Happy Holidays!

Hope you all have a fabulous holiday weekend! We'll be spending Christmas Eve with my family and Christmas Day with The Hubs's family, which is each families tradition. (Works out great for splitting time!)

I'll be around next week with some catch up #Weverb11 posts and maybe a few other things. Most bloggers are taking next week off, but I'm hoping to use the week to do MORE blogging! hehe :-) Plus I know some of you will be like me and by dying with all your favorite bloggers taking a hiatus!

See you next week! :-)

Favorite Holiday Ornaments

I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favorite holiday ornaments that adorn our tree.

The Hubs was very methodical in the ornaments he chose to put on the tree this year. He wanted the majority of them to have some meaning to us and our nuclear family. This meant as few hand me down ornaments as possible.

Here are a few of my favorites that made the cut!

Our Wedding Favor Ornaments

The Hubs made over a hundred of these ornaments in the weeks before our wedding so that we could hand them out at as favors. They turned out soooo cute and were a real hit with our guests. It is so fun to go to friends' and families' house and see our ornament on their tree. Every Christmas, they remember us while they are decorating! It was an awesome idea! :-) And two years later, they still look great!

Favorite Childhood Ornament

I LOVED this ornament when I was a kid. Not sure why. It was just one my parents got for me, but I always remember it being one of the most special. I think it may have been because it was sparkly, but who knows.

As The Hubs was putting the ornaments on the tree, he noticed that we both had bear ornaments from 1988. He decided to put them together on the tree! Aren't they cute!

Favorite Vacation Spot Ornament

We have a tradition of buying at least one ornament while we are traveling to remember the various vacation spots we have gone on. We have quite a few from Monterey, since we go there on vacation quite a bit, but this sparkly sand dollar one is my favorite! When it catches the light, it is sooo pretty!

Favorite Nostalgic Ornament 

I bought this Cal Poly Alumni ornament when I graduated from Cal Poly in 2004. It became even more special when I reconnected with The Hubs, who also graduated from Cal Poly. Now it reminds us both of our college days and the place where in the end we found each other again!

What are your favorite holiday ornaments? Do you only put ornaments on your tree that are especially meaningful?

Holiday Stress

Image Source: Carolyn Anderson, MD

It's no secret that the holidays are one of the most stressful times of the year. And as much as I love them, the stress can be a bit much for me.

There are two areas I've been finding especially stressful thinking about...

First, figuring out how to deal with gift giving. I love my entire family to death and I love giving and receiving presents, but as I've gotten older, I really would like a more structured way to exchange presents (i.e. single gift exchange, spending limit, etc.)  I know a lot of large large families do this already, but since ours isn't super large nothing like that has been implemented yet. One family only gives a couple of gifts per family member, typically under $100 in total gift spending each (Family Size = 4 not including us). The other family goes all out and gives TONS of gifts. This makes The Hubs and I feel like we need to get an equivalent amount of gifts for them as well, typically at least $100 in spending each (Family Size = 3). I guess when you bring family size into the equation it all somewhat equals out, but the feeling that we aren't treating everyone equally is still there. The second family requires the making of Christmas Lists as well. That's fine as it makes it easier to buy gifts, but its intimidating when you see all the things that each person wants. My list was relatively short, as I try to only ask for things that I REALLY need. I still don't want anyone to feel obligated to give me any of these things since really I feel like the stress placed on giving gifts to adults is overrated. If we had kids it would be a totally different story as the focus would be on them and not us. My friends and I have already decided that now that everyone is starting to have kids, we would forgo presents for each other (for b-days and X-mas) and focus on the kids. Make things so much easier!  I know I've talked about this issue before, but it was really bothering me again this holiday season so I had to get it off my chest!

The second area is the planning of activities (holiday or not). For whatever reason, that responsibility has fallen squarely on my shoulders. I need to coordinate with everyone to figure out who wants to go, figure out all of the details of getting there/dinner/snacks, buy the tickets, get reimbursed and make sure that in the end everyone is happy. Typically everyone helps out once I give instructions on what we should do, but coming up with all of the details all the time is exhausting. Lately it has gotten even more complicated as both my family and The Hubs's family want to be involved, but within that some want to participate and some don't, parents want kids who don't want to come to come, etc. Ahhh! It get's SOO complicated! It's a lot to take on, especially when I feel like I'm trying to please everyone. These activities are supposed to be fun, but they end up being so much work! I wish for once I could just attend an activity and not have to think about one single thing except showing up at a designated time and place and not worry about pleasing anyone...

Do you have similar holiday stresses?
How do you deal with them?

Holiday Card Dilemma

So there have been tons of blog posts floating around the internet where you can win prints from Shutterfly or Tiny Prints. There are SOOO many cute ones to choose from!

Image Source: Shutterfly

Image Source: Tiny Prints

Unfortunately I haven't won any of these said contests, so I haven't been forced to actually purchase holiday cards.

For the last couple of years, The Hubs and I have done photo cards that we purchase at Costco. Here's a refresher from our holiday card last year!We had just gotten The Pup, so this was the opportunity to show him off. The year before, we used a wedding picture.

This year, I'm sorta at a loss of what to do. I'm not sure that our family really wants to see pictures of our lovely mugs again this year. If we had a child or were announcing a pregnancy, neither of which apply to us, it would be much easier to figure out what to do (as evidence of almost ALL of the example cards on the web). I've also always wanted to do a family news update, but since nothing of exceptional importance happened to us this year, I wouldn't have much to say. That seems to be something that more people do when they have children to brag about (and although Rusty is our child, there's not much to say there, except he's maybe just a little less mischievous than he was last year, sometimes!).

So right now, I'm just thinking of sending out some normal (aka boring) holiday cards, unless I get inspired or get some great ideas from one of you! So bring them on!!

What are you doing for your holiday cards this year (especially those of you sans children)? 

Do you send photo or traditional cards?

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope you all are having a fantastic Valentine's Day! I know I am!

I just got these beautiful flowers at work!

I think it is the first time I've ever had roses delivered to me! I love my honey!

The Hubs and I had a fancy meal of crab and roasted asparagus on Saturday, so tonight will be an easy meal of pasta leftovers and molten lava cakes for dessert. Then we'll curl up, cuddle and watch The Bachelor!
hehe :-)

I better get back to work so I can leave on time!!

Holiday Cards - Remembering and Reusing

Sorry, I haven't written in a few days. Getting back into the swing of things at work and around the house after the holidays has taken its toll on my energy level. I have a lot of fun stuff to share though, including my thoughts on a great meditation class I went to on Saturday!

But for now, I FINALLY was able to get around to finishing a project that I wanted to do with the holiday cards we received.

This Christmas we got quite a few holiday cards from our friends and family. I think a lot of this had to do with the fact that we sent out our own holiday cards to most of our wedding invite list. Throughout December, the cards have adorned the entryway to our kitchen.

Now that the holidays are over and the decorations had to get put away (so so sad if you ask me), I wanted to figure out a way to save and/or reuse them.

I decided that I would do one of two things with them...

The personalized photo cards were compiled into a 2010 Holiday Card Scrapbook, with The Hubs and I's Christmas card at the forefront. I'm hoping that if we continue to receive the same types of photo cards from these families in the future, that we can see how not only our family, but the families of all these other special people in our lives has evolved over time. I've also included the cards of special family members including our parents and grandpa.

Here are some pictures of just a few of the pages:

I was really happy with the way it turned out!

For the remainder of the holiday cards, I tore the front part of the card off and plan on using it as a postcard to send holiday cards to either our troops or to the needy during the next holiday season. I've seen this reuse idea on the internet in many places (too many even to reference them all). I haven't written on the cards yet, as I need to do a little more research to determine if there are any postcard size restrictions and if it matters whether the post card is horizontal or vertical, but I figure I have a whole year to figure that out. For now, the postcards are in one of the sleeves of the scrapbook so I don't lose them!

I'm hoping to keep this tradition alive year after year, so that will have a book of Christmas memories that we can share with our children and grandchildren some day.

What do you do with your holiday cards after the holidays are over?  Was anyone else sad to see the decorations go down, but somewhat happy that the house could somewhat return to order?

Happy New Year!

I'd like you all to virtually (or in reality if you have one near by) pick up a glass of your favorite bubbly for I'd like to propose a toast to you from The Hubs, The Pup and I...

We would like to wish you and your family a 2011 filled with love, health and happiness!  
 
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm so looking forward to seeing what 2011 brings AND to share it with all of you!

P.S. - Can you believe that I was able to keep up with all of the #Reverb10 posts this month AND post some things for those non-#reverbers out there???? I sure can't, but I'm SO proud that I did! :-)

Image Credit: little blue deer via We Heart It

Christmas Loot - Couples's Edition

This is the final installment in the Christmas Loot edition and seemed to be the category where many of our presents fell this year! Guess that's what happens when you get married and two become one, eh? hehe :-)

Because we really didn't want ANYTHING for Christmas (remember that problem with no space that we currently have...), we wanted to try to receive only necessary items for the house, replacements for things that were broken, and gift cards.

The Fam was pretty good about following our wishes and we received some really great gifts including one we didn't even know we wanted!

Gifts from The Fam
The one gift that I was actually surprised to get since we didn't know to ask for it, turned out to be one of the best gifts we got! It was a customized ADDRESS PLAQUE!

We currently just have some ugly numbers over our garage proclaiming our address to the world, but this new plaque is going to do the same thing in a MUCH more luxurious way. I can't wait to figure out where we're going to install it!

The Hubs and I are self-proclaimed wine lovers and our old Brookstone Classic Wine Opener which we'd had for years finally bit the dust.  The Fam knew we were in need, so they purchased us an upgraded opener.

Enter the Brookstone Automatic Wine Opener! Who knew opening wine could be even easier than with the classic wine opener we used to have, but with this baby it CAN! It also comes with a sleek holder which will make it a counter top staple in our kitchen.

Finally, The Fam gave us a gift card to our FAVORITE sushi restaurant, Amakara. It's seriously the best. You can read more about my love for it in my #reverb10 - Taste post!

Gifts for Ourselves
While we were out buying The Hubs his new saw, we decided to browse the area rug aisle to see if any rugs spoke to us. The Hubs and I have been on the hunt for an area rug for our living room for months now, but couldn't decide on a color or design that we both could agree on. I don't know what it was about today, but all of the stars aligned and we left with not only the saw, but a new 8 x 10 area rug for our living room!

This rug choice was great because it was relatively inexpensive ($250 for an 8 x 10 rug seems like a steal), which was good for our pocket books and made us feel like we could change it out of our taste changes or if The Pup eats it. We both liked that it was neutral and that we could change the colors of pillows and lamp shades on a whim while still having the room look like a cohesive unit. It took a little bit of getting used to not seeing our hardwood floors anymore, but the rug has definitely made the room feel warmer and more homey. Stay tuned for some before and after pics I'll post in the coming year once all the #reverb10 posts have concluded and I'll be looking for things to blog about!

This concludes our Christmas Loot round-up! In case you are late to the party, you can find my favorite gifts here and The Hubs' favorite gifts here.

How did you all make out this Christmas? Did Santa bring you everything you wanted? If you are married, have you found that more and more of your gifts are directed to both of you as a couple?

Image Credits: Home Decorators, Brookstone, Lowes

Christmas Loot - The Hubs's Edition

In the previous installment of Christmas Loot, I shared the four gifts that were my favorite this holiday season.

In this post, I'll share those gifts that The Hubs got that he was super excited about. (Side note: None of the gifts I gave The Hubs made the top 4 since I had already bought him this Craftsman toolchest for his birthday in October).

Gift from The Bro
While opening presents on Christmas Day at The Hubs's family's place, he received some strange gifts including conduit fittings and a wiring book. I was a bit confused, but apparently The Hubs knew what was coming! Finally, two long skinny packages were revealed. Inside were FLUORESCENT LIGHTS for our garage.

The Hubs had asked for these since the lights we currently have in our garage are less than stellar. He enjoys working on projects in the garage and uses it as his workshop since we don't have enough space to actually park a car in it. He's also going to LOVE learning how to install the lighting himself with his brother's help!

Gifts from The Fam
The Hubs and I have had a Wii for over a year. We only had a couple of games and really don't find much time to play with it. The Hubs though asked for (and received) two Wii Games this holiday season.
                                  

We played the games with the family on Christmas and had a really great time! They brought us back to the days of the original Nintendo. The Hubs also is excited to have these games cause he figures he can play them while I'm preoccupied blogging!

Another computer related gift The Hubs asked for was the Windows 7 upgrade for his operating system.

He has it on his work computer and really likes it. We'll see how hard it is to actually install. Hopefully, its not as complicated or crappy as Vista was....

Gifts for Ourselves

The Hubs ended up buying a very BIG gift for himself for Christmas this year...one that hopefully he will use many many times in the years to come.

 A DeWalt 12" Double Bevel Compoud Sliding Miter Saw! His main reason for getting this saw was to make the corner cuts for the crown molding he is currently installing in our bedroom. He's eventually going to install crown molding throughout the house, so this saw is definitely going to come in handy. It will also be the perfect tool for any other woodworking projects he plans on tackling, which is something he really enjoys doing (especially now that he will have brand spankin' new fluorescent lights to light the garage!).

The final installment in the Christmas Loot series will feature our favorite gifts that The Hubs and I received together as a couple.

Image Credits: Instructables, Nintendo Super Mario, Nintendo Donkey Kong, Microsoft, DeWalt

Christmas Loot - Jen's Edition

The Hubs and I got some really great gifts for Christmas this year. Over the next few days, I'll be posting some of the best gifts that we received and a few that we decided to buy for ourselves.

In this first installment, I'll share my favorite four gifts.

Gift From The Hubs
This year The Hubs gave me one big gift for Christmas and I am SO excited about it. He bought me 8 sessions with a Personal Trainer from 24 Hour Fitness!

I have been wanting to hire a personal trainer for FOREVER, but have been too cheap and lazy to do it. I decided to go in to the gym today to find my trainer and schedule sessions for the next two weeks so that I beat the mad New Years rush. The trainer suggested working with him twice a week for the best results, but that just means my sessions will run out in a month :-(.  He did say that there will be more good deals to buy more sessions in the New Year if I want to continue. I have my first session on Thursday, so we'll see how it goes!!

Gifts From The Fam
I got lots of great gifts from both The Hubs's family and mine, but I'm going to share my favorite two.

First up, is something that I have NEEDED for months and I have been suffering and squinting every morning as I drive to work without it. You really don't realize how much you need this thing until you don't have it. Figured out what it is yet....

A DRIVER'S SIDE VISOR for my Civic! I swear being without this thing has been terrible! I've been one of those dorky people who resorts to sticking a piece of paper in their window to block the setting sun from bothering her highly sensitive,contact wearing eyes. I installed it yesterday (with some help from The Hubs) and I am so glad to have it back!

My next favorite gift from The Fam was the new Limited Edition Blue Ray DVD of The Sound of Music.

I've loved The Sound of Music since I was a child and know most of the songs and dialogue by heart (much to The Hubs's dismay!). I recently saw the cast on Oprah and was just amazed that the adults on the show were those same children. I can't believe it has been 45 years since the movie came out! A timeless classic, if you ask me!
Gifts for Ourselves
On the day after Christmas, The Hubs and I decided to do a little a whole lot of shopping for ourselves. We figured we'd been good enough this year!

On our little excursion to Home Depot and Lowes, there was only one thing that I wanted...

A new HIGH ARC FAUCET for the sink. The faucet that came with the house made it SO difficult to  wash big pots and pans. I insisted that the faucet be installed right away and even though I haven't washed any dishes with it yet, some things are SO much easier to do...like filling the Britta water filter and The Pup's bowl. I seriously LOVE it! SO worth the money!

Stay tuned for the next installment of Christmas Loot - The Hubs' Edition!

Image Credits: 24 Hour Fitness, dgerej2 Photobucket, Target, Google Products

Merry Early Christmas to Us!

The Hubs got an early Christmas gift this year. A really really AWESOME gift!

HE PASSED HIS FUNDAMENTALS OF ENGINEERING EXAM!!!!

For those non-engineers out there, this is the first step toward becoming a Professional Engineer (PE).

It's also a big deal since he worked so hard in the three months leading up to the test by studying every night and going to Exam Prep classes on the weekend. He sacrificed so much to accomplish this goal!

I'm so proud of him!

We're having Christmas Eve with my family tonight, so be sure some big time CELEBRATING will be going on!

"Adventures in the Kitchen" - Mom's Sweet Potatoes

I have to admit that I am not the best cook. I often just choose not to cook, let the Hubs deal with it, or make tried and true easy meals (i.e. tacos and speghetti AT LEAST once a week). I'm always worried that if I DO try out a new recipe it won't turn out or the Hubs won't like it.

Well, it's time to get over it! I want to finish out 2010 strong and start trying new things in 2011...including COOKING! I know that as our family grows cooking HAS to become a habit. Even if I get home late and don't feel like cooking, I don't think our future kiddos would be too happy with us if we told them to fend for themselves.

So in these "Adventures in the Kitchen" posts, I'll share a recipe I've tried that's hopefully not too hard to make, tasty, and healthy. And hopefully....practice will make perfect and cooking will become a habit!

The first recipe up is a family recipe that my mom makes for every holiday gathering, including Christmas Eve (which I can't believe is TOMORROW). I had never made these Candied Sweet Potatoes before by myself, so I had my mom come over and supervise while I documented my first attempt! This isn't necessarily the healthiest dish, but boy is it delicious. I look forward to every holiday just so we can have them!

Ingredients

• 5-6 sweet potatoes

• 1/2 cup of packed brown sugar

• 3 tablespoons of butter

• Splash of water

• Mini marshmllows

Directions

First, be sure to wash and scrub the sweet potatoes very well. Remeber, dirt wasn't part of the ingredients list!

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add sweet potatoes and allow them to boil.

Check the sweet potatoes by poking them with a fork. You'll know they are done when they are just soft enough to be poked through with a fork. Try not to over boil since it will make the potatoes so soft they break apart.

Once the sweet potatoes are done, strain out the water and let them cool. Once they are able to be handled, peel the skin off.

Next, slice each sweet potatoe into slices about 1/3 of an inch thick and lay them in a baking dish.

Now you're ready to make the topping. Place the butter in a sauce pan on a low heat setting. Move the butter around in the bottom of the pan until it is completely melted.

Next add the brown sugar.

Keep stiring the mixture until the brown sugar has completely melted.

Add a splash of water so that the mixture is just thin enough to pour. Don't add too much or it will make the sweet potatoes soggy. Once the ingredients are all well incorporated, pour the sugar mixture over the sliced sweet potatoes.

Top the sweet potatoes with handfuls of mini marshmallows. I like to add lots, as it makes a nice crispy sugary crust over the top of the sweet potatoes!

Bake the sweet pototoes at 325° for 20 - 30 minutes or until the marshmellows have melted and have a nice golden brown color.

The Hubs and I are definitely going to continue the tradition of making this dish at all of our family holiday gatherings!

Do any of you have any special dishes that your family makes year after year during the holidays?

Creating New Holiday Traditions

The Hubs and I have been challenged when it comes to creating our OWN holiday traditions. As I make my way through the holiday blog posts that are the month of Decemeber, I've seen how others have created their own traditions. Shortcake over at Our Little House bundled her family up into the car with warm blankets and hot chocolate to drive through their neigborhood looking at beautiful holiday lights. Katie over at Bower Power came up with a few fun traditions including Seeing Santa and buying a Yearly Christmas Ornament for her son, Will.

I know some of this is related to the fact that we don't have children yet, but I still feel like we should at least TRY to find a tradtion that we can call our own.

Since we have been married, it seems like we have to adopt both sets of families traditions. Luckily for us, our Christmas traditions were significantly enough different that there isn't much overlap. My family has always opened presents on Christmas Eve, followed by attending Midnight Mass at our local Church. His family opened their presents on Christmas morning and then ate a yummy french toast breakfast. This makes it relatively easy to attend both families activities.

But this past weekend, I think we were lucky enough to FINALLY find our FIRST ORIGINAL Christmas family tradition!

Our new tradition is to ride the Niles Train of Lights between the small towns of Niles and Sunol. Both of our families have lived in the area our whole lives and not one of us had ever been on the train!

My parents, sister, mother in-law, brother in-law and of course The Hubs and I started our journey in the town of Niles. Since we arrived early (this train is so popular good seats go fast) we had some time to walk the streets of this quaint town. We perused antique shops on main street and admired the town's simple holiday decorations.

Before boarding the train, I took some pictures of the fun lights used to decorate the outside. Since we had never been before I wasn't sure what sort of opporutnity we would get to actually see the lights. Turns out, the train we were on passed a second train coming from the opposite direction so that passengers on one train could enjoy the lights of the other. The lights were so fun and festive, both the kids and adults on board LOVED them!

Once we got on the train, we were suprised to see that the inside was also decorated with garland and twinkle lights (sorry for the somewhat blurry picture...I really need to play with my camera settings more!).

There were so many children who were all excited about the fun of being on a colorful holiday train. The excitement reached another level though when a special visitor appeared at the end of the car we were on....SANTA! Even my 20 year old sister was excited (that's her in the braids)!

The train ride was such a fun experience even for us adults! I found myself smiling from ear to ear looking at all the lights and waving at the passengers in the other train as they passed by. I can only imagine what fun it will be for The Hubs and I to bring our children on the train so we can see their eyes like up with wonder!

If you couldn't tell, I'm really quite excited about this new Christmas tradition! I can't wait until next year!

Have any of you found it difficult to create your traditions separate from your extended families?
What traditions do you plan on creating with your own family?