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.