Happy 2012!

I know this is coming a little late, but Merry Christmas and a Happy 2012 to you!

 December was a wonderful month here in Minnesota--full of multiple Christmas parties every weekend! A few highlights include ice skating in downtown St. Paul, caroling through my neighborhood with 20 friends, and a lot of cookie making.  Christmas is absolutely my favorite time of the year. Just ask my roommate Emily who called me out on singing "It's the most wonderful time of the year!!" everytime I walked in the door from work.  I spent my evenings making Christmas cards, making Christmas presents--earrings, paintings, canning, etc-- and cutting paper snowflakes for the wrapping!  It was like Santa's workshop in my house everyday.  I also wore a lovely selection of Christmas sweaters everyday during my last week of work. 

  

Our friend Pieter stayed at our house for the month of December and brought delicious cooking and fun company. We were sad to see him go at the end of the month.

 

A Wellstone House Nativity Scene

 To add a little extra winter cheer at work, I decorated paper bags that hold our client meals at Open Arms with paper snowflakes too.  (I'm still finding paper scraps all over our floor.)  Open Arms was full of wonderful volunteers this month--even more excited to donate their time to bring our clients great food.

 I made a lot of earrings and magnets for little Christmas presents. I got a fabric button maker and a quarter yard of fabric and punched my own fabric buttons to make stud earrings.  They were so easy! I also took clear stones left over from Christy's wedding and put different patterns of scrapbooking paper underneath before attaching magnets on the back.  They were so fun to make!

 Last year, I spent my finals week making about 100 Christmas cards in between studying for finals.  This year I had even more time! We had Christmas card making everyday for a week, and I enjoyed teaching Pieter a few scrapbooking tips.  Here's a few favorites.

 After a long week at work, I flew home late on Friday the 23rd, greeted by this wonderful family!

We made and ate some lefse as soon as we got home (about midnight) and got all caught up. Christmas Eve is our big day in the Olsen Family.  We did some finishing touches around the tree and cooked good food for our feast.  After our family photoshoot, we got to share in presents we got for each other!  I made a lot of my presents this year as I have way more time than money...it was fun!

 Christy and I got each other canning books--canning for the new generation!  Everyone also got many samples of my canning treats...hopefully not too much!

 We ate great food, played on our new iPhones, and watched some great movies and concert DVDs.  It was so wonderful to be home together. I forgot how much I missed being with my family! It's hard being halfway across the country, but our time together was the best!


 Halfway through the week, we drove up to Seattle for cousin Christmas and New Years! We met Dwight, Penny, Whitney, Emily and Anna at the ice rink for Whitney's birthday party and had a fun pizza and skating party! We each took turns and had lots of fun laps around the rink.

 

 I also got to have breakfast with Sallie and Ruth, 2 of my favorite ladies from PLU! We spent a large portion of our time reminiscing about our best times working in Ramstad (trust me, that could go on for hours!) and enjoyed sharing in what we've been learning after PLU, as both Sallie and I are volunteering with non-profits this year. If anything, it made me miss them more!

  

Family Christmas was spent with the whole family and we were able to celebrate Judy's birthday too!  A fun cousin gift exchange with poems by Penny helped bring the whole afternoon to a great close.  It was great to see everyone--I miss you all!

 For New Years, I met up with some of my dearest PLU friends--Nicole, Stuart, Katie, Mary, Tiffany and Laura--and a few others at a great party at Nicole's! Great food, drinks and conversation were shared over many hours, and we spent midnight at Gas Works Park with a great view of the Space Needle fireworks show.  It was such a perfect New Years!

 

As I was flying home, the skies were clear and I had the best view of Mt. Rainier and the 3-D Washington landscapes. It was hard to leave such a beautiful state and a wonderful week, but I am always thankful for time spent with people I love.

 Blessings to each of you as you bring in the New Year.   Here's to a rich 2012!!