Pumpkin Pie!

I baked my first pumpkin pie!  I used the recipe here that I actually didn't get from there, but from the back label of Libby's pumpkin can.  Same recipe though.  It was yummy.  I'll definitely make it again sometime.

Happy Christmas everyone!

...and a Happy Christmas to all!

Here's a little glimpse into the awesomeness that our Christmas has been so far!

We have a couple of cats... that I "married into".  We hadn't had a Christmas tree yet, because we were worried about the cats' behavior around it.  Well, no need to worry!  We put up our first Christmas tree this year and they've been fine!  With the exception of a couple lower hung ornaments M.I.A., I think we have gotten pretty lucky.

 We got this ornament our very first Christmas together!  After knowing each other just a few weeks... we decided to go camping in the Redwoods in Northern CA together for Christmas!  It was a magical trip.  I felt like I was falling in love, but I loved traveling so much that I had to be sure that Dave was the best fit for me.  The test?  Travel together!  We really had such an amazing time... it's no surprise we were engaged just a couple weeks later.  

 I made this ornament with our wedding invitation.  ♥

A Merry Christmas and Cinnamon Bun Waffles

Our cats patiently sat through my shenanigans with the Santa hat.  =D

Mr. Shudders

Nudge

And our Cinnamon Bun Waffles for breakfast were delicious!

Crazy easy to make, too.

Heat up waffle iron on "max" setting.

Spray iron with oil, once heated.

Place one bun in each quadrant of iron.

Close and cook for 2.5 minutes.

Spread on some icing and enjoy!

Early Christmas Gifts....

As I sit here patiently waiting for my dear husband to wake so we may celebrate our first Christmas as Mr. & Mrs. I thought I'd share our early Christmas gift!

Dave's been wanting a Play Station 3 for as long as I've known him. I've quite honestly not seen a reason to have one, so I've never given much thought to it.

Enter PS3 MOVE.

Play Station has come out with a new add-on for their PS3, MOVE. It's motion gaming, much like Wii, and has a video camera, too. This makes the PS3 much more interesting, for me. Not that it's all about me... but if we're going to spend several hundred dollars on something, it ought to benefit us both.



So, we did it! Last Sunday we bought ourselves a PS3 MOVE for our big Christmas gift!

It's already been quite an impressive gadget. Dave can play his video games with his friend (who is in another town - they play over the web on the PS3!). There is a USB drive on the PS3, which means we can now watch all of our TV and movies via the PS3 instead of having to hook-up my laptop anytime we want to watch something other than regular TV. It also plays DVDs and Blu-Rays, although we don't own either of those - it's at least something we can use if we need to. The video camera also has the capability to skype - at least I thought it did when we bought it. It may not, but it may be something we can do with it eventually. I have to look into that more.

The thing I like the most... Get Fit with Mel B! Yeah, I've done an awesome job of packing on the winter weight, already. So I'm very excited to begin this at home workout program. Check out the video below, it's pretty incredible!



I'm sure there are other things that the PS3 will do that I haven't even discovered yet. It's super impressive how all inclusive this one little device is. Technology never ceases to amaze me!

Holidays in Los Angeles

We're not acutally spending our holiday in LA, but we did go to LA a few weeks ago and visited with my family (who were there for a conference) and called it a Merry Christmas!

My folks were staying at the J W Marriot Live, which is in the heart of the Downtown Live complex. They had a tree lighting on Saturday night that was televised, with performers (an Olympic ice skater who's name escapes me, Seal, Willow Smith, The Plain White T's and Stevie Wonder) and of course the tree lighting! We hung out to watch Willow Smith and Seal, then headed inside to watch the rest on TV in the warmth of their hotel room! While we were outside though, Dave bumped into Will Smith! They had themselves a brief Philly moment. =D

From Family In Los Angeles

From Family In Los Angeles

From Family In Los Angeles

On Sunday Dave, Alex and I went to Magic Mountain! We have a fantastic time... hitting a bunch of rides! And did I mention... our rental car got a free upgrade to a Jeep Wrangler - naturally, I was stoked!

From Family In Los Angeles

From Family In Los Angeles

From Family In Los Angeles

See the rest of the photos here:

Family In Los Angeles

Send a quick thank you for the holidays!

Send a quick (and free) Thank You Postcard to one of our troops overseas this holiday season.

At Let's Say Thanks you can choose a child-designed postcard and personalize with a caring message all online. When you're done, click send and Xerox will print and mail the postcard for you!

Go on... Let's Say Thanks!



My favorite design by Emily, 13, of Denver, CO

The Holiday Hustle.

It never ceases to amaze me how fast the month of December always flies by.

I feel like I haven't had a minute to myself in weeks... flying to LA to visit my parents, cooking and baking and hosting more family last weekend for our holiday craft party... Now here it is, the last weekend before Christmas and I haven't even written my Christmas cards yet! Those who know me, know I rarely get my Christmas cards out before Christmas, anyway... but now that I'm married and have a whole new family to include in our holiday greetings.. I figured I'd try to start out right... and not have them scratch their heads when they get a card with Santa on it from us in April.

Dave and I have a busy weekend ahead of us. Many, many cards to write, lots of gifts to wrap and get in the mail and t-shirts to print for even more gifts. I hope we not only get everything done... but have a few minutes to ourselves to just relax and enjoy the weekend. The good news is we both have 3 day weekends for Christmas and New Year's. Can't complain about that!

Side note: If you haven't checked out Groupon yet, you should! If you sign up at this link: www.groupon.com, I'll get a coupon, too. (You don't have to sign up... I'm just saying - you will probably get there, think it's fantastic and want to sign up - so if you do, I might as well get credit for it!)

Anyway... eventually I may put some photos from our trip to Los Angeles or my sister's visit to San Francisco (and Berkeley!) up here. So keep an eye out!