The Blake's: December 2009

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Christmas Traditions...

Traditions have always been a part of my Christmas. Traditions have included a big dinner on Christmas Eve followed by a family fireside where stories are told, spiritual moments are shared, and the spirit of Christmas really fills the home. Following the fireside we were allowed to open one present and then it was off to bed. In the morning you had a big, stuffed stocking waiting to be opened. Following the stocking you had to wait until everyone in the house was awake and THEN... we all went down stairs to open up the gifts. These sweet traditions are something that I will always cherish and remember. Since being married I have really thought about a tradition that Alan and I could have and enjoy every single year. Over the past couple weeks I have been thinking and even getting to the point of being really stressed out trying to think about a tradition that we could start together. While on the treadmill one night it came to me... I almost fell off the treadmill because I was so excited about this idea. I talked with Alan about it and we decided it was a keeper.

So our Christmas tradition is this... On Christmas Eve we will read the Christmas story from the scriptures. After we have read the story we will write down our testimonies. After we are done writing our testimonies we will share them with each other. After they are shared we will type up our testimonies and put them in a frame by our picture of the Savior in our home. We will display our testimonies year round and then the following year we will replace the testimony with a new one and put the old one in to a book for us to keep and watch how our testimonies grow throughout the years. We also thought that it will be fun when we start having children to see how their testimonies will grow throughout the years.

We were successful this year on starting our tradition and it was so nice to have the spirit abiding with us as we read, and then testified of our Savior.

I was able to find a beautiful frames that matched and now we have this displayed in our "home." (or room.)

Few weeks off... WHAT SHOULD I DO?!?!

CRAFT!!!!

I have been creating so much the past couple weeks and I have been loving it. With some money that I received from some very nice people at my graduation party... I decided to buy myself a sewing machine. It was probably the best $200 I have ever spent. I love it, love it, love it. Since I had a new machine I had to try it out making a whole bunch of goodies. My sewing goodies included a blanket (for myself), aprons (for my Mama, Ashley and Kelsy), I-Spy bags (for a couple gifts), and a superman cape (for my little brother-in-law). Along with sewing I have been creating other things in my spare time. I have made flower pins, flower head bands, a christmas wreath, a message broad, a crafty box thing, and world cloud picture.

Here are some pictures of the things that I have been making... unfortunately I did not take any pictures of the things that I sewed.

I made this at a church craft day with a crafty block, vinyl lettering, and ribbon. Then to dress it up you can put christmas lights in the middle of the block. It is an adorable decoration for the holidays.

Flower head bands are my new things, thanks to a good friend from church. They look totally adorable in your hair and are totally an inexpensive look.

Here is a better look at some that I made for my sister-in-law.

My christmas wreath. I LOVE how this turned out. This morning I went and bought everything for this wreath at target and it only costed $11. I am excited to hang our wreath up next christmas!!!

This is the word cloud frame. I created the word cloud from wordle.net. I used "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" to create this cloud. I think it turned out really neat and I am so excited to show it off in our home.

I have really loved the past couple weeks and the opportunity that I have had to create different things. Creating things just makes me a happier person!!

UPDATE!!!

Here is a much needed update from the Blake household...

Alan is doing great. He finished up his semester and he is now officially a certified refrigeration technician!! He took the test and he did amazingly well on them. He got 100% on two out of four tests!! I am so proud of him. He is looking forward to his final semester of college and his final Co-op. During the last few weeks of the semester Alan was able to put in a couple choices of places where he would want to co-op at. He put down Saint Mary's Power plant, RPU, and Austin Public Utilities. His teacher did the final choice and he choose RPU for Alan. Alan is so excited for this opportunity and is hoping that there might be a job at the end of this semester for him. I am so proud of Alan and all the hard work that he does on a daily basis to help our little family. He really is my better half and I thank Heavenly Father daily for letting me have Alan as a companion.

Now to some bad news... Alan lost his job this past month... Alan really does not feel that this is bad news, he was ready to be done at that job... We kind of had a feeling that this was going to happen. So for the past couple weeks Alan has been applying and calling lots and lots of businesses. It is good to see Alan keeping his head up during this trial. I know that Heavenly Father will bless Alan for his dedication and perseverance.

Now to me. I AM OFFICIALLY A COLLEGE GRADUATE!!! and I feel great. It feels so nice not to have to go back to school in couple weeks. Well technically I will be going back to school but I will be getting paid instead paying for it. My graduation was well....boring. But isn't any graduation boring. I personally feel that at graduation ceremonies they should just have the graduates come in, sit down, have the band do a song, call the names, and then leave. WHY oh WHY do they have to have people stand up and talk. Because all they talk about is going into the "real world" and how scary that is going to be. But eventually it got to the point where I went and got that good ol' dipolma... and let me tell you it was really not that exciting. All they do is say your name, you go across the stage, and then it's done. I just think they should do a little more since you spent all the money, and all those years.... but what do I know... I am just a college grad... After the ceremony we all came home and got ready for a party that I had. It was so much fun to have friends and family come over and celebrate with me. AND GUESS WHAT... I had my first ever keg party...that is root beer keg. It was waaaaaayyyyyy good root beer I might add. The party was full of friends, food, and laughter. It was a great way to end my college career.