Jensen Family Christmas

Patrick and I spent Christmas Eve and day with my family in Erda.  Here are some of the highlights:

Christmas Eve we opened the gifts that my family gave to each other. My parents bought Patrick the game Mouse Trap. He has been wanting to add it to our game collection for awhile.

My super cute nephew provided constant entertainment.

Mom looooves being a grandma! The nieces and nephews call her Nana Banana.

We always have a family white elephant gift exchange. Aubrey made ornaments from a Justin Bieber calender she was given as a joke last year. We all got a good laugh from them.

Christmas morning we used FaceTime to watch my brother Andrew's family opening their gifts from my mom and dad.  We wish we could have all been in Montana celebrating the holidays with them but we are so grateful for how technology allows us to stay in touch!
(You can see Sterling on the iPad checking out his new game!)

More FaceTime.

It isn't a true Christmas celebration without some delicious food.

We had our first Annual Jensen Family Ping Pong Tournament.

Austin and Jay made it to the final round.

Austin won the highly coveted trophy. We are all determined to brush up our skills before next year's tournament!

We also played one our of favorite childhood games, Don't Eat Pete. It is fun to introduce Patrick to family traditions.

I am so grateful that my family gets along so well.  There is nothing better than just sitting around and visiting.

:)

Garrett wanted a photo taken of him and his cat, Ziggy. We were going for the awkward pet and owner photos that you see on Facebook.  Liking G's new haircut!

It took us a couple of tries, but we managed to get a photo of everyone together.  Love these people so much!
Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Our Little Home: Christmas Style

Last year was our first Christmas.  We only had a few decorations and a small cubby space in which to put them.  We are slowing building our collection. This year, we were able to fill most of our living room!  My mom recently sorted through her own collection of decorations and gave me and each of my siblings some of our favorites.  This definitely helped us to fill our space.

I was happy that I was given the sock reindeer that my mom made once upon a time.  As a little kid, I especially liked the reindeer's false eyelashes! 

We have upgraded from a Christmas cubby to a Christmas corner!

Each year we plan to add a frame ornament to our tree. This is ours for 2013.

 A bookshelf is the next best thing for hanging stocking when you don't have a fireplace. (PS I didn't want to get a close-up photo because I had a rough time keeping our Poinsettia alive.  She barely made it to Christmas. Hoping for better luck next year!)

 When we were talking about our favorite Christmas memories, Patrick mentioned how much he loved his family's advent calender. It had a little mouse that you moved from day to day.  We were so excited when we found this calender at Target. However, shortly after bringing it home we realized "10" was on it twice. We went to return it but they were all out of new ones.  Well, we decided to keep it anyway. We like our advent calender all the more with its little flaw!

 It was fun to find places to add in a touch of Christmas color.

 I'm not sure how it started, but I got on this wrapping kick where I only wanted to use brown paper grocery bags to wrap gifts.  I love the look and I feel like I'm reusing and recycling at the same time. A win win!

Patrick and I opened to our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve before heading to my parents.  I got a ukulele! I used to have a very, very cheap ukulele but it wouldn't stayed in tune long enough to play a song. Patrick, thank you for a new one. I will learn and play a cheesy love song for you soon!

If you would like to read "Our Little Home: Before," click HERE.

See last year's Christmas Cubby HERE.

Our Little Home: Before

I wanted to post some photos of our apartment all decorated for Christmas.  However, I thought it would be a good idea to put up some "before" photos first since so many of our out-of-town family members and friends haven't seen our place yet.  Since we only have enough holiday decorations to fill the living room, I am only posting photos of that room today.  I will show off the rest of our home later.

This is the view as you walk in through the front door.  The next two photos show the living room as you turn in a clockwise circle.

Noni (Patrick's grandma, Karen) has large bulletin boards in her office that are completely covered in photos.  Even though I don't know who half the people are, I always love looking at them.  They inspired me to buy bulletin boards of my own.  We are slowly filling them up!

We have used some of our wedding reception decorations in our living room.  I attached some ribbon to the "M" so I could hang it on the wall.  I made a shadowbox that has our bookmark announcements, cake toppers, miniature versions of our banners, and some flowers from my bouquet.  It is such a nice way to display some of the little treasures from our wedding.

Okay, Christmas photos up next!

My Favorite Lady

Last Friday was my favorite lady's birthday.  To celebrate Mom's special day, we had a mother/daughter date.  We saw the movie "Frozen" and split a salad at Cafe Rio. Can you think of a better way to spend a birthday? I can't!

Waiting for the movie to start. We did our best excited faces for the camera.

I am so glad to have a mom who is also one of my best friends.  I look up to her so much and always look forward to spending time with her. (We especially love going on roadtrips!)  Did you know I homeschooled during high school? I mentioned this to a friend not too long ago and she was shocked because she had absolutely no idea.  High school seems like such a long time ago... I guess it just doesn't come up very often anymore.  Anyway, the reason I mention this is because homeschooling was great because it provided me the opportunity to pursue dancing and a bunch of other interests that I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.  It was of course a quality way to receive an education. However, the reason I am most grateful for homeschooling is the extra time it gave me to observe and learn from my mom.  She is amazing when it comes to running a clean, organized, and welcoming home.  My mom works so hard, manages her time extremely well, and makes the most of each and every single day.  She cooked healthy meals for us everyday even though she hates cooking.  She always had time for us kids- she worked, played, disciplined, and taught us well. And she is just so much fun!  Everyone loves her! 

Here's to another wonderful year, Mom! I love you!

I've Got My Love to Keep Me Warm

The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing

But I can weather the storm!

What do I care how much it may storm?

I've got my love to keep me warm.

-Irving Berlin

Christmas Lights

It just doesn't feel like Christmas in Salt Lake City until we've visited the lights at Temple Square.  

The temple and the nativity are the perfect reminders that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.  

I am grateful for this beautiful time of year.

Happenings

There is always so much to do during the holidays.  I know that when I am too busy, it takes away from the true reason we are celebrating.  I am trying to prioritize what we do and focus on during Christmas.  Here are some recent happenings...

THIS IS THE PLACE

A group from church got together to visit This Is The Place Heritage Park's Candlelight Christmas event.  It was a cold and snowy and perfectly Christmas-y night!  Because I am in the Primary, I haven't had many opportunities to get to know people over the age of 11 in our ward.  I was so happy to be able to make some new friends.  That was the best part of the evening.  Meeting Father Christmas and having our photo taken with him was a close second!

UCT'S BABES IN TOYLAND

Allison and Mandi (aka Pudge and Grizzila)

Beautiful and talented Angie and her darling girls.

Many families see "The Nutcracker Ballet" or "A Christmas Carol" as a yearly holiday tradition.  My Christmas show of choice is the Utah Children's Theatre's production of "Babes in Toyland."  It is so fun and bright!  I have either been involved with or seen the production the past 5 years and I highly recommend it for all!  It was great to meet up with my "sister" Allison to go to the show together. (We played the step-sisters in "Cinderella." Click here to see my transform into an ugly step-sister!)

UTAH JAZZ

Okay, so basketball isn't a holiday only event but we recently went to a game so I am including it in this post.  (The Jazz Dancers wore red and green outfits so there was a hint of Christmas there!)  It was my first time to watch a game with the new Jumbotron screens.  I was so excited when my boss from Dancing Moose and her cute son were featured on the screens during the shake-your-keys bit.  They were even the winners!

Christmas is less than a week away... I think we still have time for a few more holiday outings! :)

Olympic Hopefuls?

When I first started dating Patrick I really wanted him to hold my hand.  I always made sure it was readily available in case he was brave enough to.  Luckily it didn't take him too long to catch on! However, I did have a back-up plan just in case... I'd take him ice skating!  I don't think it is possible to go skating and not hold hands, especially if you are a terrible skater because then your date has to be nice and help you make your way around the rink. We didn't ever end up ice skating while we were in our boyfriend/girlfriend phase so we thought it would be a nice winter activity for a married couple date night. 

Patrick started out a little shaky, but after a quick tightening of his laces he was looking like a competitive speed skater.  We raced a couple of times against each other and he always won. (I'm sure if we had raced during our dating days he would have gone easy on me and he would have let me win at least once. Marriage changes things. Ha.)

Starting pose for my short routine.  I may not be faster than Patrick but I think it's safe to say I am more graceful!

I love that we both have the exact same expression on our faces while gliding on one foot.

I think with a little practice we could be quite good. Keep a lookout for us at the 2014 Winter Olympics!

A Christmas Fort

I can't think of a better way to spend a winter night than to pull out some extra blankets and sheets and build a cozy fort to cuddle in and watch Christmas movies.  Plus, it gave us the perfect opportunity to test out our new Christmas lights before hanging them on our tree. (We are now contemplating buying an extra set of lights strictly for when we build forts because we already are wanting to build another one. Soon.)

Everyone should definitely put building a Christmas fort on their winter bucket lists! 

"White Christmas" Date

I am sure by now you know that we love date nights! I seriously look forward to spending this extra time with Patrick all week.  For our date last Friday, I was so excited to go to see my friend, Chantryce, in her opening night performance of "White Christmas."  We have lots of Christmas shows to see this month since it seems like all of my close friends are busy spreading holiday cheer onstage. However, "White Christmas" is 2nd pick on my all-time favorite Christmas movies list ("It's A Wonderful Life" is first) so I was especially eager to go. Plus, I saw the stage version of "White Christmas" at the 5th Avenue Theatre while living in Seattle and it snowed in the audience at the the end of the show. It was pretty magical.

Chantryce was my first Utah friend. We met at auditions for "Bye Bye Birdie." We were cast as best friends, Kim and Ursula.  Chantryce is a ball of fun and crazy energy. Everyone needs someone like that in their life!  Chantryce and I always make a point of trying to see each other perform.  I always love when Chantryce is in the audience because you can't miss her great laugh!

The cast and crew at Centerpoint Legacy Theater did a wonderful job with their production of "White Christmas."  All the leads were strong in their roles and the ensemble did a nice job with the choreography.  Patrick commented multiple times about how great the costumes and sets looked.  We definitely recommend this production if you are on the search for the perfect Christmas show!