Christmas festivities

Christmas has come and gone, and of course I didn't remember to keep up to date on the blog. The week before we left to go to Seattle I was lucky enough to go down to visit my family and work for a week. My parents were nice enough to let me come work at Zerorez, their carpet cleaning company. It was a family affair, My mom, dad, sister Josie and I were working together all week. While I was down in Corona del Mar we went to the famous Roger's Garden Center and the Laguna Beach Sawdust festival. Both put you in a very Chrstmasy mood. I also hungout as a third wheel with Martha and her boyfriend Jeff. We went to a family home evening night in Huntington and Martha likes to try and trick her friends into thinking I was her.

After returning to Alameda I started making a chocolate snowman cake for our seminary students Christmas Breakfast. Our student like sweets and random dinner food for breakfast. Last Christmas I got a cake mold from Kc's Grandma Oliver so I tried it out and lets just say it wasn't a home run. The kids still ate it though.


Propping up my special needs cake wearing my new Christmas apron from Josie

My first attempt at the snowman standing cake. It toppled over due to excessive frosting and moist cake. I think it would look better with no frosting just powdered sugar sprinkled on top.

Roger's Garden Christmas decorations- amazing nutcrackers.

Seashell tree my mom purchased to decorate the doghouse

My hot date with Bret

The political part of the show was by far the funniest!!

Good old John McCain next to the one who can see Russia from her back yard!

So on Saturday Molly was unfortunately out of town so I got to go hang out with Bret and the rest of West Coast Novelty at their Christmas party. We got to go eat some good Italian food in the city and then walked a couple blocks to go see Beach Blanket Babylon. It's a play write written by Steve Silver who does a brilliant job at portraying the current events in a very funny way. I guess it's one of the hot spots in San Francisco when people come in town to visit. I've never heard of it but I'm glad I did because it was a great show. If you come to San Fran...I would recommend seeing Beach Blanket Babylon.

Since we don't have a real tree...

I decided to make a table top forest of eco-friendly Christmas trees. The trees on the right were made at my family's Thanksgiving reunion out of lots of felt circles. And since I am not currently working at the magazine companies I used to be employed at I decided to shred a few magazines and make a tree. Merry Christmas!! You got to celebrate for at least half the month or more.

What happened to November?

November has already past- it went so fast. After voting I went down to my parents house to work and visit a few people. Then I started working freelance for San Francisco Mag. It was pretty crazy because I was working for my previous boss's twin sister. That is right one laid me off and then I started working for her twin sister in the city. They look and talk exactly the same.
Kc and I also went to the always motivating Warren Miller movie, which made us really excited to go to Park City, UT and touch some snow. We had a great time at my parents condo for Thanksgiving-but there wasn't much snow. We watched movies, ate lots of food, crafted, and saw lots of my family. My sister Josie was the designated photographer, so I will post those later.

Warren Miller Show

Advertisement for Utah at Warren Miller- UT here we come.

Taking two of my nephews to the park in the middle of the outlets.

Trying to entertain the kids while shopping.

That's what he said.

Some of you probably received this same email from Prop 8 organizers, but I thought this excerpt was great to hear and reminds me that not everyone is jumping on the band wagon to appeal something that has already been put to a vote. I was not planning on posting about Prop 8 again after the election, because I was treating it like when you are on summer break you don't say the S word, (school) but I liked this statement.

Elton John: Heterosexual Couples Have Marriage, Same-Sex Couples Have Civil Partnerships

USA Today published an article yesterday in which Sir Elton John spoke about his position on Proposition 8. John clarified his position on Prop 8 while attending the annual benefit for the Elton John AIDS Foundation. He was accompanied by his longtime partner David Furnish, whom he joined in a civil union in 2005. John was quoted as saying, "We're not married. Let's get that right. We have a civil partnership. What is wrong with Proposition 8 is that they went for marriage. Marriage is going to put a lot of people off, the word marriage."

John went on to emphasize that civil unions grant same-sex couples the same rights afforded to married heterosexual couples. He stated, "I don't want to be married. I'm very happy with a civil partnership. If gay people want to get married, or get together, they should have a civil partnership…the word marriage, I think, puts a lot of people off. You get the same equal rights that we do when we have a civil partnership. Heterosexual people get married. We can have civil partnerships."

Apartment living

Today I realized how living in an apartment is like sharing a house with strangers. I was working on my computer designing a marketing piece for my Dad when all of a sudden some Fergie song starts blasting, literally 30+ on the volume control. Our neighbor beneath us is very eccentric. He loves his 70's music, Night at the Roxbury soundtrack and now Fergie. Not to mention our neighbor that shares our master bedroom wall- we can hear every night that he snores. But it is very funny and unpredictable at times.

Seconds on Pumpkin

Kc's pirate pumpkin, and my bird saying "boo"

This Halloween Kc and I went nuts and carved 4 pumpkins. We bought two pumpkins in Half Moon Bay and carved them on a Sunday night, in a rush so we could go to bed and wake up for seminary. But Kc's favorite part of carving pumpkins is baking the seeds, so when he accidentally burned them we knew we would be buying more pumpkins. However, we got lucky and won a pumpkin at the ward Halloween party for guessing the accurate weight, and then had a FHE at a family's house in our ward that gave us a free pumpkin, and dinner- they are too generous. So we had to think of new ideas to carve, and bake the seeds for a little less this time. Kc and I dressed up like Popeye and Olive Oyl for our ward Halloween party. Most people loved it except for this 11 year old girl who kept accusing Kc of being a smoker- all night long.

We ended up finding everything in our closets except for Popeye's hat.

All dressed at the Church

Pumpkin carving phase 2. I carved these pumpkins with a linoleum cutter and then rolled black ink on the raised original pumpkin part.

Change is coming

Ice Cream is always good to eat especially after getting laid off. So last week my boss told me that they were not making the same amount of income and advertising sales were going down. Therefore they ended up cutting all part-time workers and are now overloading the full-time employees. I am really glad I left that environment, but am not too happy to be back on the job search. I am hopeful for a better job. Thanks Anne for planning this night out. (Anne is taking the picture of course.)

It has been a long while since I have cut Kc's hair. This isn't how he usual wore it-
this picture was taken after a Sunday nap. Before haircut

After

Half Moon Bay

1528 pound pumpkin- the winner.

This guy also wins, but I am not quite sure for what yet

Kc and I made our annual trip to Half Moon Bay for pumpkins, driving up the coast, and Halloween festivities. It was so crowded with mobs of people but after a whole day we ended up with a loaf of delicious pumpkin bread, a game of chess, and two large pumpkins for carving.

Kc's is the pirate pumpkin on the left and mine is a bird saying Boo!

Surf City of Northern California

On Saturday Kc and I ventured down to Santa Cruz to check out the Boardwalk, walk through the surf museum, and around pacific ave. We went to Santa Cruz for the first time a little less than a year ago on Halloween day and the boardwalk was closed- so we had to come earlier this year. It was a lot of fun, very colorful atmosphere and we will definitely go back again for the things we missed.

This is the view from the Ferris Wheel, one of my favorite rides.

Kc and I try to hit all Ferris Wheels in places we go- sort of like a collection.

About to go on the Logger water ride- it looks like you don't get too wet! Right?

I was wrong. I got a full coat of water all over.

The surf was small on Saturday, yet Santa Cruz and Huntington Beach still have had to share the name Surf City after a long battle of ownership of the title.

The Parable of Prop 8

For those of you who don't know, Molly and I were called to teach seminary to the youth in the Alameda Ward starting this school year and it's been an awesome experience so far. It's been fun studying and preparing lessons with Molly and for the most part the kids are great. The past couple days we've been discussing why Jesus taught a lot gospel principles by using parables. In Mark 4:34 during part of the Saviors Galilean ministry the record states that "without a parable spake he not unto them." We learn the reason for the method. It was to veil the meaning. The parable conveys to the hearer religious truth exactly in proportion to his faith and intelligence; to the dull and uninspired it is a mere story, "seeing they see not," while to the instructed and spiritual it reveals the mysteries or secrets of the kingdom of heaven. Thus it is that the parable exhibits the condition of all true knowledge. Only he who seeks finds! So...I want to share with you the parable of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It goes a little something like this:

Behold a peanut butter and jelly sandwich was prepared to be made into a delicious morsel of satisfying grub for lunch...or maybe dinner...or maybe even breakfast. One piece of bread was laid upon the counter and in a few swift motions was smothered by delectable smooth peanut butter whilst the other slice of bread was smothered by mouth-watering raspberry jam. When the bread with the peanut butter and the bread with the jam were placed together as one it was approved of God and called a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Now behold there were some who were absolutely in love with peanut butter and had no interest in jam so both slices of bread were covered with Skippy. And then there were some who couldn't resist the mouth watering taste of the jam therefore both pieces of bread were soaked with Smuckers. WHO HATH EARS TO HEAR, LET HIM HEAR. And those reading this blog post said unto K.C., why speakest thou unto us in parables? And K.C. quoting Jesus said, "Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given." And it came to pass that for some odd reason those who made peanut butter and peanut butter sandwiches along with those who made jelly and jelly sandwiches wished with all their heart that they could call their sandwiches "peanut butter and jelly sandwiches" and fought and fought and fought (I could go on forever) for the right to call their sandwiches "peanut butter and jelly sandwiches". I say unto you all ye ends of the earth, WO WO WO unto ye residents of CA...and all ye ends of the earth... who wish to call those peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!!! For they are not so! If ye make a "like" spreaded sandwich ye are not permitted to call it a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. To you it may be delicious and you can enjoy the benefits of the sandwich thereof but IT IS NOT A PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICH! "They seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they UNDERSTAND....For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I (the Savior...not K.C.) should heal them."

So that's that! The parable makes perfect sense to me and I hope it makes sense to you too. I know that marriage between a man and a woman was and always has been ordained of God from the days of Adam until now. Everyone who is registered to vote in CA...PLEASE vote yes on Prop 8 if you wish to preserve the sacred institution of marriage. If I didn't believe in the power of marriage and family I wouldn't be married to the beautiful woman that I love so much with all my heart. Next time you make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich...ENJOY IT! And remember that it actually makes sense to name it as such.

I feel nauseous at work

For the past hour my office has been talking one sided about the issue of Prop 8. The only problem is they do not accept any of the issues that the people for the proposition stand for. They think it is an attack on them as gay people period. There is no understanding of the other side, and I feel like screaming when I hear them talking about it. And I know that if I mentioned anything they would never talk to me again, and quite possibly become more eager than they already are to get rid of me. In a sense I feel like my freedom of speech has already been limited. Work is not the place where I feel comfortable talking about your political and religious views on an election, but I still want to spread the word. When my office ventures out of the office I actually have long conversations with co-workers about the Church, and they give off a sense of respect for my values. But this issue is so touchy and I feel there is no understanding of our Yes on Prop 8 stance.
In particular a co-worker of mine that I interact with daily married his partner in June. He was saying that "If I had any friend that was voting yes on prop 8 I would consider that a personal attack and that they do not accept me as a person whom has a gay marriage." All I want to do is keep the traditional definition of marriage as was intended in the beginning and protect our rights of freedom of speech for marriage in the future.

link to video

Make sure to vote!

I LOVE NY

I luckily got to go back to NYC last week. It all started when my Mom told me she received a reunion invitation from my high school in NY. Three months later I was on the red-eye not able to sleep. Martha, my Mom and I got to the city with weak stomachs and almost made it the whole cab ride without throwing up. That is a big reason why airlines should not cut the meal on a long flight. But anyway we had a lot of fun walking about 40 blocks per day, riding every subway line and the railroad to New Rochelle, NY. We also used a lot of public bathrooms to clean-up while we were on the trip since we didn't have a hotel room right away. Some of the highlights from the trip were...

Washing our faces and brushing our teeth in the basement of the Marriott and watching a lady come in a see us with all of our luggage wide open.

Walking around Chinatown shopping for my Mom's annual wedding ring.

Looking for cute china bowls in the underground market.

Finding sweet brick walls on Thompson St. in SOHO.

Shopping for treats at Dylan's Candy Bar while Martha decided to charge her phone.

Going on a water taxi to see the "Waterfalls" show under the Brooklyn Bridge.
We had reservations to see it on a cruise but because of the rain it was canceled.

Eating delicious pizza at Grimaldis.

Getting dressed up for a night on the town with our friends Liz Smith,
and her daughter Sophia (the birthday girl).


Dinner at Asia de Cuba.

Out front Mary Poppins, after the show.

Visiting our old apartment.

Seeing our old doorman Tony.

Hearing our York Prep Headmaster say, "You girls were good girls, and real athletes. We need more girls like the Christensen twins to come to our school!" Whats up!

Martha and I hiding out from people we did not want to see at our High School reunion. These were our old lockers.

We decided instead of trucking all the way back to the hotel and changing and then coming back to our reunion we would just go in our running shoes and jeans with our hair in pony tails. Looking hot at your
high school reunions is overrated.

Hanging out in Brooklyn with Linsey, Brian, and Ivy. Wish we were neighbors!

Changing out of our church clothes and trying to see as much as possible before we had to go home.

I cannot believe how much we stuffed into a 3.5 day trip. But it was so good to go back to New York. Kc is coming the next time we make it back there and it will be his first time.