25 Moments in 2010

I love reading those long Christmas letters that detail a year's worth of fabulous events, carefully editing out the grungier moments. The other day, over lunch, two of my friends from college and I were commenting on how funny it would be if those letters included some of the hilariously random events that life throws out, as well as the positive. Mali, one of the most honest people I know, went so far as to claim that once she has kids she plans on writing a "keep it real" summary letter, with positive events (Family beach trip! Johnny made honor roll!) as well as the hilariously awful (Our dog took a dump in my husband's loafers!)

I love blogging because it unintentionally captures a full picture of life: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the wonderful. Looking back on my entries, here is a sampling of 25 moments in 2010:

January

* Welcomed in 2010
* Dealt with "the smell"
* Sweated buckets trying Bikram yoga

February

* Basked in our five day snow vacation
* Sipped wine at a tasting party

March

* Ran a 10K (and limped for days afterward)
* Turned 29
* Saw a "Broadway" musical

April

* Traveled to Italy!!!
* Wrote about hilarious pitfalls of Italy trip

May

* Gave a house tour (and shortly after that, took our house off the market...)
* Learned we had bats in our attic!

June

* Celebrated our four year anniversary

July

* No "to do's" for 72 hours (the best fourth of July ever!)
August

* Hunted for treasure
* Biked 8 mile night time ride

September

* Sat on a jury for a murder trial
* Went to the E.R. for most embarrassing injury ever

October

* Wrote seven posts in seven days... sort of* Decorated for Halloween
* Reminisced about my favorite month

November

* Said goodbye... and thanks

December

* Told about our traditions* Surprise Christmas

Over all...

2010 was a very good year! :)

On my next post, I'm going to tell you about my resolution for the new year (Dan came up with a great one!) and NYE.

Happy New Year!

Christmasification

I'm really not very crafty, but since I have nothing but time for the next week and a half, I decided to Christmasify my picture frames.

First, I borrowed the free "Keep Calm and Carol On" print from Craftily Ever After (love her!). I just turned it black, rather than red, for a graphic look:

For my glass vase, I simply loaded it with leftover Christmas ornaments in chartreuse, turquoise, and peacock colors:

I wanted to make my own "Keep Calm" print, so I googled what font was used for these posters. Then, I simply typed my message in Gills Sans font and copied and pasted a clip art image at the top. Here's what I came up with:

I printed this out and slipped it in one of the frames in my dining room.

I wanted to create some other personalized artwork too, so I went to wordle.net and typed in words that remind me of our Christmases together. I added two clip art snowflakes on both of the wordles I created and popped them in the frames. Here's what I came up with:

and:

Here's a closer view of the second one:

This pretty much sums up our favorite holiday traditions, from watching "Love Actually", to making waffles during our private Christmas, to putting on our faux fire!

And speaking of her faux fire, Dan and I switched it on for our private Christmas, which we did this morning:

Hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday!

(Wise men image on center "keep calm" poster is from here, santa silhouette on "keep calm and believe on" poster is from here)

Traditions by Number

The eternally annoying "12 Days of Christmas" song breaks down the holiday into numbers. I guess nothing gets the party started like seven swans 'a swimming and six geese 'a laying and FIVE gooold-en rings!

In honor of my five favorite holiday traditions, I thought I would do the same thing.

Behold, my holiday traditions list by numbers:

1.5- number of hours spent at the ballet

24- number of songs in "The Nutcracker"

3- number of times my sister and I giggled after making inappropriate comments while ogling the hot men in oh-so-tight tights

28- number of feet in The Jefferson's Christmas tree

350- number of pounds of gingerbread used in the gingerbread house we saw this year

1,500- number of gum drops on said gingerbread house

2- number of hungry teachers after leering at this gingerbread house

40,000- estimated number of lights on our favorite tacky Christmas house

30- number of peanut butter cookies I baked for Christmas

0- number of peanut butter cookies remaining as of 12/19

And here is a breakdown of these traditions:

1. Watch The Nutcracker

My mom used to take my sister and me most years after buying us our new holiday dresses. It's a tradition that I still love with all its swelling music, glittery tutus, and adorable kids. This year, I dressed up and went with my sister, the ultimate girly night.

2. Visit the Jefferson Hotel

Dan and I always visit this a five star hotel in downtown Richmond each year to take in their decorations. Its known for top-notch service, a gorgeous staircase... and the fact that it used to have an alligator that lived in its indoor fountain. (Yes, really. I know- very weird and exotic and kind of creepy...) Now that the last one passed away in 1948, they just have this guy, decorated in his Christmas best:

Anyone who reads my blog knows my husband is a sucker for embarrassingly cheesy photos. Here's the one he demanded that I take:

Anyway...

We always stop to see the giant Christmas tree,


and the other Christmas decorations,
and see the gingerbread house, which deserves its own category, so proceed to #3:

3. Smell the gingerbread house

They have to rope it off to keep the ravenous away...

Yes, this is still at the Jefferson Hotel. Every year, a local team of bakers makes a new life-size gingerbread house fit for Hansel and Gretel.

Not sure if you can read this sign, but here are some of the facts about this creation:

And here is the front door:
Isn't all the intricate candy decor amazing?

This year, the bakers even made a wedding cake snow man out front:

And a cake Christmas tree:

Who's hungry?

This ends our trip to The Jefferson, but brings us to our next free holiday activity:

4. The Tacky Light Tour

Dan always maps out the houses with the most wattage, and we check them all out.

(Picture via here since mine didn't come out that well)

This year, Bethany came along with us to our favorite ones:
The owners lost a son, who adored Christmas lights even as an adult. To memorialize him, they put out a plague and drape their home in every light and decoration possible. It has always touched Dan and me as a true labor of love.

It takes our breath away every year.

Moving on to our last tradition, which takes place at home:

5. I bake cookies, and Dan helps eat them. Don't think this tradition needs much clarification!


See this post for the recipes. Don't say I didn't warn you about the dangerous nature of the cranberry-white chocolate ones...

So there you have my favorite traditions by number! So much better than a partridge in a pear tree, right?

Thanks to The NewlyWoodwards Blog for hosting a Linky Party about favorite holiday traditions! Fun idea!
Oh, and just because I have time to do stupid stuff like this, check out this video of Dan and me dancing our little elf butts off! (Dan is very limber as an elf...)
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/eRReidWkD2uHkYkB
Enjoy!

Screw "surprise Christmas": an update

As mentioned in my previous post, my sister-in-law Emily declared that her side of the family should try to surprise one another with presents this year, rather than giving ones that we had requested.

Bolstered by this holiday spontaneity, I bought my sister Bethany a peacock blue top that she hadn't asked for. I was smug about my purchase: it was a vivid color, would fit her perfectly, and seemed like exactly her style.

Turns out I was right.

Guess what Bethany showed up this weekend wearing after she did a little shopping for herself?

You guessed it: the same damn shirt.

The above photo is her practicing a "surprised" face. (I told her she can return it later for whatever she wants since a fiftieth trip to the mall might just make me snap. She happily agreed.)

Guess I'll be sticking to the Gift Message Board in the future! At least she has no clue about the homemade gift I mentioned in my last post...

Just as I was about to lose hope in all that is "Surprise Christmas", Dan and I received a phone call from Emily. Turns out Little Ms. Surprises got a huge shock of her own last night: her boyfriend proposed! Apparently he had taken her to hear the symphony at the Kennedy Center, and afterward he walked her out back by the Potomac River, pulled out a vintage ring, and asked her to marry him.

Dan and I drove to meet his mom and them out for lunch and hear all the details.

The happy couple:

Okay, okay, you have redeemed yourself, Surprise Christmas!

Surprise Christmas

Each year, I buy less and less surprise presents. And I'm okay with that.

It was so easy when I was a kid and I could make an ornament or spend my allowance on something random from the Dollar Tree, and it was considered cute that I tried. Now, things are more complicated. What size neck does my Dad wear in shirts again? Does my sister think ankle boots are cute, or would she rather a gift card? Lotions smell different on every person; does my mom want the brown sugar scent or the apricot one? What do I (a hopelessly girly girl) know about shopping for my sister's ju-jitsu trainer boyfriend?

Enter: The Family Gift Message Board

That's right. My family and I have gotten to the point where we make it crystal clear what we want for Christmas, even posting on an online message board uber-specific possible gift ideas. The message board is our version of "Shopping for Dummies", and while our method of buying gifts certainly won't be the center of a Charlie Brown Christmas special anytime soon... it works for us.

Still, it's kind of funny reading through our particular lists, especially the side comments we write in to clarify. For your reading pleasure:

A few of my mom's wishes:

* tan wrap around sweater (Kohl's has a nice one)
* black boots (sorry guys—Bethany already got me these)
* Body and Bath Works Jasmine Vanilla body lotion (aromatherapy)or brown sugar and fig (I think you can order the latter online)

A few of Dan's:

* A new golf club ("Christen, we could go to Golf Galaxy to pick this out...")
* Core Performance Golf: The Revolutionary Training and Nutrition Program for Success On and Off the Course By Mark Verstegen, Pete Williams Pete Williams
* a leaf blower

Perhaps my favorite of all is my dad's list, which brings specificity to a Hall of Fame level! I mean, he even gave ideas of stocking stuffers!

Black belt (1 ½ inch wide, size 34)
Brown belt (1 ½ inch wide, size 34)
Stocking stuffers: dress socks (black) [I know ask for these each year, but I couldn’t resist]; airborne, travel size toiletries
Kangol Wool 504 Cap (black, size medium)

Yeah, it may not be a surprise, but I was able to order his gift in under five seconds.

Fa la la la la La la la la!

Don't think that I'm any better just because I didn't post my own list. This is my blog, so I can choose not to include my choosiness. But guess who sets up the message board every year...
Back to the gifts, can you guess which one I chose for Dan??

Even if my husband hadn't actually driven to the store with me and picked out his own present, he would have been able to guess from the hilariously obvious wrapping. Need another hint? I'm sure you don't, but here's what I caught Dan doing earlier today:

I wouldn't have been surprised if he had called out "Fore!" after hitting his imaginary ball. A man's gotta practice his stance somewhere when the weather is frightful outside. :)

Why am I writing to tell you all this? Well, Dan's sister Emily through a wrench into my safe, Christmas shopping world this year.

She declared "Surprise Christmas".

You see, his side of the family may not have a psychotically-organized message board, but we still always e-mail one another with a few ideas every year. Emily decided she had had enough with giving each other gifts that we had requested. She wanted surprises and encouraged others to do the same. Dan and I were sneakily able to wrangle a few hints from his mom and brother about what they wanted, but no matter how many times we e-mailed, we had nothing on Emily or her boyfriend.

It took forever (FOR-EVER) to find her and her boyfriend gifts, but we finally managed and I'm pretty happy with what we finally picked up! And I have to say that while the whole "surprise Christmas" concept won't ever fly in my family, it definitely got my creative juices flowing. I found three hilarious gag gifts for people and even hand made one of my sister's gifts, which embodies an inside joke we've had for over 20 years. I'd love to share, but she (occasionally-every-blue-moon) reads my blog, so it will have to be later.

After all, it is a surprise. :)

Snow Day! (And cookies!)

Normally, talking about the weather is confined to boring conversations with strangers in the grocery line.

In middle school, though, analyzing weather.com for snow updates is a blood-sport. We tear apart every prediction and out-nerd one another with our speculation on number of inches. Of course, the kids are also ravenous for answers.



Case in point- here was the constant dialogue from students yesterday:

"You think it'll snow enough to be off tomorrow??"
"I read on weather.com that we were getting four inches."
"I heard ten!
"I heard we're getting fourteen!"
"Wxrisk.com is always right, and that website said there was a 100% chance of snow."
"I'm gonna play Call of Duty all day if school's out!"
"Yeah!! Call of Duty is awesome! You want to meet up to play Black Op's??"
"I hope the roads freeze over."
"Hey, Mrs. T, you think we'll be in school on Friday?"
And my favorite: "Do we have to learn today? 'Cause this will probably be the last day before break if snow comes tomorrow."

Who can blame them for being obsessed? Snow days are our crack.

Dan and I were worthless all day. We watched movies. We surfed the Internet. We napped.
We did nothing, and it was everything we hoped it would be. (Name the movie.)

I guess if I'm being completely honest I wasn't that bad since I did finally get my act together to bake all my Christmas cookies. I've been so swamped at work that I haven't had any time to write in a while, and I missed out on participating in a virtual cookie swap on one of my favorite blogs. Since I've got nothing but time now, here are a few recipes for anyone who's looking for easy ones:


First, the peanut butter blossoms (left) are the absolute easiest to make. Here's the recipe:

Peanut Butter Cookies
1 18 oz jar creamy peanut butter
1 1/4 c. granulated sugar
2 large eggs
48 Hershey kisses

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Have cookie sheet ready. With wooden spoon stir peanut butter, sugar and eggs in a medium-sized bowl until thoroughly blended. Dough will be slightly sticky. With floured hands roll level measuring tablespoonfuls into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place 1 1/2 inches apart on cookie sheet. Bake 12 to 14 min. until cookies look dry with tops crackled. Remove from oven and immediately press chocolat kiss into center of each. Cool on cookie sheet 1 to 2 minutes, then remove to wire racks to cool. Makes 48. I find that the kisses start to melt if you leave them out, so I put the tray immediately into the freezer for about 15 min. after putting on the kisses.

Second, I wanted to share the white chocolate and cranberry cookies (right) recipe. These are my favorite dessert. While they may not look like anything special, people rave about them and they're really easy to make!

White chocolate and cranberry cookies
½ cup butter
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 and ½ cup flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup white chocolate
1 cup cranberries

Preheat to 375. grease cookie sheets. Cream together butter, brown, white sugar- beat in egg and vanilla
Combine flour and baking soda- stir into sugar mixture. Add chips and cranberries. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Allow 1 minute cooling time

Lastly, I made peppermint white chocolate bark (top of plate):

Peppermint white chocolate bark

* Crushed candy canes, to yield 1 cup
* 2 pounds white chocolate
* Peppermint flavorings, optional

Directions

Place candy canes in a plastic bag and hammer the hell out of these cane until they are 1/4-inch chunks or smaller. (I like making the pieces ultra tiny so the bark isn't too hard on people's teeth.) Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. Combine candy cane chunks with chocolate (add peppermint flavoring at this point if desired.) Pour mixture onto a cookie sheet layered with parchment or waxed paper and place in the refrigerator for 45 minutes or until firm. Remove from cookie sheet and break into pieces (like peanut brittle.)

I'm off to finally finish several posts that have been in "edit" mode for the past three weeks. Yay for snow days!

Oh, and just because I have time to do stupid stuff like this, check out this video of Dan and me:
http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/eRReidWkD2uHkYkB
Enjoy!

Notes of thanks

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow, it feels like a while since I've had a chance to hop on my blog! Truth be told, it's been a long month with school being non-stop busy and losing my wonderful Aunt Monica so suddenly. (She hadn't told the family that she had ovarian cancer, and suddenly we received the phone call that she was gone.) The funeral was beautiful, though, and every single member of my exended family showed up to say goodbye. The over-whelming response from family for our grieving cousins was beautiful to see. Dan and I kept remarking that we were thankful to be part of the family.

In the same vein of "giving thanks", I thought I would share own grateful project we've been adding to since the first week in November. I shamelessly copied YHL's idea for a "thankful jar, although mine was much less fancy since it didn't include any DIY apothecary jar. Instead, I simply cleared out the hurricane vase, cut yellow card stock into squares, and then Dan and I wrote down things we were thankful for each day.

My hubby actually got into the idea too, which was unbelievably sweet of him seeing that cheesy little projects like this aren't usually his thing.

The rule was that neither of us was allowed to look at the cards until the night before Thanksgiving.

Confession: I peaked a few times. :)

(I'm really bad about waiting for surprises and have on more than one occasion become pissed at myself for peaking at the ending of a book. Yes, I can be one of those people.)
Anyway, Dan and I just finished unloading the jar and reading aloud our notes. What did we write? Read on!

We had some weird things, like:

Dan being thankful for "the bassett hound driving commercial":

Seen this ad? It's a recent Tommy Hilfiger campaign where beautiful people have an upscale tailgating party. They are all dressed in preppy-with-an-edge (think "Royal Tenebaums") style fall clothes. At the end of the commercial, the models chase after a vintage truck that is being driven away by their cheeky bassett hound. Dan is obsessed with those droopy dogs since his childhood pet was a bassett hound, so he LOVES this commercial. LOVES it, people.
It's freakin' adorable.

AND

One of mine: "seeing the albino squirrel on our walk today":

Dan and I love taking walks around the fancy nearby neighborhoods, and for some reason, we always see an albino squirrel. He's become kind of an inside joke, and there has been much debate over whether his hueless fur makes him a freak among normal squirrels... or their king.

AND

Me being thankful for Dan "listening to me read scary entries on pregnancy blogs."
No, I am not pregnant, however Dan and I are starting to talk about a family. How do I prepare for such a big decision? I gather info. And make Dan listen to every bit of it and calm me down when I start freaking out over some of the symptoms. I mean, I knew about weight gain and stretch marks, but I was not prepared stories of marriages crumbling that first year, skin tags, episiotomies, hair loss after baby, and marathon labor sessions. As I read the gory details, poor Dan was there to grimace miserably... and turn off the computer monitor.

Weird notes of gratitude, huh?

We also wrote some normal ones!

Here are a sampling of Dan's:

pumpkin ice cream

good health

my wife's laugh

the Beatles on iTunes

your excitement over Harry Potter

long fall walks with my girl

our Italy trip

you showing interest in my new golf swing

the idea of the thankful jar

And here were a few of mine:

pumpkin pie ice cream from Coldstone's

the tulips you gave me last week

all 14 of my cousins traveling to say goodbye to Aunt Monica

having healthy parents

your cackle

our home

time to blog and run and bake during the upcoming long weekend

the "faux" Thanksgiving we had with friends last week!
(I'm a sucker for a theme dinner party...)

You calling this morning just to say "I love you"


I'm planning to make some kind of a "thankful" book with these notes that we can maybe add to each year. I'll post what I come up with soon!

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving tomorrow!
Pictures from here, here, and here.

The October List

I'm in a cranky mood, even though there's no real reason to be. Didn't sleep well last night. I'm getting sick. Had another 11 hour day. Glee isn't on tv tonight. Just in a general terrible, horrible, no good very bad mood. Maybe I should move to Australia?

By the way, I like you if you just got my children's book reference. :)

Please forgive me for the millionth post about fall/Halloween, but I need some endorphins.

Instead of any more whining, I give you...

The October List!

Yep, it's November, but I thought I'd update my pictures on a few things from October. It just might be one of my favorite month of the year. And that's saying something seeing that I get 9+ weeks off during the summer to be a complete sloth and hang with Dan.

Why do I love it? Let me count the ways...

1. Wine tasting with friends at Barboursville

Perfect weather + a bottle of wine + making fun of wine descriptions= yes, please.

2. My friend Mali's themed-Halloween outfit

Mali teaches first grade, so she dons applique sweaters and themed outfits (a la Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus) from time to time just to be random and to entertain her students and because she's hilarious! She treated us to her Halloween vest and striped tights for my horror movie night. Love her! :)


3. Themed food

What did I cook for the six adults who hung out to watch Zombieland and drink pumpkin ale?

Um... food that would have been suitable for a kids' Halloween party.

But look how cute these chocolate spiders turned out!
And I also made this pumpkins in a field butterscotch candy (the below picture is from this website since my pic turned out kinda blurry. That's also where I got the recipe).


I also tried this recipe for pumpkin sammies for happy hour with people from school, which might be the best pumpkin dessert I've ever made. And if you read my blog, you know I've made a pumpkin recipe once or twice before...

Pure cream cheese icing? Homemade cookies?

Holy. hell. so. good.

(photo from here because I forgot to take one of mine)

4. Cheap costumes

Last year, we were pick-up-lines. This year, we re-used our 80's costumes to be a trashy bride and groom. Cost? $12 mullet. Mullets bring any costume to the next level, don't they? My hair, however, despite a liberal spraying of Aqua Net, didn't hold up by the end of the night...

Still it was fun to go out in Old Town Alexandria! Much better than the Richmond club scene last year! And the party didn't stop there because the next night, we went to...

4. My sister's Halloween dinner

My sister had a dinner on the 31st, and let me tell you, her and her boyfriend left no detail un-spookified...

Bats on the walls:

They put red light bulbs in all the lamps for moody atmosphere:Even the bathroom got decorated:

She made "mad scientist" cocktails that tasted like pure candy (complete with gummy worm garnishes and novelty ice in the shape of bones.)
I think her friend Miranda liked it...

She hollowed out pumpkin bowls for a pumpkin soup she made:

She baked tombstone cornbread to go with their pot of chili:
And created spiderweb guacamole to go with chips:

I guess a penchant for themed food runs in the family...Kudos to our hosts!

Off to eat leftover pumpkin cookies and try to shake off my funk!