First Christmas

Welp it's happened again. December has come all too quickly. No matter how slow the rest of the year goes November seems to happen in a blink and then BAM! it's December. This year we've already got a couple of traditions going and I simply love each one of them.

1. Christmas Change

 

This is something Cody actually came up with himself and since we started dating I was let in on the fun. The rules are simple: Find some kind of container that for the whole year you deposit your spare change in (this is mostly pocket change). Then on the first of December count said change. You have from the 1st to the 31st of the month to spend said change. But this change must not be used in any way responsible (bills, groceries etc). Some things we spend Christmas change on: Sonic limeades during Happy Hour, Fast Food treats, Big Al's (a local bowling alley/arcade), etc etc. We've taken to separating out the pennies and using them whenever we come across a charity bell ringer outside of a store. At the end of the month, the money you haven't spent goes to the first charity bell ringer you find. It's that simple! I mostly make Cody pay the cashier because I know some cashiers hate when kids show up with a bunch of change they have to count. But people mostly have a good attitude, some even find it amusing. At least we still have quarters.. it gets really bad when you're counting out dollars in dimes and nickels..
This years loot: $125... and we've been enjoying every penny!

2. Treebeard

 

Cody had the amazing idea that instead of going down and cutting down a tree, or getting a fake tree (which Cody wanted but I forbade it) that we look into getting a live Christmas tree that after the season is over you plant in your backyard! I love love loved this idea and his mom told us they had them at Fred Meyer's. So this is the new member of our family, Treebeard. He's wearing a sea turtle ornament we got in Hawaii on our Honeymoon. Hopefully planting him goes well and for years to come we'll get to take pictures next to our very first Christmas tree!

3. DIY Decorations With My Mom

My mom came to me last month and asked if I wanted to make Thanksgiving decorations for my house. I enthusiastically said yes! It went so well that we found some fun little crafts we could do together for Christmas. The funny thing is my mom has a huge storage of crafting supplies that whatever project (yes, mostly all from Pinterest) we choose she just happens to have everything we need! It's awesome!
This year we made Popsicle stick snowflakes:

Christmas Trees made from String:

and some Santa Buckets.. I've included the steps on how to make your very own one of these cute little guys. The other two projects' tutorials you can find on my DIY Pinterest Board

and wa-lah! Put it all together and you get another piece of Christmas to decorate your house with!

Mine is on the left, Mom's is on the right

I've also impressed myself with ordering my Christmas cards that I plan to send out by the end of the week. In other news I've been very busy in the world of job searching. I'm so blessed that my dad ran into one of our friends from church that's in a different ward. She works for an unemployment company called WorkSource. It's government ran and has these awesome workshops about identifying your skills & abilities, resumes and interviewing. She's been my personal job coach and has been an absolute life saver. Being able to work with her instead of some stranger has helped make this whole process SO much better. She's even taught some workshops and being hilarious she definitely made the three hours of each workshop go by so much faster. Somebody in my parent's ward told my mom that her credit union was hiring so I dropped off an application last Monday and went in today to take a couple of evaluations and I'll find out Wednesday if I get to the next round. Then the first day going to WorkSource Jennifer got me hooked up with another employee who's finding a pool of candidates to work at a new Grocery Outlet which I interview for tomorrow. The ironic thing is my nanny family's house, the credit union and this grocery outlet are all located on the SAME ROAD about half an hour from our house... I really wish there could've been something closer but man something wants me to work over there!
There's really no discouragement around. I feel hopeful that I'll find something that I'll enjoy doing and will be a good fit. I really do hope the credit union job works out though ;)

oh yeah and it's my birthday in TWO DAYS!!!
look out for a birthday post cause we have great things planned!