Wednesday, November 30, 2011

OOOOhhhh I like when things show up in the mail….

I ordered something 30 days ago that finally showed up….




Any clue what it is?



How about now? Gosh I love how Pinterest has all this witty stuff on it and I can just save picture as and seem all cool. It ends up I ordered a new duvet cover last month that took a full 30 days to arrive. When it came today I was so excited I officially amended tonight’s plans (yeah Honey we had plans tonight) from the following:

1. Bake Christmas cookies

2. Drink hot chocolate

3. Watch Elf



To

1. Bake Christmas cookies

2. Strip bed of all the old crap we have on it

3. Make bed with all the new stuff I bought today on my lunch break (yeah Honey I bought a bunch of new stuff at Target today…I mean really didn’t you know a new duvet cover meant new comforter, duvet and sheets. I stopped at the pillows cause you know they are ok)

4. Drink hot chocolate AND watch Elf….IN BED!



Gosh I love my new plan. What’s your big happenings today?

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

November 25th = Christmas in our house….

Everyone has an opinion about when is the proper time to start putting up the Christmas decorations. Most of the time people think Christmas is coming too early and I used to be one of those people. When I worked down town in one of those huge office buildings the Monday after Thanksgiving they would always start putting up the lobby tree. It felt too soon. When I’d hear about people doing black Friday shopping the day after Thanksgiving I would think “whose thinking about Christmas already”. Jedd and I have only put up a tree one year in the almost eight we’ve been together. That was the total extent of our decorating for Christmas too, a tree, decorated with no presents under it.


Things change….on Monday (November 21st) after coming back with half pint mason jars I planned on making Thanksgiving desserts in I informed Jedd it only made sense that since we had Friday off we start decorating for Christmas. I expected some backlash but surprisingly he thought it made sense too. I had a whole explanation I had planned just in case he was resistant. I didn’t get to use it, so in case you are one of those people who think the Friday after Thanksgiving is too soon here are my reasons for you:

1. We get a real tree: Not only are these expense in my opinion but it’s also a big pain in the butt to go to home depot, put it in and out of the car, carry it up to the house and decorate the thing only to enjoy it for a few weeks. I mean SOMEONE CUT DOWN A TREE. The least I can do is celebrate its death for a full 30 days.

2. Decorating is time consuming: Setting up the seasonal décor takes time. The tree took two days for the branches to fall and settle after sitting on other trees for what I hope was only a day before I got it and put it in water. Decorating the tree took several hours (we ended up having to stop midway because we didn’t have ornament hangers). We actually have to decorate in stages. Day one was starting the mantel and inside décor. Day two was getting the tree, wreath and other live décor set up. Day three was decorating the tree. I still have to decorate the inside banister and the exterior banister. That doesn’t even include wrapping presents for under the tree.

3. Decorating is expensive: Sure you get to keep the ordainments and anything that isn’t alive to enjoy in future years but the first years is EXTREMELY EXPENSIVE. I’m not sure why stockings from Pottery Barn that are made to look old and handcrafted like your grandmother knitted them and put your name on them should cost $50…but they do. I know because we needed two of them. Don’t get me started on the cost of a live wreath or poinsettias. For the cost of Christmas not only is it starting on November 25th in our house but it’s going straight through January 1st.

4. Christmas cookies: The Food Network or maybe its Kraft does a 12 days of Christmas cookies email annually. What this means for those of you who don’t know I receive a daily email with a seasonal cookie I have to make. For this to make any sense at all I need to really make one recipe every other day for a month. There are only two people in my house and no one comes to visit until later in the month. I really need a full month to get rid of these cookies. I know you’re thinking I could just not make all 12 types of cookies but seriously that is silly CAUSE IT’S CHRISTMAS.

5. Christmas movies: I have four movies I watch every year to get me into the Christmas spirit. Every year in the following order I watch: Elf, The Santa Clause 1, 2 and 3. Now as much as I love these movies I can only take one Tim Allen movie a week. This means the three Santa Clause movies take three weeks to get through. I own these movies because they don’t necessarily come on TV. I like to watch all four of my movies the weeks before Christmas because there are movies that come on TV the week of and I’d really like to be freed up to watch those. They include “The Grinch” both the old one and the Jim Carrey one, the Peanut Christmas special, Home Alone (cause I still cannot believe that kids mom didn’t fly back for him), and if I am really lucky Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. I’m also going to answer the question for you since I know you think I’ve forgotten …no I actually do not watch “A Christmas Story”.

So that’s it folks, my very valid argument of why we start celebrating Christmas on November 25th. I’m going to go make some hot chocolate now even though it was 72 degrees out today…because that’s what you drink when it’s Christmas.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Thanks…

I log onto the blogosphere this morning only to realize I was so caught up with Thanksgiving I didn’t get on here and blog about what I’m thankful for.


In a word I’m thankful for EVERYTHING! I’m thankful for my friends and family, my dogs, my home, the extra 30 pounds I’m lugging around, the good and the bad. There is nothing I’d change. I only hope those of you reading are as Thankful and Happy as I am.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Let the countdown begin…

Thanksgiving is coming, next week, as in Thursday. We are hosting the dinner (is it dinner if it’s at 1:30 pm sharp) at our house this year. I decided it might be in my best interest to pull together the menu today and get a shopping list put together. The menu is:


1. Turkey

2. Ham (mom is cooking)

3. Stuffing

4. Cranberry stuff (mom is making)

5. Deviled Eggs (mom is making)

6. Rolls

7. Brussel sprouts (Jedd is making)

8. Mash potatoes

9. Gravy

10. Sweet potato casserole

11. Baked Mac ‘n’cheese

12. Baked Parmesan Tomatoes

13. Pumpkin Pecan Desserts

14. Individual peanut butter pies

15. Oyster stuffing (Dorinda is making)

Without Jedd’s mom’s ingredients for the oyster stuffing my grocery list is 37 items long, one of which is 20 ½ pint jars for the desserts. Let’s just say tomorrows grocery shopping is probably going to be hell. I’m basing this on the fact that this morning I attempted to stop at Safeway before work and the usually empty parking lot was already THREE rows full of cars. WHY OH WHY DO I ALWAYS WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE.

What are you doing for Thanksgiving?

Thursday, November 17, 2011

A year from now…

Nothing has happened at the house…NOTHING. We have kind of been on hiatus, as you can tell from the blog. The most significant purchase as of late has been some Christmas stockings. Oh and I did manage to complete a Pinterest project which I accomplished by freecycling.


Everyone makes New Year’s resolutions and if they are anything like me they don’t accomplish the majority of them. An article that showed up on Gawker recently “The Pointlessness of Your Life Revealed in Email” got me thinking. Having taken a bit of a vacation from all forms of social media I can appreciate what the article points out which is very little changes in a person’s life from year to year and this can now be proven by taking a look back on what riveting things occurred a year ago via your facebook, twitter or gasp “your blog”.

Where do I want to be a year from now, what do I want to have accomplished. I started pondering; looking around thinking “something MUST change”. Obviously having just started the 30 year goal of trying to actually own the place we live it seems important for the house to be my main focus in the upcoming year. CAUSE LORD KNOWS WE ARE NEVER EVER MOVING!!!! So next year on November 17, 2012 I plan on doing a post about how I accomplished the following:

1. Get grown up living room furniture. The 34 (god your old) year old Stephanie should not be sitting on the same dog hair covered craigslist find on November 17, 2012.

2. Get the loft in order. Get rid of some damn bins. Even if you could fit back into the size 8 clothing you wore when you and Jedd met no one really wants to see you in a skirt that skims your butt cheeks, seriously!

3. Buy the boys some bow ties and rain jackets. It’s ok if Jedd thinks one sweater is enough. The boys deserve to look spiffy on occasion and stay dry. (Yes I do refer to the dogs as boys, so please no one report us to CPS thinking our children only own one sweater).

4. Get some proper dining room chairs. The black fold out chairs is a temporary fix. If you are still using those chairs a year from now then you’re lazier than even you knew.

5. Get a cable box for the spare bedroom that works. You’re wasting money every month you pay for a box that doesn’t work. And seeing items 1 – 4 listed above you don’t have a lot of money to waste.

6. Paint the bathrooms.

7. Buy a rug for the front entry way. Using a bunch of spread out beach towels when it rains is just sad. SAD!



Cross your fingers that I get something done.