End of the year wrap-up

So Christmas ended up being really good. Everyone enjoyed their presents and the cookies mailed across the country were a hit. I scored some great knitting supplies, books, games, jewelry and a Roku to be able to play my beloved Netflix watch instantly movies and TV shows on the TV instead of the computer. I feel incredibly lucky and loved. Probably the most exciting part of the holidays was a surprise visit from Mr. C's older brother, sister-in-law and nephew. My future mother-in-law conspired with Charlie to bring them up for the holidays to surprise the family, and let me tell you, I was so surprised that the scream that came out hurt my throat for a good 12 hours. Sometimes I feel completely overwhelmed having my family expand as much as it is but then I remember how wonderful they all are and how welcome they make me feel in the family and feel so grateful. I know, I'm getting really cheesy but it's true.

Speaking of Christmas, now that it's over and presents have been dispersed and opened, I can finally upload pictures of the one gift I was super excited about giving this year. For my wonderful step-father who has a chronically bad back, I made a pillow! I took a scarf pattern from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation and with a few minor tweaks, I turned it into a pillow. I knit the two sides for the pillow cover and sewed three of those sides together:



Pillow pattern detail:

Then sewed and stuffed the inside pillow:


And finally, sewed the inside pillow into the cover. Voila! Super manly (a.k.a. cute) little back pillow!



On the baking side of things, I was able to make some Pecan Butter Balls (a.k.a. Russian Tea Cakes) for the Christmas party at our friends' house on Christmas Eve. I absolutely love this recipe and can't wait to make more. For those who also love baking here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 cups pecans
2 cups flour
1 cup melted butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
Confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Chop the pecans in a blender or food processor until you have two cups. Combine all of the ingredients except confectioners' sugar. Gather the dough into a ball. With floured hands, shape into one-inch balls and bake on ungreased cookie sheets (can line cookie sheets with wax paper or parchment paper and spray them with Pam). Bake for 20 to 22 minutes. Pull the cookies and papers off the cookie sheet and onto the cooling rack and let them cool slightly; be sure they're still warm and then gently shake them in a bag with the confectioners' sugar. Place them back on the paper and add more confectioners' sugar while they cool.
Makes about 5 dozen.

I got the recipe from Ann Pearlman's wonderful book The Christmas Cookie Club. It's a quick and easy read but so good. I bought a copy for my mom and a friend for Christmas and will probably end up getting a copy for myself when it comes out in paperback. Incidentally, the Cheeseburger Cookies I made last week were also from this book and so far, they have been a massive hit! I plan on making them again for the New Year's party my future in-laws are having on Thursday.

Speaking of New Year's, after the year I've had, I'm really looking forward to getting a fresh start with 2010. 2009 wasn't terrible but it certainly was not my best year. Between finishing up the work to graduate, having to move into C's parents' basement and not getting a job for 5 months (and still not getting one in my field), it's been a rough year. I'm not big on making resolutions since I never seem to keep them, but my goals for the upcoming year are to get a job in archives, be able to move us into our own place, save a significant amount of money for the wedding, finally set a date for the wedding, craft more, and enjoy my life with Charlie as much as possible. Think I can do it? I guess we'll see this time next year.

Easy, peasy fun Christmas cards

I bought a pack of these beautiful Christmas cards (which I love!) from The Black Apple and sent them out to some people, but I ended up needing more than I originally thought. My future mother-in-law has a bunch laying around the house that she's already offered to let me use whenever I need, but I really wanted to send out cards with a more personal touch. So today, I found some plain white cardstock (a pack of 5 smaller sheets), some self-adhesive forest green felt and some brown felt. I created my own Christmas tree template, traced it onto the felt (I was able to fit 6 onto each piece for a total of 12) and traced a small card onto the cardstock (each sheet was able to make 3 cards).


Then I cut it all out, folded the cards in half and stuck the trees to the front of the cards.


I still need to add the brown tree stumps to the bottom of the trees (I'll just cut small squares of brown felt and attach with my hot glue gun) before I can sign them all and send them out. Of course, that means none of these cards will actually make it to people by Christmas but oh well. It's the thought that counts, right? Anyway, I think they turned out pretty good and I'm so happy I get to send personalize Christmas cards this year!

Worst/best snow storm in who knows how long! and Christmas cookies!

View out our front door Saturday morning while it was still snowing.

This weekend, starting Friday night, we were hit with a massive snow storm here in Maryland. By the time the snow stopped Saturday night (yes is literally snowed for at least 24 hours if not longer), we were left with between 16 and 20 inches of snow. Charlie and I headed over to our friends' house because they have a great sledding hill. Once the fluffy top layer was plowed and packed down by James tugging Charlie down the hill on the sled, we had a great time. It was my first time sledding ever (born and raised in Southern California) so the first time was a little nerve-wracking but once you get the hang of it, you don't really want to stop. I can't wait for James to get the rope-pull working right so we don't have to walk back up the hill anymore. :)Pictures of sledding to come soon!


This is the view out our front door at night with the Christmas lights on. You can see how deep the snow is by how high up the little trees it goes.

In other news, I stayed up most of Friday night making cheeseburger cookies for Christmas presents.


You start by using egg white to stick sesame seeds to the top buns (a.k.a. Nilla wafers).


Next, you use cheese (a.k.a. almond flavored, orange dyed frosting) to attach the patties (a.k.a. grasshopper cookies) to the bottom buns.


Spread more cheese on top of the patties and dip into the lettuce (a.k.a. green dyed coconut).


Finally, spread more cheese on the bottoms of the top buns and place on top of the lettuce. You now have cheeseburger cookies! Aren't they adorable! And so veggie friendly for the non-meaties.

Christmas survey

I've been reading the archives of lots of blogs lately and found this Christmas survey on Miss Pixiegenné's blog. I thought it was interesting and obviously relevant with how close it is to Christmas so here we go:

Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree?

Well, Santa doesn’t really visit me anymore since I’m all grown up, but as a kid, he would just set them under the tree. Wrapped presents were always from Mom and Dad.

Colored lights on tree/house or white?

I like white lights on the house and colored lights on the tree.

What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)?

Probably the pork roast my mom’s been making the last few Christmases.

Favorite Holiday memory as a child:

Oh god, there’s so many of them! I think decorating the tree and house with my parents and brother is my favorite memory. And going to see Cherry Hill in San Diego (where I grew up) with my dad and brother is up there. It’s a neighborhood where every house on the street goes all out with Christmas decorations.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve?

Yes, one present on Christmas Eve, and usually Mom or Dad got to pick it out.

How do you decorate your Christmas Tree?

Lights and ornaments with a star on top. Pretty basic but I don’t like overwhelming the tree.

Snow! Love it or Dread it?

Love it when it first happens but hate it when I have to drive in it and by February, I’m usually pretty tired of it.

What is your favorite Holiday Dessert?

Apple pie a la mode.

What is your favorite Christmas Song?

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer is always good. :)

Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum?

yum

Favorite Christmas Tradition growing up:

Watching Christmas movies with my dad.

Least Favorite Christmas Tradition Growing Up:

Going to my step-grandmother’s house on Christmas morning. So glad that’s over!

Breakfast or Presents First?

Presents, then breakfast. I have no idea how my mom did it. Maybe we were just so excited about the presents we never noticed how hungry we were. The last couple of years, though, we’ve been doing breakfast first, partly because we’re all old now and partly to give my Aunt Donna time to drive up to do presents with us.

Keep it going if you want. I'd love to have your answers posted in my comments!

Christmas just keeps getting closer...

I'm really off my game this year in regards to Christmas presents for everyone. We're trying to save since we both just started working about a month ago so I'm trying to make as many gifts as possible. Of course, like always, I let time get away from me and here we are, almost a week away from the big day and I still haven't mailed out my gifts. Oh well, I think everyone knows me well enough by now to know that that's just the way I am. I do hope to be done by this weekend though. There's one gift in particular that I'm really excited about. I'll try to post pictures after Christmas. Hope everyone else's holidays and holiday planning are going well!

The Magical World of Disney

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a freak for Disney--not so much the merchandise, but the movies, the theme parks, the art, the aesthetics...I even love It's a Small World.I can't help but love the idea of capturing the imagination and bringing it to reality? Tonight, I came home to our roomie making yummy smelling pumpkin cookies. Later, I turned on the TV to find something to watch while I worked on a Christmas present for my stepfather, and was so excited to see that a special show, Behind the Magic: Disney Holidays, was about to start on HGTV. David Bromstad, of Color Splash fame, takes us behind the scenes for how Disney World is transformed at Christmas. Being a former Southern California girl, I always thought of Disneyland as a home away from home and I have to admit that their efforts to bring the holiday spirit into everyone's lives have always, always been successful with me. Seeing Sleeping Beauty's castle all lit up every Christmas always takes my breath away and what they do to Cinderella's castle in Disney World is even more spectacular. I can't wait to see it someday.

Things are looking up...

This past weekend, Charlie and I were finally able to move into our own place! Well, it's a rented room in a friend of a friend's townhouse. Our new roomie is really nice and way cool. He has great taste in decor and in TV shows and movies so I'm happy. :) He has a cat named Oliver. He and Caramel aren't friends yet but we're hoping they come around to each other soon. In the mean time, I think Caramel is just happy to be able to hang out in our room with us again since we wouldn't let her down into the unfinished basement with us (fiberglass from insulation in kitty fur = bad). Anyway, we're still unpacking and decorating but I'll get some pictures up as soon as I can.

This past weekend also brought the first snow of the season (2-3 inches!). We went over to a friend's house and played Munchkin and played in the snow with the 3 year old. Later that night we went to see The Blind Side, which was oh so amazing! It's an absolutely beautiful story, and even more so because it's true. I loved Sandra Bullock's performance. She's such a strong actress and when she gets a chance to do dramatic roles, she's brilliant. I highly recommend it, even for those out there who are less then thrill about football, like me.

In other news, I have discovered Miss Annette's blog, and have fallen completely in love with it. I went to graduate school with Annette and one day when I was missing talking to her, I stumbled upon the link to her blog on Facebook. I started from the beginning and am still working my way through to the present (just my way with things), and I am so inspired by her crafts and eagerness to just jump into projects that all come out looking amazing. Like when I discovered Miss Emily, I find myself longing to just keep reading to learn more about them and to keep getting inspired for my own crafts.

Life continues...

Early in November, I finally got a job--in retail, part-time seasonal. I love the store I work in and I really enjoy working with the other women but I can't seem to get over the fact that I've spent 7 years of my life and close to $100,000 getting 2 degrees that are supposed to keep me from having to work in retail ever again. But if my having this job means we get to move out on our own, I'm more than happy to stick with it as long as needed.

However, because I want a job in archives more than I can express, I continue to apply for jobs as they come. The two most recent prospects are a part-time temporary contract position in DC and a full time, faculty position in Boise. The Boise job sounds perfect but means another cross-country move. The DC job also sounds amazing but means I will need to go through all this all over again in 9 months, right when a new batch of library grads are out looking for jobs. As great as the Boise job sounds, I really want the DC one. I know I can do that job and it would mean staying here which makes everyone happy. I should know about that by the end of the month. If I don't post anything, assume I didn't get it. The Boise job is currently reviewing applications but who knows when I'll hear back. Again, I'll let you all know if I get it.

In other (much happier) news, our good friends got engaged this weekend! Miss J and Mr C, I'm so so happy for you both! I only wish we could have been there to celebrate properly with you both, especially since you were so great to us when we were in your position. I look forward to hearing all the details though. :)

Until next time, happy very early Thursday everyone!