"Oh I had a lot to say, was thinking on my time away"

Realization of the day: I have to go back to school a week from tomorrow. This break seems to go by way to fast every year. Especially this year because it is really the only time I was able to come home this past semester. As New Years approaches I have sort of been thinking about New Year resolutions. I don't usually make any because I know that there is no way that I would be able to keep up with one. I mean I can't even successfully give up something for lent each year, I can't imagine having to stick with something for 365 days. But I am determined this year to do it.




In order to achieve this goal I have been trying to think of different goals that I could meet. The list so far is basically made up of small ideas. But I still have about 2 days to come up with something awesome. This is a list of some resolutions that I feel I could probably achieve, and possibly give me the false hope that I am awesome




1. Spend less than $1324 a year on Starbucks
2. Buy a money tree
3. Watch more funny YouTube videos
4. Watch less TV in standard definition
5. Lose weight by living on the moon
6. Procrastinate more
7. Start a bad habit that I will already have my new years resolution for next year: To quit the bad habit of 2012
8. Jog more, only in my dreams
9. Read more substantial material. AKA follow more blogs that have no point



This is just a starter list of some great ideas. Trust me I will think of more great resolutions and keep you updated.


Truths of the Day:

• The 'L.L' in LL Bean stands for Leon Leonwood
• Reindeer milk has more fat than cows milk
• Rice is the chief food for half of the people in the world

"Give me what I want it's all about love and not about money, I don't want to stop I'll never give up it's sweeter than honey"

Last night we went to the Tanglewood Festival of Lights. I wasn't going to go because they are the exact same every year and I have a strong dislike for long lines and waiting for anything. It basically comes down to the fact that I have no patience for anything. So the normal person who was like me would not go to the lights because you have to wait forever to get in. But I wasn't that smart, and decided to go.


Well we waited in line 2 hours and it took forever to go through them. But it was still fun.

I apologize for the fact that the pictures are in pretty bad shape, but the car was moving at times, (I frequently had my mom stop so I could take the picture which I'm made the people in line behind us loved me) and my phone is not meant to be a high quality camera. Anyway, it was tons of fun as always.



Truths of the Day:

• The wild turkey is the only bird with a beard
• Next to Warsaw, Chicago has the largest Polish population in the world
• Tsunamis travel as fast as jet planes

"I won't let you pray for me, I not gonna stay long, My head is turning"

I am very aware that every year families try to get their yearly family pictures taken. My family attempts this every single year and we can never seem to get a good photo. I am going to share some rare photos with you and you can understand how difficult it is for us to get 1 picture. Which by the way, we never really achieved good photo status.

Attempt #1. So much wrong. First of all my dad and brother look like real creepers in the background. 2nd my Uncle Steve had a little trouble with getting the timer on the camera correct.

Attempt #2...Dad=strange, Uncle Steve=?, Aunt Alma=apparently looking at another camera that wasn't there

My dad must have been mid laugh in this picture

We pretty much called it quits after this picture. At some point you have to just stop trying.


Truths of the Day:

• Men laugh long, louder, and more often than women
• In a year, the average person walks about 4 miles to their bed
• It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with enough leather for a year's supply of footballs

"It's crazy how I feel this way, I can't explain, don't go away"

I hope you all had a marvelous Christmas Day Celebration. My family had a great time. Hope you enjoy our December 25 2011 photos.

Warning:
We all attempted to take decent photos to capture this day but no one in our family is photogenic. You should know before viewing these pictures that no one looks good. Actually you should be feel lucky that I am showing you these because I hate showing bad pictures when people looks stupid. But this time I really had no choice because we had maybe 2 decent pictures.

Dad opening gift

The gift was from my brother and he thought that he had to wrap the gift with duck tape below the paper

Mom opening gifts. I warned you about the bad picture we all take

Mom and Aunt Alma

That look must run in the family

Lexi and I. It's crazy how none of us can take a decent picture

Collin can never take a decent picture

The only good/decent picture that any of us took

So after seeing what a hot mess we all are you can understand why basically all of the photos are bad shots. No on in my family is meant to be a photographer or a model. But it was still such a fun Christmas. I feel so blessed to get spend time with my family and understand the real meaning of Christmas. I hope you all had about as much fun as we did.


Truths of the Day:

• Penguins can convert salt water to fresh water
• There wasn't a single pony in the Pony Express, just Horses
• Sound travels 15 times faster through steel than through air

"Are you still in love with me? I need to know right now , 'Cause I'm still in love with you"

The past few days my mom and I have been baking so much yumminess.

These pictures are a little old, we have cooked so much food since then. We could literally open a bakery with all that has been cooked in this house.

Mint Brownie pops. For the longest time I have wanted to learn how to make pops and they were actually fairly easy to do. 

Another new dish we tried was making these Oatmeal Crusted Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake Bites

I didn't take pictures of anything else that we made, mainly because I kept forgetting to keep my camera or phone around.


Truths of the Day:

• Ninety-five percent of tropical fish sold in North America originated from Florida
• It would take 29 million years for a car traveling 100 miles per hour to reach the nearest star
• The most common injury caused by cosmetics is to the eye by a mascara wand

"I get up and I put my thoughts together, Call my friends, let the good times last forever"

The Menzel finally is finally recognizing the fact that it is 1 week until Christmas.
To celebrate we finally put up our Christmas tree. (by celebrate I mean we finally decided that we couldn't put it off any longer) I knew we were behind on the Christmas season when a friend of mine told me that her family broke there yearly tradition of getting a Christmas tree on Christmas eve. They put it up during the Thanksgiving season. They get points for life for being on top of things.


My family is still not totally finished decorating and lets be real, we probably will finish around Christmas Eve if we are lucky.

Dad attempting to decorate the tree

Tree topper

Fireplace ready

Basically finished tree

After church today we attempted to get some Christmas pictures so that we (aka my mom) could mail friends and family Christmas cards. This should be an easy tasks for us, but of course it wasn't. My brother thought that this is how people should remember him for the year to come.

?

Classic sibling Christmas photo

1. The sun is trying to take over my dad's face. 2. IDK why my brother is sitting like this in the picture

Truths of the Day:

• In 1945, a seven ounce bathroom cup was the first item Tupperware marketed
• In Australia, the average person uses 876 gallons of water daily. In Switzerland they use only 77 gallons of water per person daily
• The average America online user spends 70 minutes a day online

"You're naked inside your fear, Can't take back all those years"

Last night I went with Katie to see this movie:

It was such a great movie.

But before the movie Katie and I had some time to kill so we walked around Walmart and we saw these great holiday gift ideas.

These are some classy blankets. And just so you know I risked my life taking these two pictures. Well not really my actual life but I probably would have gotten a stern talking to if an employee had seen me. In high school some friends and I got scolded fro walking into Walmart in our prom outfits at like 2am. We just wanted to buy some ice cream but apparently the Walmart staff assumed we wanted to take pictures inside. Umm not thanks, Walmart is not the first place I think of when I talk about taking prom photos.


Truths of the Day:

• "Hang On Sloopy" is the official rock song of Ohio
• In Scituate, Rhode Island it is illegal to keep a flock of chickens in your motor home if you live in a trailer park
• In ancient Egypt they paid their taxes in honey

"I'm not sayin' that there's something wrong with life, Cuz that's a sad excuse"

Along with my baking party I made this Birthday Cake Bark. A little twist on peppermint bark. It was so tasty, it tasted like a fudge. I was so happy this turned out well because I was unsure about the bitter chocolate aspect of the recipe.

YUMMMMM

Cute packages that I mailed to people.

Truths of the Day:

• A volcano has enough power to shoot ash as high as 50 km into the atmosphere
• 2,500 newborn babies will be dropped in the next month
• Iceland has no railway system or army

"Happy, smilin', cryin, Outburst to my past. I guess those stormy gray skies simply couldn't last."

This past week was very busy and fun. Monday and Tuesday I went on a baking spree. I have been finding recipes for a while online and I finally tried them. Then I mailed them to a lucky few to try them and give me feedback. Luckily I managed to poison or make no one sick. The first day I made these Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. They were amazing, but frustrating. The batter had to sit for 24-36 hours in the fridge before I could bake them. This was the most frustrating part of my life for two days. I wanted so badly to eat them, and everyday that batter was sitting in the fridge laughing at me.

So the first part of the process to making these cookies was browning butter. Well I had never done this before and the recipe said it would take 5 min. LIES it took 20. This was a difficult thing to do, probably just because I am not the worlds best baker.

These cookies had three kinds of chips in them. Basically means they are probably only good for the soul, not body.

The temptation

If you were wondering, they tasted amazing.



Truths of the Day:

• Every eleven minutes in the U.S., a woman dies of breast cancer
• There have been close to 200 coups and counter-coups in the country of Bolivia
• The 3 most valuable brand names on Earth: Malboro, Coca-Cola, and Budweiser, in that order