It was November of my 9th grade year. I was walking through the halls with my best friend Kim when she turned to me and said, “So, who are you inviting this year?” Confused I asked, “What are you talking about?” And in some exasperated tone she replied, “Who are you inviting to the cookie…
Archives for December 2013
Crockpot Texas Bean Dip
It’s that time of year when the world falls in love and potlucks abound. The festivities can add a lot of crazy to your already full schedule, so it’s important to have a dish that’s 1) ridiculously easy and 2) ridiculously yummy.
How to Make Your Christmas Tree Tell A Story
Let me kick this one off by saying something totally generic. I love this time of year. L. O. V. E. I love the silent nights and the jingle bells. I love sitting in a dark room with the Christmas lights on, when everything feels still and magical all at once. I love that “family-ness”…
Tips and Tricks: Organizing Group Service
It was definitely a case of the more, the merrier this holiday season, when 25+ families joined efforts to fill more than 370 stockings for Utah Juvenile Justice Services. These bulging Christmas socks are likely the only gift most youth in the care of JJS will receive this holiday season. This project began with a…
Family Tales
I’m a new mom. Well, technically, I’m a six-month-old mom. And something about being a new mom has made me think differently about, oh I don’t know, let’s say, almost everything. About a month ago, I was flipping through my calendar and saw that Veterans Day was coming up. My husband and I come from…
Christmas Service Star
Many of my most vivid holiday memories have very little to do with the “prettiness” of Christmas. Pictures of these moments-if we even had them-would surely not be very Pin-able. I was probably wearing my over-sized basketball shorts, the lighting would have been awful, and there were definitely no burlap banners with matching drinks in…