeal. We get to watch everyone else and see what they all got plus waiting in anticipation to see what they think of the gift you got them. It seems like the perfect present opening system to me. :)

When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I never believed in Santa as a kid. Although I do remember the times at Grandma's when we would all watch that Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen Christmas movie, can't remember the name, but my dad would always wear a Santa hat and coat maybe too? And that's pretty much as Santa-y(new word) we got.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? We have absolutely no theme when it comes to our tree. We just put all our lights on and then get out the boxes of ornaments and then we all just grab a few and place them on the tree wherever we see fit. From pretty new ornaments my mom gives us every year to the old ones we made as kids they all go up. With the exception of the few ugly ones we do have. Lol.

Snow! Love it or dread it? Love it! Some of the best memories I have of Christmas have to do with some snow. Like when we lived in Nebraska and it snowed on Christmas day, all the neighborhood kids and us went down to the hill near the highway with our sleds and we would have the older kids stand at the bottom and stop us so we wouldn't get to the highway yet(although it was a teeny town so there wasn't too much traffic). We sled out there for hours. Such fun. And last Christmas, it snowed the 25th as well! There's just something about waking up in the morning in winter and running to the window to see if it snowed that night. And if it did, I would run downstairs yelling all excited. I still get excited to see snow outside in the morning, just a little less energeticly. haha. I love the look of the fresh, white snow covering everything and just glittering. So beautiful. I'm so glad we live somewhere where we do get snow for Christmas.

Do you remember your favorite gift? This one is extra tricky. So I'm going to be boring and just say I love all the gifts I get. The ones that have special memories behind them or even the practical ones I may get!

What’s the most important thing about the holidays for you? Getting to celebrate the birth of our Savior and learning about the true meaning of Christmas. But also, spending time with all my family and giving presents and building snowmen and making snow angels outside in the snow. I love everything about Christmastime!
What is your favorite holiday dessert? I must say I love my mom's fudge puddles and family recipe sugar cookies! Yum yum yum!
What is your favorite holiday tradition? Like I can pick just one! I already said the opening of presents. But also when we make sugar cookies and sprinkle them all and our dinner with the special bread, not even going to attempt to spell it. It's Swiss. I love every little tradition we have and all the memories we make!

What tops your tree? We can't have a tree topper, because our tree is so tall it touches the ceiling. But we used to have this big like 3-D star deal that went on top.
Which do you prefer, giving or receiving? Oh, giving! Just going out shopping and trying to find that perfect gift for everyone. Trying to make the present as fun and meaningful as I can. And then seeing their reaction to my present. I love the whole gift-giving process.

What is your favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night is definitely up there as one of my favorites. It's so beautiful. And I must admit I like Feliz Navidad too. I always liked singing Good Christian Men Rejoice too and God Rest Ye Merry Gentleman. I love all Christmas music really. All the hymns but also some of the secular ones.

Candy canes? I do like to eat a candy cane once in a while. But they're also fun to decorate with. And they do make great stocking stuffers.

Favorite Christmas movie? I love the classic It's a Wonderful Life. But also I like the Santa Clause ones. And I need to see Elf, never have.

What do you leave for Santa? Well, since we never believed in Santa, nothing. Just plenty of Christmas goodies for us! :)

Now, it's your turn to fill it out. I had fun with it and you might too! :)

I hope you all had such a wonderful Thanksgiving! I did. And that you are getting ready for Christmas! Only 27 days away, yikes.

frosted chocolate chip cheesecake

I keep promising recipes and yet I never do post them. Sorry. But I decided this one was so incredibly delicious I had to blog about it!
Note: not my picture. I completely forgot to take one until it was all eaten. But mine did look pretty much like that, minus the raspberry and almond garnishes.

2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs(I used oreos, which worked well)

6 tablespoons butter, melted

3 packages ( 8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup (6 ounces) miniature semisweet chocolate chips

1 milk chocolate candy bar (4 ounces), chopped

2 cups whipped topping

1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted

In a bowl, combine wafer crumbs and butter. Press onto the bottom and 1-1/2 in. up the sides of a greased 9-in. springform pan. Chill for 15 minutes or until set.

In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth. Add eggs; beat on low speed just until combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into crust.

Place pan on a baking sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Carefully run a knife around edge of pan to loosen; cool 1 hour longer. Refrigerate overnight.

For frosting, in a microwave-safe bowl, melt candy bar; stir until smooth. Cool to room tempature. Gradually stir in the whipped topping. Remove sides of springform pan. Frost top of cheesecake; garnish with almonds. Refrigerate leftovers. Yield: 12 servings.

Enjoy!

week in a nutshell

I'm not sure why I haven't blogged in a week. Maybe because I haven't done or thought anything worth blogging about. So, way to go, Jerusha.
My usual week goes something like this: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, work from 10-6:30 and come home and just laze around watching tv or a movie. Tuesday and Thursday, work from 2-6:30 and Chris comes up and we hang out till he leaves around midnightish.
It's a very exciting life I lead, I hope you see. Although Tuesday, we have to come up earlier because my mom has a meeting deal so then Lydia and I sit at Starbucks until she's through with that. Mmm, Peppermint Mocha! This last week we were writing our Christmas gift giving list. We have a whole ton of people to give to, since we've got like a family of 14 and then several friends and then I've got the boyfriend. We usually give gifts together, because for one thing it's cheaper(yeah, sorry) and it's also easier and sometimes more fun. It works and no one has complained yet. :P So, yeah. Wednesday, the guys had catechism, so the girls went home and watched Moulin Rouge. So one of my favorite movies! The music is amazing.
Friday, I didn't feel well most of the day, so work wasn't too much fun. Went home, watched Made of Honor, and fell asleep on the couch. Kinda sucked I didn't feel well, since Rebecca spent the night and I didn't get(more like want) to partake in the sleepoever activities. So I slept in Saturday and woke up feeling much better so I was able to go shopping with everyone. Headed to the mall and Lydia and I helped pick out clothes for Josiah so he's somewhat stylish and in longer pants. haha. Went to Aeropostale and Payless where I broke the tenth commandment many a time I'm pretty sure. I just like cute sweaters and shirts and shoes. Can ya blame me? I made cheesecake for guests on Sunday, which turned out super delicious. I'll be posting pictures and possibly a recipe later.
Sunday was church and since we were host family we had guests for lunch. More came than we thought we had invited, which was pretty funny and confusing for a little while. But it turned out just fine. Church a second time and then we had Bible study on Isaiah 2-3. It was a really good study, talking about pride and being thankful and the adornments of women. Then we came home again and chilled and watched our weekly Supernatural episode. Love those Winchesters.
There's the week. Kinda rambly and boring, forgive me.
Oh! This Friday through Monday, the family is headed down to Phoenix for a seminar. So a little getaway should be kinda fun. Road trip and then visiting some relatives down there as well. So I'm excited for that.
Alright, happy Monday all! <3

"when you're here, you're family"

That's right, Olive Garden! One of my favorite restaurants ever! So Saturday night, Lydia, Christopher, Rebecca, and I went out to dinner for some delicious Italian food. This was Chris's first ever time there(I know, what?! crazy) so that was fun! I always get so excited for that first bite of their amazing breadsticks and fettucine alfredo(I'm super predictable, I don't think once have I gone when I didn't get that. haha). We had such a nice waitress too, who said you're welcome each and every time we said thank you, which was like constantly. Lol.
And you know there's a benefit to not being a big eater, I get to have two meals from one! So last night, I got to have Fettucine again! Yum yum! :)

Chris and I.

He always seems to be talking in pictures..but he's still cute. :)

Since it was his first time,

we of course had to commemorate that first bite of a warm breadstick.

Pretty girls, Becca and Lydia

Sharing their Caramel Hazelnut Macchiato.

i love me a surprise

Alright, so I have the sweetest boyfriend ever I'm pretty sure! And I'll tell you why. =)
So Thursday is one of the days I usually get to see him, but yesterday my mom, Lydia, and me had a Ladies' Night Out event to attend, so I didn't get to see him. He was just going to go home instead of coming up to the office or to our house.Well, last night I'm ready to head to bed and I'm flipping back my covers and notice a piece of paper. I'm like, "Hmm, that wasn't there this morning when I made my bed." Then I notice that the writing on it looks alot like Chris's! And quick note, his handwriting cracks me up. I've had to learn to decipher it because it's almost non-readable. (You know I like it, Chris. <3) So I start reading it and am almost through it when he calls me! I was so excited to tell him that I had found his letter! It was such a sweet letter too. I get to the last paragraph and it tells me to look in my pillowcase! So I do, and what do I find but a present!! :D This to be exact:

Bad quality picture, but you can still see it pretty well. Lovely, right? I was so thrilled! Just an out of the blue present for me! :)
And he tells me he never entered our house since no one was home at the time. And I thought maybe he left Josiah a note to put it in my bed, but that's no the case either. So I'm going with the idea that there is a surprise fairy who took care of it! haha
Anyways, I am of course wearing it today!
See, what a wonderful boyfriend that Christopher is?! I certainly think so. :)
So thanks so much, babe! Love you! <3

Election Day

Mmm pumpkin

There's just something about the taste of pumpkin this time of year. I know my tastebuds crave for it. So Saturday I made pumpkin streusel bread(thanks, Talia!)! And boy, was it ever yummy. :) We took a few loaves to church and I don't think I've ever gotten that many compliments on food before. I believe the words "sinful", "fabulous", and "pretty dang good" were used. And one person asked me how much I liked him and if I did I was to bake him more bread. He also, I believe, said that Chris would be one lucky man. haha! So yay for success!