Goodbye 2010

Christmas came and went without much of a fuss. Next year we'll be sure to make more of a big deal out of it. As for tonight, the plan is to stay up much too late, drink too much, and feel terrible in the morning.  I'm quite glad that I don't work until Sunday ^_^

2010 was an exciting year. Brandon fell off a mountain. I got a job. We went on a geocaching roadtrip adventure. Made friends. Celebrated a year of marriage. All in all it was quite good.

For 2011 I only have a few resolutions:

1. Get better at doing housework.

2. Make Boeuf Bourguignon.

3. Make a Baby.

4. Keep being crafty.

Each has their own degrees of difficulty, except maybe number 4. But I am quite determined!


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Christmas Post!

“Bones, it’s after midnight! Hmm? Christmas Eve day! Both an eve and a day…It’s a Christmas miracle!”  -Seeley Booth S.1 of Bones. Ep. The Man in the Fallout Shelter.

It's Christmas Eve day! Brandon's at work and I'll be home all afternoon cooking. Since Brandon and some of our friends are on shift over the holidays I've volunteered to cook them all dinner. I'd much rather have Brandon home all day with me for the next few days, but things being the way they are we're making the best of it.

Truthfully, this isn't a very Christmas-y Christmas. Even having the Christmas tree and our village set up don't really make it feel like Christmas. It feels more like an average day where we'll have a slightly more fancy dinner than most nights.

All the baking I'd done...well...it's gone. If not gifted to friends, we've been scarfing it down (thank goodness Brandon fixed the treadmill for me!). Then last night some friends who live two floors above us stopped by to deliver some very yummy Spanish cookies that they'd made :)

Tonight's Menu

• Roasted Turkey rubbed down with butter, garlic, and thyme
• Broccoli with Cheese Sauce
• Stuffing (from a box...because I'm not feeling too fancy this year)
• Whiskey-Glazed Carrots
• Garlicky Mashed Potatoes
• Pear Crisp

Since Brandon isn't the biggest fan of pumpkin pie, last year I started the tradition of making pear crisp instead. Having learned from a few mistakes last year I'm much more prepared this year. Less whiskey in the sauce that goes on the pear crisp, took the turkey out to thaw days ago, etc. I probably made all the typical holiday cooking mistakes last year, so hopefully things go much more smoothly this year.

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All my Christmas packages are packed and will be off to the post office today ^_^ Technically everything was done quite a while ago...I just took my sweet time finding people addresses.

I'm pretty happy with the things I'm giving this year. Pretty well all of it is stuff I crafted over the past year. I'm actually pretty happy with each item and am thrilled that I'm not doing last minute shopping for things that have no thought or love put into them. I even baked a bunch in order to make goody boxes for my in town friends. The plus side to that was that Brandon and I aren't left having to gorge on sugar and chocolate!

We won a TV at Brandon's work Christmas party. We were thinking of buying one in the new year, but this is definitely better!! I won a beautiful enameled cast iron dutch oven!! We were pretty darn lucky.

Things in this part of the world are great. Snow is falling and it definitely is starting to feel like Christmas :)

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Thirty Days of Truth: Day 7

Day 7: Someone who has made your life worth living for.

Easy answer. Brandon :) I really don't know how to elaborate on that... maybe one of these days I'll do and ode to Brandon of some sort :P

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In other news.... I can't remembered if I've blogged it already or not...but even if I have I'll say it again. Brandon got me a treadmill! It's an second hand one that was advertised on the board outside of the grocery store, and isn't all that great for running. Luckily it has an adjustable incline which is perfect for a walking program I stumbled upon in a Chatelaine magazine. With it we got one of those boards that you do sit ups on and an over-sized exercise ball that is much to large to ever be of any use. Since then I've really had to excuse for being lazy.

I've also started doing some semi-late Christmas baking. Luckily I don't need to do too much because we ordered a bunch of stuff from the Holland Shopping Center. So far I have shortbread cookies in the freezing(which will eventually be brush with a maple sugar glaze) and peanut butter bars. I actually stole the recipe from a link on my sister-in-law's websites. Jen...they are indeed better than reece's peanut butter cups!


And that's it...well...I'm sure there's more...I'm just too distract by Robin Williams @ the Met to really think.


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