where's the snow?

I LOVE Christmas. Compared to most people, you could call me an insane Christmas person. My home and my office look like Christmas threw up in them! People at work think I'm crazy, but I just love this time of the year-people are nicer, there's great sales at practically every store you go to, the food is awesome, family gets together, and I have this "thing" where I LOVE buying people gifts constantly! My problem this year? THERE'S NO SNOW!!! We always have snow at Christmas! I remember only one Christmas where we didn't have snow; however, there was a gorgeous frost. This year just doesn't feel like Christmas because we haven't had snow at all. I'm doing my best to be in the Christmas spirit, but there's something about snow that just makes it magical.

As I've said before, Tim is a drummer. 

We have a large apartment, but when Tim plays his drums, it's LOUD! So, Tim came up with a nifty plan:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! they didn't work very well-i need actual earplugs.

This past weekend was Tim's birthday. We had the whole weekend together-it was really nice :) And if you haven't seen "Sherlock Holmes", whatever the second one is called, you definitely should-it's awesome!

i tried many times to get a good picture; sadly, this is the best one...he really is handsome-he just takes bad pictures :)

chocolate cake! yum! and mismatched candles :)

Does anyone know how to save pictures on your blog so when they're deleted off your computer, they STAY on your blog? I'd rather not keep a billion pictures on my desktop.

Today marks Day 1 of my 4 days off :) I'm planning on making/decorating cookies and buying the rest of the gifts I need to buy. Hope everyone has a great day :)

24

December 18th marks a very special day for a very special person-the love of my life's birthday.

granted, this is last year-i don't have a picture yet of this year. i was so proud of that cake, although the bat wasn't completely centered :)

This year has been so much fun.

road trip!

art institute in chicago

my sister's wedding

Yesterday we went to Traverse to finish picking up presents for Christmas, went out to dinner, came home and wrapped presents, and then Tim passed out. His work schedule screws him up so bad when he has more than two days off. I was in the mood for some Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda, so I ended up watching the first movie. Why, oh, why, did the second one have to suck so bad??? I LOVED the first one!

Today involved us waking up early to open Tim's present, the new Zelda, and later we'll be going to watch "Sherlock Holmes-A Game of Shadows" and more than likely go out for dinner. Lots of mulah, but I guess he's worth it :). Hope everyone's having a great day!

p.s. is anyone else obsessed with searching "let it snow" on google? so fascinating :)

also, this is i do believe my favorite christmas song :)

Bookworm...

So my friend H posted a question as her facebook status today: "Favorite book of all time? Please share with me!" It got me really thinking...and thinking...and thinking. Me, who used to run home after kindergarten to read with my mom; me, the girl who was one of the top readers in elementary; me, who used to check out 30 books or more at a time and finish them all within 2 weeks, couldn't for the life of me think of my favorite book(s). So it's off to the library I go this weekend. Reading used to be my hobby, even my passion! And now (no excuse), it feels like all I ever do is work, eat, sleep, repeat. I'm thinking I need to set aside a specific time each week to read. Hopefully then my passion for reading will return.

On a completely different subject, never date a drummer unless you own earplugs. Don't get me wrong, Tim is one of THE BEST drummers I know of (and no, I'm not just saying that because he's my boyfriend-we've been dating for 6 years-the excitement of dating a drummer has passed. Now, I just KNOW he really is one of the best!), and I am SO proud of how good he is and how he is always trying to better his playing; HOWEVER, after working 12 hours today, the thing I want to come home to is quiet, not LOUD drumming. It drives me crazy! I really do love him, but I can't wait for the day when we don't live above a business, and he can play during hours of the day when I'm not home.

That's all for today. Tim wants me to finish picking out my Christmas gifts so he knows for sure I'll like them, so I need to hurry up and finish looking at etsy :). I figured I'd just "favorite" a lot of things and let him choose what he wants to buy. 

Hope everyone has a great night, and let me know if you know of any good reads for this weekend :)

butter balls

This past Friday was my Christmas work party. Overall, Tim and I had a good time, but there were a couple things I would have changed: One: the ONLY options for food were lemon pepper (?) broccoli/cauliflower mix, cut up potatoes, and chicken or some other sort of meat. AND desserts? miniature! It was extremely fancy-everything looked BEAUTIFUL-they even included "butter balls" at each table, something I never knew existed :) Two: I would have changed the music. They had an 80s band there, and trust me, there were like at the most 10 people dancing; they just didn't play great music.

Tim and I got to know my friend H and her husband J better. I'm so excited-Tim's not very social, so when he says he enjoyed hanging out with someone, that's AWESOME!!! We're planning on hanging out again soon :)

 

We did secret santa's at work, and my secret santa was AWESOME! she got me almost everything on my list!

My cat obviously loves it too...see below :)

I always like it when people tell me I smell good, so whenever someone else smells good, I tell them! Well, my secret santa ended up getting me her detergent and dryer sheets she uses because I had told her that a while ago :D

I wore those middle socks for the past couple days. They have aloe in them, and they're SO COMFORTABLE!

This is M. She has a crush on Edward. Heather got her a blanket with his face on it. I LOVE THIS PICTURE :)

The docs got some good gifts too-a few of us got them wine/gift cards, and our bosses got them director chairs (Dr. H is into theatre), these shirts, and some gift baskets :)

we also got these AWESOME watches (trust me, they look WAY better in real life. This picture was taken in a very dark room. for example, the watch on the left is supposed to be brown...

i love my watch :)

this is the candle missy bought me. it smells real nice :)

On the way home from our party, Tim and I went and bought a frozen pizza. We ate the whole thing when we got home, and played Rayman, which is a SUPER fun video game. I highly recommend it :) It's a game you could play on a date, it's THAT much fun :)

The next day, I made burgers, and they were awesome.

homemade fried onion "rings". i use emeril's italian panko breadcrumbs for these. dip them lightly in flour, then egg, then the crumbs. the fry um up :)

mmmmmm.burnt buns :)

yum! i know it's not grill worthy, but considering it was made in a frying pan, it was darn good.

I just realized I wrote "Awesome" countless times in this post. I need a new word.

calzone

It's finally the weekend-for me, anyways. I work 40 hours in 4 days and have a 3 day weekend. So the work week sucks, I'm exhausted the whole time; but when Friday comes around, I'm so thankful I have it off. Last night I made a calzone for dinner. I had found the inspiration from pinterest, but I only looked at their recipe and then made it my way. I use http://www.ourbestbites.com/2008/04/breadsticks-and-pizza-dough/ breadstick recipe for the pizza dough-it's AWESOME!

The only change i make to it is i melt some butter/garlic salt and pour it over the dough, just to add some more flavor. It's SO good!

It was good, but the sauce i used woke me up at 3am. Anyone have a certain marinara sauce they use and love? We've tried Emeril, Barilla..etc with nothing really standing out. I suppose I'll have to just keep looking. one thing I'm going to change next time I make this is to really make sure the dough is thin before it's cooked. Every mouthful was a bunch of dough.

Tonight's my work party at 7pm-7PM! That's normally when I start getting really tired and ready to relax on the couch! We'll see how it goes. It better be good, because apparently we're not getting bonuses this year. If they're thinking this party  is better than a bonus, then it better be REALLY good. It'll be fun dressing up a little though; and we always do secret santas, so hopefully i get what's on my list :)


p.s. I just signed up for birchbox. I'm SO excited to get my first box! I read www.thesmallthingsblog.com, and she was so excited when she got her first box. I think it'll just be AWESOME after a long day at work coming home to that in my mailbox :)

Sleighbell Parade

Last weekend we finally got our tree! It was $25 and definitely the perfect one. And yes, I'm awesome, because I put the WHOLE thing up myself; and it hasn't fallen ONCE! WOOHOO!

i love my little owl ornament-it's so "dumb" looking that when I saw it I HAD to buy it. i just love it. and i like that our initials are "e.t."


I live in a little town also known as the Victorian Port City. Every first Saturday in December, the whole weekend is filled with fun things to do: craft shows, shops having hot cocoa/cookies (Yum!), people dressed up like in the 1800s, chestnuts actually roasting on an open fire :D, sleigh rides...etc, and the weekend ends with the Sleighbell Parade. Now normally we have snow by now-this year, of all things, it RAINED. I was SO disappointed! I'm a Christmas fanatic, so raining on parade day was pretty depressing; however, my family and I still had a ton of fun. We've made it tradition, since Tim and I live literally like three blocks and a bridge away from the parade, my family comes over afterwards for fun, food, and games.

blurry eye...

i just love this picture.

my handsome brother

CHESTNUTS!!! Yummy AND they keep your hands warm :)

this picture is just pure awesome. yes, it's me.

home sweet home.

chocolate/peppermint bark covered pretzels...mmmmmmmmmmmm...

my brother dancing with the kinect

my crazy brother-in-law :)

nothing like having yummy hot cocoa after being outside in the cold

i just love my parents.

the end. it was a great weekend.

oh yeah. we had a "lord of the rings" marathon too-i fell asleep after being half way through the second one. i really do love the movies; but with my work schedule, there's no way possible i can stay up until 5am. even if it is on the weekend.