Christmas Jumble

Christmas Eve, Nativity, Christmas cards, Gingerbread houses, Sascha yelling "Merry" from "It's a wonderful life," Sophie in front of the tree, Emma helping with the dishes... a lot, Phil and Sascha last minute wrapping, more helping with dishes and even Thomas is helping, Christmas crackers, Crescent rolls (they must be shaped like crescents, hence the name), Christmas table and setting, English cracker (aka Christmas cracker), Phil saved a Woman from being stuck in the snow with his bare hands and look at those muscles, Christmas presents under the tree, Bubbly (aka sparkling apple juice), eating dinner opening the crackers putting on our crowns reading the jokes (what did the beaver say to the tree? Nice gnawing you!... hardy har har) , two tables (we're too big now), Jesse's girlfriend Elisa over for Christmas Eve Dinner, Pork roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, asparagus, salad, Crescent Rolls, After dinner singing hymns, Mom reading her new Christmas book "The perfect snowman," taking turns reading from Luke (5 verses each!), reminiscing of old Christmas memories and favorite gifts, Mom singing a solo of "In the bleak mid winter" saying prayer, off to bed, Sophie and Sascha getting ready for bed. Matresses and couch so we can all sleep in the same room. Falling asleep to "Velveteen Rabbit" with George Winston music, Waking up at 8:30 because Sophie hit me in the face with her pillow on accident ("I don't love her, she hit me in the face! I hate her! ... Don't I? - "Willow"), Jesse and Elisa coming in and pillow fight. Getting ready to go up the stairs Christmas! Presents, Thomas and the hamsters, painting for Emma, frying pan for Sascha, groceries for me, Rubix Cube for Mabel, Jeans for Sophie, and many more gifts. All ate cereal and it was time for a nap by the nice warm fire. So there you have it, the rundown of the Draper Family Christmas. I am grateful for the Savior during this Christmas Season and for the spirit of giving and the love all around. I'm grateful for the gospel and the knowledge I have in this life. I'm grateful for such a wonderful family and I can't wait till next year!

Vera Jewell

Oh Christmas tree Oh Christmas tree...

Another Christmas, and another beautiful tree by mom.

St. Lucia

After years of saying we were going to celebrate this Swedish holiday we finally did. Micaela, darling Emma and Vera were able to join in the fun holiday treat. As many of you know, we Draper's have lots of Swedish blood in us and we decided to give this a go as we ate Swedish meatballs, cheese, crackers, smoked salmon and courtesy of IKEA some lingonberry jam and Juice (not my favorite). It was a splendid time sampling food from my great grandma Edla's native land. We created St. Lucia crowns out of pipe cleaners and we all dressed in various assortments of white clothing and tied a red ribbon around and of course took pictures. I have given you a sample of the cutest Lucia's of all. Vera and Emma win the prize for the most adorable. At first Emma refused to put on her long white dress but soon it became her favorite and we couldn't get it off. Oh 2 year olds... so easy to please. I am excited as we will continue this tradition in years to come. Thanks mom, it was a success!
To learn more about this holiday (because truthfully I didn't know much) I have provided a link for all ya'll
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Lucia_Day

St. Lucia

St. Lucia

St. Lucia

Hamsters

So here they are, my little family and the closest thing I have to children right now. These are my hamsters given to me for the trade of a few haircuts from my good friends Korban and Nessa.

You may be thinking, "Why in the world would someone own such a thing!" Oh come on, look at that face... Can you say no to a face like that? I think not. Ok the real reason started many years ago on a Christmas morning (at 3:00 in the morning to be exact) when Aunt Claudia came to spend Christmas with the Draper clan. Micaela woke us up claiming that Mom and Dad told us to open our presents without them. We ran downstairs where to my delight I had a little pet hamster. Now after about a half hour Aunt Claudia (refusing to open any presents) said "Shouldn't we still wait for your parents?" At which point Sascha had run upstairs and got Mom and Dad and needless to say Dad sent us all to our rooms and was pretty bugged as you can imagine when he saw that is was actually 3 in the morning. Aunt Claudia recalls feeling like she was being punished as well for being sent to her room. I know I don't have even half of the facts completely straight on that story but that doesn't matter. The thing is I couldn't go back to sleep for fear of my hamster being afraid, alone in the dark. That introduces you to Lisa, my pet hamster. Years have past and pets have come and gone and I haven't had any for the longest time. So when my friends told me that I could have two of their hamster babies I was very excited and I specifically asked for a boy and a girl because it might be fun to have babies one day. So here I am with 6 more hamsters. I've had to keep them a secret for about a month now because for Christmas I gave two to Thomas. Thomas has promptly named them Frances and Carl. It's another Merry Christmas with Hamsters. p.s. if you'd like to purchase a hamster from me I have 4 more at the price of 5 dollars each. Thanks for listening to my boring story.

Wow!

I found these on MSN homepage from around the world and I just had to say Wow! That is amazing. I wish I could create something like that out of snow or ice. Tell me what you think.

Llama Face

Sorry this is random but come on, isn't that cute? such a cute llama

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESSE!!!

Jesse,
I love you so much and I just wanted to wish you a happy birthday. You are an amazing friend and example to me. I can't wait till your book comes out I will brag all day long about you because I'm so proud http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=the+unvalentine&z=y
I have always looked up to you Jesse and I love that I can always ask you anything at anytime and you will be completely %100 honest with me. I am greatful you served a mission and I know that the people of Russia were blessed for meeting you. I hope that you will have the best birthday possible because I love you and you deserve everything that's great in this life. You're amazing!
Love,
Lizzie

Thankful

Another Thanksgiving and there are so many things I'm thankful for.
The Gospel, the Savior Jesus Christ, the atonement, the temple, the prophet, Dad, Mom, Mica, Phil, Emma, Vera, Jesse, Toby, Sascha, Mabel, Sophie, Thomas, My Grandparents on both sides, my "Big Fat Greek Wedding" size extended family, DJ, Photographs, food, hot baths, singing, music, sting, Itunes, drums, warm clothes, free rent (thanks to g-ma & g-pa Draper), German pancakes, Swedish pancakes, pizza, finishing school, paying tithing, going to hockey games, reading more than one book at a time, my sister (sascha) and her constantly cleaning of the apartment, my friends I've made at work (Ian, Christy...), Kristi Libutti, my cousins serving missions, my brother serving a mission, movies, Gilmore Girls, the Cambridge Choir and John Rutter, the Holladay 30th ward, the millions of friends I made at Bon Losee, My brother Jesse (it's his birthday today), the mountains, the Provo canyon, Sundance, the Alpine Loop, Cascade Springs, America, Freedom, (although some people hate him) President Bush), my car, my life and I could go on and on (in no particular order) this is such an amazing time to be alive and I am so grateful for the ride!

Happy Thanksgiving

Photographer

For a long time I have wanted to be a photographer and that dream is almost a reality. I am in the long process of creating a portofolio. One of the main reasons it has taken me so long is I have a film camera only, I have been going to hair school for the past 2+ years and sadly, some poor self motivation but hey guess what! Life's short and I realize it's time to pick up my feet and start going on this "dream" of mine. I think now that I'm done with school (finally... sigh) it's time to take some more technical classes on photography. I am the kind of photographer who I think was gifted with an artistic sense of composition, however there is a whole lot more to the photography than that. I need to know lighting, equipment, what all those crazy buttons on the camera mean... When I am speaking with other photographer's they will say things like "Yeah I have a double wammi d52 blah blah blah kind of camera" and I just simply smile and nod and pretend like I know what the heck they are talking about! It's so sad, I need to learn more. But I am armed with a dream and I am ready to go out there and be a great photographer and hey I even have some good pictures already!
So wish me luck, here I go!

Sister! Sister!

Fall Fashion

My School had a fashion show called "Fall Fashion" Here are some pictures. I was so happy I got to pick my own outfits.

"A Happy Day at Grandma's house"

My sister used to say "Have a happy day at grandma's house" and that's exactly the kind of day I had. I got a call this morning from my dear grandma and she was requesting that I do her hair today. She informed me however that I was to not come through the front door but the back. She has for the first time in "20 years" cleaned her carpet so it was quite important for me to not track in leaves, dirt or anything else that might happen by walking on the newly cleaned carpet. I love doing my grandma's hair. We talk and laugh during the process and she constantly checks to make sure that the rollers are properly rolled onto her hair and that they have the right tightness. Now grandma, of course it will fall out if you keep touching it. After rolling her hair into rollers, giving it an extra spritz of water and hairspray, I proceeded to eat my chicken pot pie (delicious) that I brought over and then to make Oatmeal Fudgeez. Grandma and I have decided this is now how we are to spell these delectable desserts. These consist of Peanut butter, chocolate and Oatmeal and they are so good that almost everytime i'm over there I am requested to make them. She was very good this time and wrote down the recipe which I have commited to memory.

Oatmeal Fudgeez:

3/4 cup Sugar

1/3 cup Cocoa

1/4 cup Milk

tbs butter ( I think, please correct me if I'm wrong)

mix together in saucepan into a sauce, turn on heat make sure not to burn (remind me to never write a recipe book)

Then add

1/2 cup PB

after mixing in the peanut butter, add

tsp Vanilla (the best is Mexican Vanilla but that's almost impossible to get, unless you have a friend down there)

then turn off heat and add

1 1/2 cup Oatmeal or more if you want.

So that's my wonderful recipe for my favorite quick little treat. if it's too confusing then call me.

So after eating 2 or three I decided to take on the task of teaching granny dearest the use of the internet.

So she now has a new e-mail address and we succesfully e-mailed my sister Micaela and to our excitement Mica wrote back!!!

I even gave grandma a quiz.

step one: double click Internet Explorer (grandma if you are reading this, you have passed!)

step two: Click on favorites (it's the one w/ the star next to it)

step three: click gmail!

She did quite well. I give her an A.

The next step was to add all the kiddies (that I know of) blogs onto her favorites.

After this wonderful accomplishment of learning the internet grandma made me watch the Utah Jazz game and scolded me for not keeping up on my sports and warning me that "You'll get boring and no boy will want to date you." I'm already in trouble for last time the BYU game was on.

I love my grandma, we are dear dear friends and I love every minute I spend with her. She is an amazing example of someone who lives the gospel and she has raised a wonderful family. I miss my grandpa Lee but I know he's looking down on us from heaven and he probably still chuckles at grandma.

Love you Grandma!

Halloween Competion and Last Day

Captain Jack Sparrow

Halloween and Last Day of School

Ok so these Posts will not be in order for a little while because I'm very behind and mixed up. These two pictures are from my last day of school and we had a Halloween competition. We have the classic vampire with scary red eyes and for all you kids out there we have Nemo and Dori. I think that everyone was very creative and clever. There will be more pictures.

My Creative Outlet.

I've decided that I need a creative outlet.
I've had a blog in the past but it was kind of lame to say the least. This is my attempt again.