Monday, December 12, 2011

I At Least Thought About Blogging Today...

And I have a lot to say.

But that's as far as I got.

Yep.

Can I fall into bed now?

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

It's Almost Christmas!

I can't tell you how excited I am to be with my family this Christmas. It's been several years since we've all been together on Christmas, and this is the first time that I will celebrate with the twins. I just love my family so much, and we have a stinkin' good time together!

I know I mentioned it before, but this has been my favorite Christmas CD this year - Glad Christmas Tidings. I just listen to it over and over again. And then it plays in my head all day at work.

And one of the things for which I'm most grateful is that I haven't heard my least favorite Christmas songs at all this year. That's right - I've pretty much only listened to my music (not the radio because the one in my car is stuck on AM and really only gets KNBR), so I haven't had to listen to the ones I don't like. AND, when a friend asked what my least favorite Christmas song is I, of course, said The Little Drummer Boy, but then I couldn't even think of the other one I dislike so much! If it wasn't so annoying that I couldn't recall that information, I'd be 100% happy that it's so far distant from my thoughts. Instead I'll be 99.99% happy. OK - I'll go a full 100%. What the heck?!

I feel like I''m rambling. Am I rambling?

I'll just say one more time...I'm excited for Christmas!

Also - our house is just magical right now. The lights on the outside, the decorations on the inside. Just magical.

Can you tell I'm exhausted?

Sunday, December 4, 2011

I Love Winning!

I am not the most competitive person in the entire world.

However...

When I go to bridal or baby showers and have to play the games, I want to win them.

Not like I'm going to gauge someone's eyes to make sure that I get the prize, but I definitely put on my game face and get serious. Especially if the prizes are good.

I went to a shower on Saturday, and here are my spoils:


I also scored a butterfinger, but Ari used it for a dessert for the party, so I didn't get it in the shot. But that's a really nice candle! And I totally earned it. I mean, not to brag, but I totally killed it. Basically I brought my A-game and was totally AWE-some. It was a hard game.

Oh...and it was nice to celebrate the impending birth of the child of my friends too. :)

Fancy, Part II

The most important part of any gathering is the people that you get to share it with. I was not very diligent about taking pictures at our party, but our friend David snapped a few.

Here's our fancy music. Nicole brought her flute and Chandra brought her violin. Julie made our horrible piano sound melodic, and Jacosa graciously sang for us. It was all beautiful! This made it feel like Christmas to me.


Why don't we do this more often? In the olden days people would sing and play instruments for entertainment after dinner. I wish we would do this more often.

Here's a group shot. We didn't get a picture with everyone because not everyone was here at the same time, but this is the after-music crowd. What a good-looking group!

This was our silly picture. Did I need to explain that?

Heidi, Nicole, Christina, and David.

I didn't actually get a picture of myself or with my roommates. I knew I was forgetting something... :)

Thanks everyone for such a fun, fancy evening!

Oh, the Fanciness!

I love having and/or attending fancy Christmas parties.

There's something so wonderful and kind of grown-up-feeling about making yourself up a little bit nicer and slipping into a fabulous dress and heels and then spending the evening munching on yummy food that's elegantly presented, sipping sparkling cider, and chatting with friends. Add Christmas lights, decorations, and super-classy live music and it becomes an "occasion."

Of course, I'm writing this while sitting on my couch in my sweats.

But last night, there was fancy. I was fancy. And it was fun.

My roommates and I decked out the house (inside and out - I even helped with lights!), whipped up some of our favorite food and invited friends to come fill our home for a fancy Christmas party. It was so fun!

Here are a few shots of some of the fancy food:

Charity's white chocolate craisin cookies.

I made mini chocolate peppermint cupcakes. I should have taken a picture of them on the red plate. It looked better.

Up close. Yum!

This is something that I think I want to do with my niece this Christmas. Ariane made these hot chocolate dippers. It's a marshmallow on a stick that you dip in chocolate and then decorate. These are reindeer and snowmen, but she also did some plain ones. Super cute and fun for a hot chocolate lover like myself.

We had other food, and it wasn't all sweet. I just forgot to take pictures of the other stuff. Sadly, my lemon bars didn't cook all the way through. I don't know what I did wrong. I took them out when they were golden brown on the top, but when I cut into them they were liquidy. Needless to say, they did not make it to the table.

I'll save the rest of the pics for tomorrow so that the fancy can live on a little bit longer. :)

Also, my favorite Christmas CD this year is the concert from last year by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir with David Archuleta. It's so good! My favorite new song that I had never heard is "The Cat and Mouse Carol." I just love the worshipfulness of the music. And David Archuleta is better than I thought he'd be. I've never listened to much of his music, but he's really quite talented. I highly recommend the CD. I got mine at Target. :)