California Christmas

My parents and brothers and I with my Nonna at Christmas at my parents' house.
My brothers, aunt and uncle and my cousins - Prime Rib Christmas dinner!

Brian with my aunt and uncle, Suzy and Dan

My mom and her sister, Suzy with my Grandma

Brian and I did not do a good job of taking pictures this Christmas - we have no photos of Christmas with his family! The only reason I have any photos of my family is because my aunt stole the camera and was shooting away.....maybe next year!

Bob the Kitten

Meet Bob.

Bob was given to Brennan for Christmas as a joke. Isn't he cute? (Who gives a kitten as a joke?) Bob has very soft black fur with long grey strands of fur. His eyes are blue and green. I love him and thought about bringing him home after Christmas. Maybe this warrants a trip to the animal shelter on Saturday for some kitten shopping?

Let My People Go

Brian got this lovely camel colored Snuggie for Christmas and when he wears it he looks like Moses. So, we found him a walking stick to further the image. Merry Christmas, Moses.

Christmas Dog

Here are some holiday videos of the pup. He is afraid of our singing Christmas dog....wimp! Also a great one of him opening his present.....please ignore our "dog talk" voices....

I'm definitely obsessed with my dog.

Colorado Christmas

This morning we had OUR Christmas!

Riley was dying to open his presents - here he is gazing at the goods wondering what Santa brought him.

YES! He finally gets to dig in! Santa brought him a new, tough boomerang toy and a buffalo bone. He played with them all day long and was a happy boy.

But most exciting of all - look what Brian gave me! I've wanted these earrings for a long time and have only admired them from afar, but now they're MINE! My hubby was way too generous this Christmas - I got a bunch of other awesome presents, too.

The lovely leather jacket I got Brian for Christmas has short arms, unfortunately....the sleeves hit his forearms about 4 inches above the wrist. Bummer. Luckily, the Cowboys gear he loves, along with the other Christmas gifts!

Make...It....Stop

I am VERY happy that holiday baking is over for the year. I'm completely baked out. Between last weekend's cookie fest and today's baking extravaganza, I've made over 200 cookies.

Today's cookie menu:

Snickerdoodles

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Candy Cane Sugar Cookies

Snickerdoodles: Easy recipe, very tasty. The recipe, surprisingly, does not make many....

Candy Cane Sugar Cookies: The Devil. I will never make these again. These were a total pain in the you know what with the two different color doughs. Not worth the effort.
Peanut Butter Blossoms: Very easy and a crowd pleaser. Too bad I'm not a big fan of peanut butter cookies, although...maybe that's a good thing. The hardest part about these is unwrapping all the kisses....thankfully, Brian helped out today.

Naughty List

If you look closely at the gift above to Riley, you will see two puncture holes from his teeth. This little naughty chicken has been eyeing this present since the minute Santa put it under our tree. Last night, he must have snuck downstairs in the middle of the night because we found this present (with fresh puncture holes in the wrapping) on the landing of our stairs this morning.

I guess the good news is that he came to his senses halfway through his midnight rendezvous and didn't rip the whole present up and eat the bone inside!

Christmas Decor

Tonight, we had a small Christmas gathering with our friends. I love hosting get-togethers and having good food. Here are some pictures I took of our Christmas decorations beforehand.

I bought some berry garland and had some extra so I put it on my 2 tier serving tray. Also found green and red chips at Cost Plus. Baked lots of treats yesterday, too - yum!

I bought a few feet of berry garland and decorated our baskets with it to spice them up a bit for the holiday. I love how it looks!
Here's the cute little Santa statue I got at Pier 1. He's my fave this year.

Spiced up my downstairs bathroom a bit this year - colored light garland around the mirror, a santa-ish hand towel and a wooden wall thingie that I got at Lowe's.

This great find is from Home Depot - a wooden Santa for our front door.

Here are some of our friends getting ready for the White Elephant exchange. Charlie's gift was the biggest hit and got the most laughs out of everyone.

Winter Wonderland

Christmas is coming and it's cold outside - just in time for the holiday! It's 1 degree outside - with a feels like of -9 degrees.

BRRRRRRRRRRRR!

So, to entertain myself, and my loyal blog readers, I have some recent photos to share....

Above, Riley with the Santa wig on...looking like an elderly Marilyn Monroe.
Above, Riley sleeping like a little kid on the couch, all cuddled with a blanky because it's so cold!

We had a special request to post a photo of our Christmas tree and here it is! Ain't she a beaut? 7' Noble Fir...went with the white lights this year. Looks like a Tiny Tim Christmas, but we'll get a few gifts under there soon. Can't wait until we live by family one day and we can keep presents under the tree instead of having to ship them.....

'Tis The Season...

...to dress the dog up for the holidays even though he hates it!

Europe 2K9

Back from an amazing trip to Europe! Oh, so much fun! I can't believe it's already over.

Top 5 Memories from Europe 2K9

5. Saying Saint Germain with a heavy French accent over and over again (and Fondue and Voila)

4. Alia getting flipped off by a hooker in the Red Light District

3. French Onion Soup

2. Appel Bols

1. The Shelf Toilet

Thanksgiving 2009

Although I was out of the country and not with family this Thanksgiving, I was still giving thanks with a few of my closest friends. As we feasted over a fantastic dinner, I was thinking of the things in 2009 I'm most thankful for thus far.

5. My health

I continue to be healthy and rarely need to see the doctor.

4. My job

My company has thrived this year and I continue to enjoy my work and my co-workers.

3. My travels

Brian and I have been fortunate enough to visit several new places this year, something that is very important to us both.

2. My friends

I smile when I think about how many great, loyal friends I have who make my life richer each day.

1. My family

I have an amazing family that loves and supports me - the longer we live far from them, the more I miss them.

Taste Test

Last week, I hosted a "Battle of the Pumpkin Bread Mixes". I had picked up a box of the Pillsbury Quick Bread mix, missing my Trader Joe's mix. Meanwhile, Christina was sensing my longing for TJ's mix and sent me some. So, I baked two loaves in a week and compared the two. BY FAR, Trader Joe's wins the gold medal. It was spicier and more moist than the Pillsbury mix. Too bad stupid TJ's won't come to Colorado.

Oh, Denver.

Within the last month, we've had three visitors - Chris, Nikki (and Pat), and then Meesh (technically, she didn't come to visit...she's here for work and we had dinner). Each of these friends said to us "It's awesome here! Why do you want to leave?". Oh, Denver...I do love you. Too bad you're missing something big.....my family and a chunk of my friends!

Puppy Memories

I found these two videos while going through some Riley-puppy pictures tonight. They made me giggle and long for another puppy. Then again, I don't have any videos of him chewing up shoes or getting up twice a night to go out and pee.....

Enjoy - Riley and what came to be known as his pee-pee duck...

Lesson Not Learned

Dear New Contigo Travel Mug,

First, I'd like to thank you for not being a liar. I read your packaging before I made my purchase of you and I saw that you promised to keep my drink hot for 12 hours. I should have trusted you and taken you seriously. However, I did not. I assumed you were like any other jerk of a mug, not living up to your advertised uses.

I filled you with coffee, piping hot from my Cuisinart Brewmaster at 6:50am and I took my first sip from your nifty no-leak opening about 35 minutes later...only to burn the shit out of my upper lip. I think you actually went above and beyond and heated my coffee up further.

I should have listened to Brian's warning via text from an hour earlier "be careful with the coffee, it never cools down". I never learn my lesson with hot food and beverage items. I burn my tongue twice a week, at a minimum. But now I've done it....I've never burned my lip like this. Thank you, Contigo Travel Mug, for giving me a second degree burn on my upper lip.

Sincerely,

Gina

Pie!

Tomorrow is my monthly book club night. Lisa is hosting and the menu is "southern" since the book was set in Mississippi. I loooovvveeeeee Derby Pie so I decided to find a recipe and make it for tomorrow's book club gathering. I'm not a fan of Pecan Pie, but this is quite similar but instead of pecans and molasses....it's walnuts and chocolate chips. Delish!

Kentucky Derby Pie

1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
4 eggs
1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tspn vanilla
2 tbspn bourbon

Preheat oven to 350. Mix together sugar, corn syrup and eggs until well blended. Stir in remaining ingredients. Pour into unbaked 9 inch pie crust. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until set.

BBBOOOOOOTTTTTSSSSSSSS

I want these boots!!!!!!!! They are soooo cute and they fit around my "athletic" calves and don't bunch around my ankles and they aren't too tall, but they are soooooooo expensive. To buy or not to buy?

Sittin' Chicken

Last week when Chris came to stay with us and help Brian after his surgery, he bought us one of those beer butt chicken steamer contraptions. We used it the other night and got a fantastic roasted chicken out of it! Brian stuffed the cavity with an onion, used McCormick's Montreal Chicken seasoning on the skin and used a Dundee Honey Nut Brown ale for the beer. Steamed up some red potatoes and some green beans and.....voila! A fantastic dinner!

Sweet Surprise

Today, at work, a surprise was delivered to me - flowers! Brian sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers to say thank you for taking care of him after his surgery and especially driving him to work every morning at 6am. I LOVE getting flowers at work and now I get to look at these for a good week! Thanks, Bri.

Gruesome

Brian asked me to take some photos of his knee and post them on the blog. Here they are and they are GNARLY. The surgeon used his hamstring to create a new ACL - hence the nasty bruising on the back of his thigh. The bruising isn't as severe as it was a few days ago, too.

Halloween 2K9

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

We carved three jack-o-lanterns this year - Brian's is the one to the left, mine are the two to the right!
There's Brian, carving away! He's feeling much better and managed to hobble over to the dining room and sit with me to carve pumpkins. Yes, that's right...one of our pumpkins has a huge bruise on it. We made it work.

SWA Sale!

Southwest Airlines' "Fourth Quarter Sale" ends today and I picked up a ticket just in the nick of time....to go down to Orange County and visit Megs with Stef! Woohoo! Will be a nice break from the chilly winter here in January and also a really fun weekend of *hopefully* bridesmaid dress shopping for Megs wedding! Can't wait to see these girls!

Winter Storm Time

Yes! It's the first winter storm of the 09/10 snow season! Although what I really wanted was a snow day from work so I could stay home with my handi-hubby, it was still nice to watch the snow from my desk.

Here's the view from our background - into our yard and our neighbor's front yard. We definitely got a bunch of snow and more is still falling.
Here's our boy, Chicken scrounging for treasures in the snow.

Here's Chicken again saying, "Hey Chris! Don't forget about me - it's COLD out here!"

Thanks to Chris for being our photographer while I was at work and Brian was planted on the couch.

Fall Decor

Fall is here and so are my fall decorations! While I don't yet have the budget to have separate Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations, I have some fall decorations that I love.

I found great vase fillers for fall at Pier 1 - glittery pumpkins, fall berries, glittery squash and some hay.
I got the matching big pumpkin at Pier 1, too. This is my favorite!

Of course, I cannot forget my first fall decoration purchases from good ol' Hobby Lobby. My country pumpkin above and my metal votive pumpkin below.

Brian the Patient

Brian is home from a smooth, successful knee surgery. Now it's time for him to be my patient. Sometimes, I think I should have gone to nursing school. This is not one of those times.

Here's a picture of the Game Ready cold therapy machine we got. You fill it with ice and water and it cycles cold water through a pad wrapped around Brian's leg. Much more convenient than messy ice packs, but still a lot of work. I had to get up and fill it three times in the night last night. Our ice maker cannot keep up so I ran to the gas station this morning and bought a couple bags of ice.

Here's a picture of Brian eating waffles for breakfast with Riley. He was not very happy I took this picture so I couldn't get a "smiling" shot. Riley is being quite the daddy's boy - refusing to leave Brian's side and bringing his bones and toys up on the bed. He even slept on the bed with both of us all night long. That was fun.

Under the Knife

Brian has his ACL repair tomorrow! Send him happy thoughts for a smooth surgery and a quick recovery. Chris is coming this weekend to help care for the invalid, too.

The Help

This book is REALLY good. It's our current book club read and I love it. Highly recommend picking up a copy to read. I'm about 30 pages from the end and can't wait to slip into bed tonight and finish it up.