Animal Style

So this whole weekend I've been thinking about In-N-Out's animal style fries. I've never tried them, but they always smelled so delicious whenever my friends would get them. Well today, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we decided to get an order of animal style fries. Just one little basket of animal style fries. No big deal, right? WRONG! They were ABSOLUTE HEAVEN! For some reason they were the most delicious things to touch my mouth in a very long time. I never knew such flavors could be shoved together and NOT taste like grease in a basket. It was heavenly. So Craig and I split our humble basket of animal style fries and just dreamed of the day when we can have them again.

The Social Network

We FINALLY saw The Social Network Saturday night. First of all, I want to say that I was impressed with the movie. It was very well filmed and the actors did pull through and do a great job acting. However, as involved emotionally as we were getting, we had to take a step back and remember that it's not all true. A lot of the situations, we believe, did actually take place but the character formations of the actual people were not entirely accurate. To be fair to Mark Zuckerberg, we don't think he is as socially inept as he was portrayed in this movie.

So despite the fact that we enjoyed it and would recommend it to others, we don't feel the Golden Globes was justified in giving it the award for Best Drama.

Tangled

If you haven't seen Tangled yet, I highly recommend it. It may be one of my new favorite Disney movies (key word ONE...Beauty and the Beast is still my favorite...let's not get crazy here...). It was an extremely interesting version of Rapunzel and had a really good cast. Craig and I watch the TV show Chuck and absolutely LOVE that Zachary Levi is the "Prince Charming" in this movie. Both he and Mandi Moore do a great job as voice actors and the comedy relief was EXTREMELY well done, not too much but not too little. Not necessarily a movie you NEED to see in theaters, but we definitely feel it's worth buying.

Barbara Hitchcock

My aunt, Barbara Hitchcock (aka Aunt Bobbie) died Christmas morning due to complications during her second approach at open heart surgery. Christmas Eve she had been feeling pressure on her chest and went to the hospital. They informed her that her aorta had become considerably weaker since they last saw her so they gathered a team of surgeons and attempted to fix it. It was an extremely complicated and risky surgery and it all happened so fast.

She was such a lovely person. Probably the only Aunt I ever got personal time with and truly got to know. She will be missed but I know she is in a better place. We had the chance to see her on Thanksgiving and play games with her. It was fun to get to know her that much more then. Here's to you Aunt Bobbie

An orange her and my Uncle Brian grew at their house in Harbor City, California

Christmas

This year was nice because we didn't have to travel to a bunch of different places. We opted to stay in our cozy home and start some traditions of our own. We missed our family, but we also had a great time. Lucas made out like a bandit this year, gift wise, so he had many gifts to open. After the first three gifts he opened, he got tired of opening gifts so we just started opening them for him, which was still pretty fun.

"Merry Christmas ya filthy animal"

Our Christmas Eve meal.

We decided to carry on my family's tradition of making lamb and pita bread and goat cheese and other old world type foods in honor of the meager meal Mary and Joseph partook of the night Christ was born.

Lucas enjoying his Christmas Eve meal

After we put Luke to bed, we sat down with our baklava and a plate of cookies

(courtesy of an awesome ring and run done by Nicole and Evan Sanford)

and watched The Muppet Christmas Carol, our favorite holiday movie

Lucas and I sitting in the wrapping paper...because what else are you going to do with it?!?!

Lucas and Craig playing with the toy of the morning, Chuck's Garage via Tonka Trucks

And finally, the piece de resistance, Craig's parents were generous enough to get us a new pot and pan set with the EXACT specs I gave Craig. We love them, and we love that they all match...it's been a while...

We want to thank all of our family and friends for the generosity you bestowed upon us this Christmas Day. Whether it was a physical gift or the gift of your friendship, we consider ourselves extremely fortunate.

Temple Lights

I FINALLY found time to post.

About a month ago we went to temple lights with our friends Donnie, Jenni and Asher. It was WAY busy on the grounds and REALLY cold so we didn't spend too much time walking around. But we did manage to get some pictures. So here they are.

So we went to Hire's Big H for dinner. We were SO hungry...driving in Salt Lake/Utah is the worst.

The boys...stuffed into their strollers...

We look like we're on FIRE!!!