Gingerbread Houses 2024

Last night we had our annual gingerbread house party and we had a lot of fun!  We always buy kits and this year we got ones that were pre-built (although we had to fix a bit of damage) which saved us a lot of time.  We also always buy more candy to supplement what comes with each kit.

Our gingerbread village

Sean's house

My house

Marilyn's house

Kristine's house

We have had a lot of fun doing lots of Christmas activities with Sean this season!

Sean Is Twenty!

Yesterday my family celebrated Sean's twentieth birthday (his actual birthday is tomorrow).  We went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Trolley Square (one of Sean's favorite restaurants) and then came back to my sister's house for cake and presents.  He didn't really know what he wanted for his birthday so Marilyn and I just gave him Amazon gift cards (which came in these cute holders).

We love getting ice cream cakes from Baskin-Robbins and, since he has picked a polar bear three different times, I thought it would be really funny for him to pick it again but he ended up getting this cute Santa Claus (it had white cake and bubblegum ice cream).  I can't believe that he is twenty because it seems like yesterday that he was cutest little boy!  I sure do love him (he is the best movie buddy) and I hope he had a really good day!

Happy Birthday Sean!

Yesterday my family celebrated Sean's 19th birthday!  It doesn’t seem possible that he could be this old because it was only yesterday when he was a tiny little boy!  He is not so tiny now!  We went to dinner at The Old Spaghetti Factory in Trolley Square (which is one of Sean's favorite restaurants) and then came back to my sister's house for cake and presents.  I gave him the Blu-ray box set of The Big Bang Theory (which he asked me for a month ago).

I love him so much and I am really proud of him for how well he is doing in college.  I hope he had a great day!

Pumpkin Carving 2023

Since Tashena is living in Washington and Sean is in college living in a dorm, Marilyn and I thought that we probably wouldn't be doing some of our holiday traditions this year.  Then Marilyn got a text from Sean asking when we would be carving pumpkins!  We had our annual pumpkin carving party last night while he was home for dinner (my family gets together every Sunday for dinner) and it was a lot of fun!

I am quite proud of my pumpkin this year because it actually turned out like the pattern!

I have a picture like this from every year since he was a little boy!  We'll see if he wants to do gingerbread houses for Christmas!

Bountiful High School Class of 2023

Yesterday Sean graduated from Bountiful High School and we were all able to watch him receive his diploma at the Dee Events Center.  We are so proud of him because it wasn't easy but he did it!

He will be going to Neumont College in the fall for a Bachelor's Degree in Cyber Security and we are really excited for him!

Gingerbread Houses 2022

Yesterday afternoon Sean, Tashena, Marilyn, and I made gingerbread houses which is a tradition we have had ever since Tashena joined our family and, as always, it was a lot of fun!  This year I got kits for these elaborate gingerbread manor houses because I thought they looked so cool but they ended up taking a long time to decorate!  None of us even bothered to decorate the backs of our houses (Sean didn't even decorate the sides) because they were so big.  They came with lots of candy (I still bought more) and royal icing in bags with piping tips.  It turns out that I am not very good at piping (I even had a major incident in which I got icing everywhere and I had to have Sean get it all back in the bag) but I think it would be fun to learn how to do it better.

I always have to get the traditional picture of Sean eating the icing!

Sean's house.

Tashena's house.

Marilyn's house.

My house.

Our gingerbread village!  I think they all turned out great this year!

Happy 18th Birthday Sean!

Yesterday my family celebrated Sean's birthday (it was actually on Saturday) with dinner, presents, and cake.  I can't believe that he is 18!

He asked for Amazon gift cards and accessories for his computers!  I don't like giving gift cards but he was so happy to receive them!

We have a tradition of having an ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins for birthdays and Sean has picked this same polar bear cake three times (go here and here).  We had so much fun celebrating with Sean and I hope that he had a very happy birthday!