Free at Last! Free at Last!

Big News! I am finally, finally, finally done with school! I took my very last final today! I realized that I have been in some form or other of school for the last eighteen years of my life! Amazing. And almost two of those years where with twin babies. I am kinda amazed at myself for actually doing this. But it is done and I am so very, very happy.

Thanks to all the family, friends, and roommates who made my college career such an amazing experience.

pears a plenty

I could not resist buying this striped pear in the store the other day. It was a combination of shopping while being absolutely starving (a classic blunder, to be sure), a fabulous, wafting pear smell coming from the display, and that adorable little green stripe. So sweet. So festive!

When we got home with it, I took a bite, and sadly, it was a little under ripe. Luckily, Ben didn't mind the lack of ripeness at all and was up to his ears in pear in no time.

Ben dives right in.

Enjoying the sweet tastes of life!

Finally, he had to sit right down in the kitchen and focus all his energy and eating that pear.

The not so picturesque leftovers of "Hollow Leg" Ben.

Nativity

We were able to go to the 20th Annual Christmas Creche Exhibit yesterday. Doesn't that sound impressive? It was very nice, probably the largest nativity exhibit I've ever seen, though Mom's are probably the best. True. There were nativities from all over the world, including several from Catalon, one of which Zach said could be worth several thousand dollars. Good gracious!

Unfortunately, they were not allowing photographs. And even more unfortunately, they had people all around keeping their eyes on us, so I was not able to sneak any. A sad day indeed. Because I wanted to get pictures of the boys with some nativities. I guess, they figured there would be people there like me.

Overall, it was fun. The boys really enjoyed the harp music and looking at all the different animals and people. And making me baaaa like a sheep for them. And they behaved pretty well. Except for when Ben got away from us in the children's room and knocked over part of the cardboard Bethlehem, which started a domino effect and eventually destroyed a third of the village.

Good times.

A little look at November

Holy Free Fabric, Batman!

I was at Enrichment tonight. We tied quilts. I forgot how good I am at repetitive, sudo-mindless work like that. Especially when there is conversation to be had. At the end of said quilt tieing, there were three boxes full of free material. What?!? Free fabric! I am there. And I was. For about fifteen minutes. Picking up a pound or two of free quilt squares and a bolt with about a yard or so of green polka-licious dot material on it.

Of course, it could have been just about anything and as long as "Free" was in front of it, it would be mine. This is how I came into possession of a giant light bulb, a red teddy bear (now named "Rojo" and residing in the boy's room), tons of clothes, and various other things that are not in my immediate eyesight and thus do not come to mind. And tons and tons of those macaroons that they make at BYU catering. Now those are definitely worth sneaking into an event to get. They were still kinda free. I think.

The Giving of Thanks...

The Feast!

In spite of a last minute invitation to dinner, we decided to stay home and have our very first family Thanksgiving. It really turned out fabulously! Zach brined the turkey over night, just like Alton would have him do.

So, So Delicious!

Oh. My. Goodness. It was so freakin' succulent it forced me to seriously consider buying up all the remaining cheap turkeys and a deep freezer and just having turkey for the rest of my mortal existence. Or at least make another one before next year. We had stuffing and mashed potatoes and brown buttered corn and cheesy asparagus and gravy and - oh! It was wonderful! For some crazy reason we made two pies - a pumpkin pie and an apple cherry spice pie. Actually, I made the pies. And they were awesome. I had never made pie crust before, but it was crazy simple.

Zach carves the bird

Ben wants to eat!

So does Sam! (We set the nice-ish plates for them, but they ate out of the plastic stuff per the usual. I've learned my lesson)

I have been baking up a dough filled storm the last couple of days since Zach was home and could try to distract the boys a little. I made a huge batch of gingerbread cookies from Mom's classic gingerbread recipe (holy cow - it made almost 8 dozen cookies! It was a glorious surprise. I also realized I need cookie cutters), the pies, some cheesy calzones and honey biscuits from the back of the Western Family bread flour that we have had since - well, I think the first time we went shopping after we got married.

Apple-Cherry Pie

I have never been much of a baker. When I was a kid and in a Anne of Green Gables or Laura Ingalls faze or something, I would get out flour and water and play with until it went from a sticky mass of revulsion to a smooth ball of dough. I don't recall ever actually baking biscuits from said dough, but if I had they would have been the roughest, toughest bread this side of Mississippi.

But sweet Anola Gay! It seems all I have been doing lately is mixing, rising, punching down only to allow things to rise again. How domestic of me. And delicious.

So, after a long and winding tangent, it was a great Thanksgiving, even if we couldn't be with the rest of the family. And I am thankful for my family, for Zach's turkey, and for the magic and mystery of yeast.

Tag! I'm It.

Sarah, my sister-in-law, "tagged" me the other day. That means that I have to write six things about myself on the blog. So, without further ado:

1. I have been to 49 of the 50 states (I'm coming some day, Alaska!)

2. I am really persnickety about alphabetizing. All of my DVDs and CDs are in alphabetical order.

3. I have a collection of photos of my feet standing in diverse places around the world. I'll have to put them on here sometime.

4. I came up with a series of questions for Stake dances, to avoid awkward, teen silences after the name/ward/school questions had been asked. These included:

1. If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
2. If you were exiled from the U.S. where would you live?
3. If you were stranded on a island somewhere and could only eat one meal for the entirety of your stay there, what would you eat?

There were more, but you get the picture.

5. If I had not gotten into the film department, I was going to get a culinary arts degree somewhere.

6. Zach and I have not spent a single night apart since we've been married.

So, there are six lil' factoids about me. Now, who gets tagged next? Hmmm... How about Meg! You guys have an awesome blog, by the by.