Christmas parties and a family tradition

Zack and I have so many parties tomorrow and the next week. It is so fun having our family close by so we can go to all of them. Tomorrow we are hanging out with the Sweets, then we have the Keith party then we have my work Christmas party which is at Christopher's in Salt Lake City. I am really excited for the work party because Christopher's is a five star restaurant and I have heard the food is amazing. I ordered Salmon which I am excited to try, I love Salmon.
I am excited to be celebrating Christmas with my husband. We have some fun traditions we have started between us two that I will post about next week. One of the traditions we have is going to see the lights at thanksgiving point. We met at thanksgiving point so it brings back lots of memories of dating, falling in love and getting engaged. The lights are so pretty and its fun to drive through them with my hubby at my side.
Here are some pictures of the lights they have up:

The lights are really fun so if you are looking for a new family tradition I would definitely recommend going to Thanksgiving point. It's $8.00 per car.
Well until next time. Happy Friday
XO
Caitlin

New Years Eve party ideas and a free printable

I know it isn't quite Christmas yet, but Zack and I are hosting a New Years Eve party this year and I am sending out the invitations Monday. I started browsing the www for ideas on design and saw some really cute cards out there. Since I designed my own I wanted to share my ideas for the party and the cards with you all. Etsy had some really great cards but I didn't want to spend $15.00 when I knew I could just design something similar. Here is the front of the invitation

Standard yet functional and cute, I am loving that gold is such a trendy color right now. We are going to decorate our apartment gold and silver for the party so incorporating these colors into the design of the invitation created an easy theme to play off of. Here is the back of the invitation

I added our address in the blank line and my phone number underneath the RSVP section. I thought the invitations turned out pretty cute and I am excited to mail them off Monday. So if you are a friend of ours and find one in your mail box make sure and come, it should be lots of fun. 

My favorite New Years Eve appetizer is Jalapeno Poppers, they are so yummy (found in the frozen food isle) and easy to cook. I am sure we will be cooking some for the party. I also created some fun new years resolution cards to use that night as well. Everyone can write down one goal and take it home. They are the same size as business cards and fit 10 to a page. 

Here is a close up of what it looks like. The above picture is a littler blurry:

(Get your free resolution cards here)

This printable is only going to be free until my etsy shop opens sometime before January 2014

These will be great to use as conversation starters and as a fun way to get to know someone. Zack is inviting some of his friends from high school and I am inviting some of my friends so not everyone in the room will know each other. We are excited to be hosting the party this year and I will post more ideas later as it comes closer to the party.

For now I have to focus back on Christmas and finish up our Christmas shopping. We are having a pretty low key Christmas but it should still be a lot of fun, we also have a few Christmas parties this week and next so it will be busy. I will post some of our Christmas traditions in the next few days as well, we have a few that we have started between the two of us and a few that we have carried on from our childhood. 

Well have a great rest of your Tuesday

XO

Caitlin

Finals Week

I kind of love finals week. Not that I love taking tests but I love the feeling of accomplishment. Finals week definitely brings me a sense of accomplishment. I passed my hardest class yet, which is the best news I received today. I have one more test tomorrow and a paper due Friday. I am not done yet but I already have the feelings of accomplishment sinking in and I am proud of the work I did this semester.
It was a busy one for me with 15 credits, but it needed to be done. Next semester is my last and it is only 12 credits, so a much easier work load and only one of those classes is actually required for graduation in April. The rest I am taking just as electives and for fun.
It feels so surreal to be this close to the end. I honestly am having a hard time believing it because it has taken me so long to get to this point. I graduated high school in 2006, so to think that it would take me 7 years until I graduated with my bachelors degree is so odd. Of course I served a mission in 2009 and was gone for 18 months. That gave me a little bit of a break. Overall it took me 10 semesters to finish my bachelors degree, 5 years which is average for most undergraduate students.
There were so many times I wanted to quit, let me tell you. I always had a job during school, whether it was full time or part time I was always working and paying my way through college. The last few semesters I was able to qualify for grants and have the government pay for tuition which was so nice. I remember having some of the hardest classes and toughest teachers. I have met some wonderful people who have helped me stay on track to graduate and I can't wait to have a big graduation party with all of them. I am just so grateful that I have gotten to this point in life and although it's not the end yet, I can feel the end coming near and it's exciting to see that happening.
I am so grateful for Zack, he's such a wonderful husband and I could not have accomplished all of this without him. He is working full time to pay most of the bills so I could finish my degree, he has sacrificed a lot for this and I am grateful he loves me enough to want to see me successful. Now that I am done with my toughest class of the semester, I feel like I can relax and focus on some upcoming projects I have in mind. I need to clean out our study closet (it's a huge mess, just wait until you see the before pictures, they are awful), clean off my desk and organize it better, organize the study room in general, and organize my closet. I have a lot of things I have to get done in the three weeks of Christmas break and I am excited to get started on all the projects.
With that being said, have a happy finals week this week. I will post more later this week.
XO
Caitlin

Christmas Games

Zack and I have some fun news (no we aren't pregnant). We just got an assignment in our church to teach the 9 turning 10 year olds. We are really excited for this opportunity and think that it will be a lot of fun. Of course teaching 9 year olds for 60 minutes is a lot to take on. Their attention spans don't last that long so I am coming up with some creative outlets to use during class. Keep in mind it is church so I want to keep it focused on the Savior. For a fun Christmas activity we thought this game would be great to get their minds rolling. 

(source)

Can you guess some of the answers? 

Or I thought that LDS Christmas bingo might be fun:

(Source)

And I could never forget some good LDS Christmas coloring work sheets. 

(Source)

These are just a few of the ideas I saw on Pinterest that I thought I could use with the kids in our class, maybe as an activity before the spiritual lesson, etc. 

Hopefully they will like it and if you have a few Christmas parties coming up you can use these ideas for your families and friends. 

Now its back to studying for finals. I have one paper, and two tests to go and then I am done for the year. Very exciting stuff. 

XO

Caitlin