Simply having a wonderful Christmas time

You know, Christmas. That time of year that is busy but beautiful, cold but cozy, expensive but exciting. In the past two weeks, I have made two kinds of cupcakes.

Vanilla on vanilla,

...and Gingerbread. (Recipe found here)

Except I used my favorite cream cheese frosting recipee. (We've been spelling it like that at our house recently. Don't ask)

Sam and I learned a duet on the piano, and it was so much fun. I loved playing and practicing with him. We make a good team. And it was one of my favorite songs, "Angels We Have Heard on High," except I always sing the words to "Angels from their Realms of Glory," except I only know the first line of that. But it's just so cool!

Anyway, I was secondo as usual. I like it because the player on the bottom pedals, and I like using the pedal because it makes me feel powerful. The hard part about the bottom is it's all in F clef, which I'm far less skilled at reading. But it is good practice for me.

I received many wonderful things, like a crockpot, luggage, clothes, and a watch. Sam gave me some wonderful pictures, and he got a large framed print of our favorite one.

But I do love giving people presents, like zebra print sheets for my sister Lindsey who's obsessed with all things zebra. And I gave Adriana a gift certificate to Color Me Mine, so she can go make some cool pottery.

In other news, I have been running and working out because a) I have time, b) I'm going to get fat from all the goodies and treats that the holidays bring, and c) I have new running clothes and watch.

Well, time to bring on the new year. And the new semester. Yay!

Merry Christmas!

And to all a good night!

-Megan

Peppermint Chocolate Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

It seems that I hardly ever post Muffin Mondays actually on Mondays. Anyway, this weekend we had a delightful white elephant party at our house. I made these Christmas cupcakes and everyone loved them.

I did not read the recipe as closely as I should. It yields 21, so unless you want 42 cupcakes, I suggest you don't double the recipe...

But it was great to have so many cupcakes! Russell and Sam helped me, and I think they liked the part where they got to crush the peppermint candy canes the most.

I put the crushed bits of peppermint in the batter, the frosting and on top of the frosting. There was lots of goodness going around.

Recipe found here!

-Meg

(Thanks, Sam, for the photos.)

The most wonderful time of the year

Rainbow cupcakes! Yes, because it is Christmastide, I'm going to be making cupcakes instead. Mostly because I went crazy and bought lots of Christmas cupcake liners.

Finals are sucking out my soul like a dementor, but you don't want to hear about that.

You want to hear about cupcakes and how lovely my life is.

There really isn't a recipe. We made a white cake from a box mix, and divided it into four. We dyed the separate batters and then layered them in the liners.


There is a recipe for frosting. I'd recommend this to anyone, even if you don't like frosting.

4 TBSP butter, softened
2 cups powdered (confectioners' sugar)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 TSP Milk

Whip together and voila!

There has been much wind and coldness. But Sam and I went up to Syracuse to be with my family. It was lovely, because I love being with all of them.

Happiness has been filling up every corner of my life, and although it always ebbs and flows, I know that I'm happy deep down inside, I just have to remember that.

I have so many things to be happy about.

I think Katie said it best. "You know you're in love when you don't have to explain why you're in love."

Yup.




Things I am thankful for:

My ability to love others and be loved.

Times when I think that I don't have the right words to say, but I try anyway.

The strangely confident feeling that everything is going to be OK. And not just OK, but brilliant.

That wise girl whose been writing in my journals all these years.

My sisters, Sam, my roommates, my parents, and all the other people on Team Megan.

-Meg

Thank you, Jesus

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas was amazing, to say the least.

I got to spend time with my lovely family (and time with them is far from over).

I had our bi-annual reunion with my elementary school buddies!

I went out and met Brian's parents, and got to spend a lot of wonderful time with him.

I gave lots of presents and got a lot more than I deserve.

I'm going on a cruise in April! To Mexico. That's pretty cool.

But this Christmas was also a bit different because my great grandma has been not doing well... and it was the first Christmas Eve in a long time when she wasn't able to come to her own Christmas Eve Party. That party is famous and such a big tradition... and she started it.

And this morning she died.

But grandma lived a long, fruitful life. She was a mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. She was a teacher and she loved to read. I will miss her, but it's all reminded me about the true meaning of Christmas anyway.

Thank you, Jesus.

-Megan

A Few of My Favorite Things!

Happy Birthday Joseph Smith!

Happy 6-month Mark Elder Hill!

Happy Christmas Adam Everyone!

Above is a Christmas miracle. You probably can't tell that that is the back of a present now, can you? You probably thought it was the front side of the wrapping paper... smooth and continuous pattern.

Nope.

That--dear readers--is the seam. It lines up perfectly with the other edge. I freakin' love wrapping presents.

'night!

-Meg

Roller Coaster of Christmas Cheer!

I've been trying to be a glass-half full kind of person lately... but I honestly have no way to categorize this day. Brian just asked me if it was good or bad, and I was torn about how to respond.

For starters, I woke up at 10:30 a.m. to a phone call from my mom and sister telling me not to eat lunch. Well, considering I hadn't left my bedroom yet, the chances of me fixing something for lunch were pretty slim. Turns out they brought home this:

Oh my heavens, yummy. Like seriously. I just needed that goodness so much!

Considering I had just endured about an hour's worth of torment from littlest sister. She was trying to get me up by flashing my lights and playing loud, upbeat music like Owl City. Does she not realize I have a sleep mask and that I'm one of the heaviest sleepers on the planet?

Anyway, after mulling around a bit, we went horseback riding, which was pleasant because we were inside the arena, not out in the muck and mud. It's raining and it's almost Christmas. I'm a bit panicked. I really rely on snow to bring Christmas cheer.

Because let me tell you--there are a few things that do not bring Christmas cheer. I realized about half-way through my day that I was wearing my shirt backwards. At first I took it as a good omen. DUH! I need to be wearing my Utah shirt! Today was game day!

The right way.

After tearing apart my suitcase, I realized that I forgot to bring any sort of Ute apparel! Dismay began filling my soul. That dismay turned from a trickle to a flood of sorrow as my dear Utes took (several) blows from Boise and lost... the... game... and ended ... the bowl... streak...

Ya...

But the Jazz won! (As they should have).

-M

p.s. I think that the real reason the Utes lost is because I accidently wore blue underwear. No. I'm not posting a picture of that. Sorry.

Oh, and another thing to add to the naughty list? My computer crashed and I lost half a poem + other projects in unsaved documents in word.

Candy

The last one.

-M

Christmas Time is Here!

Christmas Break has begun!

This morning, my father took my sisters and me to Salt Lake and we saw Mr. David Archuleta and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir... and Orchestra, and bells, and dancers...

Ya. A whole lot of people. But mostly David.

It was really rainy, but hey... we had tights and cute shoes, and hoods. Guess whose feet are whose:

We all wear the same shoe size.

But I feel like I had to come a long way to get to this break. A long way. And that included FINALS!

This is a cryptic thing for phonetics. It made sense last Tuesday, but now the test is over, and it was epic. And 2 tests later, I am finished! Semester 4 of college is complete!

Now 'tis the season stuff yourself with tons of goodies and play Wii and sing carols and hang out with the ones you love.

-Meg

Winter in its Fullness

The past few days have been the epitamy of Christmas. I wasn't mentally nor emotionally ready for Christmas (I think college threw me off) but so many wonderful events have transpired recently to get me in the holiday spirit.

Like on Christmas Adam (the 23rd) I got together with my wardies! I grew up with these wonderful young ladies when we lived in Fruit Hts. We've gone our seperate ways (all five of us go to different colleges and one is still in High School, but is going to still a different college.) Anyway, we sat in Doug and Emmy's for two hours.

Later that day we made gingerbread houses. Mine did not really turn out as cute as I wanted, but life is never what you expect. My little 2 year old cousin was with us and she made it so fun. We had to keep her from eating too much candy though. The one on the left is Annie's house.

Christmas Eve was busy, and we celebrated with extended family at my great-grandma's house. This annual tradition is practically amazing. We eat food, do a talent show, a nativity, and experience a visit from Santa himself.

Christmas Day is lovely, we opened presents of course. I got a camera and tickets to see the Lion King (among other things). We ate tons of food and gathered with the other side of the family. My grandma got an iPod, and so I had to show her the ropes. Super funny.

The Day after Christmas= sledding! My cousins from Texas came up and we sled and drank hot cocoa. More eating and presents. My other grandma got a laptop, and that is also super funny. We're showing her the ropes. If she figures it out she'll be able to actually read this blog.

To top it all off we had an improv night.

Merry Christmas! Happy Birthday Jesus! You rock! -M

Holiday Kitchen Mishaps

You can't experience Christmas without goodies, and you can't experience goodies without baking some yourself, and you can't experience baking without some mishaps along the way.

Tonight my sister and a friend tried making Hootnanies (aka German Pancakes). We are out of flour, so they used wheat flour instead.

The concoction turned out like this:

Keep in mind that German Pancakes are supposed to look like this:

They didn't rise, so they weren't light and fluffy; instead they were thick and heavy. Gross.

Mishap No. 2-- the Almints

We were trying to make after-dinner-mint candy. Everything went well until we tasted them. They were very salty and not very minty. After examining the flavoring bottle, the culprit was found. We used almond flavoring instead of mint. Holy whoa they are nasty.

Tomorrow we're making gingerbread houses, so we saved the almints anyway. They look alright, after all. (Exciting blog post to follow about that adventure!)

-just little old me(g)