Birthday Eve

So today is my Birthday eve, and I'm currently at work, ya know.. working.

Tonight i'm celebrating my birthday with a dinner with my parents, sisters, grandparents and niece. We're going to dinner at Appalachian Brewing Co and then maybe back to my parents for cake?? Not sure about that.

I can't wait to sleep in tomorrow, on my birthday! I am taking off tomorrow and thursday, and then have off for the holiday on friday! Long weekend!!

Tomorrow i'll receive some packages, do some laundry, maybe bake myself a birthday cake?? Open my birthday gifts from Alex, go ice skating with him, Nick and Laurel. Then eventually there's a dinner reservation at Cultura's with friends and back to our house for a low key game night. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow! I love me some margarita's, el serrano style!

Yesterday, I searched who else shares my birthday, despite people i know for real (my pop (rip) and my old neighbor allison) i found out that both Lebron James and Tiger Woods were born the same day, and Lebron was same day same year. Interesting! Some other neat stuff happened on that Day in history, but nothing worth noting here.

Now i'm off to design my birthday cake! Happy Tuesday!

Merry Christmas!

Back from a lovely long holiday weekend.. it went a little something like this:

wednesday- i got out of work around noon and headed to run a couple errands. i stopped at the grocery store and then michaels for some supplies for the christmas balls that i made, hopefully i can make a tutorial on those, i need to remember to take a picture of one of them! when i returned home, i had some lunch and then started on the gifts. i made twelve decorative balls and afterward Alex and I headed out to Willow Street diner for dinner with his parents, grandpa and the Denlinger-Moses clan. I had a decent burger and a salad with wayy to much dressing.

thursday- alex headed off to work and i woke up at 8 am to receive the directv guy to install our HD dish. While the directv guy was working outside i cleaned the house and started a cheesecake, alex brought me eggs around noon when he came home so i could then finish the cheesecake! around 1:30 i left to meet my sisters at the york galleria for our annual christmas photo with santa. of course, when i got there at 2, santa was on break until 3! so we waited an hour, were 4th in line, took a nice photo and then headed out. when i got home, i had a nice surprise.. the cheesecake didn't crack! this was a first for me, so yessss! we started our dinner prep, hung out for a little while and then did our presents to each other. He got me an ice cream maker! and Baking Illustrated! and some other stuff.. so exciting! And i got him some thermals, a knife magnet and some other stuff. We then had our meal, strip steak/brussel sprouts/sweet potato which was yummy as always. We hung out some more and then headed up to my parents house. They were at a holiday party so we played some Wii while waiting for them. i couldn't wait to go to bed so that i could wake up to christmas morning!

friday- merry christmas! everyone woke up and got ready and when my grandparents got there we did gifts by the tree. i don't know why this happens every year but my sisters just can't pay attention to when it's their turn to open gifts.. i was the gift coordinator. I got lots of nice stuff from victoria's secret and some other stuff as well, Alex got an awesome coat from AE (who picked that out? ;) ) and a really nice fossil watch, and some other stuff. Then i opened my birthday gift from my parents.. a Wii!! so exciting! then we played my parents wii while waiting for my sisters to get ready, it's addicting!
- we headed to my grama's house for our yummy fresh ham lunch. we ate (omg yum) and then did gifts. then i brought in my new wii and we played for the rest of the afternoon.
- around 5 pm we headed to my other grandparents house, helped get all the food out and ready and when everyone arrived we did gifts in sets. i got a really nice candle, some chocolates, monies, and some wii stuff! then my grama let me open my birthday gift which was some more wii stuff! i now have mariokart and mario brothers, a charging station for the 2 controllers, and the wheels for mariokart. i think that's all alex and i really need, which is nice.
- around 8:30 we left to head back to Lancaster. We stopped at Alex's grandpa's house where his family was and hung out until around 11 pm. Then we needed to go home and feed those kitties!

saturday- woke up and got ready, then headed over to alex's grandparents house where we hung out all day chatting and playing games. we had a really nice roast beef dinner and got some awesome gifts. i got a really nice tray from pier one and alex and i got some chopsticks and a spice set, oh and i got a snuggie and a bra purse! lol. fun times! alex's cousins are all so entertaining! around 8 pm we headed home, hung out for a little.. watched tv, played some mario brothers and then went to bed!

sunday- sleeping in is awesome. we did have some errands to run so we woke up around 10 am and headed to best buy to exchange something for a new mouse and new phones. then we went to the grocery store and marshalls. the line at marshalls was so long though, we decided not to buy what we had in our hands.. too long of a wait. we headed home and cleaned up some more, then started the meal. we made leek and potato soup, alex attempted novelli's bread recipe and before we knew it, alex's family had arrived. we hung out, opened some gifts and then ate dinner. i also tried out my new ice cream machine but we made sorbet and it didn't get frozen enough to serve. I need to find some sturdy quart containers to reuse for ice cream and sorbets. i did some online shopping, got 4 pairs of shoes from aldo, huge sale right now, and then some books and such from amazon. I need to get a new years eve outfit, so i'll probably hit the mall this week for forever21.. so cheap!

it was an awesome holiday, our first married one and we really enjoyed spending time with our families. now onto my birthday wednesday and then new years eve on thursday!!! can't wait!

Traffic

Yesterday it took me an hour to get from my work to Park City where JoAnn Fabric is.. then up to Pier 1.. then back out to the highway and home. I work maybe 5 miles from Park City, so it didn't take long to get there.. but the traffic around that mall is upsurd! I know it's the holiday season but that is exactly why I did most of my shopping online. So happy that I did!

Needless to say, JoAnn did not have the styrofoam balls I needed and I didn't have time to stop at Michael's so i'll be stopping there on the way home today, which is nice bc it's right by Giant and I need some butter and some other ingredients for our Sunday afternoon get together. We're making Chili and Leek/Potato Soup. I should probably make a dessert for that too.. I'll have to think about it.

Then here's my list of to-do's:
*Make the presents with my supplies (hope that Michaels has boxes I can put them in then to wrap)
*Do Laundry
*Clean the House (that christmas tree is dropping needles like it's dead and the kittens have too much fun playing under there, plus we'll be having some guests so it needs to be spic n span)
*Bake a cheesecake for christmas day (this just makes me think that we're going to have a lot of stuff to take up to my parents on christmas eve!)
*Clean out my car (from the tree transport, since the lot didn't have a shaker, I got lots of needles and dirt sitting in the car, I might do this right when I get home so the car is still warm.
*Shower
*Dip a few pretzels for Alex's cousins

Busy Busy!

Holidaze

In a bit of a holi-daze.. it doesn't seem like christmas is in just 3 days, but it is! I'm so excited.. I love the holidays, I especially love christmas because my birthday is 5 days afterward.

Tomorrow i'm getting out of work at 12, i have some shopping to do (maybe) and i have to finish making some gifts. Thursday, I have off.. the Directv guy is coming to install the HD and then i'm headed to York to get a picture with Santa with my sisters.. we do that every year for my mom. She should have enough for a photo book pretty soon. (26 years worth!)

So long weekend, 2 days of work on the 28th and 29th.. then another long weekend as i'm taking off work for my birthday and then new years eve.. so two nice long weekends in a row, can't wait!!

It's really hard to keep focused on days like today. Tomorrow will be easier because I will have things to wrap up before the long weekend.. plus the first half of the day always goes faster.

Tonight after work i'm going to get some supplies to make my gifts and picking up a couple gift cards.. then we're having dinner with Alex's family and another Brubaker family on the Gypsy Hill Farm. Should be fun. Hopefully i'll get to start my project by the eve's end, however I will have lots of time on wednesday when we get out at noon. That will really help! I wanted to work on this on Sunday but with the snow storm and going to the Packers/Steelers game in Pittsburgh, i lost a whole day. Oh i can't wait until Friday!!!!!

T-3!

Here comes a busy weekend

Granted tonight I don't have any plans, it's probably still going to be very busy. I really need to get crackin' on some gifts i'm making people and i need to wrap those gifts.. and the other gifts i have that need a wrapping!! I was supposed to do this on Sunday but a sudden change of plans has me working on it tonight.

So after work i'll stop at Joann Fabric or Michaels (probably Michaels) for some supplies and then head home and start the process. Hopefully making them all won't take too long. Hopefully there I can also find some small boxes to put them in, and I just thought that i'll need to add tissue paper to my list now to cushion them.

Let's see, what else.. oh! I have to make a cake for sunday. I'm again making the Triple Chocolate Mousse cake though I won't be around to have any. I don't know if i'll be able to finish it since it has a lot of steps and takes a couple hours to set in the fridge but if not tonight then i'll finish it off tomorrow. It's pretty messy, so much chocolate melting! but it comes out really rich and light and yummy. I should post the recipe on here then since it's a Cooks Illustrated one.

Saturday, Alex and I are helping some friends move. Are we crazy? Yes. Did we agree to this back when it wasn't 25 degrees outside, yes! But we're going to bundle up and help out. Plus we want them to come to the christmas party later so the sooner they're moved the better chance they can come!

So after the moving, i'll be home again finishing that cake and the gifts if necessary, then making some spinach/artichoke dip and heading to the homebrew club's christmas party. I really hope it's a good turn out. And this spinach dip is to die for!

Sunday i'm waking up bright and early and heading up to my parents house. I'll drop off some of the gifts that Alex and I bought for ourselves to receive from my parents and i'll hop in the car with Jess, Nicole and my Dad to go get Tom and Mr. A and head up to Pittsburgh for the Steelers/Packers game.. yeah, again.. i'm a crazy person. I plan to wear leggings, two pairs of jeans, 3 pairs of socks, a tank, tee, long sleeve tee, sweatshirt and then jacket.. i'm going to look for a hat tonight with the eyes cut out so that i don't even have to breathe the cold air. I'm also going to look for some boots since i'm without them and sneakers or anything else that I own would not be proper footwear.

I'm praying that it doesn't snow tooo much that it would hinder our drive up there. Should be fun despite the fact that i'm going to get back around 1 am on Monday morning and have to go to work the next day. But on the brightside, it's a 3 day week!!!

It's official, i'm getting a Wii

So over the weekend before getting my tree with my parents (and them getting their tree), my mom and i sat down to play some Mario Kart on Wii. It was my first experience on the Wii, obviously i've played Mario Kart before. Needless to say it was a BLAST! The boardwalk is a lot harder though than on N64.. my mom told me that my 4 yr old niece Makayla gets in the top 5 almost everytime she plays.. what a champ.

Therefore, it's official. I need a Wii and what's coming up on the 30th? why my birthday of course! So my mommy went out and got me a Wii yesterday. And hopefully i'll get another controller, a charger kit, and mario kart. I also want Super Mario Brothers, so i'll probably use other birthday money to get that. It's so exciting! I feel like a 5th grader getting Super Nintendo (even though we never had that, just the original and then N64).

Now i'll get to play mario kart across the internet with my mom.. and makayla and whoever else i want that has a wii!

I'm pretty frickin' pumped.. i'm actually hoping to get it on Christmas since I might not see my parents on my actual birthday. Maybe I should plan a lunch with them.. hmmm? :)

What i'm doing this weekend..

Tonight my plans are to..
..make 2 batches of baked corn for sunday
..make some cream biscuits and freeze them for sunday
..go to the grocery store to get the ingredients for those things above and more
..get out my christmas decorations
..possibly get our christmas tree tonight instead of tomorrow
..probably watch a movie and drink some wine or some homebrew with the hub
..dvr ghost whisperer to watch at another point in time
..address all of our christmas cards instead of buying labels to print on

Tomorrow my plans are to..
..sleep in
..watch the dvr'd ghost whisperer
..head up to my parents to help them get their christmas tree
..head back home
..get ready for the evening and have dinner
..head out to quips to celebrate jen's birthday with friends!

Sunday my plans are to..
..work on getting everything together for our holiday feast with our families
..alex is making a turkey and i'm making the potatoes and then heating up the corn and baking the rolls
..spend some good old fashion quality time with our families
..clean up and relax!

I love the holiday season!

Today isn't friday? Whhat!?

All day today i've been thinking that it's friday. Maybe it's because yesterday I went home sick? Which was glorious by the way. Not the feeling sick part but the going back to bed at 9 am and not waking up until 1 pm.. so rested, not to mention feeling much better.

Off topic but important: I love new stuff. I don't hate old stuff but whenever people talk about new things, it makes me want something new. A vendor I work with was talking about her new windows today, and i keep thinking, man we really need new windows.. our windows are terrible, not to mention original to a house built in 1905-ish. I really need to find out how much they would be so i can think, too expensive and move on. I don't know where these ideas come from but i'm constantly looking on realtor.com at houses when Alex and I really can't move for another year due to that tax credit thing. I'm a crazy person.. i think that's the problemo.

Back to the windows.. it would be so green of us to be more energy efficient. We'd save money on our electric bill which is set to rise and it would be good for the return on our house. So many positives. The negetive is the expense, of course. But if I can finagle my way into a discount from a sister company under our corporate umbrella, it might not be so bad. What kind of discount? I have no idea, but anything is better than nothing.

I have acrylic nails on right now and I have to say, typing is a chore, not to mention texting.. good thing i'm not a text-aholic because i can't text with these suckers to save my life.. then throw gloves into the equation. disaster. so off topic but really, i don't have a topic so it's kind of on topic of having no topic!

Yesterday when I woke up for my insanely long sick nap I thought, wouldn't it be fab to work at home, just staring out the window at the sunshine all day and being all relaxed and junk. Or even better, have a day off in the middle of the week. Work Mon, Tues, Thurs, Friday.. I would totally work 10 hour days to make that possible. It was just awesome to take a nap like that..

So today we have official new years eve plans.. we're going to the Marriott (the new one) and they have a party with dinner, cocktail hour, music, casino night, champagne toast and live feed to the rose drop outside. Then you get a room and two tickets to breakfast the next morning.. and after today, this cannot be canceled. Hopefully the rest of our friends book it. Should be a good time though.. new years eve is always fun!

Also today, I booked our trip to Las Vegas. I'm going there at the end of January for a trade show and i'm taking Alex along with me. He's going to do some exploring while I'm at the show then we'll have friday night and all day Saturday and then Saturday night to get our fill of Sin City. The last time I was there I only saw the strip from the air when our plane was landing. This time we're going to get to know each other. We're pretty excited about it!

Also, Christmas is almost here, that's exciting in itself! We're getting our tree on Saturday, i'll have to rearrange some furniture but hopefully it'll look nice! Again, pumped!!

My Weekend in Review

Friday
After work, Alex and I headed to the burg so that I could go with my sister to see Dane Cook and Alex could watch my niece Makayla. Dane Cook was funny of course, a little crude with some 'retard' jokes which I didn't prefer but he ended the show with an encore about his parents passing away within nine months of each other and a jerk sending him an email that said 'your parents got cancer and died because you are not funny" which he said ripped him apart inside for 2 years. 2 years later he got an email from the same person apologizing because they were going through a lot.. and Dane's response back: "your dad got a brain tumor because you're a drunk with no job".. hopefully this was just a joke but we'll probably never know.
After the show we went to Dockside Willie's for some food and drinks. It was dead there for a friday night, kind of sad. But the cheese pizza was good and the appletini needed more apple. Around 12 we headed home. Alex and I were driving back to Lancaster so we wanted to be awake for that. It was a long drive and I was trying really hard to stay awake. We passed out immediately when we got home.

Saturday
Glorious sleeping in.. love when the kittens play in our bed and then fall asleep with us. We eventually got up, watched some TV and I started my cookie bake off. I made Snickerdoodles, Sugar Cookies and Oatmeal Raisin and Craisin dough for the next day. I showered and got pretty and we headed out to dinner with my supervisor and her family. It was supposed to be a holiday coworker dinner but it had been snowing all day so our boss decided the roads were too yucky. We went to Iron Hill and I have to say that I'm very lucky to have such a great supervisor. She is so personable and her son is so cute! We had a very good time!
After dinner Alex and I headed home and decided to watch a movie with some wine. The wine was eh and we watched Slumdog Millionaire which was pretty good. We then had a very long discussion about some unrelated topics. We hit the hay around 2:30 am.

Sunday
More sleeping in.. i was so tired for some reason so I slept til 10:30. After getting ready, Alex scooped out the dough for the oatmeal cookies and i worked on the choc. chip cookie dough. After we completed those tasks, Alex watched the Eagles game while I decorated the sugar cookies. I took a break to download some music.. I really miss my Something Corporate CDs that were stolen when I worked at the Galley at Millersville. Who steals CDs?? Nevermind. We watched some TV and then I cleaned up the kitchen from the cookie baking and Alex started dinner. We had marinated steak and broccoli. It was delicious. We also made a sweet potato that wasn't ready for dinner so that is my lunch today. It worked out well! After dinner I started watching War of the Worlds while Alex did some beer stuff and eventually he joined me. He had never seen it so I caught him up and then we watched it til the end.

It was definitely a fun and relaxing weekend. Looking forward to the next!

Cookies and Decorating and Upcoming Events

I have a list of different types of cookies I want to make for this holiday season.. granted, not my first christmas in our house, but our first christmas being married so i'm trying to be more wifely since i barely do chores as it is :)

Here are the types I plan to bake!

• Snickerdoodles - I always helped my mom roll out the balls for these and it's by far my favorite batter to eat plain! ha!!
• Chocolate Chip - This is a classic that cannot be overlooked. There is a recipe for the perfect choc chip cookie in a cooks illustrated i plan to try out!
• Sugar Cookie with Flood Icing - I have so many cookie cutters that i'm dying to use but I don't want to spend time making each cookie original, so i'm going to flood each of them and probably add crystal sprinkles!
• Peanut Butter - These seem to be popular, so i'm going to give them a try. I don't normally eat them myself, but since i'll be giving most of these cookies out anyway, might as well have a variety!
• Oatmeal Raisin and Oatmeal Craisin - Alex suggested the craisin and I thought it would be a good idea, so half of the batch will be raisin and the other half craisin!
• Sand Tarts - My Aunt Kim makes these and they are to die for.. I'm not sure why as they're so simple but they're just so delicious. So i'm hopefully going to be working on this as well.

So there that is.. it's cookie baking season, people!!

I also need to get decorating.. we don't do outside lights but I should at least step it up a notch inside. Mistletoe is a must!! I hope to get our Christmas tree on Sunday. We decided to get a real one even though that kittens are going to go crazy playing with the needles. This year it should cost a little less since we already have the skirt and the stand and the lights and most of the ornaments. Now all I have to figure out is how we're going to arrange the furniture to fit it in the room.

I created christmas cards and will be placing that order immediately, so basically if you came to the wedding, you'll be getting a christmas card!

I also have a holiday dinner coming up on the 13th that Alex and I are hosting for our immediate families. We got a free turkey from Giant we're going to use and then i'm going to make Mashed Potatoes, Baked Corn, Green Beans, Stuffing, Rolls and a Cheesecake. I plan on making and freezing the corn, beans, rolls and cheesecake prior to the day. That way we can just warm them up and should be good to go.

Later this month, Alex's Beer Club has a Christmas Party we're going to attend. I'm going to make a spinach dip for that and there will be plenty of brew to drink.

The day after that party we're going to a surprise party which i'm making the triple chocolate mousse cake for. They said bring something that contains chocolate since the guest of honor loves it. Well this is super chocolaty so it should be perfect!! Plus the last time I made it, it was well received.. rich but light and decadent.

Let's see, my friend Jen's birthday is coming up so that should be a fun celebration and then my birthday is at the end of the month and Alex and I are planning to go to Atlantic City for the day.

We haven't figured out new years plans yet but there are some ideas in the air right now.

December is such an exciting month.. despite the weather, which is quite mild this year so far.