A brief look at the Christmas Crazy that has been happening that I have managed to actually capture on my cellphone. It is such a whirlwind I never managed to get it all but we are very lucky to have so much to whirl around. 

 Sheila baking up a storm! 

 K took time out of wishing he were watching Batman to help out:) 

 Papa K and K :) 

 B and G being adorable. 

K, of course, got meat from B. 

 Tardis nerds unite! 

 Dad was the only one that got "Look at the camera" 

A beloved Uncle. 

 A monster hat *love* 

At the end of this, I always snuggle up to my furnace of a husband and have a little thankful thought about how I love our families but best of all I love the family we made. 

P.S. Last night was particularly amazing. We had accidentally fallen asleep at six after a full day of family visits. K continues to sleep while I woke back up and read until a reasonable bedtime. At about 9 p.m. he rolls over and, without actually waking up, proclaims "It's a Christmas Miracle!" What is? I asked. ".....Ice Cream.....Candy," that is all I got but I think it is safe to say K is pretty happy also.

Ok, I know what date it is. But we have many other Christmas engagements so we almost always do our very own Christmas early. 

Also, K can usually barely wait. This year was no different as our own celebrations were slated for tonight. He is cute ok, how could you deny it? 

First, today was a snow day. This meant comfortably working from home for me. It meant the opposite for K, who had to go in about two hours early and spent 8 straight hours live on the air with the production team. Woof. 

Naturally, I welcomed him home with some Thai Chicken Noodle Soup (Yum! This is one of the few recipes I re-make and you can find it here, at cooking light)

Then, we got a special delivery from the my ah-mazing sister. 

 K had so much glee opening his presents from sis who drew him in the family draw. 

She did superb and he repeatedly exclaimed "This is just what I wanted!"

 She also wins the award for remembering to send cute little stocking stuffers as well! Eg. look at these magnets, there is so much hipster joy! 

I can't believe how many Christmases we've had thus far. 4 since we've been together, 3rd since we started living together, 2nd as a married couple. K is still doing an amazing job btw. He doesn't love the wrapping part, but I don't hold this against him, guess whose pile is whose:) 

And we both miraculously ended up getting each other a card game and a Blu-Ray set, HP for me, Batman for him:) 

Also, watch him delighting my nerdy little heart. 

Yeah, that is a necklace which is a working hobbit hole door! This has a story beyond my general love of Tolkein. It also has to do with that fact that during our first few years together I saw this amazing work of architecture and begged K to one day build me a hobbit hole to live in with our babies.

K always makes good:)

Also, he is probably not ACTUALLY excited about this white board, but I am. So the thing about K is that he CANNOT remember what is available for him to eat in the fridge. It is like a blind spot: if we didn't eat it THAT DAY he is unaware of things inside tupperware. Therefore, this whiteboard will live on the fridge door, announcing for my forgetful husband what is available (and expected) for consumption. Yay! Honestly, this one is a little bit for me folks. 

We finished the night with some cocoa and peanut butter toast while we played the game I got him, Settles of Catan for 2:) He loves settlers and it is hard to find people who are dorky enough to play this with, so we needed a two person game.

What a magical little life I have.

This is the story of a cake. 

 Things started off well because I went ahead and took the easy road, using store bought cake and frosting (gasp). I've basically never done this, but making a cake during the week is difficult. 

 Then I proceeded to do what I always do....which is mess with the instructions so much that I make it impossible to succeed.

Luckily, my husband came in and let me yell at him for a few minutes, giving me just the breather I needed to rethink the situation and save it (with a lot of frosting). 

My niece, totally worth it.

She wolfed down the mainly frosting mess with glee. At one point, her Mom asked her "Are you ok? Are you going to puke" to which her muffled reply was, "No Mom, I'm just breathing." 


Pictures of the birthday celebration to follow.

P.S. This blog got a much needed make-over. I discovered Google+ photo filters and picmonkey and just hipster-fied the whole thing to death. Yay.

My friend S is a great photographer even on her phone.

She took so many great pictures of our fun times that it deserved its own post. 

A little look at our Holiday date night with S and C this weekend. :) 

Those boys. 

These cuties are going to get married.

I'm clearly overly excited to be hugging her.

 We miss him just a little bit. 

 Always a good idea: K in a tiny box. 

 S wasn't even afraid to get in there too. 

 My love and I and a giant drum. 

 Yeah, we had guy girl matching hats...what!?

Do the robot. 

 The best. 

 K is delighted to find himself atop a giant lego turtle. No one is surprised. 

 Oh K, you so funny. 

She'll Fly!

A Merry Bunch! What a fun night:)

Hi friends. I did it again. I haven't blogged in a while. 

We are trying to have a winter of hermitage and if I were still teaching I would give us a C right now.

Sure we read the instructions and participate every once in a while, but clearly we need to be making a more concerted effort. 

I think that effort will either significantly pick up come Jan/Feb, or be totally forgotten depending on some secret news (no...I'm not pregnant. Apparently whenever I say secret news this is the assumption people make. Don't worry, if I was stalking you online (I probably am) I would guess that too).

Anyway, woo for the holidays. Here is a brief list of things that we have been doing in the last month that I should have been taking better pictures of:

1. Had Friendsgiving. So delicious!

 I made those pies. This is the first year they were satisfactory even to me. Thanks ATK.

 B's shyest cat even cuddled me. Love you Herm. 

Da Bird.

 Plenty. 

 Nothing like playing Kinect Dance Party on a full stomach. We rocked it anyway and my husband...pretty darn good at this game.

2. Went on vacation (clearly these pics are K's stolen from FB, a couple of my faves)

 Hiking up to the Royal Arch. 

 Cue. T!

 Being Hipstery in the old Union Station. 

 Dat Arch. 

The Natural History museum. I loved it. 

Colorado is great. Boulder is great. More vacation please.

3. Had more hangout time with B and G. They are awesome and we actually stayed up late with them.....they were impressed.

4. Bought many Christmas presents online. 

5. Decorated for Christmas.

 Yeah we cut down that tiny little Christmas tree on our own.

6. Saw the Hobbit. It was very beautiful but too long. It made me miss the rest of my nerdy family to be seeing a Tolkein movie without them.  I used to rush home from middle school or high school to see the others on opening day with the whole clan. It always signaled the beginning to an excellent holiday season. Of course, things change and I no long have weeks at a time off of work/school, so here is hoping that we can still have some fun over the internets:)

 Here is one of those classic pictures I take that have no value and is of us driving somewhere:)

I'm going to try hard to take pictures of the holidays, which won't be difficult as we see our cutie pie niece and nephew. There will also be lots of food which is always motivating for me.