Family, Chimes, and Cimmamon Bears :)

Tonight I decided to do something festive! So, in turn with everyone around me, I decided that the best way to beat the snow-fury was to dip everything and anything in chocolate!!!!! (Even mandarin oranges-I cannot wait to see how those turn out-yumm!)
Everyone's favorite! Cinnamon gummy bears dipped in chocolate....
The site of dipping...my barbie sized oven/stove and a 1/4 of a counter which is coming up next...
Wha-la! Chocolate covered pretzels! Yum! And, just for the record, cinnamon should never be spelled correctly. If you're eating a cinnamon gummy bear covered in chocolate, the only way you can say it is: cimmomon!!

Also, since I uploaded the festivity pictures onto the mac, I discovered that we had taken pictures at my family's Christmas party! My Aunt Karen and Uncle Win hosted the shindig and a marvelous time was had by all! Here are some random shots (thanks to Tyler) from throughout the night!!
For those of you who grew up as neglected and deprived children like Tyler, chimes is a way of life in our family (aka in primary too)! There are chimes which are all different lengths, strings attached at the top (via holes at the top) that you hold, and random enormous nails to hit them with! So, you figure out the chords to songs, and write a number for every note in that chord and correspondingly write numbers on the bells that make those notes! All of a sudden, everyone gets to join in the festivities and I swear, Tyler was more excited about that then anything else EVER. Freak. What I should have gotten him for Christmas.....
Grandma Sanders and Aunt Nancy enjoying some musical madness!

Tyler and I obviously can't take non-blurry pictures of ourselves, but I think this is to my advantage. I always seem to take the dbl-chin pictures of myself when leaning back...lame.White Elephant gift-giving? Never been more exciting! My Aunt Cynthia begins by instructing everyone to start with a gift (that helps!) and then she reads a narrative about a random family who is celebrating Christmas. Well, the family's name is right and sometimes they've left certain items in random places. You get the picture!? You pass right or left depending upon what the story says and its hilarious!!!! I loved every minute of it and giggled the whole way through! When the story ends, you open the present and then, since its family, you ask if anyone wants to trade. Usually, you end up with some pretty cool stuff!
Here I am, dying of laughter-my cousin MaryAnn had to pass two gifts because her little boy kept trying to open all of them, and we seriously could not stop giggling!
Dax, Nathan, Ruth, Marissa (my little sister), and my Uncle Win, all waiting with anticipation for the next direction-we've obviously stopped to laugh at someone! haha
Uncle Bentley is entrapped by the fast moving chimes!! I didn't have to play in this song, so I thought I'd just point him out!

Our family happens to be ridicuously talented in a plethora of areas, and one in particular is music. Kelv (right) decided to give the french horn a try, while Nathan (left) watches!! It was so fun! Trying to sing over the oboe was impossible so I tried my opera voice-that sent most of us into peals of laughter, including Ruth who was plaing the oboe! Sorry-I'm such a bother sometimes! haha
Aunt Karen, leading us in the chimes-she had a mallet to "direct" you to the appropriate notes-I didn't sit close enough to find out what would have happened had I not "chimed" at the right time!!! Our family is soooo fun!

Also, what's that blue beneath Aunt Karen's elbow? Our extended family in Orem are die-hard-true-blue-BYU fans. The BYU football game just happened to be going on during the family get-together, so we just watched it together! Aunt Karen would sometimes lag behind during a chime song because of a first down-it was soooo funny! Tyler got such a kick out of it! Here I am, too fast in action to catch in a still shot! Wha-bam! Nailed that note! (And my shirt only cost $9 at the Gap-and no, I'm not prego, just slouching to show off my holiday lbs!)

More chimes, and by the look on everyone's face, someone must have hit a wrong note...haha
Contently watching for our notes to come! This is such a fun activity, and I'm so making these for our family-well, for whenever Ty wants them, I suppose. haha

HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Take a close look at this picture. Does anything strike you as odd? Well, Ty and I were taking Marissa back up to Salt Lake with us to stay the night, as she needed to be at the airport in the morning. Ty decideds its a great idea to get gas (super cheap) right outside of Orem, and while waiting, why not do something to stay warm?! He starts cleaning the windshield when a "bang!" shrieks across the still night air! Ty totally broke the wiper thingy-magig! It was beyond hilarious. I mean, really-how often does that happen? Probably more then I think, but it was just too much. Look at this kids face!

Oh my! I'm so happy to have found all of these pictures. Recently I've been moping about because I really would have liked to go home (to Delaware) for Christmas. However, due to recent turn of events, I find myself even happier then I could have imagined. Ty is the best thing that has ever happened to me and I find new ways that I fall in love with him, everyday. He is the light in my life!!! Just love that boy!

Merry Christmas everyone! Wish me luck! Tomorrow Ty and I are playing Joseph and Mary for his family's nativity-too bad I don't have a decent bathrobe! haha I can't wait to see what nieces and nephews play the animals-that's my favorite part!

Love to you all!!!!!