Goodbye to 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2009 was great, but it's time to ring in the new year. I hope everyone has a fun and safe night. Welcome to the new decade!

We made it.

It was a long trip with lots of hours sitting on the runway, but we're here. The snow couldn't keep us on the East Coast, but it did keep my bag in Washington DC until last night. It was a long 48 hours with no clean clothes. But we're here. And the bag is now here. And this morning 4 inches of snow arrived as well. I was very surprised by it, but since I'm not trying to travel any more, I enjoyed it.

It's just been decorating and wrapping and Christmas is almost here! I'm excited :)

Monday Madness

I have already checked out and am completely in vacation mode. The only problem is, I'm not on vacation yet. Not really even that close. I have all this week, plus two days of "working from home" next week. That means I need to be focused a little more. Hopefully I can make that happen...

Anyway! The madness this week is insurance and flex spending and all the crazy benefit stuff! I have to figure out what I want to do with my 401K and if I want to change my dental insurance. It's all too much! I've never had to figure these things out before, so I have no idea what I should be doing. I wish it were like elementary school where I could just take my papers home to my mom who would fill them out. I just had to make sure they made it to her hands.

Now I have to try to figure it out for myself. How much do I estimate I'll send in medical expenses this year? What if I need new glasses? Should I count that in? What if I don't? Ugh. I don't think I like this part of being grown up...

Baking Fail

I love to bake, and generally I'm pretty good at it. My mom was never much of a cook, but the woman can bake and she always let me help. I grew to love the oven and making delicious treats.

Last night, I failed EPICALLY for possibly the first time in my baking career. I like to lighten things up while baking, because eating all the great things I can make is not good for anyone's waistline, and I tried to make brownies in a different way. I've heard that a can of black beans can be used instead of eggs and oil in brownies (much like a can of Diet Coke or a can of pure pumpkin can be used instead for cakes), so I tried it. But instead of looking up just how to use the black beans in the recipe, I just poured the can into the brownie mix and threw it in the oven. It was only later when the brownies seemed a bit chuncky that I realized I probably did it wrong. And I did. I was supposed to puree the beans first, then add the paste-ish beans to the mix. Oops. Instead we have what look like chocolate chip brownies, but actually taste exactly like beans.

I ditched the brownies for pumpkin bread that came out too sweet. Where was my head last night? Too busy listening to Christmas music and finishing Save the Dates I guess...

Another Holiday Photo

I got a pumpkin from my boss at Halloween, and I've now made it into a Sant-o-lantern. I just couldn't throw away the perfectly good pumpkin just because the pumpkin "season" has passed, so I just upgraded him a little.

Why waste the pumpkin when it clearly makes a wonderful holiday decoration?

Monday Madness

I know it's not the highest quality picture ever, but that's my wreath. It smells wonderful and it makes me happy. I'm still bummed that we're not having our own tree this year (the in-laws-to-be will have one, so I'm not completely without), but this is a nice touch. I put up our lights and even made a couple paper snow flakes. Tree or no tree, my apartment will have some holiday flair.

What maddens me today is how close Christmas and our travels really are! We leave in less than two weeks! That's crazy! We're having Christmas with my family in less than two weeks! I have less than two weeks to finish shopping for my family! (4 down, 5 to go! Yikes!) Not to mention, in the next two weeks I have about 5 Christmas parties to go to! I need to go shopping! :)

December Spirit

It's December and that means I can listen to Christmas music. And I have been for the last two days. I love Christmas music (for the few weeks a year that it's relevant), but I won't do it until it's December. I like to respect the bird and wait for the whole month to finish before I tune into the holiday stations.

I love December and I love Christmas. There's nothing better to me than the smell of Christmas trees and peppermint hot chocolate. I love decorating and watching horribly cheesy movies. Last year I had my very first tree. I took so much pride in the ornaments and all the decorations for my apartment. I'd never had my own place for the holidays before. This year we won't be home for the holidays, and so we're going tree-less. I'm a little disappointed, because I had so much fun last year, but it doesn't make sense to get one, so oh well. I'm definitely going to get a wreath though, because I need that awesome smell to fill my little apartment. I'm also going to decorate with paper snowflakes and a red and green paper chain (think back to elementary school and linking the paper together...yeah, that's my favorite). 

This weekend I plan on watching Christmas movies and, hopefully, finishing our Save-the-Dates. Who knew they would be such a pain? We want to send them out with our Christmas cards to kill two birds with one stone, but I'm a little behind on both things, so we'll see how it goes!

I just can't believe how quickly this year went and how soon Christmas is!