Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I definitely did. Even though it left me incredibly tired. I feel like I need a vacation from my Thanksgiving vacation. LOL.

Rob and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house for our immediate families so there was a lot to do! I took Wednesday off and spent most of the day cleaning. My cousin arrived on Wednesday night and together we spent all day Thursday cooking for Thanksgiving dinner. We decided on a traditional menu including a turkey, which neither of us had ever attempted to cook before. EEEK. Luckily, everything turned out fantastic and we STILL have yummy leftovers. I managed to take a few photos before we dug in to all the food…

The dinner table.

Dessert and drinks table. I made the pumpkin pie! The best part of it is the whipped cream on top. So good.

The buffet table (aka the kitchen island). Look at all that food! For only 8 people. Yeah, we cooked waaaayyyy too much.

Umm… I guess I got distracted by all the food because I totally forgot to take any family pictures. D’OH!

On to Christmas! 😀

I haven’t been posting much lately. There’s nothing much going on with me that’s worth committing to the blog. But I’m sick this weekend (runny nose and sore throat, yay!) so here I am.

After my birthday passes, my brain automatically goes on holiday mode. I add my holiday playlist back to iTunes and become one of *those* people who squeals when they see holiday displays in stores. Rob can only roll his eyes and steer me away in silence before I start adding unnecessary items to our cart.

First up is Halloween. We rarely do anything and this year probably won’t be any different. BUT I wonder if we’ll have any trick-or-treaters! I hope so. I haven’t seen many kids in our neighborhood besides our neighbor’s kids across the street, though. Oh, well. I’m still super excited to buy a huge bowl full of candy just in case anyone rings our doorbell. At least we’ll have extra candy around for me to eat if no one does. Heh.

For Thanksgiving it looks like my family has nominated us to host this year. Umm… yay? I’m mostly excited not to go anywhere (what can I say, I’m lazy) but am starting to wonder what we’re going to eat. Hmm…

Then finally Christmas. My favorite. I’ve started sending out wishlist requests. I’m looking for personalized cards to order (possibly with a photo of Diesel, not sure yet). I’m contemplating the purchase of a faux Christmas tree (I love the smell of a real one but dread vacuuming up the needles). And I’m throwing around the idea of having friends over for a Christmas party. Could be fun!

So yeah, those are my holiday plans so far. What about you guys?

Just for kicks, I feel like sharing my absolute FAVORITE gif of the best Sesame Street character ever…

Source

Look how happy Cookie Monster is! AWESOME.

I took down the Christmas tree and decorations today. Always makes me sad. I can’t believe how quickly the days go by now. I still have a few hours of vacation left so I thought I’d do a quick recap of my Christmas…

Thanks Carolyn for the pic!

Christmas festivities began early when Rob and I got together with friends at Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant at Knott’s Berry Farm for an all-you-can-eat champagne brunch. The food was ok but the company was great. I can’t believe I have friends who are parents now. !!!

I wanted to see the holiday decorations at Disneyland before our annual passes were blocked out for the year so we made it to the park on the very last day. I love Disneyland every time we go but there’s something extra special about the holiday season…

From the snow-capped turrets of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle in the daylight…

…to the huge Christmas tree on Main Street (we tried to take a picture in front of it but the Disney employee obviously didn’t know how to use our camera)…

…to the colorful lights on It’s A Small World…

…and back to the night-time sparkly lights on Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. It’s truly magical.

Diesel got into the Christmas spirit too. 😀

And we took a quick family picture before heading out for Christmas Eve dinner at my cousin’s house. Yes, I’m wearing a candy cane headband. And yes, I did wear the same dress a few days later for a baptism and a birthday party. 😀

My family gets together on Christmas Eve, which is great because it leaves us free to spend Christmas day with Rob’s family. I would hate to shuttle back and forth between families.

As usual, we were super spoiled… a few of our treasured presents are pictured here — an acoustic guitar (!!!), Blu-ray DVD player, and DJ Hero for Rob and a pretty pink carry-on luggage, Cal tee, Starbucks mugs (I started collecting them — I have 9 so far), and an Anthropologie gift card for me. *love*

Rob and I no longer “surprise” each other with presents because let’s face it, I’m not the easiest person to buy presents for (read: I’m picky :P). So instead, we normally set a budget and give each other a list. But this year I found a cute ruffle-front coat from JCrew that I wanted and ordered my own Christmas present from Rob. Using his credit card, of course. I guess this is what happens when you’ve been together 10+ years. 😀

And it’s back to work tomorrow (nooooooo). I’m not looking forward to it but I *am* excited for 2010 and what lies ahead (gotta do a New Year’s resolution post next time)…

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m taking care of some last minute errands before launching into the next few days of festivities. Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday!

I always seem to get hit with the lazy stick during the week. After work, I’m online reading various blogs or shopping but rarely feel like putting coherent thoughts together for the blog. Fail. So here’s another list because I don’t want to deal with paragraphs. 😀

1. I am SO SICK of Tiger Woods news. I was scrolling through news sites the other day and there were articles that detailed some of the “sex-t” messages he exchanged with his mistresses. I mean, really. Is this necessary? And is it really a surprise that he is a cheating athlete?!

2. I finally started my holiday cards! I sent the first batch out last week. Cards going internationally are going to be late (again)… sorry guys. I went to the post office on Saturday but the line was 30 people deep so I’ll need to try again this week. I didn’t do an official request this year but if there’s anyone else that wants a card, leave me a comment with your email address and I’ll get in touch with you.

3. Speaking of holiday cards, the first one I received this year was from Sarah. Thank you! You’re always so good at getting them out before Christmas. 😀

4. Went to a funeral this past Saturday for Rob’s godmother. I’ve only met her twice so I didn’t anticipate getting emotional. But at the very beginning of the mass, when her family was processing up the aisle with the casket, I totally lost it. Like I couldn’t stop the tears streaming down my face. I think what set me off was the choir singing “Eagle’s Wings,” which was played at my mom’s funeral too. It’s not really a sad song; just more a haunting one that really sticks with you.

5. But on to happier things! Like Christmas! Rob’s been wanting DJ Hero and when I saw that it went on sale for $88 at Target, I went ahead and bought it as part of his Christmas present. Of course, he couldn’t wait and played with it right away. So much that he already has a callous on his finger.

6. If you look at the bigger version of the above pic (just click on it), you’ll see that Diesel’s wearing clothes. It’s a Snuggie! Bwahahahaha. So cute. We picked up a few more to give as presents to all the doggies in our family. No nieces or nephews yet… just doggies.

7. We’re still house hunting and went to another Open House yesterday to take a look at some model homes nearby. There was a *ridiculous* amount of people there. Seriously. You would have no idea that we are in a down economy with the insanity. We ended up not liking any so that was a bust. We’re on the waiting list for a few other communities so hopefully we’ll get one of those (the homes don’t go on sale until early 2010 and there’s a limited quantity and a looooong list of potential buyers).

8. Not a lot of TV to watch right now. Most of my shows had “fall finales” and then aren’t coming back until March/April. Is this a new trend? I actually really like it. I much prefer having back-to-back new episodes in chunks of time over what used to happen before when there would only be a month of new episodes, then 2-3 weeks of reruns, and I never knew when the heck a new episode was going to air.

9. This season of So You Think You Can Dance has been really disappointing. Not because of the dancers; they’re all great. Mostly because I feel like there’s a lot of behind the scenes “stuff” that is killing my enjoyment of the show. First off, I *know* that none of the partnerships or dance styles are “random” so why do they keep billing it as such? Bugs me. Also, the judges need to think about what they’re saying before they say it. I was really upset last week when Adam basically blamed Nathan for Mollee’s lack of “growth” in the first few weeks. WHAT.EVER. I don’t see how that is anyone else’s “fault” but Mollee’s own. I used to think Adam had a lot of constructive criticism for the dancers but now his comments are just like Nigel and Mary’s (ie. useless). I kinda wish they would go back to a rotating third judge because I think the panel desperately needs a non-contemporary voice. Finally, I really really REALLY hate that the final performance show is TOP SIX. Not top 4. WTF. AND it’s only an hour show not 2. 🙁 I know FOX had a wonky fall schedule with the World Series but maybe they could have done 1 less audition show and then been able to do a proper Top 4? And maybe pushed the Gordon Ramsay special to next week so the final performance show would be 2 hours? The dancers really got the short end of the stick this year. I really hope SYTYCD goes back to being a summer show… along with the old stage.

10. Only 7 more days of work until Christmas vacation! WOOT.