Twas the Day after Christmas...

What do you do the day after Christmas when you live in an apartment? Take down the tree? Clean up the kitchen/living room? Ask your downstairs neighbors to turn up their heat? While all of that sounds productive, Brent and I decided that we would be as non-productive as possible and after a morning of recovering from our food coma, we went outside to throw a frisbee around. Our neighbor joined us, and soon we were having a blast. Until something caught our attention:
What is that, you ask? Let's see if this helps.
Still not sure? How about this?
Still nothing? Okay, here you go:
Yup, that's right, people. A car. On fire. In our apartment's parking lot. Please, pay no attention to the black smoke or burning rubber/paint smell. The response when we called 911 to report it 20 minutes before the fire department arrived? "Is this call in response to the car on fire? Yes, we know."
I can't make this stuff up, people.
Thank goodness for the "no-smoking in restaurants" law that just passed...

Merry Christmas!

As I've told you before, this is the first Christmas Brent and I will not be trekking home. While we're excited to be making our own family Christmas traditions (we're still not sure what those are yet...maybe doing nothing at all...or how about laundry or cleaning?) and hang out with friends while we eat ourselves into a coma (maybe that'll be our new tradition...oh wait, that's not new...), we're also sad about missing out on time with our family. It's been an understanding for years now that Brent and I don't get each other Christmas gifts. Anything we really need we usually buy during the year, so instead of another shirt or ornament, we just enjoy giving to others and being around them and each other. So, this year, we don't have any presents to buy. We were actually planning on getting something together for our families and mailing them, but we couldn't get all our ducks in a row in time (shocker, I know). So to make our tree look better, I wrapped a box in decorative paper and put it under the tree. Clearly, one present looks better than none under there, right?? Looking at it afterward I knew we needed help. That's where Mary & Joseph come in (thanks Mom!) And although it looked okay, a few visitors mentioned how much shopping we must still need to do and one of our good friends (who apparently feels very comfortable around us) laughed at our one little present under the tree (of course it was a loving laugh, not a deep evil laugh). So we were all set to have our one fake present under the tree on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Well, low and behold, my Aunt Sandra mailed us a package that came in today...in it was two wonderfully wrapped Christmas presents!! Thank you, Aunt Sandra!!! And just remember, no matter how many presents you have under the tree, the important reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place. Thank you Jesus, for becoming one of us and dying so that we may have life.

My Sweet Sweetie

Some of you are under the impression that I am the only one who cooks or bakes sweet concoctions in my kitchen. This is not so.

So you know how when it gets cold the only fresh fruit that actually has any taste anymore is citrus? Why is that? Anyway, we were in the grocery store on Saturday and I bought a bag of tangerines. Brent and I don't eat a lot of citrus fruits. Sure, we like them, but we're more likely to go for an apple or grapes. I think it's because of all the work you have do to before you get to enjoy the fruit. So why did I buy them? Probably mostly because I wanted some fresh fruit in the house, and they were the only things 1) on sale and 2) that looked halfway decent. So into the buggy they went. (If you don't know what a buggy is, then you didn't grow up in the South. That's okay, I still love you.) So when my sweetie came in on Sunday afternoon from church and announced he wanted to make something sweet (namely Orangettes (chocolate covered candied orange peels)) that very afternoon, I was so excited we didn't have to make a trip to the grocery store I was almost giddy.

Now, while I'm not the only one who uses the kitchen, I do somehow find myself in there while Brent's in there. I really do try to just watch, but somehow a few minutes later I always find myself "giving him tips" or just jumping in and "helping out". Confession time: Brent actually had to point out to me twice yesterday that I was in his way or doing what he was supposed to be doing. Oops! So to keep myself out of his way, I decided to occupy myself with the camera and show you that he really did do all the work.

This is peaking around the corner into our kitchen. That's my apron on the right side that my friend Holly gave to me a few years ago. Love it!

Look at the look on his face - that's pure concentration, baby!

Pretty, sweetened tangerine peels. My sweetie did it all himself!

Look at him go!

The final product. I finally convinced him to let me put a sprinkling of cinnamon on top. (You didn't really think I could resist doing something, did you??) De-lish-us!!

The Nutcracker

Last Saturday Brent and I went on a date to see The Nutcracker ballet that was being preformed by the local youth ballet.
I love The Nutcracker - it's my all-time favorite Christmas story, music, and ballet.

One of the things that made this performance extra special was one of our friends was in it!! M was absolutely AMAZING! Granted, I'm not trained in ballet and am definitely no expert, but she had a certain stage presence that was just truly stunning. She portrayed Columbine (one of Godfather Drosselmeyer's toys he shows off to the children before he brings out the Nutcracker) one of the snowflakes, and one of the flowers. Sorry some of the pictures are blurry - it's harder than I thought to get a picture of someone moving! :)
Great job, M! We're so proud of you!

Winter Wonderland

What's that? You thought I stopped decorating cakes? Au contraire! Here's my latest creation:
I didn't feel like the cake was Christmas-y enough, so I used some food coloring on each layer, making one green and one red.
I totally cheated and used a box mix. Don't tell!! But I did make the icing and filling (raspberry) from scratch, so I don't feel like I totally cheated my co-workers.

Last Saturday Shannon and I had our third annual Brinner (breakfast for dinner) while watching White Christmas. We actually ended up having an impromptu party at our place. Friends came over to help set up, put the lights on, and decorate our tree. Thankfully, Shannon and I made enough Brinner for everyone, including homemade cinnamon rolls! (Sorry, I forgot to get a pic of the cinnamon rolls, but trust me - they were good!)
Don't make fun of our tree - we like our Christmas trees short and fat! :) Plus, I can reach the top! Well, almost...

I'm Thankful For...

There's so much I could tell you about. I could tell you about what a wonderful, awesome Thanksgiving we had. Spending time with family in the kitchen, hiking, riding motorcycles, reading, watching movies, playing games, and wrestling with my nephews. I could tell you about how much fun we had making a mess of the kitchen while making homemade oatmeal creme pies, multiple batches of biscuit dough, crushing indestructible peppermints for the peppermint cookies, making meat pies, having my nephew in the kitchen with us, telling him to eat some of the raw dough (which he did!), going to the movies with my husband and mother-in-law, going to the movies with my sisters and two handsome cousins, and laughing the time away with family at my grandmother's table that I grew up eating at. I could tell you about how proud I was that I drove halfway and that my husband didn't murder me on the way to GA after I stayed up almost all night the night before just to watch a movie. I could tell you about how bittersweet this Christmas will be - the first Christmas we'll be spending by ourselves. I could tell you about how excited I am about going to see the Nutcracker next weekend with my awesome husband. Or I could tell you about how tired I get just by looking at our December calendar full of plans. I could tell you about how much I really can't stand being sick. Or being sick while trying to take care of the other sick person in the house. I could tell you about how thankful I am for my Lord, my family, my friends, how fortunate we are, and how much I want to spread the love of Jesus to others. Yeah, I think I'll go with that one.