The Splendidly Imperfect Miss M!: Christmas Visit, day three

We got a pretty late start on this day. Everyone came over and I made omelettes with ham, sautéed mushrooms, and caramelized onions. We also added some of this awesome Black Diamond super sharp white cheddar that my mother in law found at Whole Foods. I hear they were good! I had tamales - didn't want them to go to waste!

After brunch, we played with the baby for a while and then he went down for a nap. Everyone decided they wanted to see a movie. I don't really care to go to the movies - I still can't get over what they cost after seeing so many for free while working there, and I hate feeling trapped in my seat because you don't want to miss something important. You end up having to choose if you want to catch it all or if you want to go pee and just be SOL on a major plot point. I generally wait to see stuff on dvd for those reasons. I told everyone to go ahead and I'd stay home with the baby. I got partially caught up on my blog reader and just hung out. It was kind of nice.

It was also a good thing they all went to the movies - that baby fell asleep 15 minutes before they left and woke up 5 minutes after they returned! They had even stopped at the store to pick up some stuff for dinner after the movie too! I guess he was just worn out from all the excitement of the previous few days.

Speaking of dinner...

My mother in law (who totally encourages my love of all things kitchen related) got me the pasta roller attachments for my KitchenAid mixer!

As soon as I unwrapped them I knew I'd be making everyone some fresh pasta before they left. I am so excited to not have to use the rolling pin and pizza cutter method that I was using before. Now, my pasta will be uniform in shape and thickness. Kick butt!

Here, I am kneading the dough (I used Pastor Ryan's recipe off the Pioneer Woman's site) and getting it to the appropriate thickness.

Here it is coming through the linguine attachment.

Piles of uncooked pasta, just waiting to be put in the Multi Pot! I made so much that I ended up having to cook it in two batches, to be safe. I was also able to put my new All Clad pasta ladle, which was also a gift from my mother in law, to good use.

I'm having visions of becoming a pasta queen here in 2010, I tell ya!

After dinner, we drove over to the LDS temple in Mesa. They set up a gorgeous light display every year for Christmas.

Not too shabby for a little point and shoot with no tripod, eh?

There are so many lights, both in front and behind the visitor's center. Bubba was in complete awe.

They had a gorgeous life sized nativity. I did notice that the baby was missing. I wonder why?

This sign cracked me up. I mean, as opposed to the dirty ones?

Bubba approved of the outing. It was pretty cold, so we had him bundled up in several layers, including Baby Legs under his jeans and teeny baby mittens, which were in my purse when I shot this photo. I also found myself in a real coat for the first time in several years. It wasn't very comfortable!

After we got home, it was time to say our goodbyes because everyone was leaving bright and early in the morning and we wouldn't get to see them again before that. It didn't take the baby long to realize that the nice people who picked him up whenever he demanded it were gone and he was left with just his mean old parents who liked to tell him "NO!" Poor kid. He had a total meltdown after about half an hour of attempting to climb our legs later that night. My husband finally calmed him down with some Charlie Brown on his iPod.

Why on the iPod, you ask? Oh, that would be because our 42" television that we paid $1000 for less than two years ago decided to DIE two days after Christmas! We bought it at Costco because everyone said they had the best warranty and you could return whatever, whenever... um, yeah. We found out that doesn't apply to electronics. They have a special "Concierge" service that you have to go through, and we may have to SHIP the stupid thing back to them for service instead of them just replacing it.