Thanksgiving in sunny Las Vegas

Our family once again traveled to Vegas for the Thanksgiving holiday. Of nearly 21 years of marriage we have been in Vegas for 18 of them! That's a lot of travelin' and memories thru the years:) This was an "on" year which means that instead of going to the in-laws everyone comes fo the Hafen House. There are a few like us who our "on" every year. The weather was perfect for an outdoor feast (in the 70's) and we had a great time!

Here's Pete, Vickie, Paul, Terri, and Deanna. Paul, mom, and Terri getting some dessert!

Gary with his cousins Jake and Sam. They're getting ready to play a round of horseshoes!

Tory, Gabby, and Nicole my cute nieces pose for a picture.

Grandma and Grandpa Hafen hosted the party.

Here's Gary playing horseshoes........

...and getting one stuck in the tree:)

For the past 6 years Rick and I have made a tradition of taking the cousins out for a movie and dinner on Black Friday.

Not everyone can come but we always have a great time with those that do.

Here they are posing with the chipmunks. Zach especially likes Alvin!

Adam and Ryan couldn't make it to the movie but they did join us for dinner. Macayo's is one of our fav's! What a great group of kids! We sure love 'em! Peace Out!!

Well it's time to update even though there is just not much going on. A few weeks ago our good friend Bernice Castagno had her 88th birthday! I baked a cake and we enjoyed being together. Here's Bernice, me, Rick, and Grandma Fern who is staying at our home this month! I baked Bernice a cake to which I added an 8 and 7 in candles on top. She let me know that this is her 88th b-day NOT her 87th. How did I miss that? My bad. Either way she sure does get around incredibly well for her age. She is a great friend to our family. Only 12 more years 'til the BIG one!!:) Here she's blowing out the candles!

On Friday, Rick and I drove to American Fork to take Kendra to lunch. She had found this cute little place called Dough Boys and Flour Girls. They have great soups and sandwiches and we each had a homebaked dessert. Rick a Cream Puff, Me a Cinnamon Roll, and Ken a Pumpkin Bar. I had actually seen this company at a craft fair last year. What a cute name for a bakery! After lunch we stopped at Mandalyn Academy and Rick got his monthly waxing of the nose and ears. I am sooooo tempted to put the pictures of him on for all to see 'cause it is hilarious but I better not. I still want to be married tomorrow HAHA!

Kendra treated me to a back treatment and a facial (LOVE LOVE THESE)! Afterwards, Rick and I went to Tai Pan, Modern Display, and Costco to get some holiday decorating ideas. I loved the upside down tree at Modern Display! I love the lime green and bright red they used to decorate with. Can you imagine though to actually have an upside down tree? The trees there are a mere 3-4 thousand dollars! Who buys these trees anyway? Drug Dealers? Clearly these things are out of our budget. I just go for the ideas and you know what? Nothin'. I have no knew ideas for this years decor. That's ok. I'll live:)

Oh, I have some way exciting news. For our ward party (I'm the activities chair in our ward----3 years now) we are doing something a bit different. We are having a Christmas in Nauvoo theme and it'll hopefully be a big success but anyhow we are going to have the back part of the cultural hall decorated like an old fahioned town square. I have been thinking I would love to have a couple of old-fashioned store fronts to add to the look and I had no idea where I would find them and for cheap. (Ward Budgets are sometimes slim) Well yea!! I stopped by Hale Theatre and a fellow took me to their warehouse and I found some! He's going to give me 4 facades plus 4 lanterns for 50 bucks. Best deal of the week!

Well for not doing much I sure have rambled on. I am going to try to take my camera with me more often. Especially this week. It's Thanksgiving and we're headed to Vegas!

The Craft Fair

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I've blogged. Last week was the craft fair in Vegas. Kendra and I took off on Monday after she got out of school and drove as far as St. George to stay with my sister Deanna. We got to Vegas about 1:00 and went to my other sister Terri's house where the craft show has been for about 6 years. My 2 brothers wives have put the show on for about 9 years and it has grown each year. When we got there I was surprised to see that nearly all the tables were FULL! I knew they were going to be setting up that day but WOW they were nearly done when I got there. This meant that I had to squeeze my stuff into small places. They were trying to make room for me but what do you do when the tables are full? Anyhow, I tried to get at least 1 of each thing that I made on display. The rest went under the tables until people started buying stuff and created more room.
The show didn't actually start until Wed. evening and there was a pretty good turn out. I helped my niece Mandy on the register. It's really fun to see people that I grew up with. Kathy and Vickie (my sis-in-laws) did a great job! It is a whole lot of work to put a show on of that magnitude. I know that with the economy people don't buy as much and that was evident but I still believe it was successful for them. I have no idea how much I sold and how much I am bringing back at Thanksgiving. If there is a lot of C-mas stuff left over I might have a little boutique here at my home like I have done in years past. Otherwise, I can use them as gifts! Oh yeah, I hardly sold any clocks:( My mom (she's so good to me) bought a large one and a small one even though I know she didn't need any. I actually brought all the big ones back home with me 'cause I was worried they would get broken. There so cute! How could anyone not want one. I know the price was steep at $60 and $65. But that's how much I felt they were worth!! Anyhow I enjoyed visiting with family and I always have a good time with Kendra:)
Since Fern has come to stay for the month of November and I left the day she came. I want to thank Ruth, Rick, and Kaitlyn for filling in for me while I was gone. They made this little trip possible! I didn't get home until Friday evening so really it was a blessing that I could make the trip. Can you believe I didn't take one picture?
Now that I'm home it's back to the old riggamarrow. This week is our games and pie night for the adults in our ward. On our sign up sheets I entitled it "Adult Games and Pie Night" Later, as I was looking at it I thought Hmm.. I hope people don't get the wrong idea. Adult games. What could that be? I think it's going to be fun! We had a GREAT crowd there last year. We'll see how it goes. Alrighty then....I'm outta here! This one's for you Teresa!