Merry Christmas!

I've heard of people who are playing Christmas music and who've put up their trees. We have not done any of that yet at the Gunther household. None of that sounds ridiculous to us, but I guess we're a little silly ourselves since we "celebrated" Christmas tonight as we opened up our Christmas present. Opened up our Christmas present? Yep! We have been saving for a while for a piano. After much research and thought, we decided on the Yamaha P85. It's a nice digital piano with weighted keys so that it feels like a real piano. Justus and I had a great time putting the stand, bench, and pedals together (and when I say Justus and I, I really mean Justus). It plays well and we're excited to have it in our home!

Family: Isn't it about Cub Scouting?

Justus recently had a small change of calling within our ward. Two weeks ago he was helping with the eleven year-old scouts and now he's shifting gears slightly for the Webelos (10 year-old cub scouts). It's a little bit of a change, but it's nice to have Justus in cub scouts with me (I'm currently the Wolf Leader). Each month we have a pack meeting for the cub scouts and their families. We really try to involve families as much as we can with scouting. This past Saturday, we went on a Cub Scout Hike on the North side of South Mountain (for you non-Arizona people it may sound a little confusing, but we really do have a mountain named South Mountain). We chose to hike on the Javelina trail (and yes, you can really see Javelina there if you're lucky) and ended up hiking over four miles. No injuries, no crying, no lost cub scouts and therefore, a success!

My first apple pie

My FIRST all on my own from scratch apple pie! I was really excited to make this pie and it turned out super delicious! Although, to be honest, while I was peeling and cutting the apples I just kept squeezing on the lemon juice without keeping track. After I finished with the apples, I forgot to drain out the excess lemon juice and instead of a sweet apple pie, it was a "sour" apple pie. Justus said he loved it and I'm not about to accuse my husband of lying. Notice in the "after" picture, the placement of the First Presidency. I actually really keep this picture on my kitchen counter :)

Justus' Craft

Justus and I are both currently serving in our ward's cub scout pack. I've also been volunteered to help out with our district's round table each month. This month at roundtable they had a whole bunch of crafts for leaders to do with their scouts. One of the crafts was a peanut reindeer. The example had the peanut just as the head, but Justus chose to make the whole peanut a whole reindeer. He is very proud of his reindeer and asked me to post a picture of it.

Christmas Advent Calendar

At the "Super Saturday" relief society meeting this morning I made an advent calendar for Christmas. I'm pretty proud of it and wish I could say that I came up with the idea. You take 24 plastic jewel containers with screw on tops (I found a pack of twenty four at Michael's) and put magnetic strips on the backs. To decorate the containers you punch out 24 circles out of scrapbook paper, and then punch out the numbers. We printed out the numbers and used a small circle punch this time. You use a glue stick to stick the numbers on the scrapbook paper circles and then simply push the circles into the top lid of the container (the circles should be a little big so that they stay in place without moving around). For the board, we took shelving from Lowe's or Home Depot and cut into the boards. A coat of red paint and a metal shingle (also from Lowe's or Home Depot (roofing section)) screwed on after it dries nearly completes the look. I'm not sure where the vinyl phrase came from, but that how's we put on the "Countdown to Christmas." Pictures below!