The Week Leading Up to Christmas

I had a lot of time on my hands while at home, so, dad helped me fill it by working on Christmas Crafts.  He had made a Christmas tree out of an old book earlier in the month, and so he showed me how to do it.  This is how it is suppose to look (his second tree):

And this is how mine turned out:

The picture does not even do it's dumpyness justice.  See if you can pick out my tree when pictured next to the other 2 trees dad made:

Oh well.  I guess I'll leave the crafts to dad!

Since Joel couldn't be around for my birthday dinner, he treated me and Kate to a fancy dinner at the movies at Movie Tavern.  It's just like it sounds.  It's a movie theater that also serves drinks and dinner.   I'm obviously not great at taking pictures:

But eventually I got a good one!

Joel was much better at taking pictures:

We arrived a little early, so we walked around and took more pictures:

Finally it was time for the movie.  The seats were huge!  It was like sitting in a lazy boy recliner, and there was a waiter who would come anytime to bring you soda refills or more food or whatever!!

The movie we saw was anchorman 2 and it was as good, if not better than the first movie.  Joel and I LOVED it.  Heck, we were still quoting it weeks later.  There's no one else I would have wanted to see it with.  Joel makes movies so much funnier.  There was one part where he was laughing sooo hard I though he was going to pass out.  Best birthday dinner-and-a-movie EVER!

Joel spoils me.

The next day Kate had to make cookies for work.  Turns out, Kate had never made cookies from scratch before, so mom helped her out.

The cookies turned out surprisingly well.  Where was dad while there was cooking going on?  Playing with his new best friend, puppy:

I swear, that puppy loves dad more than anyone in this word...and dad may feel the same sometimes.  Furax is such a good dog.  I'm not a dog person (or animal person in general, but I did like that dog!

That was my week leading up to Christmas.

Birthday Blog

Wow, So I've really fallen behind on blogging, so, get ready for a bunch of blogs all at once!  Let's start with my birthday.  My last day of work was December 13th.  I left for Philly on The 15th.  The trip to philly was uneventful, no rain, snow, roadwork, just a smooth drive.

Pn the 16th, one day before my birthday, I really needed some tshirts for my new life as a college kid, so Kate and I went to the thrift store.  While I couldn't find anything, Kate found this AMAZING onesie:

The picture doesn't even do this justice.  It was sooooo cute lol.  That evening, Dad, Kate, Grandma, Jessie and I all went to Panera Bread.  I had never been before.  It was surprisingly delish!

Jessie not pictured because, well, she refused (which is a shame because she's super pretty!)  Dad paid for Kate and I.  I am pretty lucky to have such a generous dad!!  He spoils me.

When we got home, Kate as eating a brownie and I got this Gem:

Finally it was my birthday!  While dad was prepping for the epic dinner he was going to make me (homemade pasta with multiple kids of sauce, broccoli and lemon cupcakes), he got a call from nephew Forrest and I was lucky enough to catch it on video:

Everyone came over for my birthday dinner and it was SOOOO yummy!  Again, I'm lucky to have a dad who likes to cook and is so good at it!

 These cupcakes were soooooooo good.  I wish I had one right now!!

I got a lot of awesome birthday presents!  Joel got me futurama season 7 and mom and dad completed my futurama collection with season 8!  Grandma got me hangers (Which I was in desperate need of).  Kate got me an awesome parks and rec poster and wrapped it quite nicely:

Jessie and family and Aunt Gerie all got me fancy tshirts (which, previously mentioned, I needed desperately).  I'm actually wearing one of them right now as I type this blog:

It was a Great birthday and a wonderful kickoff to my first week as a jobless student!!

Corona Cupcakes

I figured that since KW is now a "30-something" adult, he deserves adult cupcakes for his birthday.  I found a great recipie for Corona cupcakes here:  http://www.ericasweettooth.com/2012/01/blue-moon-and-corona-cupcakes.html.

I got home from work around 11 pm, and was up till 1 am making these tasty cupcakes.  The picture below is of the rejects that didn't make it to KW's house (I forgot to get a pic of the pretty ones):

The recipe required "zesting" a lemon.  Since I don't have a grater, I scrapped a serrated knife along a lime...and managed to zest my finger.  I  made sure to scrub the knife, and my hand and band-aide up before I continued cooking:

Long story short, the cupcakes turned out really delicious and I look forward to making them again!

1 week down, 1 to go

I'm officially half way thru my last 2 weeks!!!  I am counting the days until I'm done working at my current job.  I'm SO excited to be going to school full time and even more excited to get to spend TWO whole weeks with my family in PA!

This weekend was pretty fun.  Lakewood library had their Holiday $3 Bag of Books Sale.

KW, Mitch and I got there around 10:30 and it was PACKED!  There were still lots of books left over and we each managed to get a full bag.  Mine consisted of a few Ann Rice books, a few Ken Follett, a few Shakespearean plays and a lot of J.D. Robb books.

On Monday, I met up with some friends to celebrate quitting work to go back to school full time.  Manders and I had dinner at Winks.  She was SO sweet and bought me dinner.  Literally the BEST ever! Amber and Tom showed up a little later and we talked and laughed well into the evening.  I have the GREATEST friends in the whole world.  True story.

The rest of the weekend was spent reading, watching Supernatural, and breaking out my warm weather gear for a walk.  A girl walks down the street in that hat, people know she's not afraid of anything ;)

2 more days till I'm done work.  4 more days till I leave for Philly!!!!  So excited!

Thanksgiving, Black Friday and a New Beginning

KW graciously hosted Thanksgiving this year.  The meal was amazing!  He made SO many sides, there wasn't room for it all on the plate!  I tried to make a pumpkin chocolate cake with spiced brown butter frosting .  I did not make enough frosting so this is the result:

I was also in charge of the rolls.  This had 2 problems.  Firstly, I forgot to add the butter to the recipe.  I put it in the microwave to soften it enough to make an easy dough...and then found it in the microwave 24 hours later, completely re-solidified!!

I frantically called home and mom said it was ok, and they would taste more like french bread.  Second problem:  My oven runs a little hot, so I didn't cook them as long as the recipe called for.  They looked real pretty, but were a bit under cooked:

While I was a solid 0 for 2, KW turned out an impressive display of Sweet Potatoes with nuts and something else delish, and giant chicken breasts over homemade stuffing:

And rice (not pictured) and this corn, cheese, amazingness (bottom of picture).  Mitch made 2 pies, one pumpkin (top of picture):

and a french silk that was one of the most wonderful things I had ever tasted!

We then watched KW's favorite Thanksgiving movie, The nightmare before Christmas.  Honestly, there really aren't any thanksgiving movies, and KW's reasoning is "It's Halloween and Christmas, and what's in between?  Halloween!"

We all went home around 9pm.  I waited with bated breath for midnight gamestop shopping.  A lot of the games were on sale for REALLY cheap.  I tried to convince KW to come with me and this is what happened:

Although it was super cold and I was there for 1 hour, it was totally worth it!  I bought all of these games for 49 dollars!!

On Monday, I made Summer Squash Lasagna.  It turned out pretty good, although it looks kinda messy:

Now onto some big news.  I am quitting my job to go back to school full time!  Hooray!  I'm so excited to focus on what I really want to do, get my Masters of Library Science.  Since I will need durable clothes and not fancy work clothes, I headed down to DFW in Columbus on Tuesday.  I spent 85 dollars and bought:

2 pairs of sweat pants

2 shirts

and 5 pairs of jeans.

I haven't owned a pair of Jeans in YEARS.  Out with the old and in with the new!  My last day of work is December 13th, then I'm off to Philly for 2 weeks.  December is going to be an exciting month!