Black Friday

was not a shopping day for me. At least it wasn't intended to be.
This one actually goes back a week. Luke had a bigger chunk of time off than I did so he left the Friday before Thanksgiving to go visit with his parents. That Saturday his dad had a big "work day" getting ready for a fundraiser put on by the hospital he works for. Luke tagged along to help

and they assembled and hung Santa, his sleigh, and his reindeer.  

Also during that week, Luke and John put up Christmas lights so that they could have their traditional day after Thanksgiving house lighting.

So, on Black Friday we went to the big Christmas Tree show/fundraiser.

We were joined by Jerel and Hailey Luke has known Jerel since forever, and we've loved having more chances to visit with them now that we've moved back to the area! 

We went back to the house and I got going on a turkey noodle soup from stock I'd made the evening of Thanksgiving! On a quick dash out I had driven by a Walgreens, on my way to the grocery store to get egg noodles. They had a sign that said 20% off Legos!?!? So I bought some. AND I had one of those rewards which I also used. Can you say jackpot?! 

We watched the boys unveil round 1 of the Christmas light festivities. 

Came in and enjoyed some soup. 

Then I introduced John, Luke and Neola to the magic of guessing which Minifigures are in the secret packet, actually being right, and the drive to finish the collection. We had one more errand that night (for shells and clay pigeons-my segue into the next post) and I convinced them that we should stop back at Walgreens for the rest of the collection. 

There we stood feverishly feeling up the Lego packets guessing at which Minifigure was inside.

I didn't see any of the stares because I was on a mission. Luke, John and Neola were great.

This was our haul: 

Once home we re-guessed and opened to confirm whether we were right or not.  

This actually turned out to be an excellent move because Luke caught our one and only error before we opened it!

Then Neola and I stopped by Target on Saturday to get the two Walgreens didn't have!

Sweet success! 

I was doing some grading in the computer lab, "My Room" or at least the room I decorated Lego Style, today and it was fun to hear some of their exclamations as they saw them when they came into the room! 

Icing on the cake was that we found this guy at Target too!

Luke and I built it together. 

Do you wanna build a snow man?

Gingerbread

My interest in gingerbread began this October when I decided to imitate some skeleton gingerbread men I saw on pinterest. I was in charge of the teacher snack the week of Halloween so these were snack and I brought a crock pot and mulled cider! It was tasty!

 Then I found this gingerbread tissue box at Target! (It was November.)

 Then I made some gingerbread to take to California for snacks!

 Below is the evolution of my gingerbread girls. They went from the syrup lady to kind of cute!

I was trying to get Luke to let me host a gingerbread night at the golf club. So then I decided I better make a sample to see what I would be getting myself into. It turned out pretty cute!


Next year I think I'm going to try to make one that looks like our house!
Through all of this I discovered and stuck with Eileen's Spicy Gingerbread Men recipe which I found on allrecipes.com. It was pretty tasty and sturdy enough for the house too!

American Golfic

How Ornamental

I've wanted to come up with a good anual Christmas tradition but last year I was stumped. I knew I had better decide on something this year or it would be hard to call it a tradition started from the very beginning. After hearing and remembering so many special things about the ornaments my mom made for all the cousins every year, I decided that I would pick up the tradition for my own two person family. Sorry cousins. There are a lot of you. Anyway. For the retro done first Christmas ornament I joined Luke's bouteniere and my hair clip from our wedding attire. I took off the clips of course,



And embroidered them onto a dark gray background.



In silver thread I stitched in the words Just Married, 2010, and my initials JHN as kind of a tribute to how my mom would always put SFH. In sorting through ornaments recently I realized how special and important it was that I have my moms initials and the date. If you're making ornaments be sure to include them! This years ornament was a silhouette of Mickey Mouses head, in honor of our special trip to Disneyland.



Dark gray wool felt again, with black pearl cotton blanket stitch along the edge. I made the Mickey shape with the bottom of a jello cup size gladware and the bottom of a shot glass. On the back of the ears are my initials and the year 2011.



I made one more ornament because a Christmas tree isn't a Christmas tree without one. (Ps. We weren't even going to get a tree but one of Luke's co-workers moved and gave us his nice 7.5 foot one, and Luke had it all set up and decorated when I got here!) Anyway, the necessary ornament:



The pickle! Please tell me your family plays that game too! Anyway, our tree now has a pickle and I have an embroidered wool felt ornament tradition! You can be sure that every ornament will have the year and my initials too! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Stockings Were Hung

I knew I was going to be making stockings this year, but what they would look like was a big dilemma! Should they have names? Be multi-color? One in every color? Be the same shape with different designs? Many of you weighed in on the debate and here's what came to be:




On Christmas Morning:


Santa brought us two of these! He used to bring them to my mom and she made sure to let him know it'd be special if we got them as kids (and adults) too!


Eventually mine got finished!

And they are sooooo happy together! This way they can have names:

Or not:

I kept some things the same but like the interest the variations add. I now know any kids names will have 7 letters or fewer, and I have all the time in the world to fret over whether their stockings will be blue snowflakish and yellow stars or red white and green or red for boys and green for girls.........

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Christmas Day

Chinese Food and Story Time

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

The last update can be found <here.>

Marriage: Still long distance. Luke is in Colorado, Jess is in California. Not the most fun. Definitely kind of has its lows, buuuuut we've both been receiving affirmation (in various forms) that we're learning, and growing in a good way, and for now this seems to be "The Plan" for us. Until His plan changes, we're lucky we got so good at skype and scheduling phone dates when we were long distance dating. Now I guess we're long distance married.

Job: I have been kept very busy subbing at my home school! I love it! I love the kids, I love how much I'm learning about how to help them learn. It's been a great opportunity to be in so many classrooms learning class management techniques, concepts and gain ideas from such  highly skilled educators who also love the kids they work with. This is not to say there aren't days where you feel like you've been put through the wringer, but the sense of fulfillment I have after a day of work is not one to be ignored.

Family Home Front: I miss Mom. All the time. She would be the one I would call, or stop in to talk to every day after work. She would have been the one who would understand my excitement and enthusiasm. She would have been the one to throw out some other ideas and suggest more ways for me to grow.

There are lots of things going on that I don't post, with the consideration that some of my personal conflicts/struggles aren't all mine to share. So I don't.

Valerie and I have moved into an apartment on a 7 month lease. (That will take us through the end of the spring semester of school. Being here before the semester started has given me the opportunity to join my sister in tackling the daunting task of going though my dad's very full garage. We threw away a lot, gave away a lot, and kept...a lot. It's amazing how many things one can accumulate in a lifetime. Together we've been sorting, remembering, and condensing special family items. While the main task (emptying my dad's garage so he can park a car, and motorcycle in it) is completed our living room resembles a storage/craft room. There are many boxes still needing to be gone through and sorted. There are also many projects needing just a bit of completion. This afternoon "Aunt" Nancy will be coming over to teach us how to put one of my mom's quilt tops on a frame so we can hand quilt it.

Yep, I said so WE can hand quilt it. It's true. My sister, made famous in the quilting circle for her story of calling my mom and saying "I'm making a dress, where's the hot glue gun?" has recently started going to Wednesday morning quilting with me to learn the art of hand quilting. I'm pretty sure my mom's beaming down from heaven to know that some of her projects will have been worked on by all THREE of the Harper Girls.

People:
I have also been trying to be purposeful about seeking out people to hear their stories, get their advice, and converse with them about life in general, and things that apply to my life these days. I have been blessed with so many wonderful mentors, friends, and role models. It's amazing how powerful a cup of coffee (steamed milk in my case), a lunch, knitting etc. and some good conversation can be.

Thanksgiving:
Thanks to a practice session last year (read about it here) Valerie, Luke and I weren't TOO intimidated by the idea of helping Grandpa and Shan host Thanksgiving dinner. Valerie rocked the mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry relish, and keeping her chaotic sister organised (we're talking excel spreadsheet grocery list and butterball turkey iPhone ap people.) Luke tore up the turkey, literally, he was in charge of carving 1 mama bird and two babies (breasts only on the bone/white meat) as well as keeping me calm, and in good spirits (Twilight readers, he's sort of like Jasper in that mood altering sense.) It was a great time of family and visiting.

Church:
Val and I have enjoyed getting involved with a homework help group on Wednesdays as well as both being in town for multiple Sundays! When we're not in town, we're lucky enough to be able to catch sermons on podcast search North Fresno Church.

I have been challenged and supported by one of these podcasts in particular. It's titled, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and was from November 14, 2010. This sermon has stirred up so much. It managed to find things happening in my heart I didn't even realise were happening. It addresses the age old question "why."  It brings up a search for answers, and guidance. I still cant wrap my head all the way around the sermon but man it's got my wheels spinning in many directions and I think that's a good thing. Because, I'm looking and looking and looking, and I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

Christmas:
Luke and I will be in Colorado Springs (me as of the 17th.) Luke has work on Christmas Day which will make for a mellow time. We're both allergic to evergreens and not yet wanting to add a Christmas tree to our growing collection of STUFF we look forward to a mild day with cocoa in front of the fire basking in each others company. (Something we haven't shared in quite a while.) The only thing keeping me from starting a countdown is that I know in my head just how much I need to get done before I leave! Yikes! Better get a move on!

Hard Hats

Okay...maybe not literally. But DEFINATELY stretched my knitting skills.
This blue one makes me think of the Aliance logo (World of Warcraft reference) It is called The Inga Hat and the pattern was created by Sheila Macdonald. Modifications by HelloYarn found HERE. I made it for Luke's brother Jay.This is Jared Flood's Koolhaas Hat. I made it for Mark. Beautiful pattern. Fantastic, truly. Kind of a pain to figure out and knit. Most others haven't had the trouble with it that I have...but I don't know. This one put a stall in my knitting because I wasn't quite so anxious to get to work. Maybe it scarred me.
I'm sharing these ones a little late, because I had to hold off til Christmas!

When Bugs Get Smashed...

Their eyes pop out...
The Friday school was scheduled to get out I got called in for a sub job. (Woooh subbing on class party, candy, sugar day.)I hoped in my car and headed to rescue the administrator who was filling in until I could get there. I was on my way through a medical office complex and Mr. Smarty pulled out in front of me. I honked I braked...there was nothing I could do. Some of his first words to me were: "I have to go catch a plane" and "Can I run in and go to the bathroom? I really have to go." Hmmm. Think he was in a hurry? While it doesn't look too bad, the internal damage was...substantial. Whew. I was very glad his insurance called to accept fault. My sister and her boyfriend very kindly drove me to school, and picked me up, and took me to Sal's after for some yummy comfort food.

Then, on Wednesday:

Mom had her own little adventure. (More details here.)

Ugh. Let's just the week before Christmas 'twas rough.

One upside was I got to spend some of the time hanging out with my buddy Cady! She was catching up on her AR reading. During breaks we made wrapping paper for her Grandma's present...and went to get a Christmas Tree for her doll Zoey. Here are Zoey and Cady in the back of the rental car with the completely decorated tree!