...And a Partridge in a Pear Tree!

Hit a lot of Christmas numbers this week: retired from volunteering at the Bountiful Temple after almost 11 years, ate out lunch or dinner 8 times, had dinner with 6 of our closest couple friends (no picture), attended 5 holiday parties, enjoyed 4 holiday performances, 3 sessions of stake conference (directed a choir and congregation in one of them...), hung out with the kids 2 times, and bought 1 cow!

GENTRI with the family was amazing!

Our CPA's hosted a fabulous dinner at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and ran into college friends...

Kurt Bestor Christmas never disappoints. Guest Madilyn Paige joined him on stage this year.

Our attorney sponsored another holiday event at Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point and enjoyed another night with family...

Cakes & Cookies

 I actually won a giveaway on instagram that I was super excited about! I've wanted to take a cake decorating class at Orson Gygi by Courtney Rich for awhile but it's near impossible to get in. I won a class so I got to learn how to decorate her caramel apple cake.

I wrapped it up and put it in the freezer for a few days until we could eat it at my pre-Thanksgiving dinner with the kids, Kings and dad.

I also hosted my second cookie decorating party with Jennifer Rosqvist and more guests. Everyone loves the class so I'll probably do it again in a few months...

These cute missionary moms were my motivation to make/decorate my first cake on my own, Courtney's Chocolate Peppermint Cake and it was AMAZING! I was quite proud of how it turned out AND tasted. I've been trying new things that I haven't felt like I've had the natural talent to do before. I'm learning to be patient with the process and I can do anything I set my mind to do!

Preparing for the Holidays...

Grayson has some incredible friends and their mamas are one of the main reasons these boys are so amazing. We get together once a month for our "missionary moms lunch" and this month we each brought 7 of the same gift for the missionaries. Everyone was so creative and the missionaries are going to love their Christmas packages from the moms!

I also won an instagram giveaway! And the best part was it was something I've tried to sign up for multiple times and haven't been able to get in. Cake by Courtney classes at Orson Gygi sell out within a minute of being posted online. I won this $125 class from a third party and enjoyed every second of my three hours learning from the pro, Courtney Rich. They even saved a spot for my friend Misty to sign up so I'd have a pal. I'm saving the amazing Caramel Apple Pie Cake for my pre-Thanksgiving family dinner Sunday...

And these beauties came in the mail this week and there's no other socks I'd rather wear!

Early birthday celebration the Disney-way!

Hillary and I both love amusement parks and she chose a one-day hopper at Disneyland/California Adventure for her birthday gift this year. I was happy to oblige. We used the Disney MaxPass for the first time and it was awesome. 

We got to the parks early enough that we were the very FIRST people on Cars and with the MaxPass, able to ride every single ride we wanted to on one of the most crowded Saturdays of the year. Where standby lines were up to an 80-minute wait, our Fast Passes got us through as quickly as a 6-minute wait up to 20 minutes for the longest.

Small World was totally decked out for Christmas and they sang Jingle Bells instead of "It's A Small World."

The castle was beautifully-lit, however the smoke from the fires in Thousand Oaks didn't make a great backdrop.

Happy 27th birthday Hillary!! We walked and ate our way through the parks and enjoyed every second of it!

And Cooper was waiting anxiously for my return since I've been gone so often recently...