christmas feast

i made my first duck this year. i have eaten duck once or twice before, and jeremy has had it several times, but neither of us have ever made it ourselves. it was actually really easy AND i got to use my monster crockpot/roaster oven. the meal also included le suer peas, salad and baked potatoes. i completely forgot when i was at the store that i would need something for dessert, so we made cookies the day after christmas. oops!

the cats LOVED the liver and gizzard. pulling that stuff out of the duck was really disgusting. but i'm glad they enjoyed it, seeing as jeremy wouldnt let me buy them new toys or christmas outfits. apparently cats dont like being dressed up in elf ears. but i still think rumpy would be the one who does. i guess we'll never know. :D

gingerbread, gingerbread, gingerbread house

here is how it started: pieces from a kit that mark and lanelle gave us. jeremy and i had been talking about making a gingerbread house, but he wanted me to bake my own slabs of gingerbread and that just wasn't gonna happen.we each decorated a side and i got the front door and jeremy did the back door. we all know he is infinitely more patient than me, so he was also in charge of the icicles. it was the perfect activity for christmas evening. we finished up studio 60 while decorating away. surprisingly the cats weren't interested in all the candy, which is good, because the absolute last thing we needed for christmas was rumpy high on sugar.

other christmas activities included talking on the phone with all of our families, opening lots of great presents, and just hanging out. we have spent christmas day by ourselves for the past few years and it is nice. of course we miss being with our families and seeing everyone etc. but we also very much appreciate a day to just be together all day without having to even take a shower or put on shoes. that is the true meaning of christmas.

rumpy's first bath

after he got out of the tub, aka the sink, rumpy tried to dry off. big sister cricket helped. or maybe she just likes the flavor of the kitteh shampoo.

box office christmas party

steph and i threw an amazing party for our staff. we had a potluck and a white elephant yankee swap. it was the first box office christmas party ever, which made it even more fabulous.

we bought christmas crackers (a tradition in my family) and all popped them open for our paper crowns and fun little toys. we also played last word, which i totally stole from the ellen show. i picked the category, then two or three people take turns naming things in that category (like christmas songs) until time is up and whoever gets the last word wins. i wound up with a baby aloe plant from the yankee swap which i named juliano, after julianna. she wanted me to name the plant after her, but since all my plants are boys, i had to alter the name a little bit.

this will defiitely become a new tradition at the palace!

Santa...

Came a little early this year so that all the good little girls could look amazing at the christmas parties. I love santa!
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our tree

this is the first year in a while we have put up a tree. last year we didn't have one since our apartment was too small, and most of our stuff was in storage and not very easily accessible. this year, we got to go out to my friend's parents tree farm and pick our own. it had snowed the day before so it was the perfect setting.

after much deliberation and hemming and hawing, we settled on a huge one. jeremy and ryan cut it down then cut several feet off of the top and bottom so it would fit in our living room.

we got it home and dug out the christmas decorations. we have collected so many ornaments over the last two years that hadn't hung on a tree yet, and so many of our older ornaments hold special memories. it was fun to tell stories about our childhood memories connected to ornaments we grew up with, or reminisce about vacations we have taken together (we get an ornament at every vacation locale).

it feels and SMELLS like christmas at our house now. there are presents for jeremy under the tree (he hasnt gone shopping for me yet) and lots of boxes from our out-of-town people scattered around the living room. i'm loving it.

merry merry merry merry christmas

what are your favorite christmas carols?

silver bells is a favorite. it reminds me of playing poker with my grammer in the summers, sipping chocolate milk shakes and burning incense. weird? yes. but i do love that song.

carol of the bells is one of my favorites to hear live (when done well of course).

oh holy night is my all-time favorite christmas song.

i also love little drummer boy and silent night. i'm pretty traditional.

i'm not a huge fan of the non-traditional ones like grandma got run over by a reindeer and the like. they are funny on occasion but i wouldnt buy them on a cd or anything.

what songs make you feel like it is christmas?

Hot hands

I don't need them anymore. I can take rumpy with me everywhere.
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in which i try to write a song

i've been trying to post for days and every time i try at home my whole computer freezes. so im trying this at work.

we had our first real snow yesterday/last night. its beautiful outside. we are going to stephanie's boyfriend's parents house this afternoon to pick out our tree. i've started wrapping gifts and jeremy is at the mall today while i am at work finishing up the list.

on thursday i had the day off and i wrote a song about what i did. it is incomplete. maybe you can help me finish it?

on the second of december, on my day off there were:

7 rounds of fetch with rumpy!
6 rooms a'vacuumed!
5 loads of dishes!
4 batches of Christmas cards ordered!
3 loads of laundry cleaned!
2 pounds of veggies chopped!
1 pot of soup made!

as you can see, it was busy but i had fun. i love having days off in the middle of the week.

Family TV Time

Ain't nothing like it!
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thanksgiving: the ugly

well. during my pie making, casserole stirring, sweet potato cleaning fury this morning, i also treid to do what my mom taught me about cooking (and actually one of the few things i actually remember from the kitchen before i went to college): clean as you go. so i did three loads of dishes. i was mostly caught up, so i pulled the plug on the sink and went about my business. i notice rumpy sitting on the floor in front of the sink staring a something. i look, and there arent any bugs (there are surprisingly few bugs here and i like that). instead, he was watching water drip out from under the sink. i open the cabinet and there is about an inch of water under there. the sink pipe rusted through right in the middle of dishes, so all of the water i was rinsing with was going under the sink and on all our stuff we keep under there. jeremy helped me pull everything out and dry it, and clean up the water under the sink. ugh.

i got over that, because it meant no more dishes for the day. and that cant be a bad thing, right? i made my pies and got everything else cooking. dinner was fabulous. (see previous post). a couple hours after dinner i got us each a piece of pie. i made it from scratch from the pumpkins we carved for halloween. i did this two years ago and it was the most amazing pie ever. this year...not so much. in fact, it was pretty much inedible. i ate little bits of mine so i could justify spoonfuls of cool whip. jeremy took one bite and spit it out. it was really really bad. so, no pumpkin pie for me this year. and it is, of course, my favorite part of thanksgiving. and, of course, i made two. what a waste!

thanksgiving adventures: the good

i made my first turkey this year. since dinner was just the two of us, we just got a couple drumsticks and a bone in breast. i found a recipe where all i had to do was rub some onion soup mix on it, pop it in the crock pot, and let it go. it was delicious! the green bean casserole and baked sweet potatoes were winners as always. jeremy likes the cranberry sauce from the can, so that is always easy to add to the table. we spent the day watching the parade, watching football, watching top chef, and hanging out with each other and the cats. it was (mostly) perfect.

we have so much to be thankful for this year: our new home, new jobs, new friends. i miss my people in los angeles sometimes more than i can stand, but we are making new friends and building some great relationships here too. this next month will be challenging for me at work because of how busy we will be, but i have to keep in mind how lucky i am to have a job i love and that gives me so much flexibilty. jeremy is getting settled at citizens and really starting to enjoy the people he is working with also. we have three awesome cacti, two great cats, and a bonsai tree. between the both of us we have five (white) golden rings.

hopefully this holiday season brings you as many things to be thankful for as it has us.

happy thanksgiving!

The baby

When he is laying in my lap watching tv he is so cute. When we wake up to discover he has chewed through jeremy's ipod earphone headset cordn not so much.
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star wars in concert

most of you probably had no idea that i am a massive star wars geek. there. i admitted it. jeremy and i exited the church at our wedding to the star wars main title. i have watched all of the movies probably a million times. seeing harrison ford on the red carpet at the oscars a couple years ago was one of the highlights of my life. having said all of that, i had the second highlight of star wars geek life last thursday. the royal philharmonic concert orchestra is touring the world. they play select songs from all six films set to movie clips and sound effects. anthony daniels (c3po) is there (IN PERSON!) and narrates. they had lots of costumes from the shows in the lobby.

from the first notes of the fox fanfare to the augmented major seventh to the death march, i had goosebumps. me and thousands of SUPER nerdy people were all on the edge of our seats. jeremy was just laughing at how serious we all were taking it.

let me also say one thing. i know that i am kinda dorky when it comes to star wars, but i was wearing jeans and t-shirt. i only point this out because of the number of grown-up people there in costume. there were kids in costume too but they are cute and not dorky. after about fifth grade, dressing as a star wars character any day but october 31 is weird. the concert was amazing, and it was so cool to see the props and the movie clips with the live orchestra. they also had some of the original sheet music that john williams had done bu hand. there were pencil marks and erasures all over it. too cool for words!

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12th vs 14th

i didn't experience any particularly bad luck (or good luck for that matter) on friday the 13th, but the 12th and 14th were rather exceptional.


good things that hapened on the 12th:
the doorbell rang twice, once with a free book for me and once with new clothes for jeremy
i found my awesome purplish pink sweatpants that i bought at a j. crew warehouse sale in college that have been in my parents' attic for four years while we were in california and which i forgot i owned but practically havent taken off since i refound them
i made a really weird soup with cinnamon, apples, and lots of veggies and chicken that turned out really really good (and super mdf!)
jeremy got his first paycheck from citizen's bank
it was sunny outside so i got to use the clothesline instead of the dryer (it really doesnt take much to make me happy!)

bad things that happened on the 14th:
i got the idiot teller at the bank who doesnt know how to make change
the ticket machine broke and i was on my hands and knees for a half hour fixing it
we dropped a box of filed tickets and had to refile them all
there were two shows of cats on the same day which meant LOTS of people showed up at the wrong time and blamed me
it was raining so even though i used an umbrella the hems of my pants were soaked every time i had to go outside
k-state lost and we got to watch every agonizing minute on tv

today is going to be another good day though. we both have the day off, its after noon and i'm still in my pajamas, jeremy is going to the shooting range, theres a baby cat perched on my shoulder (he just hangs out there like a pirate's parrot), and i'm happy.