Living. and Loving.: December 2007

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Sprinkle Spangles

So once and a while when I am reminiscing about certain parts of my childhood I always remember this cereal that I used to LOVE. I remember it especially around Christmastime, because the first time I had ever eaten it I was on this retreat with some girls from my church and there was snow on the ground. Also because the cereal is in the shape of stars and they are covered in multi-colored sprinkles. Everytime I drive by a house with multi-colored Christmas lights on them it makes me think of that cereal, every single time. I started to talk to Chris last night about them and we decided to try to figure out what they were called; after searching the internet for a while and looking up some discontinued cereals (thank you wikipedia) we finally figured it out. They were called Sprinkle Spangles. I know it probably seems silly, but it is crazy how things like that can bring back memories. Check out this old commercial that we found: http://www.retrojunk.com/details_commercial/476/

Monday, December 24, 2007

Movies and Christmastime

Going to see a movie on Christmas Day always seems to be a popular thing to do. We had never done this before, but last night after we celebrated Christmas with Chris's family we decided to go. Spectrum always sends us free tickets in the mail, I love that, it's kind of one of their ways of showing their staff they appreciate them. It was so fun though, it was snowing and blowing so much, we pretty much had a blizzard!! The theatre is really close to our house which was nice, so we didn't have to drive too far. We decided to go and see "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street". It is based off of a musical, so of coure there was a lot of singing. Definately an interesting movie with a different story line...you will have to see it and judge for yourself. Here is the trailer:

Great movie or not, Johnny Depp does an amazing as always.

This week has been a blur!

I hate that I look forward to Christmas year round, seriously, I love it. And then it comes sneaking up on you so fast and it's always over so quickly...I hate it!

Well I finally finished all the Christmas shopping this past week, whew. It was a crazy one. I spent a lot of my two days off shopping, doing hair, and cleaning to prepare for this weekend. Not getting much sleep and wrapping presents. Oh yeah and baking. I made these little carmel, chocolate and pecan covered fudge balls...

I always look forward to my weekends off but I was looking forward to this one especially. Saturday my parents came into town. We had lunch at our house and then walked around downtown. Chris's parents came into town for dinner and we ate out at Kobe. Chris's dad Bob loves that place. It's like a steak and seafood restaurant where they cook the food on a grill in front of you. We had a lot of fun hanging out. I miss them!!!

We did a little tour of the Amway Grand

Sunday morning we went to Mars and the message was awesome as always. Ed Dobson spoke, the guy amazes me. He has Lou Gehrig's disease and I swear you would never know it. After church we came straight back here and started to prepare our meal for our Christmas dinner with Chris's family. They came here this year since we have our new house, it was also our first time cooking for them. Some of the highlights from our evening for me was when Chris's dad opened his T-shirt up that we got him...it says "I'm BOB, Deal with it!" It's hilarious, I guess you would have to see it. Also when his mom opened up her little Lighthouses that I got her for her collection. I don't think she was expecting those. I love to surprise people. Well it will definately be another memorable Christmas. Here are some pictures opening presents and also of Chris and I in front of our first Christmas tree in our new house together.

Today is Christmas Eve. I have to work tonight from 3-11 pm and then we have to drive straight home. I am hoping and praying that I will somehow be able to get out of work early. Chris gets out at 8:30, I am hoping to get out soon after that way we will make it home before midnight. I do not want to be tired Christmas Day, I swear that always happens. It's so hard to go to sleep when you get home though because everyone wants to visit. I cannot wait to see everyone! Especially Jess and Trish and Sam, I haven't seen them in forever!! Anyways, I better get off to bed!!

I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year. I love you all!!!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Playing in the snow.

Over the past couple years, I have pondered a question quite often, always during the wintertime.

Why in the world do little kids like to play outside in the snow? It is so cold!!! So miserably cold. How are they having a good time at all?

And then today it came to me.
It was like I completely forgot or something.

They are so busy playing and running around like little crazy people that they don't even notice how cold it is because they are all bundled up and sweating their bum off.
That is what happened to me today anyways. One minutes I was scraping the good 6 inches of snow off of our car wondering how in the world I was going to get it out of the driveway to make it to work and thinking oh my gosh my fingers are going to fall off because of frostbite!!!.........and then the next minute I was playing with Niles in the backyard and realized....I'm not going to lose my fingers afterall! My hands are warm and they feel fine. In fact I was quite toasty as soon I got into the house.

My bum is still a little frozen but all is well.

Getting our groove on.

We really get into the "Christmas Spirit" around our house.

Thanks Joe and the Today Show.

Also, check this out...Santa knows if you are being naughty or nice!!
I thinks it is funny. But kinda weirds me out at the same time...haha.

Oh Christmas Tree!

I've been doing it again. Saving up all kinds of stories and pictures and putting off posting because I know it will take a while. Well Christmas is almost here so I figured I had better hurry up and do it already!

The last couple weeks have been great. We love Christmas time, it is always so much fun, it just always comes and goes so fast!!

Our house looks so cute, I love it! After hours of work putting up the lights and figuring out the right cords to buy and having to get someone to drill a hole into our morter to hang the wreath, well it was all worth it. The roof ended up being a lot higher than I thought it was too. We are the only house on our street that put up Christmas lights. I wonder why? They all probably think we are crazy. Every night I come home from work and there is our house, shining bright, haha.

We finished putting up the lights the saturday morning after Thanksgiving. That was the day that I had planned for us to decorate. It was such a fun day! After finishing up outside we got ready, went to Home Depot to buy a tree stand (we had a gift card) and then went to Red Lobster for a quick bite to eat (we had a gift card). I ended up running into a bunch of people that I used to work with/be friends with so that was kinda cool. After that we went to Romence Gardens and bought our Christmas tree. Our friend Andrea works there and she was telling us about how to get a coupon out of the paper and that they were nice trees and reasonably priced. This probably sounds so cheesy but, we came home and drank some cocoa, in Chris's case, eggnog, and decorated the tree. It's so pretty!! Last year after Christmas was over we bought a lot of decorations on clearance, and also got a lot for Christmas that said like "First Christmas in our New Home" etc, so I was pretty excited to use them all this year and see how it would look. I had also bought a lot of decorations at Hobby Lobby when their stuff was 50% off and got some great deals. It was good fun. =)

I bought Niles some sweet reindeer antlers but he won't leave them on for two long...it's kinda funny watching him try to get these off, it's a miracle I got him to sit still for a minute to take this picture....

Since then we've been doing the usual...getting some Christmas shopping done, working...I was going to send out Christmas cards but I think that now it is too late. I wanted to sent out a picture of us and we just didn't get it taken in time. Next year we will for sure!!

Last weekend our friends Adam and Amanda came over to see the house since they hadn't yet. I had been planning for a couple weeks and Chris and I finally decided on what food we were going to cook. It was really fun, we made steaks, twice baked crab stuffed potatoes and green beans. I also made a salad that had feta cheese, apples, dried cranberries and pecans in it, those are so good. Dessert was the kicker. I had seen this awesome looking cake on Martha Stewart monthes ago and it just looked SO pretty I thought that I would try it. It was a crepe cake...it had like 26 layers, supposed to have 32 but it started getting so high I quit early... NEVER AGAIN!!!!!! I kid you not people, between friday night and saturday morning I literally spent like 7 hours of my life on this thing, and if you don't believe me, ask Chris. It was so ridiculous!!! It looked great when I was done, but seriously, never again.

The stupid part, was later on in the evening Chris and Adam had gone to rent a movie and when they got back for some reason my stomach was like what did you do to me?? and I got sick. I ended up in the bathroom the entire time, and I could hear them out in the living room laughing at the movie and raving about how great the cake was. I was so disappointed!!! I ended up being sick all night long and into sunday. So much for having a great three days off of work!! I spent all day sunday trying to rehydrate myself and just resting. If there are three things that I hate it's throwing up, bloody noses, and getting hit in the head. So ridiculous.

So anyways, only 9 more days until Christmas now. I cannot wait. I love being with all of our families. And I haven't seen my nephew Samuel since like September since they live in Ohio and before that since like March when he was born I think? I hate that they live so far away. It will be awesome watching him open presents this year. He is so cute!
This weekend my parents are coming into town to spend the day with us on Saturday and I know Chris's parents will come hang out as well. We might go to the Fredrick Meijer Gardens depending what is going on there. Sunday we will be having our family Christmas with Chris's side of the family at our house this year! And then Christmas Eve after I get out of work we will be driving straight to my familie's house. God has been so good to our families, we are so blessed!!

I love Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!