Christmas Gifts

Well Christmas is finally over. I can't believe how fast it flew by. Mike keeps saying that our Christmas isn't over yet because we have spent every night over at my parents. This year I decided to make the presents that we gave our fathers. This was so much fun. For Mike's dad I embroidered the name of his biker gang. This was my first time and this is how it turned out. I was so excited!

For my dad I went to the best fabric store ever. The name of the store is called The Fabric Center. It has every kind of fabric that you could possibly need. The UofU patterned fabric is polar fleece and the back is rosebud cuddle fabric. As my friend Katie would say it is a little piece of heaven. I then tied it with cross-strich thread. Click here if you would like to find out more about The Fabric Center.

I was reminded this year that the best gifts are not determined by how much you spend but by the thought that went into it. My husband gave me the best gift this year. He framed our marriage license (which has been rolled up sitting on our dresser for almost 4years.). I was so touched I cried...which isn't that uncommon for me these days.

For our dogs we got these matching sweaters from Old Navy's Black Friday sale.

Goal # 4

My mom made all of the grandkids hats this year. I am so amazed by my mom. So I have made learned to crochet my next goal. For all of you who have kids I found the neatest idea to help your kids make things out of yarn. Family Fun has lots of great ideas, if you would like to find out more follow the link.

To go along with my previous goal I also made Christmas cupcakes for the ladies that I visit teach. I used the same pumpkin spice recipe that I used for the pumpkins but I loaded two colors into the piping bag and put a star tip on the end.

I also put chocolate frosting on some of them. I actually preffer the chocolate to the vanilla.

This year my family started a new tradition. Instead of drawing names and exchanging gifts with my siblings we did a family bake-off. My mom baught a plate and then put vynal on it that said "Jensen Family Bake-Off Head Chef". All of us made deserts (even some of the kids got in on the action and made their own deserts.) and then we judged each desert on presentation (10 points), originality (20 points), and taste (20 points). Then the adult winner won the plate and the kid winner won a special present which was markers. Next year we are going to make the voting blind so we wont know who brought what desert and for the kids next year we are going to make them a chef hat that we are going to emboider. Each year the previous adult winner will bring back the plate and it will rotate around the family. Here are some pictures of this years bake-off.

Here all of the deserts being presented.
Teresa brought these nummy cookies.

Mollie made the BTS cake

This is the desert that I contributed. My favorite holiday treat is peppermint bark. So I used my favorite sugar cookie recepie and added candy cane and white chocolate to the mix. Then I made a white chocolate peppermint frosting for the top.

Miles was the adult winner with his flourless chocolate cake.

Shannon's was my favorite. She made a chocolate pecan turtle cake.

My niece made up this recipe and was the kid winner this year.The Barrick kids made salt water taffy.

Everyone was truely winners with this fun activity. We had lots of fun making, tasting, and judging.

This month we were able to go to the temple with a group of our friends to go along with my goal. We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple which is absolutely beautiful!

Another activity I did to go along with my cooking goal is that we made spudnuts. It was so much fun and it made enough doughnuts for an army. I was able to give some to my neighbors and to my family. If you have kids this is a great activity to do with them. They can help glaze or cover them with cinnomon sugar or powdered sugar.

My next post will be about setting good New Years goals.