It's that time of year

It's time for the holidays! So you know what that means... Lots more eating, Christmas decorations and festivities. We'll start with the completion of the GF pumpkin pie, first time making it myself this year. No one else tried any over at Pastor Roy's house because of there being other pies that were not gluten free, but I would have to say (and Chas too) that for my first shot, it wasn't too bad. The crust was not as flaky as I would have liked it to be, but the inside was delicious.

Just a few Christmas decorations I put up in the living room this year. I don't have a ton of space so I just have to make do with what I have, but these little mini bulbs work nicely when you don't have a lot of space to work with.

And the lovely tree, I think I have done this one for the third time, so next year I might have to mix up the colors a bit. But here it is in B&W and then color.......love the blue though.

And the mantle with the candles, Mr. Snowman and some other fun decorations. Oh, and you can't forget the stockings on the fireplace, they just add the right touch of Christmas spirit.

And Ogden would not be complete for the holidays without the parade, fireworks and lighting ceremony of Christmas village. Chas and I stayed as long as we could, but Roosters was calling our name just before the fireworks. Plus, we wanted to try and beat the crowd since we knew it was going to be rockin' on 25th street. But here we are checking out the parade, and below he got a shot of a horse doing the moonwalk. Impressive.

Good times at the holiday festivities, and lucky for us it wasn't quite as cold this year as it was last year.

Gluten free holidays, music, and everything else

So this will be a little random, only because it has been a while since I have blogged.

First thing, does anyone who reads this know who Kurt Bestor is? As in Kurt Bestor Christmas? Well, for the last couple of years, Mr. Bestor has been going around Utah to find the "Best of Christmas"....one person to sing a song specifically for his annual Christmas Special that is composed by him, for them. Well, LeeAnn, a very close co-worker of mine, nudged me to try out for this "Best of Bestor" because he was holding auditions in Ogden a few weeks ago. Well, I didn't get picked as the best singer in Utah, but it was fun to say that I tried out nonetheless. And, I got to sing my heart out in front of the olny judge, Kurt Bestor himself. KSL will be announcing who the winner is on TV today, and that one person will get to sing the special composed song at Kurt's Christmas concerts this year, as well as a trip out to LA to professionally record the song. Lucky.

Speaking of music, here is an update on the recording of our CD (Chas and me). Due to the fact that I have been working away on papers, reading, and tests for my Master's during this first semester back, we have not had much time for recording for our CD that we really hope to have completed by the first part of the year (we are thinking January\February). Since the semester is just about finished, we are going to be taking a lot of time in December to really pump out what we can, so that Chas can get it mastered, and then all we have left is to figure out exactly how we are going to come up with the money to be able to make the CD's. So, that is definitely something to pray for, though we know if it is something we are meant to do, God will provide the funds to be able to complete this project.

Ok, moving on to other things.

This Thanksgiving, I have decided that I am going to try making my own gluten free dessert.

A gluten free pumpkin pie. Chas and I got invited to go to Pastor Roy's house for dinner, so I will be taking that, along with some deviled eggs, as two of the hopefully many other things that I WILL be able to eat this Thanksgiving. No stuffing or gravy, but most other things, like mashed potatoes, plain turkey, and cranberry sauce are definitely edible. Thank goodness.
Thanks to the blog that I visit regularly, I have an abundance of recipes and pointers for gluten free cooking. Shauna is her name, and ironically she is from Seattle. She blogs about twice a week, and sometimes she posts delicious looking gluten free foods that I have actually tried making a couple of time. Delicious. That's all I can say. You can't even tell that it is GF.

That's all I have for now, but I also wanted to wish all of you a great and happy Thanksgiving. You should blog and tell us all what YOU are doing for the holidays this year.

Raindrops keep fallin on my head

But they definitely did not keep us from having fun in Seattle this last weekend. I went up to surprise my mom for her 50th birthday, and she had no idea that I was going to be there. I sent out invitations to invite about 30 of her friends to dinner and made reservations at her favorite Tacoma waterfront restaurant called CI Shenanigan's, with her only thinking that my brother and her husband were taking her out to dinner with just a few friends. When she arrived, I waited until the perfect moment to catch her off guard, and I sure did by asking her if she wanting a drink while I pretended to be a waitress. It took her about 5 seconds to realize it was me, and she proceeded to to attack me with a big bear hug and streaming tears of joy. It was a great night, an awesome weekend, and even though it poured as usual, we even had a little fun outside. Here are some highlights of the weekend....

First of all, I have to show you the view I had outside my airplane window flying into Sea\Tac airport. It was phenomenal. You could see 3 of the mountains along the fault line, and then Mount Rainier up close and personal. I think it is the best shot of it I have ever gotten.

Here is Mt. Hood, Adams, and St. Helens. Spectacular view if I might say so.

And a fantastic view of the glaciers on Mount Rainier.

I laid low at my best friend Amy's house the day and morning before my mom's birthday surprise. I was praying I wouldn't run into my mom on accident, they only live about 10 blocks away from each other. But all went well. Here we are in the car heading out to Tacoma to get ready for the big surprise.

My mom and me just after I surprised her. She was still a little teary, so happy that I was able to make it. She deemed it "the best birthday ever".

We spent the next couple of days hanging out with my mom, Amy and John, my brother, and friends. There is a delicious sushi place near my mom's house called Sushi Town, so we decided to grab a bite to eat before heading out to the show my brother got set up for Chas and me while we were there. It was at a small little Irish Pub in Tacoma called Doyle's.

Chas and me performing at Doyl'es. It was a pretty small place, but my brother is awesome and had it packed full with friends, and even my mom and her husband Jeff got to come join us. It was a great little reunion of old friends from high school days.

Notice the change in guitars. About half way through our set, Chas broke a string, and just happened to not bring any extras with him. Lucky for us, Miong (the guy who played after us) let Chas borrow what he called his "hippie" guitar. Chas did a few instrumentals and jammed out, the crowed really liked this. They kept asking him to play more, but he only has made two instrumentals so far. Nice to know they enjoyed his playing though.

Sunday we spend the afternoon in Seattle, it was Chas' first time, so of course I had to take him to all the tourist spots. We played around with music, checked out a Sci-Fi museum, and got to see a lot of really cool old guitars at the Experience Music Project. Too bad for us though, we couldn't take pictures while inside.

Chas and his picture of proof that he has now seen the Seattle Space Needle. It was a little gloomy on Sunday so the lighting wasn't that great, but you get the idea.


Downtown Seattle just about to finish off the afternoon tour with a tasty bite at the traditional PF Chang's downtown. I go here with my dad at least once while I am in Seattle every time I go for a visit up there. Surprisingly enough, it was Chas' first time ever eating at the PF lovehouse, so of course it was the perfect ending to an already adventurous day.

So that was pretty much our trip, we got home at about 12:05am on Monday morning, thus the delay in posting with trying to catch up and get some decent sleep the last couple of nights. But, we had a fabulous time, and hopefully Chas will be taking more trips up to visit the fam with me in the future :)

I got tagged

And I am pretty sure that all of the people I could tag also have been tagged already, so we will see how this goes :)

Thanks to Melissa for making me feel special in the tagging of the blog world

The Rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 random and / or weird facts about yourself.

3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

The Random\Weird Facts:

1. My CD player in my car has officially retired. I am pretty sure this means I am going to get an Ipod adaptor instead of replacing the whole stereo.

2. I have had my Honda for almost 7 years now, and it has 207,789 miles on it. Gotta love the cars that run forever.

3. I don't wear bathing suits. Don't. I can't remember the last time I wore one. Four summers ago, maybe.

4. Some people smack their food when they eat it, some people don't. I don't. You shouldn't either. For some reason that sound makes me cringe. Especially when people lick their fingers.

5. I always always always get ready the same way every morning; make-up in my pajamas, iron clothes, hair, put on clothes for the day, finish hair, shoes.

6. I have officially lived in Utah longer than I lived in Washington; Washington 12 years, Utah 14.

7. Someday I will learn how to Salsa.

Tags: Jodi (Maybe this will inspire you to actually make a blog :), Meredith, Ryan, Jeremy, Josh....I think that's all I got who have not been tagged yet.