Final Travel Touches

Getting ready to travel for any amount of time takes planning. When you're going to be gone for nearly a month I feel like the planning and preparing is infinitely more detailed and dizzying. Here's some of my trip planning list...

• clean the house (and good so I don't feel like I need to clean it again when I get back)
  
• get all borrowed baby clothes washed and given back to the mother who is due any day with her new little baby boy.
• finish sewing a book I made for a lady in my ward as a Christmas gift for her daughter.
• Bake Christmas cookies for our close friends in the ward.
• Mail off gifts for siblings
• Decide what a three month old will need for three weeks.

Anyway, the list goes on so it's pretty hectic around our place. Just touching on a few of the above. While Aaron's was studying for finals I was finishing the book I made for a friend's daughter. I love to book bind. It was a hobby I found at BYU when my friend Lindsay told me I should take the class. I haven't really made a book in over two years. This particular book made me branch out and learn new techniques, but it turned out great and I'm really upset at myself for not taking pictures of it. I'm really proud of that book! Anyway that took a good six hours to sew the pages together let alone the covering the boards. . . too many details.

Next on my list besides the cleaning was to bake ginger cookies for our close friends before we leave on Tuesday. I found an awesome recipe for Big Soft Ginger Cookies and was so excited to try it. Anyway, since the dough is dark and I couldn't tell by color if they are done, the first batch was gooey and the next was burnt. So one day was taken up baking with nothing to give our friends. "DARN IT ALL".

Saturday was our ward party. One of my favorite events of the year. This year was especially wonderful! The program was great and the young women did the 12 days of Christmas song and each table was a different day. We were seven swans a swimming and had swan hats which we wore and pretended to swim around the table. It was great and after the song was over they chose a winner for the best table. Of course it was us. We were VERY enthusiastic. Alas, I ALWAYS forget to take a camera to ward events!

Well, today I woke up at 4:30 for a very congested little tyke who was having a hard time breathing through his nose which made it hard for him to keep his Binky so he wouldn't sleep...etc., I made round two of ginger cookie dough (which turned out so much better after chilling it while we were at church and using water on my hands to keep the dough from sticking to them as I rolled them), I started a very yummy peppered pork loin in the crock pot for dinner, we had a series of back and forth from home to church for meetings and forgotten items, and we had tithing settlement.

Oh tomorrow is another day! I'm glad that Aaron will be done with finals by lunch because it's big business from there until we leave ;)