Christmas Festivities

So much has been going on since I got done with school and I just haven't had time to blog! Lots of Christmas festivities going on and only 2 days till Christmas, so let's play catch-up! 

Here we are leaving for our date to Rock Bottom Restaurant where we visited my amazing friend Sara who is a server there. We had so much fun that night & the food was soo good!

We started decorating the day after Thanksgiving 

James putting up the tree!

Nativity & Advent Calendar~gifts from our family last year

Our 2012 Christmas card.

homemade peppermint hot cocoa mix in mason jars...my gifts to coworkers & friends

close-up of the layers of cocoa. you can find the recipe here

number of goodie plates to our friends this year = 18

Candycane Kiss Cookies. 

Recipe from my friend Alex, you can find on her blog here

I went to 3 Christmas parties this year. James went to 2 of them with me.

The first was an all girls Christmas party. Some of the medical student wives got together and had food & a gift exchange. My friend Carly hosted it and I went home with citrus smelling hand soap, thanks Cim! I forgot to take pictures :(

The second party we went to was hosted by one of my dance friends Alejandra, who we call "Ollie" for short. I ate TONS of food, we watched Elf, played Just Dance 4 on the Wii, and played the gift exchange game. We went home with a Brita pitcher & some candy...thanks Sara! Here are some pictures.

Eating lots of delicious food!

Ollie even had homemade hot chocolate with frozen whip cream stars!

Love my dance fam. Dom, Sara, Ollie, & us.

Ollie was a perfect host! 

Dom, Sara, James, Chelsea, Celia, Andy, Ollie

My beautiful dance bestie, Sara!

James & I were so excited when a gift arrived from Nana & Grandpa!

Harry and David Gourmet Gift Towers are sort of a Fakkel family tradition.

We loved eating the juicy pears, chocolates, & other goodies this gift had in all those boxes!

Thanks so much Nans & Gramps! This brought back lots of great memories :)

The third Christmas party we went to was hosted by the Killpacks, our good friends Luke & Jenna!

Food was amazing. James made chocolate chip cookies~his family recipe. We played two fun games that we also played last year. The candy bar game which involves two dice & lots of candy bars that you can steal from each other. The other game involved money wrapped in several boxes that you can only win by unwrapping only using your oven-mitt covered hands, and it also involved 2 dice. The boys had their money to unwrap, and the girls had theirs. James was so close to winning the money! I won the money for the girls game. It was so fun!

 This is the best picture, except none of the kids are paying attention.

Trevor, Chad, James, Than, Luke, Claire & Whitney, Nicole & Taylee, Me, Rex & Ixchel, Jenna & Eliza

 This picture is better of the kids but the flash was really bad near the boys so I just cropped it.

 Cutie Rex. His onesie says, "meet me under the mistletoe" I could kiss those cheeks without mistletoe!

 Our Christmas present to my brother Peter who is on a mission right now. He LOVED Herbie as a kid and we enjoyed watching these movies growing up. I think our favorite is Herbie Rides Again. I will hang on to this until he returns.
Our Christmas Sunday pictures

 Christmas Tree.

 Pine Tree.

Merry Christmas Sunday!

I found this anonymous note on my car window at work! I really did smile! It was such a nice surprise. Just a reminder to be nice to people this season, and all year long! I'm going to pass this on, and hopefully write nice notes throughout the year & leave them on car windows!

So remember, Happy Holidays, MERRY CHRISTMAS, & Smile! Have a fantastic day! 

xoxo

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Random Recordings & Rockin' Recipes

A record of random updates from the month of December:

December 4th was Jim Beam Burger Day at Red Robin! Anyone whose name is James, Jamie, Jaime, Jaimie, Jami, Jamey, Jameson, Jimmy, Jimi, Jim, and of course, Jimbo; and for anyone who lives on Jim Street or on any street that includes a variation of Jim in the street name gets a free Jim Beam Burger! You have to show ID too. We went last year too. This year we went with Than & Ixchel & baby Rex.

I drive by the Phoenix Temple every day on my way to work. It's coming along so nicely :)

Babysitting Claire is so fun! 

Trevor & Whitney's baby is an angel!

Trying some new recipes:

Zucchini, Black Bean, & Rice Skillet

This meal was fast, easy, and healthy. I used brown rice to make it a little healthier but it would probably taste better with white rice. Maybe add some corn in it too?

Chicken Enchilada Skillet

If the chicken is already prepared, this recipe took me 10 minutes! It was muy delicioso! I'd make it again right now!

BBQ Chicken Pizza

I used premade whole wheat dough. Homemade crust is the best though. It's good to mix it up :)

Crock Pot Bacon Cheeseburger Soup

My onion was really strong. But it was good! This soup is so unique. When you first taste it, it really does taste like a cheeseburger! Then as you continue to eat it, it just tastes more like a yummy thick soup. For just two people I would halve this recipe otherwise you are stuck with leftovers for a week and you get really sick of it. 

The Hobbit & Chinese Food Date

Here we are at The Elephant Bar Restaurant 

 Chelsea eating Chinese...what?

 The restaurant had some cool elephant decorations!

James has been looking forward to this movie for a while...and we loved it! It was very well done, entertaining, with some appropriate humor that was just enjoyable to watch! We were pleased.

Those are my random recordings of December 

& some rockin' recipes!

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"Fall" featuring Verve Dance Company

Verve Dance Company's show titled Fall was this weekend and we performed four times: Friday evening on November 30, Saturday matinee & evening on December 1, and Sunday matinee

 on December 2.

Here's some of us in the dressing room getting pumped for the show!

My girl Sara & I got matching socks from our director as a gift

to the company

 

 dressing room memories

Verve Dance Company. Here we are with our assistant director Rebecca Rabideau on the left and our artistic director Andrea Hashim, second from the right. Not all of the company members are in this picture. Some of them left before the picture was taken.

 my sweet hubby got me roses <3

 Sara LOVED flirting talking with James :)

Some of my company girlies Sara, Alejandra "Ollie", and Celia.

 My amazing best friends came to see my perform Saturday night. They brought me gorgeous roses too!

 Nicole, Whitney, Chelsea, Ixchel, Jenna

 Isn't my husband so handsome? My dance friends all agree...

my bouquet of both the pink roses from James and the pinkish yellow roses from the girls

A picture of Dom & me by the fire at Sara's company after-party. 

Alainia & me at the party.

It's crazy that the performances FLEW by so fast. It is a bittersweet feeling: feeling so accomplished knowing our hard work paid off. All of those hours of practice & rehearsal & business made our performances amazing & it's over! It saddens me that I will never dance with this same group of dancers again. We, as Verve Dance Company Fall 2012, became a dance family. I'm so proud of how awesome our performance turned out! I'm excited to see the dvd of the shows. The weekend events included James and I going to dinner in between Saturday's matinee & evening shows. We went to Smashburger for the first time & it was oh so good! Amy, Alainia, & Johnny joined us too & we had fun. Then after Saturday's show, James & I went out with the girls (Nicole, Whitney, Ixchel, & Jenna) to Yogurtini. After Sunday's show we went over to Sara's house for some homemade authentic Mexican food. Literally THE BEST tostados I have EVER eaten. Kudos to Mrs. Hernandez. 

It was an unforgettable weekend.

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Thanksgiving

Another year of thanks celebrated by just Chelsea and James. We miss our families but we are thankful for each other and for delicious food. This year our Thanksgiving spread looked more visually appealing than last year's. We also knew we'd be content with a rotisserie chicken rather than going to all the work to make an extravagant turkey. Last year we cooked two cornish hens...we are glad we had the chicken this year even though we missed the taste of turkey. Feast your eyes on our second Thanksgiving together. 

 Thanksgiving in Arizona

Thankful for each other. 

"Sincerely giving thanks not only helps us recognize our blessings, but it also unlocks the doors of heaven."

 -Thomas S. Monson 

 green beans, rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing for james

 Much prettier table spread than last year.

 Thankful for food!

This pic has better lighting 

 So excited to eat!

Delicious spice cookies with cream cheese frosting I remember Mom making. After I made these I asked James if he liked them. His response: "They're good." I'm thinking, that's it? They're good? How about, "They're SOOOOOO good. Great Thanksgiving dessert Chels! They are delicious!" I mention this to him, he just laughs, and goes on doing what he's doing. About 5 minutes later, "These cookies are soooo goood I wanna die!" Bahaha thanks babe, thanks. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Dare we brave the crowds at 11:00 tonight? We will see. 

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veteran's day

One of the best things about Veteran's Day is we have no school and no work (bank holiday)! James and I took advantage of this free day to celebrate our veterans by having a fun-filled day! 

Some window shopping at the mall for Christmas!

Trying a new Italian Cuisine restaurant

 Mmmm pizza for me

The name is hard to pronounce but it was a nice little place.

Drive-In Movies! We saw these two fun movies:

Pitch Perfect was funny & the singing was amazing! Here Comes the Boom was funny with Kevin James. It was a family-feel good movie. Seeing both movies back to back for the price of one movie plus your own treats and blankets to cuddle = awesome night. Plus the winter weather here is perfect to go to the drive-in movies!

Happy Veteran's Day and Happy Birthday to my Nana on the 11th!

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