A good day

I feel super blessed today.

I made these cookies without any problems and they were delish!

I heard some great news that my dear friend and four year roommate in college is engaged.

I chatted with a new friend for about 2 hours and had a blast.

I talked on the phone with my sister Kathy for an hour and a half in my car since I don't get service in my house and loved every chilling second of it.

I got a nice box full of Christmas miracles.

I watched the Outsiders with Sir Luke.

Seems to me this day was a winner. I hope yours was full of miracles too!

Photo via Martha Stewart

Super Nerdy

I got a new hard drive on Black Friday. 1TB of space for only $60! Sir Luke got one too.

I had friends on Facebook help me name my new one. My friend Joe told me back when I was at BYU that I should name my hard drive after super heroes. So my old computer was Beta Ray Bill*. My new computer is Wonder Woman. All hard drives since have been named after female super heroes.

Love it!

What do you think of the newest addition Blonde Phantom?

Are you officially blown away by my nerdiness?

*Once when I took my computer into the Apple Store on 5th Ave the Mac Genius thought I was the coolest person he had met all day when he saw my hard drive's name. Or maybe he thought it was true love. I had to break the news I had no idea who Beta Ray Bill really was...poor Mac Genius.

'Tis the Season

Remember when I showed you what I was working on a little over a month ago? Well it's all done and today is the first day I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor! And believe me it was some serious labor!

I'm going to work on making a pattern for my advent calendar so you can make your own! I don't even want to think about the number of sequins I hand stitched during this project. But in the end, I think it was well worth the effort!

 

 

My sister, Kathy, made one when she was a kid and I grew up placing ornaments on the tree each day counting down to Christmas. It was my favorite part of every morning during December. I bought the felt and cut everything out last Christmas but hadn't worked on it until a couple months ago. I'm so happy with how it turned out.

I had to make a heart to go in on our anniversary.

So would you be interested in a pattern? What custom ornaments wold best express your personality? Clearly mine were a little Holga camera and Sir Luke's light saber. He didn't even mind that it was covered in sequins. At least not too much.

I hope your holiday season is everything you hoped and dreamed!

Weekend with the Parents

I had so much fun exploring Las Vegas with my parents. It was the first time in the nearly two years we've lived here that they've gotten to do this on a visit.

We decided to take them to the Hoover Dam (my fourth trip this year and it never gets old) and Red Rock (because it's amazing).  Us, and everyone else who was in town over the weekend. It was a mad house at both places.

I stil can't get over the progress that's happened since we were there back in March.

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving

This year there have been a lot of crazy things that have happened in our lives. But one of the biggest and most exciting has been the purchase of our first home. We LOVE it!

I decided I wanted to host Thanksgiving here to inaugurate the house with the biggest cooking day of the year. I invited pretty much everyone we could but in the end the only people that came were my parents. In hindsight it may have been better considering I have never cooked a Thanksgiving meal from start to finish. I got super overwhelmed a couple times but thanks to my mom I made it through.

My mom also made an AMAZING quilt/tablecloth that's reversible. I can celebrate Fall/Thanksgiving on one side and Christmas on the other. It's gorgeous and I love it.

 

I loved using our good dishes we got for our wedding along with the sleek silverware. At first I regretted my choice but seeing them with this tablecloth. Perfection!

I'm not going to lie. The food was REALLY good. All thanks to America's Test Kitchen and Martha Stewart. Without further adieu I give you, the goods.

We started with a butternut squash and apple soup and pumpkin maple salad while the turkey was finishing in the smoker.

 

I had made a ginger bread early in the day which served as another quasi appetizer. The recipe called for a half cup of minced ginger which was a little bit of a pain to get together, but it turned out delicious. The cranberry/pear sauce was unbelievable. I ate it on toast for breakfast the next day. I'll be making that again at Christmas, although I recommend cutting up the pears into smaller pieces than the recipe calls for.