2013 at a Glance

I wanted to make a cool infographic, but it was more frustrating than I initially thought. Prezi to the rescue! The more I use Prezi, the more I like it! Click on any pictures, boxes, or texts that interest you to get a closer look.

In many ways, this year has been a year of liberation and freedom. From unhealthy relationships, bad habits, from limitations I placed on myself. 2013 began with grief--Grandpa's death, sickness, and breaking off my first relationship; but the sun came out too bringing with it, new love, grand adventures, and fresh joy. My Mama said back in March, "It's good to hear you laughing again." A lot of joy and laughter has returned to my life after an absence I didn't realize was there. It was a rough start, but lots of good things happened in 2013 and I think I'm gonna miss this year.

Culinary Adventures: Croissants Pt. 2

The croissants turned out beautifully! Before they went in the oven, they looked like this:

They came out like this:

And we still have another half of the dough in the freezer! I couldn't have been more pleased with how they turned out! I plan to roll out the rest of the dough after Jake gets back so he can have a taste too. Dad and I want to make a lot more ham and cheese ones:

Because they are perfect for breakfast! Next time, I think I will give the dough an extra turn so it has more layers. On the whole, a smashing success!

P.S. I've been having some trouble posting with blogger lately, but I'm hoping the issue will be worked out soon! In the meantime, please don't mind any formatting discrepancies.

Culinary Adventures: Croissants Pt. 1

Today, I tried my hand at croissant dough!

Now croissants are actually made from what is called a "laminated" dough and it has many many layers of butter and dough from folding and rolling and folding and rolling it. When I first proposed the venture to my mom a few months ago, she cautioned me against the dough's difficulty, but when I actually got around to it, it wasn't terribly difficult. It just takes a lot of time and patience!

You have to refrigerate the dough a lot between turns so the butter doesn't get too melty, so it's been an all-day affair. I probably won't be able to bake them until later tonight or tomorrow. But...

So far so good!

Hour of Coding

What does Misha do with her free time?

a. she sleeps

b. she reads

c. she learns how to do computer programming

d. all of the above

Christmas Wreath

Made using: Khan Academy Computer Science.

If you chose d, you would be correct! Since vacation began, I have been taking advantage of the opportunity to sleep late, read for pleasure, and this afternoon, I learned how to code some basic shapes with JavaScript! Though I am not especially anxious to learn coding (not being a computer geek like my brother) coding is on my list of things to learn eventually so I can someday realize the chicken scratch ideas that are Bird's Eye View. I may not be that much closer to coding Bird's Eye View, but this is a fun little project and a nice intro to coding. Check it out if you're interested. I made a wreath!

P.S. No stats for today, because I have something special Stats-esque posting before the new year!

Christmas Eve on Mt. Lemmon

It is usually our custom to go up on Mt. Lemmon to play in the snow every year on Christmas Eve. This year, however, Dad had to work and he couldn't take us, so we went up by ourselves! There was not very much, but the snow was compact-ible enough for snowballs and snowmen. But mostly, we just hung out and kicked around the fluffy stuff. We also brought Dad's nice camera for higher quality pictures. Unfortunately, we are not high-quality photographers, but we manged to get a number of good photos!

Ever since I learned the rule of thirds, I've been trying to incorporate it into my pictures. So far, it's going okay. I could probably learn a lot from a basic photography class!

The three of us had fun though, and that's all that matters. This evening, we had our Christmas Eve service where my Mandolin debuted for my favorite folksy Christmas song, "Oh What a Beautiful City." Cam and I sang with the Coffin family and it all sounded so beautiful!! That family is a regular choir! We had 50 people turn out to the service, making it our most successful since we began! Numbers aside, I think the most precious part is singing carols together. What a great way to close out the night before celebrating Christ's birth tomorrow!

Photoshoot

Earlier this month, Kerri got her siblings (and the girlfriends, and a few family friends) together to take pictures, which she printed and framed for miss Jessica's Christmas gift. Now that Christmas is over, I can post them. Here are some of the best ones:

Group. Photos:

The siblings:

The boys:

The girls:

And of course, me and Jake:

Merry Christmas!!!

Behold the Christmas damage! Actually, this is only half of the damage-- after we cleaned up the paper and mom and I had already put our gifts away. 

Like most years, we completely failed to take any pictures during the ceremonial unwrapping of the gifts. Here are some of the day's highlights:

• Cameron jolting me out of deep sleep at 7:30am with "Misha it's Christmas!!!!"
• The gifts: Mom's new tablet, Cameron's pogo stick and ukulele, Dad's Bluetooth stereo, and for me, lots of lip gloss!!!
• We were totally finished unwrapping before 8:30am
• Lounging on the couch with a mug of English Breakfast tea and reading a new book Never Eat Alone (review post pending soon)
• Talking to Ishta on the phone!
• Jake's and my first Christmas "together" (in a relationship)
• In case you are wondering he got me an assortment of little stuff that's totally "me"
• I got him a nice t-shirt and a French-English dictionary for his pending trip to France
• Huge game of Munchkin with three expansion packs 
• Homemade cheesecake à la mama

Somuchlove! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!!