Family Resemblance?

My family must have mostly dominant traits because we have a very strong resemblance to each other. I never really noticed it in my extended family, but today I saw this picture of my cousin making some delicious tamales for Christmas.
Can you tell which one is my cousin?

Maybe this is just in my head,really, is it just me, or does my cousin totally look like me?

Either way, (she'll hate me for calling her out like this!) she is so beautiful- you'd never guess she'd been slaving away for HOURS upon HOURS. Have you ever made tamales? Hard work! And yet, still so lovely!

Bribery?

I think you better get your "A" game on Mr. Ratliff.

Flashbacks to 5th grade

October, 5th grade: I won the honor of Best Haunted House in our much anticipated graham cracker Halloween project. Mostly I incorporated all the other kids' ideas that I liked into one haunted mansion. I felt bad for winning, and still remember my friends mom making me feel better by telling me that the talent to improve an existing idea is very impotant in society, and a lot of the best developments in civilization have been making something good into something better. Many years later, I still don't feel very original, but still have fun building on the shoulders of more creative folks.

Dec 2008: In a more relaxed, non-competitive setting, we combined with some folks for family night and made Christmas houses. I think I should do elementary school crafts more often!

Thanksgiving!!!

We went to Idaho for Thanksgiving, and it was SO fun! My mom decided we would have a Hawaiian theme, so we dawned bright floral prints and shell necklaces (thanks to Tzenni)



We even ate a pineapple for good measure. No luau, but James did try smoking a turkey, which was a hit!
Otherwise, the food was the traditional thanksgiving feast! I was in charge of potatoes and rolls so:

Mashed potatoes tip #1
Use your apple corer/peeler/slicer to peel potatoes. So much easier, and even fun enough to get plenty of little helpers to volunteer!

Mashed potatoes tip #2
Do you think we should add more butter?
The answer is always "YES!"

Rolls: Rhodes frozen roll dough is awesome! Brush with butter to fake out the picky eaters.
The Gals went to Walmart to develop the family picture, and played a fun game while we waited. We divided into teams and picked random things to fill the cart, then traded carts and had a race to see which team could put their items away the quickest. It was HARD, but fun! I guess we are a pretty competitive group of girls because we really pulled out all the stops to confuse each other, but luckily we were still friends at the end of the day.













My old roommate joined us for Thanksgiving! Hooray- I love Bates! This is she and Tzenni helping me scope out good light for the family pic.