Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time

First off, I don't care how many people speak ill of it- I like that Paul McCartney Christmas song. Now that that's out of the way, I can share that I got my final GPA for my first semester- 4.0! Woohoo! I'm not a dullard! But, on to more important things like Christmas. Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, can you believe it? This year has whizzed by so quickly. All of our gifts are wrapped and under the tree. This year I got Josh a new cozy robe, some pajamas, a hilarious graphic novel from one of my new pals on Twitter, a video game he had on his wish list, and the second season of Kids In The Hall on DVD. I'm excited to see him open all his presents! And he wrapped up lots of goodies for me, so I'm excited to open some too.

Tonight we'll be having dinner with our awesome friend Diggy, in for the holidays from San Francisco. I can't wait to watch his latest short film that he's bringing to us, and pepper him with questions all about his next big idea. Tomorrow I've got to get some groceries for our holiday festivities. I'll do a little baking and then we'll be headed to Josh's mom's for Christmas Eve dinner.

Christmas morning my mom, brother and his family will be coming over for breakfast and gift opening. Then Josh and I will have a little time to relax and marvel at how blessed we are before we head off to his dad's house for even more blessings! Some of his stepmother's relatives will be in from Rochester and we'll have a nice evening of snacks, champagne, visiting, and Bananagrams. My father-in-law has been talking big about how he's going to kick all our butts, so I've got my game-face ready to meet his challenge!

I hope that everyone has a great holiday, with friends and family close and lots of wonderful memories made!

Heralding the Holidays

Ah, I've finally reached the weekend. Things haven't gone just as I was hoping this week; still lots of work to be done on my final English paper and put my Math test off until Tuesday, so I've got a lot of school work to do this weekend before things get wrapped up next week. Yesterday was so rough that by the time I got home I was completely done in. I showered, put on my pajamas, and immediately got into bed. Josh got home to find me reading the new issue of Real Simple that had come in the mail. He did chores, gave me some snuggles, then fed me yummy Spinach & Feta pizza. That husband of mine really is the best. And of course last night's Conan episode really cheered me up too. Did you guys see She & Him? Totally amazing.

I managed to finish almost all of my Christmas shopping this week, and almost all of it on Monday as a matter of fact! Between a BIG Amazon order, which should be arriving today, and a shopathon with Mom I pretty much just have stocking stuffers left to buy. I do however still have all those gifts to wrap- yoinks! But that'll be waiting until I'm done with my school work next week.

Today has been quite a bit better. I got some work done and it's been quite in the office. But, even better than that, this evening Josh and I are going to participate in one of my favorite holiday traditions we've started. We'll be getting our Christmas tree after work, and we decorate it while watching The Muppet Christmas Carol and over a dinner of fish & chips, Old Speckled Hen, and some bread pudding for dessert. The Muppet Christmas Carol is one of my most favorite holiday movies (although I do have a lot of favorites, ha) and I haven't even let myself watch it yet, so I get to see it for the first time this season. I hope everyone else is having fun getting into the holiday spirit!

Christmas Plans

The past week or so I've been trying to decide what decorations I would like to buy for Christmas this year. I cleaned out a lot of our old, discolored hand-me-down ornaments after last Christmas. It made sense to me to have a bit of a fresh start for our first Christmas in our new house. I didn't realize just how stressful I would find narrowing down my choices for our new decorations would be. Don't get me wrong, it's the fun kind of stressful! But so many ornament options! But here's the general idea I've put together. I've already gotten 4 wreaths and a roll of red velvet ribbon. I plan on hanging them in the front windows by a loop of ribbon with a bow on the bottom. I will hang our same old wreath on the front door, with the addition of an small wooden "H" that I plan to paint with gold glitter paint. I have a couple lengths of garland that I will trim the front porch in and a few faux white and red poinsettias added to it for some color. I hope to be able to put some classic white house lights up, but was waiting until we get our gutters installed and I'm waiting on the color samples to get that under way. That pretty much covers the outside decor for this year. And for the tree I think I've settled on a similarly classic selection of ornaments in red, green, silver and gold along with pine cones, snowflakes and the several boxes of icicles that we kept last year. Then our smattering of personal ornaments that always hang on our tree. I know we'll put white lights on our tree, and in the past we've also put colored lights on- not sure if I'll do that again or not. And there's definitely some bargain hunting involved here because I'm doing it all with the gift cards and money that my dad and sister's were super kind enough to give us for our housewarming. I got the wreaths and garland for 50% off and ribbon 30% off, so I'm off to a good start I think. :)





















House photo found via Between Naps On The Porch

Buzzing

My head is buzzing with so many ideas recently! I am so excited for the holidays, especially since it will be our first Christmas in our new home. And I'm looking forward to the new year too. It always feels like an opportunity to start fresh, make needed and wanted changes and think about molding your future into what you want it to be. Here are a few of the things that are buzzing around in my brain.

-Yesterday I signed up for an online photography course from TCU. It starts November 11th and goes for 6 weeks. If it turns out fun and educational they have several other 6 week courses I might sign up for.
-My brother has tentatively agreed to go to a Swing/Lindy Hop/Charleston class with me at a local hall. He's supposed to come by tonight so I can see if he has any general aptitude for the basic Charleston. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
-I'm looking through my old MS Living's, other magazines, and tear sheets for Christmas decorating ideas. I got rid of a lot of our old decorations last year, most of which were hand-me-down items we had collected when family members cleaned out their closets. I get to start fresh and I am overwhelmed with the possibilities!
-I've started a new little project over at Small Time Cooks for the month of November, which has already provided me with one success in the kitchen.
-I'm excited to put together my Christmas list, lots of helpful things I need and a few fun things I wouldn't mind finding under the Christmas tree this year.
-So busy with two birthday celebrations this weekend, one birthday, a concert, and a shower next weekend, then our typical three family Thanksgivings, and we haven't even gotten to any Christmas events yet!
-I want to finish fixing up my office- need a chair, rug, plant pot, and some more decor/organizational fixes.
-Hoping to put together some vignettes of framed family photos down the hallway, which requires narrowing down the photos, getting them framed, arranged and hung. Oh how the simple things turn out to be so difficult, ha.
-Want to finally get some pics of the rest of the house that I like enough to share with you here.
-We are looking for a solution to our lot's drainage issues- looking to get some gutter installation estimates and looking into ways to use rain barrels to make the best of this situation in the future.
-Ideas for making the laundry area better organized and more productive.
-Stephanie should be having the twins by Christmas!!!
-Josh's office Christmas party, which I get to go to this year.
-Looking forward to making s'mores around our fire pit.
-Trying to cross off a few more of my 2009 Resolutions, before compiling my 2010 list!

I love being charged with so much inspiration and anticipation!!

Happy Fourth of July!

I hope everyone has a safe and happy July 4th! If you need something yummy to make for the occasion, click over to Small Time Cooks. Yay Independence Day!

Holiday Weekend

Ah, a nice holiday weekend is just what Josh and I need. I have a few things on my to-do list that I am looking forward to marking off. Hopefully I/we will:

-Spend some time with Matt & Ashley
-Make graham crackers
-Get some big time cleaning done
-Formulate a plan of action for the next few months
-Find shoes for Spencer & Deb's wedding
-Do some other baking
-Grocery shop

I hope that everyone has a great Independence Day!

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Work, blech
-Order new lens and photography book
-Head home and freshen up
-Celebrate Jason's birthday
-Home again, jiggity-jig
-Bedtime

Saturday:
-Oversleep
-NPR, menu planning, and breakfast
-Read some Newsweek
-Shower
-Get ready
-Straighten hair
-Ride with Holly to Steph's
-Mall walking
-Dinner at Cuba Libre's
-Hang out time at Steph's
-Head home super late
-Bed

Sunday:
-Super oversleep
-Finish grocery list
-Grocery shopping
-Chipotle for late lunch
-Clean and prep all the produce
-Make pizza
-Dinner & movie with Josh
-Bedtime

Monday:
-Oversleep some more (what else are long weekends for?)
-Make pancakes and bacon
-Clean dishes while things cook
-Eat breakfast
-Read a couple of blogs and more Newsweek
-Make egg salad
-Blog post
-Shower
-Play Monopoly and watch Eddie Izzard
-Start dinner
-Eat too many enchiladas and watch Hannah and Her Sisters
-Night-night

Weekend Plans Pictorial

I decided to post about our weekend plans in picture form today.

Friday night:




Saturday:


















Sunday:

Kiss Me, I'm Irish!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! As an Irish descendant, consider yourself hit with the Luck-O'-The-Irish stick. From me to you! It's the best I can do, short of handing over my four-leaf clover. And don't even think about asking. :)

Christmas With The Hoovers

Here is a little pictorial of Christmas at our tiny apartment.














Here is our Expedit bookcase turned Christmas hearth.














These are the shiny ornament tea lights that I got from Grandma Dorothy this year. Pay no attention to my goofy reflection.














This is my Santa mug. My brother and I have each had one since we were babies. I don't drink out of him anymore, although I have once or twice. Now I just set him out to bring back happy memories.





















Here are our Christmas stockings. We use the stockings we've had since we were little, instead of getting new matching ones. I like it much better this way. Besides, where am I gonna find a new stocking with a pocket for my little stuffed Santa like this one?














I set the table for Christmas breakfast the night before so I wouldn't have to get up as early the next morning. I love the look of a just-set table. It gleams with anticipation of the food and conversation to come.














And here's a little close up of a salty Santa Clause peeking around the centerpiece.














Here's our somewhat dismal Christmas tree. By Christmas morning it was one dirty look away from bursting into flames. And half of the colored lights burned out two days before. Not the best looking tree we've ever had, but it still made us happy to look at. The giant safety hazard went out the day after. We realized why our tree wasn't fairing so well though, so next year we can avoid the mistakes.














Here are my gifts to Josh right before he tore into them with glee.














And here are Josh's gifts to me, so well wrapped and with his ever clever tags. Every year it's a surprise what he might write on them.














And here we have our delicious Christmas morning breakfast. If you want to see and read more about what he had you should head on over to Small Time Cooks.

The Day After

I know I should have wished everyone a Merry Christmas. Instead of leaving my little blog out in the cold for a week. But things were busy. I left work Thursday evening to start my Christmas vacation, but at times it seemed as if I had left for a holiday interment camp. I had a lot of fun, but I also did a lot of work, and there were moments where I wanted to just collapse. But I watched a lot of holiday movies, wrapped a bazillion gifts, and was lucky enough to even squeeze in some cuddly couch time with Josh. Not enough of it, but some is better than none for sure. So it most definitely wasn't all bad. And then of course I got totally spoiled with gifts. I got the Astaire & Rogers box set, Woody Allen's new book, and Radio Days, along with a plethora of other items. Josh got me Clotilde Dusoulier's latest book, one of my favorite MST3K movies, Help!, the three season Good Neighbors set, Ghost Hunters Season 3 Part 1 dvd set, my favorite Barbra Streisand movie- What's Up, Doc, and Dial M For Murder. I told you, spoiled. I also got a knife sharpener, a cookie scoop, and Born Yesterday, from my mom, in addition to the Astaire & Rogers box set. And my bro, his wife, and my niece got me French Women For All Seasons, Team of Rivals, and Broadway Danny Rose. That means I've moved past the halfway point in my goal of owning all Woody Allen's movies. We went to see Josh's brother, Alec and his wife Kim along with their new little baby boy Griffin, on Christmas Eve. They ended up having to go to the hospital the day we were supposed to do our gift exchange, so we were finally able to do that. They got us this awesome set of soup & sandwich trays. I've got at least 2 soups on my recipe to-do list, so these are gonna be so useful. The biggest surprise gift this year though was the iPod shuffle that my cousin Mike got for me. It was especially surprising because I had no clue who got my name in the Christmas exchange, and as the gift pile dwindled and my name hadn't been called, I began to worry that I'd been forgotten completely- not an impossible thing in my big family. But then I finally got a package and instead of being overlooked I was spoiled once again!

Of course the best part of Christmas was spending time with all of our family. And getting to see the look on people's faces when they opened the gifts I had chosen especially for them. And I will think of everyone and how much they love me while I enjoy my new toys, and I hope they do the same with their gifts.

Weekend Roundup?

Man, I can't give you a clear and concise list this week. And really nothing interesting enough happened to go into great detail. I was still sick, so this morning was the first time I left our apartment after getting home Thursday night. Here are some tidbits though:

-watch Thanksgiving Day Parade and dog show
-play Trivial Pursuit with the family and friends
-eat Jack-In-The-Box
-watch some What Not To Wear
-read more from You: Staying Young
-watch A Muppet's Christmas Carol
-research party tips and appetizer ideas
-look through past holiday issues of Martha Stewart Living and Real Simple
-make list of projects
-eat sweet & sour chicken and vegetable fried rice
-try and clean out some of the dvr'd shows
-have a Darcy marathon consisting of Part 2 of Pride & Prejudice and Bridget Jones' Diary
-sleep a whole heck of a lot
-think up some NY resolution ideas
-eat pizza
-watch Dick Tracy

So, as you can see, the past four days consisted of sleeping, eating, and looking at things, be they moving pictures or written words. Yep, that's pretty much all I did. I had a lot of stuff I was planning on getting done this weekend, none of which was accomplished. But I still don't quite feel like I wasted the time. I've been battling back and forth with this cold since the 13th, so I think these few days of rest may have helped me finally work through it. It would have been nice if I had gotten my spices organized. Or pulled out all my sweaters (hello, it SNOWED on Thanksgiving). But Josh took super good care of me and did the dishes through the whole weekend, so there isn't quite as much waiting for me now that I'm back in the land of the chore-doing living.

And now it's the best time of year! Yay for the Christmas season!

Weekend Roundup

Friday:
-Oversleep
-Tidy house
-Daydream about eggrolls
-Make next week's menu plan
-Make grocery list
-Order and devour sweet & sour chicken
-Watch televisions
-Sleep

Saturday:
-Oversleep
-Coffee while watching my PBS morning shows
-Lounge around in bedroom watching HGTV
-Peruse fall back issues of MS Living
-Shower
-Straighten hair
-Finish getting read
-Head to Denton
-Unload equipment
-Walk to Jupiter House for mocha milkshake and giant cookie
-Have lots of laughs with Steve and Meri
-Head back to club and wait till showtime
-Enjoy the show and dollar beers
-Hit gas station on the way home for sustenance
-Eat while watching dvr'd Simpsons episode
-Hit the hay

Sunday:
-Oversleep (yes, again)
-Be lazy
-Work on the computer
-Matt comes by for a bit
-Go to Spencer & Deb's for dinner
-Enjoy awesome surf & turf and great company
-Head home
-Fall asleep on couch watching Speed
-Crawl into bed

Monday:
-Oversleep (it's what holidays are about people!)
-Shower
-Grocery shop
-Finish Monty Python Season 1, Disc 1
-Watch Crimes & Misdemeanors while playing Risk
-Watch Arrested Development with more Risk
-Lose Risk, 3-0 :(
-Read more MS Living back issues while Josh plays PS3
-Nighty-night

So, as it turns out I got very little of what I was expecting to do done. Oh well, there's always next weekend. Know what the second best thing about having a Monday holiday is? It's that it makes my work week only 3 days long!

Tonight Josh and I are going to try and figure out if we can scrape enough money together to do something for our anniversary. San Francisco is more or less out of the realm of possibilities after the $1k car repair bill last week. But we're hoping to be able to pull something out of our back pockets to celebrate. And I need to start brainstorming on what I'll prepare when we have Spencer & Deb over to repay the dinner favor.

Four Day Weekend

I plan to get some things accomplished over the holiday weekend. And most of them include food.

-Order in Chinese food
-Make a pound cake
-Make ham paninis
-Watch a Cary Grant movie
-Laugh at Monty Python
-Play some Sudoku and Risk
-Have a good cup of coffee, maybe with pancakes and bacon
-Make a Goodwill drop off

What are you guys doing?

Happy Fourth of July!