I Won!!

Yesterday, I entered a "Share and Win" contest on Facebook for the 2013 Tet Festival in Garden Grove.  Well, I won 10 tickets to it.  I am so excited!

For those who don't know, Tet is the Vietnamese (lunar) New Year.  We've never really participated in a huge celebration, so we are looking forward to it!

Link to the Garden Grove Tet Festival.

Ninja Bread Men

John saw some fun cookie cutters at a work function and decided to buy some.  After searching several stores, he finally found them at the Glendale Galleria Target. 

He and the boys made them out of sugar cookie dough.  After cooking and decorating, John brought them to church the next day for the boys in his class.

I Guess This Makes It Official

David's really a missionary.

Surprise! David Sent Us Presents!

I didn't expect to receive any gifts from David this year, but he surprised us with some unique Cambodian gifts.

CORRECTION: I did take a picture of the new tree!

Here's the old tree.

And here's the new tree!

Christmas Day 2012

Here are a few pictures from Christmas Day at our home.

Breakfast on Christmas Morning

For the first year ever, we had breakfast before opening Christmas presents.  I guess now that our kids are older they are a little more patient.

I made my mom's pig in the blankets, pancakes, two kinds of sausage, and bacon.  It was a very healthy breakfast, huh?

An Annual Tradition: Cookie Press Cookies

Just about every year, I carry on the Staten family tradition of making cookie press cookies.  This year, John and the boys did it (because I was sick).

They captured the experience on film.  Well, not literally on film, because these are digital pictures, but you get the idea.

Christmas Trees

This year, John and I spent quite a bit of time hemming and hawing about whether we should continue our tradition to cut our own tree or buy an artificial one.  I found an artificial tree I really liked, but it was $600 at Walmart (which means it would have been a lot more somewhere else). 

I couldn't see us spending $600 on a tree, so John took the boys out to buy a pre-cut tree (I was sick with a pretty bad cold that day).  They found one at Walmart for a mere $25, and it looked pretty good. 

We also decided that if the artificial tree was still at Walmart after Christmas and on sale, we'd buy it.  So off we went the morning of December 26, and it was there!

I forgot to take a picture when we set it up (to test it and make sure everything worked), but it was pretty.  You'll just have to wait until next year to see it.  :)

A Gingerbread Extravaganza!

In past years, I've hosted gingerbread parties where all the kids make gingerbread houses.  This year, I decided to make gingerbread "trees" out of star cookies.  (A friend of mine gave me the idea last year, but I didn't have it together enough to do any gingerbread anything last year.)

We invited a few families over to make the trees with us.  Here are some pictures.