The Making of "Avatar"

You may have already seen this video of how "Avatar" was made. It truly is an amazing accomplishment. If you haven't seen the movie yet, you ought to! (This video is lengthy--22 minutes but it is fascinating.)

Vintage Roses

Is this not beautiful? I found the link for it on "A Gift-Wrapped Life," a blog I follow full of beautiful things. This is from an etsy shop by Mimi Charmante which has other beautiful headbands with roses too. The ornament is a vintage brooch, I believe. It's been sold, but I thought you clever girls could probably figure out how to copy it!

www.etsy.com/shop/mimicharmante

Our Christmas Vacation (continued)

Once we got to Las Vegas, we wanted to take a look at the gardens and fountains at the Bellagio. Beautiful! Ironically, the song we heard at the fountain display was the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah (probably sung by Motab). It was such a sharp contrast from all the lights and worldliness of the Strip that I was glad that at least for a few moments the people listening could ponder the birth of the Savior and the real reason for our celebrating Christmas (if they were even listening to the words).

We had a delicious Christmas Eve fondue feast which lasted for hours; it was so fun to catch up with Will and Katie and see their artistically decorated home. On Christmas morning, we had a yummy brunch and we opened presents at a leisurely rate. Saturday, we went to the St. George temple and enjoyed that historic site. After church on Sunday, we drove up to Mt. Charleston where there is a ski resort and lots of snow. It was cold and quite pretty (for Las Vegas!). In fact, it was quite cold the whole time we were there--very similar to the freezing temperatures we were having in Tyler around Christmastime.

All in all, we had fun visits to Houston and to Las Vegas. We can't wait for next year when, hopefully, everyone will be able to be together at some point in the holidays!

Our Christmas Vacation

We had a great time spending Christmas in Houston and in Las Vegas.




First, we went down to Houston the weekend before Christmas to see Chris, Sarah, Max and Cooper. We had a fun night looking at all the lights in River Oaks and then the next night we went to the ward party which offered lots and lots of food. We exchanged gifts and had a great visit. Those boys are full of energy and always so entertaining!

Don't worry--Be happy!

Interesting article entitled "50 Steps to Simple Happiness" found in the New York magazine (and geared to New Yorkers with references to the subway and Julliard and elevators).
Simple ideas, but they make sense! I like the "make your bed" and "eat an ounce of dark chocolate" tidbits of advice. So true and satisfying!




Quite a few tips concern massage techniques and such, but missing, I think, is advice to appreciate the world around like reveling in the beauty of that cardinal on my bird feeder right now or the sunshine streaming through the window pane after cold, gloomy days (the author does mention appreciating animals). Also, there seem to be no tips on finding spiritual enlightenment with prayer or scriptural perusal.

(Don't you love this photo from K. Young Photography? I'd love a wall of photos like this!)

What are your suggestions?

Cool Video from Yahoo!

You may have seen this on Yahoo--I love this video. Just so fun and inventive! It gives new illumination to the ideas of dreaming/sleepwalking--so creative!

We'll post some holiday pics soon--we had a great time in Houston and in Las Vegas.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Can you believe another year and decade has slipped by?
Where does the time go?

Scarecrow Dip

Here is the picture of the Scarecrow Dip I made for Evan's office Octoberfest celebration. This is actually Mexican Seven Layer Dip camouflaged with refried beans and a funny face and certainly not German or Octoberfest fare usually, but it is fall and scarecrows come out in the fall so I thought it would be fun to serve. Just a note, Evan said that people didn't know how to get at it with the lettuce collar, so once he removed it they ate it up!

The idea came from a Pillsbury Seasonal Cookbook from 2006 and can be found here:

http://www.recipehound.com/Recipes/Recipes3/9880.html

Have fun! Don't you just love all the fun and spooky treats you can make this time of year for fall and Halloween! Katie: Post those pictures of all those cute ideas you had to make for enrichment! Pronto!