the holidays and lots of baking

I thought I would be spending Christmas this year with my family, meaning my brother and his family, but they all went to Utah for Christmas. :( So instead Christmas morning was just me and my parents and grandpa. It was basically just like any other day for me. My parents don't really do all the celebrating Christmas festivities and what not. My mom woke me up early, I had my kale smoothie, and hopped in the car to go move some of my grandpa's furniture from his apartment to our house. Fun right? Definitely not a white Christmas this year. But at night I got to go to my cousins' house for Christmas dinner with my mom's side of the family. Also, not like your typical Christmas dinner. This consisted of the usual Vietnamese, Chinese, and American food. Weird I know. So to make it more Christmasy for everyone, I decided to bake a million treats for dessert since I knew there wouldn't be a huge selection. Christmas dinner with my cousins was super fun and it was nice to spend some time with everyone. And of course I couldn't forget the true meaning of Christmas. Love this time of year!

Some of the cousins!

I wanted a picture with the kiddos in front of the pretty tree before they left. 

Trying to copy this pinterest idea...didn't quite turn out. 

After being home for a few weeks, I have some time on my hands and all I want to do is bake! I keep finding these new vegan recipes and I just want to try them all! So far, I've made vegan lemon poppy seed bread, walnut thumbprint cookies, chocolate chip cookies, a berry crisp, basil flat bread, persimmon cornmeal pancakes, and whole wheat oatmeal almond pancakes. I should probably stop...but all the recipes look so good! I need to make sure they taste as good as they look too.

These vegan walnut thumbprint cookies were SO good. One of my favorites, but it is time consuming to make.

Basil flat bread! Mmmm...

goodbyes

I was going back to California for Christmas and staying there until I report to the MTC. I had to say goodbye to a few people before I left. It's so weird to me that I may never see some of these people again in my life. We might not ever even be friends again. They might be married or off with their lives somewhere else when I get back. Well I will surely miss these people and lots more while i'm in Taiwan. Good thing this isn't the final goodbye for a few people before I leave, assuming my plans of coming back to Utah a few days before I go into the MTC work out. 

I loved going to dinner every month with these ballerina friends of mine. I miss seeing their faces and spending countless hours everyday in ballet classes with them. 

We are just missing Sister Alex Jameson in this picture. I love these girls oh so much. Soon there will only be 2 left.

One thing i'll miss about Jay Tibbitts, his heytell messages to Meg and Jena. Yep.

These boys were basically the only guy friends we hung out with. 

So happy I got to see one of my best friends back from his mission hours before I had to leave. Wish I had more time with him! 

Alyssa dear, I'll see you soon!

tis the season

I can't believe it's December already!!! Where did the time go? I only have about 2 weeks left in Provo....meaning not enough time to see everyone I want to see. My friend Matt Porter gets home in exactly 2 weeks from his mission in Toronto. I can't wait! I just need to survive one more week of school and one week of finals. Oh and packing up ALL my stuff and driving the dreaded 12 hours. But some things I am looking forward to this month: going home, spending Christmas with my nieces and nephews, going to the Nutcracker, eating lots of yummy asian food, San Francisco, seeing family, road trips and many more.


Some highlights from November:
- Thanksgiving with the Melendi family at the Stein Erekson and listening to some great jazz. It was a wonderful day. I am so grateful for the Melendi fam. Words can't express how much I love them.
- Turned in a massive 20 page paper.
- My sister-in-law came to Utah for Thanksgiving. Spent some time shopping for the mish and eating so much food. (I officially hate shopping. It's near impossible to find skirts long enough that don't look grandmaish and fit me)