A Happy Year and a Sweetless Month

A year ago I wrote a post with my 2009 resolutions. I still can't believe tomorrow starts 2010, but I guess since I can't stop time it's going to happen whether I like it or not. For the first time probably ever, I actually completed the majority of my resolutions from last year. Really my resolutions shaped my last year, and I'm very grateful for them. Let's take a quick look back at the year.

1. Run a half-marathon (at least one) with my dad. I ran three including my first one since 2006 - Nashville, Iowa, and Baltimore. And Phoenix is in two weeks. AHH.
   
2. Lose another 10 lbs to get back to my healthy weight. I hit my healthy weight in February and bounced back a little, but I'm feeling as healthy as ever. Check.
   
3. Save enough money to pay for our trip to Europe in August. Well it wasn't in August, but I did have a great time in Europe with the money I saved. It bought a lot of gelato and some great sunglasses.
   
4. Learn how to play Stay by Sugarland on the guitar. Fail.
   
5. Keep a record of the year by writing on this blog and/or in a journal. I didn't write in a journal, but I'd say that 175 posts in 365 days is a pretty successful year.
   
6. Start dating my husband again. Check. Check. Check.
   
7. Try a new recipe at least 1x a week. I killed this one. Among my favorites were lasagna rolls, buffalo wings, and sopapilla cheesecake.
   
8. Simplify my life so I have time for the things that really matter. Surprisingly I feel like I actually did pretty well on this. I stopped doing as much of the things that stole my time.
   
9. Try not to hurt people with my words (this means think before I speak). Fail.
   
10. Renew and strengthen my relationships with the people that mean the most to me. I made some great new friends and hung out with my family on our cruise, family reunion, Iowa half-marathon, and when they came to visit me!

Yes, it was a good year. And a very happy one. I'm sad to see 2009 go but hoping that 2010 just gets better.

I've already got a set of 24 goals that I'm working toward for this year so no reason to write new resolutions, but tomorrow starts #9- give up sweets for a month. I'm going to be tracking my progress here or maybe there. 31 days isn't too long so hopefully I'll make it. If not, I guess I've always got eight more months to try.

Happy New Year everyone!

Perfection Comes in Purple

I think this has been the longest break I've taken from this blog in a while. Sorry but with the holidays and all the travel, I've been quite busy. And being busy, I fell into the old bad habit of not taking pictures. I Richie charged my camera battery before we left for Dallas, and then I didn't take a single picture. Not one. But even with the lack of pictures, we had a great time.

So instead of taking a lot of pictures and writing one great long blog post I took just one picture when I got back of my favorite present. And I got a lot of great ones (including some great workout DVDs/clothes and vintage book journals) so you know this has to be really cool. I knew that my parents were planning to get me an iPod - it's all I really asked them for. But I had no idea that it would be this amazing. My old iPod played music and held about 170 songs.

My best new friend takes videos, counts my steps, is shiny and purple, and holds up to 4,000 songs. That's over 20x what my old one could do, and now I can actually put more than one playlist on it without having to delete everything else.

But none of those even come close to the best part - it's on the back.

Thanks mom and dad. I love it. And I love you both.

Beating the Blizzard

I really only remember three big snowstorms in my life. I'm sure there were more than that, but those are the three that stick out in my mind. One was my senior year of high school (blizzard of 2003). It snowed for four days straight, and we were out of school for almost two weeks. The second was right before my wedding when I got stuck in the Denver airport for three days (carrying my wedding dress).

And the final one is going on right now. Richie and I went to sleep with the blinds open last night watching the snow fall. And woke up this morning to the same sight. And six hours later the snow is still falling.

So of course we ignored all of the warnings about going out and went outside and played in the snow. If we can't do anything else on the last Saturday before Christmas, we might as well enjoy ourselves right?

Making snow angels for my mom

And throwing the snow

And of course I had to get some running in.

Just a little flushed from the cold.

Why I Hate Loving So You Think You Can Dance

I haven't vented on this blog in a while, and I'm feeling the need tonight. I just watched the SYTYCD finale and all I could think by the end was how much I hated Kathryn because the judges just wouldn't stop talking about her and how incredible she is. I think Kathryn is fine, but I don't think she blew every other contestant out of the water, not even close.

Yet they couldn't find a word to say about Ashleigh and Ryan's contemporary number that was probably one of my favorites of the entire season. Or anyone else. All I could think was, hmm do you think the judges want Kathryn to win? With Russell in a close second.

Sorry, just needed to vent for a minute. I hate it when reality show judges throw their own MAJOR bias on the voting like this and ignore the other contestants. Especially when it's not my favorite contestant.

Cookie is Just Another Way to Say Christmas

Tonight I hosted a Christmas cookie swap and just in case the first kind of treats didn't work out, I decided to make backups so I at least had one treat to share.

I first tried to make Dash of Sass' Chocolate Caramel Cookies Bites. Everything started out according to plan. I made the dough, rolled out the dough, and hid the caramel in chocolate balls.

But apparently chilling them overnight wasn't the best idea because the cookies exploded in the oven. The few that did make it out were delicious, but only about five made it to the cookie table.

Good thing I saved some of the cookie dough to make these chocolate peanut butter stars (chocolate cookie dough with peanut butter cream - peanut butter, butter, and powdered sugar - sandwiched in between).

And of course my go-to treats (because you can't screw these up) - Poor Man Turtles (pretzel, Rolos, and pecans).

So along with my three treats, peanut butter kisses, peppermint brownies, cutely bagged Muddy Buddies and lots of other goodies, we had plenty for everyone to go home with a yummy bag full of Christmas treats.

3 Down, Only 21 to Go

I finished another thing on my 24 while 24 list this weekend. Thanks to Seehere.com and their great deal on free cards, I am finally sending our first Christmas cards after being married for (almost) three years. And once I put these in the mail box tomorrow, I'm crossing off #19- Send a Christmas card to family and friends.

Why I Hate Facebook

When I got done running tonight, I decided to jump on Facebook real quick (should've known that was a bad idea) to update my profile picture and accept the million friend requests that have piled up over the last month (since I only get on about once a month).

And I remembered why I only get on once a month. If. That.

Every time I get on, I see friends and people that I was at one point so close to that I haven't talked to in way too long. I'm not talking months here, I'm talking years. And after I'm done looking at everyone's pictures and reading their stories and updates, I feel like a horrible friend.

So rather than going to bed on time tonight (I was ready around 11 for once), I spent two hours browsing profiles and pictures on Facebook and feeling guilty for not staying in better contact with people especially when sites like Facebook make it so easy.

And now I will be adding be a better friend and keep in contact better to my New Year's Resolutions.

A New Layer to Holiday Gift Exchanges

Last weekend for our Christmas party we did your normal white elephant gift exchange...but on top of that I tried out a new idea I saw somewhere on the Internet while looking for adult Christmas games.

We did this with just one gift - instead of raffling off movie tickets - that was wrapped up a number of times, but you could do different variations on this like having everyone bring a gift and just swap based on the notes that you read. Or have everyone wrap their present ten times if you feel like having a wrapping paper clean-up party.

So here's how it works.

You wrap one present with numerous layers on wrapping paper. In between each layer of paper, you tape a note onto the wrapping paper. You start the gift with one person in the room, that person unwraps a layer and reads their note (you'll see the notes that I used below) and does what it says. The notes are things like, "Give this gift to the person across the room." Then the next person unwraps a layers, follows the note, etc. until the last person unwraps the final layer and actually gets to keep the gift.





If you were to do this with everyone bringing a gift, you would have them wrap the gift once and then just pass their gift around based on the notes that you would read out. So if you read the first note and it said, "Give this gift to the person across the room," they would give their gift to the person across the room. The fun part is that you can make the notes as random as you want something like, "Give this gift to someone who is taller than you," or "Give this gift to the person with the cutest shoes," and where the gift ends up is completely random.

Here's the poem of notes that I wrote for the cause. This only took about ten minutes, and you could create your own that matches your group just as quick.

This gift I’m sorry is not for you,
It’s for someone wearing a black shoe.

Your shoes are black but the gift is blue,
Give it to the person to the right of you.

At the right time and in the right place,
Give the gift to someone with a smile on their face.

Smiling you were but you won’t be anymore,
This gift is for the person closest to the door.

Hope you’re not leaving, the party’s not done,

Giving the gift to the person on your left sounds like fun.

It’s almost the time for this gift to choose its house.
Give the gift to the person who is as quiet as a mouse.

Being quiet is great in church and a golf game,
Give this gift to the person with an E in their name.

Yippee, hooray, you’re so close to there,
Give this gift to a person with blond hair.

Blondie you’re up, it’s your turn to choose,
Whoever you want, you’ve got nothing to lose.

One more to go or maybe a few,
Give this to the person across from you.

You lucky person, you know what to do,
Unwrap the last layer, this gift is for you.

Christmas Wonderland

After spending three Christmases together, I feel like we're finally celebrating the season right.

We played in the snow.

And decorated our first ever Christmas tree.

Ate hot apple cider and Christmas treats,

And created our very own gingerbread village.

Complete with its own solar powered house.

And a bomb shelter.

From the biggest mansions

To the more conservative homes,

I think we pretty much covered it all.

Yeah, I'd say it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here.

Cooking Made Easy with Make Ahead Meals

Sometime last year my mom told me about this thing that people do in Ashburn called Let's Dish. Basically, she said that it was a place where you could go and prepare meals to eat later. I was skeptical and never got around to it because of the hefty price tag but when Groupon offered a 40% off special, I jumped at the chance to make some meals so neither I or Richie have to cook during finals over the next month. We finally used the groupon (that I bought in August) on Saturday and not only had a lot of fun doing it, but we now have a freezer full of delicious sounding meals that will only take the actual cooking time to make. Here's a play by play of our adventure.

Step 1: Pick out your menu here. We did 5 meals- we chose beef roulade, chicken proscuitto, citrus chicken tenders, roasted pork tenderloin, and peanut cilantro chicken - and split them in half to make 10 (2-3 portions) meals.

Step 2: Go to Let's Dish and put on some awesome looking aprons and bandanas. (This picture is for you Kori since you said I never put pictures of myself on my blog.)

Step 3: Put together the ingredients for your meals so all you have to do is actually cook them when it comes time to eat. This is the proscuitto wrapped chicken stuffed with herbed cream cheese.

Step 4: Wash your hands and eat some hot scones or cookies at the free coffee bar. Richie may have eaten an entire plateful himself.

Step 5: Bag your meals in freezer safe bags. Add labels telling you what the meal is, how to cook it, and when it goes bad.

Step 6: Take your goods home and make room in the freezer. This is only maybe half of what we came home with. Our freezer is pretty packed.

So we had a great time. Especially because it was snowing when we got there and when we left, but more on that tomorrow. I've decided that since I still can't fathom paying the real price to go back to Let's Dish (even though we loved it), that I should do my own make ahead meal day on Sunday every once in a while and just put together meals so I have something to throw in the oven on those nights I get home late from work and Richie has to study. It would make life so much easier, and we might eat something other than my one-pot pastas once in a while.

Festive Friday Giveaway

We're throwing our first Christmas party ever tonight. In honor of the Christmas party and the Christmas cookies we're going to eat, I've got a very cute children's Christmas book to give away. I was sent two copies of The Gift of the Christmas Cookie by Dandi Daley Mackall to review just in time for the Christmas season, and it really got me in the mood for baking and giving away cookies.

This children's book is about a boy whose family is pinching pennies. During the weeks before Christmas, his mom decides to make cookies for the poor and needy. He is so excited when he comes home because his mom hasn't made cookies for longer than he can remember, but he is really disappointed when he learns the cookies aren't for him.

This story has wonderful pictures and an even better message about the true meaning of Christmas. I will be adding my copy to my bookshelf to read to my kids when I finally have them. All you need to do is leave me a comment by next midnight next Friday, December 11th, and I'll pick out a random winner to send this book and another little Christmas surprise.