Christmas and New Years

I know, I know! It's January 5th and I'm just now posting about Christmas and New Years, I'm a huge slacker!

Christmas was wonderful! We had our first round of Christmas on the 21st of December. We celebrated a little bit early with my brother Aaron and his family because they were heading to Carolyn's parents in Tacoma for Christmas. Nick and I were the hosts this year, and I must say we made a killer dinner! We had a Ham with a honey-orange glaze on it, funeral potatoes, jello salad, green beans, and chocolate silk pie for dessert. After dinner Aaron, Carolyn and the kids opened their presents. Uncle Mitch bought Jared and Ally the cutest Christmas outfits that they wore that day. They looked so cute!

Christmas was spent with my parents, we had a very relaxing and enjoyable day. We spent the day just hangin out watching movies and playing games. We brought the game Taboo over, it is such a fun game, even my Dad seemed to enjoy it. Which really says something!

The day after Christmas we went to visit Nick's family in Gig Harbor. It was so much fun! Nick's little brothers (Brook 16, Taylor 9) and sister (Amie 12) are becoming so grown up and it is fun to see them change. While Nick was working on the west-side he was able to see them quite a bit and I've only seen them maybe 3 times since June. Its amazing how much they change in such a short period of time. We played Rock Band 2 for a good chunk of the day, Nick played monopoly, and just spent time enjoying eachothers company and catching up on life. Sadly we didn't get to see Nick's sister Kristin and her husband Ryan this trip but hopefully I will get to see them soon (Nick saw them almost everyday). We will get to see his family more now that Nick doesn't have to travel anymore.

That brings up another thing! Nick is finally home! Jan 2 was his last day of work and today was his first day back to school. It is SOOOO nice having him home again, I'm sure our car enjoys the break too! It is still unreal having him home again, but I'm sure it will be a change that I will quickly get used too!

New Years Eve was spent with our friends Scott, Brittanie and their new baby Braron. We had alot of fun eating, playing games, eating, catching up, eating, watching the ball drop and eating. Just the food you eat on new years is enough of a reason to have a new years resolution to work out more! Geez!

New Years Day was probably the most enjoyable/relaxing day I have had in a long time! I slept in, and made breakfast for Nick and I. Scott came over and watched football with Nick. So I took a shower and got dressed for the day in my jammies and scrapbooked most of the day. It was awesome!

We hope that you had an enjoyable Christmas and New Years. Good Luck with your New Years resolutions!

Monkey Bread

Monkey Bread is a family favorite for the Rhodes family and is a tradition at our house to eat on Christmas morning so I thought I would share our tradition with you. I always thought that it was called Monkey Bread because my Dad always called us kids his little monkeys but I found out last night as I was googling for a picture it is the actual name for this recipe.

Mix:

1/2 Cup Sugar

1 TBSP Cinnamon

in a large freezer bag

Cut:

2 Cans Refrigerator biscuits

into fourths and add to the freezer bag

Shake:

until covered well and Place in a greased bunt pan

Melt:

3/4 Cup Butter or Margarine

Add:

1/2 Cup Light Brown Sugar

to butter, mix well and pour over biscuit pieces

Bake @ 350 for 30-34 min

Enjoy!

You can also add nuts or raisins to the Monkey Bread but I prefer it without.

So Many Things

I'm playing catch up! One big thing is we finally got a car!!! Woohoo! We ended up getting a Nissan Pathfinder the day before Thanksgiving. We love it! Its alot of fun having an SUV. I have been meaning to post about this for a while now but I keep forgeting to take a picture when it is clean. Oh well!

What we have been up to:

We of course celebrated Thanksgiving

Nick and Mitch decorated the outside of our house

And I decorated the inside

We went to Leavenworth

I helped Mom get ready for her and Dad to go on a hot date. After all of these years they're still so in love!

My primary (sunday school) class came over, we decorated cookies and went Christmas caroling

Jared and Cooper (My cousin) Played with Papa's new train set. The picture was just too cute to not post

I learned how to make cool blog title scrapbook pictures

Just a little tip: export as JPEG and you can put it in place of your blog title and its FREE!

It has been a busy couple of weeks. It always is around the Holiday's but time just really seems like its flying this year! Only 6 more days until Christmas and only 2 more weeks until Nick finishes his internship and is FINALLY HOME!!

Wicked

So the other day my good friend Linda let me know of all of the awesome musicals that will be coming to Seattle this coming year and I am so happy to announce that WICKED is coming to the paramount in September and I can hardly wait! Nick and I have been tentatively planning a trip to LA (its the closest show location to us) for quite a while so we could see this show and of course go to Disneyland but this makes me so much happier that it will be so much closer to home! I must admit however, that the music will not be the same without Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel but it will still be awesome! Some of the other shows that are coming to Seattle are:

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF

THE LION KING

CATS

RENT

I just thought I would share my excitement with you. I'm affraid that I may be spending all of my extra money to see shows this coming year. Anyone want to double date sometime in Sept to see the show?

Don't be a scrooge!

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay, here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Just copy (not forward) this entire post and paste into a new post. Change all the answers so that they apply to you......'Tis the Season to be NICE! 1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Usually wrapping paper but I like gift bags too, its nice that you can reuse them. 2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial, I love the smell of real ones but I hate the maintenance that comes with it! 3. When do you put up the tree? The day after Thanksgiving. 4. When do you take the tree down? Usually new years. 5. Do you like eggnog? Not at all! 6. Favorite gift received as a child? The funniest was a copy machine that I so desperately needed/wanted and then I played with it like 3 times. So bad of me. Remember that Mom? 7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, two of them. 8. Hardest person to buy for? Nick's family, sadly I don't see them enough to know what to get them. 9. Easiest person to buy for? My Mom. 10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail, its more personal that way. 11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I really can't think of one. 12. Favorite Christmas Movie? The Grinch. 13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? When I have money. 14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No. 15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? My dad's homemade fudge and pecan logs. 16. Clear lights or colored on the tree ? Clear. 17. Favorite Christmas song? The Christmas Song by Celine Dion, Oh Come All Ye Faithful by Celtic Women. 18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Home. 19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? Sure can! Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixon, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitsen and of course Rudolph. 20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star, Mitch thinks I need an angel but I like my star. 21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? In the Morning, that's what makes Christmas morning so special. 22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Yucky roads but luckily we haven't seen much of that yet. 23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I like my red and gold ornaments on my tree. 24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? We usually have Ham, and all of the other yummy stuff. 25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Nothing really, I haven't really thought about it yet. I Tag... Cindy, Carolyn, Becca, Rachel and anyone else who thinks it would be fun.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving day. We went to my parents house for the day and had so much fun. My parents were so happy to have all of their kids and grandkids there. Here are some pictures of our day.

Grandpa Sabin Turned 80

A couple of weeks ago, Nick's Grandpa Sabin turned 80 and to celebrate Nick's Aunts and Uncles and his parents threw him a surprise birthday party. Paul Sabin is probably the strongest and sweetest man I have ever met. About 8 years ago he had a brain aneurysm and not long after that he had another one. He had to learn how to do everything over again. Most people don't live through one brain aneurysm let alone two and today he can walk, talk, eat, and do things that most people can do. Even though the medicine he has to take makes him dizzy, sensitive to noise and gives him constant headaches he still gets up everyday and with a smile he says "I'm lucky to be alive." Here are some pictures from the party.

Here is Grandpa Paul and Grandma Helen Gene Making their grand entrance.

Here is a really cool plaque with pictures of his life.

Here are Nick's cousin's Allison and Chandler and his brother Taylor having a lemon eating contest. Taylor's face is priceless.

Here are Nick's cousins Aubry, Allison and the baby is Nick's cousin Paula's little guy Drew. He was such a trooper through the party. We pretty much played pass the baby and he was so good for everyone.

Drew, Nick and Nick's Brother Brook.

The Sabin Clan

Front Row: Grandma and Grandpa Sabin.

Second Row: (Sister) Amie, (Brother and Nick Clone) Taylor.

Third Row: Me, Nick, (Brother) Brook, (Dad) Larry, (Mom) Sherrie, (Sister) Kristin, (brother in law) Ryan.