Splish! Splash!

What a wonderful sound to wake up and hear it raining. I was excited to see that it was raining this morning. We so desperately need a good rain but unfortunately this is no where near enough. I figured my drive to work would be worse this morning so I left a little bit early. Surprisingly traffic was actually great and I got to work extra early. According to weather.com it is only supposed to rain today and I will be stuck inside for the most of it. Booo! I wish I was at home in front of the window with a good book and a hot cup of tea!

Luckily it's Friday and the weekend is upon us. It will be another busy weekend for David and I, as tomorrow night we have my work Christmas party. I need to go after work to look for something to wear to the party. I was thinking about trying to find a black dress as I don't have one. Yes, you heard me I don't have the staple item of every women's wardrobe, the little black dress that every women should have! For one thing, I am not dress a person! When I do have to dress up which is on rare occasions, give me nice slacks and a nice top and heels any day over a dress! Normally, the only time I will wear a dress is to weddings and that's about it. We actually have 2 weddings coming up in the next few weeks and I should probably get a dress that is more suitable for a winter wedding, thus the black dress. We shall see what I find on my shopping excursion today. Don't be surprised if I just buy a new top to go with my slacks!

All this talk about the little black dress got me wondering. How many women actually have one hanging in their closet? According to my co-workers most women do and they were shocked to hear I didn't have one. Soo, my question is how many of you have the little black dress in your closet?

Decorating the Office

My co-workers and I decided that we were going to decorate our little room in the office. We went with a "Winter Wonderland" theme. I made tons of paper snowflakes. We hung them from the ceiling along with the ball ornaments in different shades of blue and also silver ones. I think it came out pretty well. I took a picture from my cell phone but since I don't have a snazzy IPhone the quality is pretty bad. I think you can still get the idea of what it looks like though.





I love making the paper snowflakes because they bring back so many childhood memories of Christmas and the snow. All through out grade school, each year we would make the paper snowflakes and I got pretty good at making them. I grew up in an area where when you woke up in the morning you immediately looked out the window to see if it had snowed while you were asleep. If it did you ran and turned on the radio and waited with your breath held to hear your schools name on the list of schools that had canceled class.

For me its not really Christmas unless it is cold and snowy. This is something that I struggle with because here in California it can be in the 80's and sunny on Christmas day. Hopefully, next year David and I will be able to spend it in Indiana with my parents and I can give him a tour of Chicago.
When I hear the word Christmas, I think about walking down the twinkling Michigan Ave(also called the Magnificent Mile) in Chicago along with all the other shoppers with their big shopping bags while passing carolers on the sidewalk. You stop to look at all the window displays decorated for Christmas and you can see your breath in the air. Everyone is bundled up warm with their cute gloves and scarfs while sipping their hot coffee or hot chocolate. Hmmmm, what great memories!

So since you have heard about some of my favorite memories, what is one of your favorite memories of the holidays? Blog about it or leave a comment.

My little curious friend

Whatever I do while at home I am always being followed by our two kitties. They watch me get dressed, brush my teeth, cook and clean. Cali's favorite is to watch me wash dishes. Now Ella isn't as interested in what I do as Cali, but when she does she gets a little more involved.

See below a picture of her in my kitchen cabinets. Now these aren't the cabinets down near the ground. Nope, these are the high ones!



So Cali won't be jealous here is a picture of her.

Thanksgiving

So I know I am a little late to be posting about Thanksgiving, but David and I have been so very busy. The four days off from work were great. I was sad when the alarm went off on Monday morning.

Anyways, I started the holiday off by heading to the grocery store the night before Thanksgiving. I braved the grocery store throngs and picked up everything I needed for Friday. Stater Brothers was so very busy with people. They had every check out open, so my wait in line was actually not that long. I went home and made a pumpkin pie and Double Layer Cheese Cake. The cheesecake was delicious. I didn't take any pictures, so I might make it again so I can write up an official post about it. On TG day, we went to Mimi's for lunch with David's family and I would say the food was average and the wait was long. Everyone else enjoyed it but it's not my cup of tea. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful as David was filming his last race in Irwindale. :(

On Friday morning, we woke up at 8:30 which is quite early for us. We got ready and headed out to get our Christmas tree. We stopped at McDonald's for breakfast as it is right next to Home Depot. I got an Egg Mcmuffin and an orange juice. I'm not a big breakfast fan but I love Egg McMuffin's! Since it was still early, we were one of the first few people to go through the trees at Home Depot and had first dibs on the ones. The hubs is pretty particular about the kind of tree he gets. He will only have a Noble Fir which of course is the most expensive kind. I am kinda glad he is picky because growing up my parents would never spend the extra money to get a Noble.

After getting the tree and setting it up, the LSU & Arkansas game came on. Both of David's brothers came over along with his dad to watch the game. It was such an amazing game and I can't believe that Arkansas actually won it in overtime. When they won the guys were screaming and jumping in the air. It was quite amusing. After the game, I decorated the tree while listening to Christmas music and the turkey cooked. When dinner was ready everyone came back over including Melissa and Davids mom. This was my first turkey so I was glad that it came out really good. I really had no clue what I was doing, hehe.

Picture of me in my tiny kitchen


The spread: very simple but oh so good.


The mashed potatoes were amazing. I used two whole sticks of butter, garlic, parsley, salt, pepper and Monterrey jack cheese. Yumm!

Well this is getting long so I will post pictures of the tree and decorations in another blog.

Hustle and Bustle of the Holidays

I am getting excited about the holidays, especially since this is our first real Christmas since getting married. The hubs are I are going to be extremely busy this year. We have lots of Christmas parties to go to and having one of our own. We also decided to do a Christmas movie night. Starting after Thanksgiving, each Thursday till Christmas we are going to watch a different Christmas movie. We have invited friends and family to join us as well. Here are the movies we are going to be watching.












I would have to say my favorite Christmas movie is a tie between Christmas Vacation and Elf. What's your favorite Christmas movie?


Our Christmas party we are having is a "Tacky Sweater" theme. We are going to go caroling, watch the Disney movie Snowball Express and have a contest for the tackiest sweater. We are also going to have wassail which I love. It's one of my favorite things about Christmas. It's so good!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and I am a little sad because we are going to go Mimi's for lunch with David's family. Not exactly my idea of Thanksgiving, but we don't have enough room in our place to host it and because of other circumstances. It's a long story. David also has to work that evening. Booo! Anyways, we decided that I would make a small turkey on Friday for dinner. Friday morning, we are going to go get the Christmas tree! Mid morning David and his brothers are going to watch the LSU vs. Arkansas game. They are big Razorback fans along with also rooting for USC. What I think I am most looking forward to is officially being able to listen to Christmas music, decorate the tree and you can't forget having two days off from work. Wohoo!

Cinnamon Rolls

These are semi home made cinnamon rolls, that I made by using Pillsbury's Hot Roll Mix. One of the girls on the What's Cooking board, on the nest.com made these one day and they sounded good, so I figured I would give it a try. I call it semi home made because you still have to kneed the dough and let it rise. I am not experienced in any way when it comes to rolls or bread. I once tried to make pretzels and they were a flop. Ever since then, I have kinda stayed away from making anything bread related. I had a lot of fun making this and they came out really well except the box states they need to bake for 20 to 30 min and at 15 minutes mine were already darker brown. As for making these again, I might not as I personally thought they tasted like the premade kind in the pop can and those are much less work. I am just going to post pictures as the recipe is on the side of the box. Overall, I am glad I made them though and I am considering taking a stab at making some bread. You just might see a bread recipe on here soon!

Here is the dough after I rolled it out and sprinkled on the cinnamon and sugar.


Ready to go into the oven.

2 Forms of Cute: Babies & Clothes

I have been slacking in the blogging department lately. One, I didn't cook that much last week and two I have just been lazy. First off, Melissa had her baby almost two weeks ago. I have been bad aunt by not blogging about my new nephew sooner. Jackson was born on November 7th and was 7 pounds and 12 ounces.

Here is a picture of my hubby holding Jackson at the hospital. For more pictures you can read Melissa's blog.


Proud Uncle and Dad


On Saturday, David and I got lunch at Nordstroms Cafe. We both got the Lime & Cilantro Chicken Salad. Very good! We then went shopping for some winter clothes as I realized the other day that I barely have any. We stopped by the new H&M store at the Riverside Mall. Oh boy, they have some cute clothes and such great prices! They took over the old Alley store and have women's, men's and children's clothes. I got a new sweater and two new shirts. I definitely need to go back though because as we were walking out, I saw the most adorable cardigans!