Christmas Celebrations

The night of the Turner Family Christmas party. Aj, Savanah, and Vanessa stayed over night. In the morning I made them Red and Green Pancakes. I get so excited to celebrate holidays.

Bless Charlie's heart. I always pester him in some way making him participate in the festivities! It is probably a good thing I don't have kids. I would show no mercy in making them celebrate.

On Christmas day I made dinner again for my whole family. I had bought myself a new Bosch mixer with my bonus from work and couldn't wait to put it to the test.

The Red Velvet Santa Claus hat cake I made. Yummmm!!!

Christmas Day dinner.

Christmas truly was such a good time. I love my family very much! I can't wait for next year to see what type of great celebrations we come up with. Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!

A Christmas Party

Something you didn't know about me is that I love to host parties. I wanted to visit Temple Square this year during the Christmas Season. I asked my family if any of them would like to go with me. I told anyone who wanted to come to Temple Square with me they could meet at my house, I would make them dinner, we would get on the Front Runner Train and go to Temple Square to see the lights. Well they all decided they wanted to come. Rather than trying to schedule another time for the Turner Family gift exchange we decided to have the Christmas party at my place. I was so excited.

Here are just a few pictures of the night. It was so much fun!! I love my family very much!!

Alysha holding Baby Seth.

Colette and Aaron. I made Lasagna dinner for everyone. It was delish!

Eric and Kim.

Mom and Dad... the creators of us all!!

The kids table.

Three little Princesses.

Riding on the train.

The family at Temple Square.

I love the Christmas holiday. It is always so happy, full of service and fun. I also love to reflect on the true meaning of the holiday. The birth of Christ our Lord. I know that he lives. I know that he is my Savior. I know that he knows, I love him will all my heart. Merry Christmas!

Cambridge and Harvard

The last day Kelli and I were in Boston we took the subway to Cambridge. The city of the famous Harvard University. We experienced the worst weather on this day. It was very cold and very rainy. Harvard was, I want to say majestic. Ha, Ha, that seems like such a funny thing to say but truly it was just like what you see in the movies. A courtyard full of tall trees. Large historical red brick buildings everywhere on campus. I could felt like a student just walking the street.

We stopped by the bookstore to browse. I bought a few used Christmas books.

We actually walked around for a while trying to find the front gates to the Harvard. We think this is it. Not 100% sure only because we that it might be bigger and have a large monument or sign indicating it was the front gates. This is the only gate we could find so it just figured it was the front gates. Ha Ha!

The organization of Harvard.

A small plaza with a fountain donated by the graduation class of 1887.

The courtyard with all the trees and red brick buildings.

The Cambridge Fire Department. Keeping with the theme of red brick buildings.

And Grendel's a darling little restaurant/pub we found to eat lunch. Of course we didn't take advantage of the pub part but the food was great and the atmosphere was amazing.

All in all, Boston, Cambridge, Harvard... great places to visits. It was a very fun trip. I look forward to going back in the summertime to see more sites and of course.. catch a Boston Red Sox Game!!!

Christmas Spectacular!

The purpose of the trip to Boston was to see my friend Staci, who served in the same mission as me, in the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. It was so fun to get dressed up and go to the show.

The show was playing at the Want Theatre in the theatre district in Boston.

Kelli and I inside the theatre.

The inside of the theatre is amazing. Chandeliers, stone and marble everywhere.

There were so many parts of the show that I absolutely loved. The joy and happiness of Christmas. One of my favorite parts is the very last scene. The preform a live nativity. The actually have real camels, and lambs and a donkey. The costumes are absolutely beautiful. The live Nativity has been a part of the Christmas Spectacular since 1933. As the show ends and the curtain close you hear a reading of a testimony entitled....

"One Solitary Life"

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village, where He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty. The for three years He was itinerant preacher. He never had a family or owned a home. He never set foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place he was born. He never wrote a book, or held an office. he did non of the things that usually accompany greatness. While He was still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends deserted Him. He was turned over to His enemies, and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While He was dying, His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had - His coat. When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave. Two thousand years have come and gone, and today He is the central figure for much of the human race. All the armies that ever marched and all of the navies that ever sailed and all parliaments that ever sat and all kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as this "One Solitary Life"

We met up with Staci after the show. She is so amazing. It was so fun to see her and be in Boston. I can't even wait to do it again!!!

Weekend in Boston Continued...

After Kelli and I finished our tour of Boston's freedom trail, we took to the streets to see more of the city and do some shopping. Shopping in Boston was very fun and everyone was full of Christmas. Everywhere we turned some one was wearing a Santa Claus hat or an entire Santa Claus outfit. Music was playing. People were laughing. Carolers were singing. Lights were hanging everywhere. It was so easy to be happy and enjoy all the Christmas in the city.

Standing by the gigantic Christmas tree in the middle of the shopping center.

A picture at "Cheers" -- Where everybody knows your name!

This Statue was so funny to Kelli and I for some reason. I don't remember the guys name but he had something to do with the beginning of basketball or the Boston Celtics or something. We just thought it was a unique way to display a statue. Haha!

Another Christmas Tree in the city.

Once we had finished shopping for the day. We went back to the hotel and got ready to see Staci's performance in the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular. Let me just tell you it was SPECTACULAR!! I'm being serious. Staci got us great seats and we sat on like the 6th row. The costumes, the dancing, the singing was all amazing. I didn't ever want it to end. It definitely should be on everyone's list to do for Christmas.

Boston Massachusetts

My friend Kelli and I spent the first weekend in December in Boston. Both of us were going there for the first time. My friend Staci who was dancing for Radio City Music Hall invited us out to see the show and got us tickets. The show was amazing and I instantly fell in love with the city. The food was amazing. The historical sites you can see. The shopping. The theatre. I loved everything.

One of the first things we did while we were there was to take a tour on the Freedom Trail. It was a great way to see the historical highlights of the city.

The freedom trail is marked by a red painted line throughout the city. The actual trail is about 16miles long. You can find your way to all of the sites either by following the red line or following a tour guide. We used a tour guide but still thought it was great to see the red line.

This is a picture of the Boston Common Park. The oldest park in the United States.

Another picture of us in the park.

This building is called the New State House. It isn't really that new because it was built in 1798. But it is newer than the old state house which was built in 1784. The State House is still where the Government of Boston meets. The dome at the top is plated in copper and was plated by Paul Revere.

This is one of the old church's in the city. It sits to on the same grounds as one of the most famous burial grounds in United States history.

This is the burial ground next to the church. It is the largest in Boston but not the oldest. There are about 5000 bodies buried here. This is the burial site of James Otis, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, and John Hancock.

This building is the old state house I mentioned before that was built in 1784. This is the place the Boston Massacre occurred and where the Declaration of Independence was read for the first time.

This is a picture with our tour guide once we finished the tour. She was so great and entertaining. I loved learning about all of the history of our country and of the city of Boston.

A Texas Style Thanksgiving

Because my family celebrated Thanksgiving the Saturday before Thanksgiving. My parents and I along with Charlie decided to drive down to Texas and spend the real Thanksgiving with Monica, Scott, Milo and Holly. We left the Friday before Thanksgiving after work and drove straight there only stopping for fuel and the bathroom.

It took us about 23 hours to get there. It wasn't quite as bad as I thought it would be driving all the way through. Although, while it was happening I thought it was taking forever. My dad and I did all of the driving switching ever couple of hours to sleep. One of the best parts of the drive was watching the sunrise. I have always loved to watch the sunset, but it is rare that I am ever awake to watch the sun rise.

Charlie did great during the long ride. He probably did the best of all of us because he slept the whole time. He only got upset once when Mom dropped a book on his head and he let out a growl to make sure she knew he was there.

I had so much fun spending the week with them in Texas. The weather was warm, we went shopping, to a movie, ate Amy's ice cream, went out to lunch, ate other great meals and spent a lot of good quality time together.

I had the pleasure of sleeping in Holly's bed while she took to the floor and we became roommates. Here is a picture of Milo and Holly on the blow up mattress. They both loved sleeping there. The first couple of nights I was there Holly would get up in the night, come stand by the side of her bed and start talking to me. She talked to me about how we needed to check on Charlie or that she needed a drink or a snack. One night I woke up and heard her say she was hunger. A few minutes later she had gone down stair, woke her parents and game back to the room with a bowl of pretzels. So, I sat there awake at 3:30 in the morning listening to Holly carefully crunch on all the pretzels. A little chomp chomp chomp, then a sip of water. After she finished the bowl she rolled over and was fast asleep.

One night Holly dressed up in a Darth Vader Halloween costume and wouldn't let us call her Holly. She quickly corrected all of us saying, "I'm not Holly I'm Darth Vader." It was so fun to be around the kids.

Thanksgiving day was a special treat because we got to enjoy all of Scott's cooking. YUMMMY!!! The meal was delicous!! One of the best I have ever eaten.

Mom spent time reading to the kids while everything was prepared for dinner.

Dad and I kind of did nothing but hang out and look pretty for the pictures. HeHe!
We look good, huh? :)

As part of the Texas tradition the day we left to come home we decided we need to make a stop by Round Rock Donuts. Dad and I went over at about 9 o'clock in the Morning. The store actually opens at 4 am. Crazy!! I didn't think we would have a problem getting donuts. The line was out the door and down the sidewalk. There were cars and people everywhere. Dad wanted to bag the whole idea of getting donuts but I insisted. I dropped him at the front while I went to search for a parking spot. I would say we had hot fresh Round Rock donuts in our hands about 45 minutes later. Not too long of a wait. What else did we have to do besides drive all the way back to Utah.

It was a great, great Thanksgiving. The company, the food, the memories, I loved every second of it. Thanks so much to Monica and Scott, Milo and Holly for letting us spend Thanksgiving. It truly was such a joy to spend time with them. I love you! Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving before Thanksgiving

Every other year my family celebrates Thanksgiving the Saturday before Thanksgiving. This is so that those people in our family who are married can celebrate Thanksgiving with their in laws on Thanksgiving day. Of course we started the night before with an appetizer dinner. Why stuff yourself with food on just one day when you can stuff yourself with food for two days? It is always so fun.

Everyone brought some things to share. I made these little name tag, center pieces out of sugar ice cream cones. They were a little bit of a pain to make. Only because I had to make almost 30. And I could only cook two at a time so it took some a while. It was late at night so I was in a hurry and kept burning my fingers. Ouch! But, I thought they turned out very cute, so I was happy.

Here is a picture of one of the kids tables. We had a few tables for the kids.

I didn't get a picture of everyone at the dinner but I was happy to have most of my siblings and their kids their. One of the greatest blessings of my life is my family. I love them all very much.

Charlie being a very important member of the family also attended the dinner. He took his usually place under the table waiting for any sucker to give him food against my very strong wishes. Will, my cousin's little boy, instead of just wanting to slip him food Spent most of the day with Charlie. We found him several times under the table petting and playing with Charlie's ears. It was very cute. Charlie and Will, best of friends forever.

NEW YORK CITY!

Aubrey, a great friend of mine, ran the New York Marathon the first week of November 2010. Me, being the lucky girl that I am, got an invitation to go to New York from my friend Aubrey. I haven't been there for years and thought it would be tons of fun so I said yes. We took a red-eye flight on Thursday and arrived in New York at 5:00am on Friday. Neither of us really wanted to waist anytime in NYC so we quickly hit the streets. Our first stop was the race expo.

I've never seen such a thing. The runners actually had to show id to get in the door. I went around through a side entrance. There were people there from all over the world, literally. Aubrey later told me 400,000 tried to get into the Marathon 45,000 were actually accepted to participate. Fascinating.

Once we left the expo we headed to China town. I ended up buying six purses. Don't freak out they weren't all for me. I bought them as gifts for family and friends. China town was very fun. Afterward we did a little more shopping. I picked up some more Christmas gifts.

That night we went to see Promises, Promises on Broadway. It was a cute story, a little riskae but so funny. Kristin's voice is amazing!! I loved hearing her sing so much! Blew me away.

I was exhausted when we finally went to sleep. I had barely crawled into bed before my eyes were shut and I was sleeping. Saturday was another day in the City. We decided to head down to Time Square and check out a couple of things.

Times Square.

We ate some Pizza...of course.

We went to the novelty stores such as M&M world where they had a new rendition of Lady Liberty. I quite like it don't you think?

After Time Square we headed to Central Park. We rented a bike carriage to take us on a tour. Just because my legs and feet were dying, it was freezing and Aubrey was running the marathon the next day so we wanted to take it easy. The bike carriage was fun. I had to keep asking Aubrey what the bike guy was telling us as he explained some of Central Park's history...I had no idea what the guy was saying. It was kind of funny. Very fun times though, would highly recommend.

Once we finished at Central Park we grabbed some dinner and headed to bed for the big race day. Bless Aubrey's heart. She had to be up at 6:30 or something in the morning to catch the shuttle to the starting line. It was crazy. I spent the day with some of the ladies in her running group. They were great and so fun to be with. We met up with the runners at mile 16. It was an inspiration to watch. There was a blind man running, New York City firemen in their full gear, people much older than I was running along enjoying the course. It truly was inspiring.

Aubrey at mile 16 with another lady from her running group.

Me with a lady from the running group holding a banner I made for Aubrey, run girl run!

So much fun! It was a great trip. Thanks to Aubrey for inviting me and for being such a great friend and inspiration.