Christmas season and a New Year

Joel and I have been on break for the last two weeks...it was so nice to be able to relax and do the things we wanted pretty much whenever we wanted. We celebrated Christmas with my family on December 25th at lunch, visited with more family that afternoon, and had Christmas with Joel's family on the 27th. It was great getting to see everyone including all of our siblings, grandparents, and most aunt and uncles. I love the Christmas season because it brings everyone together.

By the time we were finished making the rounds to all the family Christmas gatherings it was almost the new year. Joel and I went to visit his brother and family and got to stay for a couple of days and bring in the new year with them. On New Year's eve night we shot fireworks (it was COLD outside!) and then on New Year's day more family and friends came together to enjoy a lunch as a celebration of the year that has passed, the blessings our family has received, and to look forward with anticipation to the new year.

Yesterday during the sermon a verse really stuck out to me.

1 Peter 1:21 (NIV)

21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.

The entire verse is amazing because it reminds us of the sacrifice Christ made for us and that we are able to become a son or daughter of his by simply believing in Him. The last part of the verse is what really jumped out at me, "your faith and hope are in God." This verse was a great reminder that our faith and hope should NOT be in ourselves or the things we can accomplish but in God. So the prayer that Joel and I have for this new year is that we would allow ourselves to be guided by God in his wisdom and that we would focus on having our faith and hope in Him.

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a great New Year's celebration.

Just to let you know a little sewing did occur during the break (although not as much as I would have liked):

Baby boots...

With fun (but hard to sew on) grippy dots on the bottom!

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Candy Making

On Saturday morning we headed out to visit my sister. This is the third year that we have gotten together to make candy. The candy goes to my niece and nephew's teachers and we give some to some family members. This year we got bold and decided to make 5 different types of candy. The list includes: Martha Washington balls, Reese's cups, Turtles, Peppermint Bark, and Toffee.

Apparently I somehow managed not to get a picture of the Martha Washington balls!

Turtles before dipping.

Turtles after (sorry it's blurry).

Reese's cups...yummy!

Peppermint bark...yum, this is SO easy and tastes really good!

I also don't have a picture of the toffee!

So as you can see we were busy bees, but it all turned out good. We have the tins all filled and ready to give! We had a great weekend!

Christmas fun...

I decided I needed to take a few more pictures of the Christmas decorations we have up at our house, so here goes:

As a graduation present Joel added to my nativity collection. The camel, shepherd, and two darker sheep are new to the crew. I love them!

He's my favorite!The other new guys.

Up close of our stockings...

Our tree has not had a topper...at all...so this year I decided maybe a bow would work nicely. Deborah made me one, and I think it looks great!

We also got this beautiful "gift" from Nathan and Deborah this weekend. It's not in its permanent home yet, but I just had to take a picture so I could show it!

Graduation

My graduation was on Friday night. I have officially finished my masters degree...and I can't explain how good it feels just to be finished! Here are a few pictures from the event:

The whole group coming into the coliseum.Mom and Dad, glad they were able to come see me graduate!

Joel, I'm sure he's glad I'm finished as well. He did great dealing with all my tears throughout the program :)


Deborah was so nice to come to my graduation. I was so glad to have her there :)

Brooke, we only got to take one class together, but we helped each other through the last semester and summer. Studying for comps was a major obstacle, but we both overcame it and were able to walk together!

Tasha and I actually work together, and we took one class together in the program. It was nice to be able to walk together.

What we've been doing

Last night I made sugar cookies using this recipe. They were so yummy. (I even had one for breakfast...shhh! :))


I've also been doing some sewing. I made a couple more crayon rolls:

One for a very girly girl.

and
One for a little boy who loves to go hunting.

I also saw this post yesterday and happened to go to Wal-Mart right after I saw it so I picked up a Styrofoam ball. I wish they had had a smaller ball, but it was either this size (which is just a little large) or a tiny one.

It was super easy, and I think it turned out pretty cute. By the way, hopefully in the next couple of weeks you'll see that Christmas fabric reappear in another project!

Our favorite food...

Last night Joel and I made pizza, which is by far on of our favorite foods. The recipe came from www.ourbestbites.com. You should check out that site, it has tons of good recipes. The pizza recipe includes the dough recipe (Joel made the dough last night, and it was good!) and a pizza sauce recipe. There is also a recipe for Alfredo sauce...next time we're going to try an alfredo chicken pizza...yum!

Doesn't that look delicious?


The process makes a pretty big mess...but it's all worth it!

Let me know if you try any recipes from that site so I can try them too! The two I've made so far have been amazing!

Playing Catch Up...

So it's been several days since I last posted...and a lot has been going on during that time! We celebrated Thanksgiving with both sides of our families, and enjoyed every minute we got to visit with them. I have been reading all of the different ideas and ways that people celebrated Thanksgiving and how they remembered what they were thankful for...this year my family made a chain (the sort that you take off a chain each day it gets closer to Christmas) and on each chain link we wrote something that we were thankful for. It was really neat and fun to hear the different things people said.

So here's a picture roll of all the things we've been doing this last week...

First off some family pictures:

Wynn is looking so much like Sanders!

Sanders is looking so grown up!

Rebekah posing!
(Isn't her outfit adorable?)


The whole family.

A potential Christmas card photo...
(Check out my mom's new cabinets in the background)

The competing Christmas card picture :)McPhail family Thanksgiving '08

There has been much project work going on over the holiday...

This year we are donating to the Project Linus organization.

From the Project Linus site:

Be a Blanketeer

Our volunteers, known as “blanketeers,” provide new, handmade, washable blankets to be given as gifts to seriously ill and traumatized children, ages 0-18. It is Project Linus’ policy to accept blankets of all sizes, depending on local chapter needs. All styles of blankets are welcome, including quilts, tied comforters, fleece blankets, crocheted or knitted afghans, and receiving blankets in child-friendly colors.

So in order to help with Project Linus we are making and donating a few blankets this year. The picture above is of the one blanket I've made so far and the other one was made by my nine year old niece Madison. This was her first sewing project, and I think she did quite well :)

Madison posing with her almost finished blanket.

This is my first time to quilt on a machine...so let's just say I
need a little practice, but I think it's a good first effort.

I got in the sewing mood on Saturday...

A fabric basket...it's already full!

A Christmas present...

An organization tool...now that I am cutting Joel's hair there are several things that have to be kept up with in order to have everything when it's time for a haircut. So a bag was in order...

PJ Pants made with Amy Butler's pattern from In Stitches. These were a collaborative effort and I think they turned out pretty well. They are super soft flannel!

And finally (if you're even still reading) a few Christmas decorations...

Our tree all decorated

Finally, the presents have a home!

Well, if you even made it through this post I'm impressed! I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. As you can see we were busy....