Oh What A Night

Christmas came to our house last night. We heard a clip-clop on the roof, and suddenly tons of presents appeared under our tree. What a wonderful night! I finished baking some goodies to take to Utah so we don't waste all of our time cooking instead of eating! Then John and I watched one of my favorite Christmas movies, White Christmas, enjoying every moment (no, really...my face started to hurt because I smiled the entire time). I need that soundtrack, but apparently it's impossible to get. After the movie, which lasted approximately seventeen hours, we opened presents!

Santa and "The Cleaning Elves" were very good to us both. John got some computer games, a new expandable fishing rod, new pajama pants, some speaker stands for his surround system, chocolates, the new Glenn Beck book and audio CD (because someone didn't read well enough on Amazon to know he wanted the audio CD), and a new 500 GB portable hard drive. I totally lucked out with lots of goodies, including some cookbooks that I have been wanting forever (How to Cook Without a Cookbook, and Parties by Barefoot Contessa...my favorite chef!). I also got the movie, Phantom of the Opera, which John introduced to me last year. After watching, I immediately downloaded the soundtrack from iTunes and listen to it every day! I got some new baking sheets, including a miniature Madeleine pan and a removable-bottom 9-inch tart pan. I also got a cookbook holder, of which my neck is already grateful! It was a great evening. And it ain't ova yet! I get to spend another six days celebrating Christmas as we travel to Utah this afternoon!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Sales...Already?

When I hear of Christmas decoration sales, I go a little crazy in the head. And then I start to think about what things I am still in dire need of to decorate our home. I hung a Christmas wreath weeks ago but haven't liked how it looked hanging outside. It was almost shameful to unlock my door and see it hanging there, lifelessly. I avoided eye contact with it, just to make myself feel a little better about owning such an insufficient piece of holiday greenery.

So when I discovered a Christmas sale at Michael's, I sped on over (except in the school zones, mind you). And I found it. The perfect, substantial Christmas wreath that is now proudly displayed at the entrance to our house. The glitter glitters. The fake snow crystals glisten. The pine cones are pine-coney! And I love the natural look of the wreath. NOW I feel ready for Christmas! Which, by the way, is happening at our house this evening. We are traveling to Utah tomorrow to spend the holidays with my family, so John and I are opening presents tonight. He is making me wait until AFTER we watch White Christmas. I honestly don't know if I can make it that long!

Pictures forthcoming tomorrow of our Christmas extravaganza! In the meantime, I am headed outside to drool at my perfect Christmas Wreath. It doesn't take much to make me happy!

Thisters and Thai Food

During my time at home, I get to spend some afternoons with my sister in the valley, T'liese. She is fun to be around, and we always enjoy spending time together (whether we are shopping or eating or doing absolutely nothing). We are at each others houses often but have no photographic proof of such. Rather than feeling like Big Foot contributors, we decided to document one of our fun days spent together.

We usually try to plan something fun around food, and I was really wanting to try something new. T'liese and her husband, Joe, eat Thai food all the time and rant and rave about how good the curry dishes are. I love ethnic foods but am ashamed to admit I have never tried Thai. The true rumors that is is known for being spicy more than likely scared me away, since my mouth is pretty wimpy when it comes to heat. The meal was delicious! We accidentally went during the lunch rush, which was terrible. Over thirty tables and only two servers? Come on! When the food finally arrived at our table, T'liese dug in to her usual, the Chicken Green Curry. I tried a (mild, please!) stir-fry, the Siamese Basil with Chicken. It was simply wonderful. And just what I was looking for. I tried hers and she tried mine, but we were both happier to keep what we had ordered. And I can officially mark it off my list of things to do...Thai food: check.

After the lunch, we proceeded back to the house to watch what got us together in the first place...It's A Wonderful Life. However, due to the highly technical demands of switching wires and cables and things marked in Chinese lettering, we were unable to get the sound to work from the DVD. We settled on watching three episodes of Barefoot Contessa (my favorite cooker lady!) on her DVR and vowed to make up for missing one of the greatest Christmas movies of all time next Monday at my house. John has made my life easy...just putting the DVD in our player turns on the TV, receiver, surround sound and popcorn machine! Well, maybe not on the popcorn, but I am sure he could do that if I asked!

I like my sis. We always enjoy our time together. I don't mind the excuse to get together again this coming week. We might even get some shopping in there, too, since I live just a few miles away from the world's greatest TJ Maxx and Homegoods store. I think she is finally starting to come around!