Christmas Eve Musings

Even as an adult I find it difficult to sleep on Christmas Eve. Yuletide excitement is a potent caffeine, no matter your age. ~Carrie Latet

I don't know who Carrie Latet is, but I totally identify with her quote above! Christmas snuck up on me this year, but when it did it hit me with a BANG! I never realize how much I love this time of year until it happens. Understand me, though - I'm not the kind of sucker who goes trolling through the malls looking for gifts and sales with the rest of the masses. That ain't my bag, baby. I guess too many years working retail will do that to you. No, I love just about everything else about the holiday - friends coming in from out of town, really great things to eat, Christmas music (Mariah Carey and Charlie Brown are faves!), and how nice people can be. There are parts of me that wish yuletide cheer could last all year...

How cute are all these Christmas cards? I think one of the best things about Christmastime is going to your mailbox and seeing who thinks of you enough to send you some holiday cheer. The picture cards are my fave and get affixed to my fridge right away.


The first thing we did this year to welcome Christmas was to bring in a tree. Now, our apartment doesn't have enough room for a standard sized one, and our pets would most likely destroy it, so we opted for the table-top variety. Behold what we lovingly refer to as our Charlie Brown tree!

We weren't going to get a tree at first... we thought it wasn't practical/necessary... but my jealousy of everyone else having a tree won out. We found this potted beauty in front of Trader Joe's and had to bring it home. It rests on our kitchen table and looks totally cute! So cute, in fact, that Mario the cat knocked over an ornament which Holly quickly destroyed... said ornament was then put into my bed and shredded my toe. Butterfly stitches and tetanus shot later, I'm remembering why we didn't want a tree in the first place. If it wasn't so cute I'd probably get rid of it sooner. After the holidays I'm planning on getting a large terra cotta pot and putting it out on our patio. That way we can have our little tree all year long :)

Another Christmas tradition I felt compelled to attempt this year was baking my grandmother's baklava for the first time by myself. Actually, it's Yiayia Nina's grandmother's recipe, so I was the 5th generation to make it. It's not difficult to make by any means, but it has a lot of steps and ingredients that make it more time consuming than your average dessert. I dedicated last Sunday to the project. First, I gathered my ingredients - a nut mixture of pecans, walnuts, sugar and spices, phyllo dough, melted butter, and homemade syrup.



I layered and buttered the phyllo, spread the nut mixture on top until they made gorgeous little pinwheels like this:


Baked them in the oven til they got golden, and poured syrup over them so they looked like this:


Put them in cute little paper cups and arranged them so they looked like this:

Oh man! Did they ever turn out good! Now, some of them came out a little too dry, and others a little too soggy, but it's a learning experience and I know next year's will only be better. I'm so proud of my experiment that I think I'll make another batch today to share at my aunt's house.

The final thing I did for more holiday spirit was try to get Holly in the mood. I got her groomed, bought her a Christmas sweater, and she repays me by falling into a depression for two days.

You can feel her sadness through this failed attempt at a photo shoot. I thought she looked adorable, she thought she was in trouble because she was wearing a sweater and had bows on her ears. She spent most of that day and the day after hiding in our closet... maybe there's something she's trying to tell me... haha!

Anyway, it's probably best that I end this crazy long blog by saying "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night." If I don't do it now, I think I could go on forever... ciao!

One Year Ago Today

On this day last year I picked up our Holly girl from LAX. She was a ten week old cross country traveler all the way from Montana. I was so excited to meet our new little girl who I had been waiting for since before her litter was born. She handled the trip well and came out of her crate licking and wagging her tail, which we would soon learn is her trademark. Here she is sitting shotgun in my car on the ride home from the airport.
This whole year has been a wonderful learning experience for us all. She is probably the sweetest dog I have ever owned, but along with that she might also be the dumbest... and I mean that in the nicest possible way! She finally mastered the trick "sit" at 6 months old, and she hasn't quite learned many others since. She's affectionately known in our circles as our "little dumb blonde." She might not be the brightest baby, but she makes up for it with her sweetness!

Our sweet girl showing us her belly about a month ago. Such a personality!

Another thing we've had to learn about her is her penchant for chewing everything in site. Nothing is safe from her jaws of destruction. We've put safeguards in place, like baby gates in front of our closet, put my shoes in my car, moved certain items to higher groud, and spoiled her with happy chew toys. Hopefully these will help keep my new Lambie slippers safe!
Despite all that, Matt and I are so happy to have Holly in our lives. Along with Mario the cat, they give us such joy to come home to. There's nothing better than a night on the couch with both pets cuddling on our laps. Thanks for making our lives just that much happier babies!

"I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."
~ Abraham Lincoln

Merry Christmas to me!

So the other night I met my friend Michelle at the Spectrum for dinner. She joined me at Nordstrom where I was scavenging the purse department, which is a typical place to find me. The past few months I have been searching for a nice leather "every day" purse and a cute black evening clutch. Nothing had really struck me until that night when my eyes zeroed in on a fantastic tan leather Michael Kors satchel. I about died! Michelle thought it was pretty great too, but then we saw the price tag.... it was definitely way more for me spend on myself during these trying economic times, especially now that it's the holidays.

I didn't buy the purse that night. I filed it in the back of my mind as something I couldn't afford right now. But I kept obsessing over it... That night in bed... All day at work the next day... It's true, I was bitten by the love bug for the Harrison satchel! Being the resourceful person that I am, I thought I'd scrape around the internet for deals. Surely, eBay had to have millions of these up for grabs! I checked, and they didn't, they had one... in the right color and everything! Its auction was ending in 7 hours, no one had bid on it, and it's price was waaaaaaaay less that half of the retail price. And to make things even nicer, its condition was "New With Tags!" Seriously, it was meant to be. I placed my bid and left for my parents house to help them with their Christmas tree.

I woke up this morning to see a happy little email in my inbox congratulating me on my win. Victory is definitely mine! My holiday present to myself should arrive soon and I can't wait to really check it out. Based on the pictures it looks great (see below), but I have never bought a desginer purse on eBay and I know it can be tricky with scammers and all. I'm just hoping this seller was legit and my purse isn't just a really good knock-off and it's in as great condition as they made it out to be... I'm so excited!




Now, all I need to find is a sexy black clutch for evening and my purse needs will be satisfied for a long time. I think after that I'll have to shift my interests to a new pair of sunglasses... mine are starting to get scratched, it's kind of annoying.

Viva eBay!

I better watch out for Mario...

After a long weekend, this will get me through my day today

Starbucks Grande Coffee, grant me the strength to keep my eyes open today and be an active participant in the day's activities. Amen.


Now, if only coffee could reduce the puffiness under my eyes I'd be set.

Exciting Friday Night

Matt's watching Gangland, and I just polished off a hot batch of these tasty little suckers:


I'm so proud of our Friday night schtick. Fried zucchini really is living on the edge, especially when you eat it while watching gang members in New Orleans telling it like it is. We're so hood.

Trendsetter (yeah right!)

I'm going to take a moment just to toot my own horn, if you don't mind! Apparently, my "lazy" hairstyle of a low ponytail with a scunci black headband is all the rage among my coworkers. How do I know this? THEY'VE ALL TOLD ME! From marketing executives to other office drones like me, different women have complimented me when I wear my hair like this:



What cracks me up is I do this WHEN I'M TOO LAZY TO DO MY HAIR! HA HA! I'm actually embarrassed when I come in more than once a week with the stretchy handband/low ponytail thing going on. At first I thought they were just being nice, saying it was cute but they didn't really mean it, until they started doing it too! It's become like a "thing" I guess. It's flattering and bewildering all at the same time for me, because it's not like I look like this when I come into work:

No, not even on my best days do my headbands look as well thought out as Eva's here. The most thought that goes into them is if they will keep my frizzies down. I guess I'll just own the "look" for what it is and be flattered that others appreciate my laid-back (rather - "lazy") sense of style. I just wish I had more patience to make myself look like this every day:

Hooray for lower gas prices!

This morning I went to fill my car up with gas, and I was very pleased at the price I saw... $2.29/gallon for regular unleaded! Today was the first time in a looooooong time where I filled my tank for under $40. Both the Highlander and I were very pleased :)

Now, there was a time back in the day when I used to fill up the Mustang for under $20. Back then (10 years ago!) I remember being able to fill up that 15 gallon tank for around $17... but those days are long gone! Now I'm stoked to fill up the Highlander's 17 gallon tank for $38, a price that would have made me choke at the pump in 1998!

Oh how things have changed...

It's finally chilly enough to wear these!

I know, this may not excite most of you, but I am a dyed-in-the-wool (no pun intended) Ugg fan. During the warmer months I wear my flip-flops everywhere, but now it's time to retire my worn-in Rainbows for a new pair of slipper-like boots! I'm not a fan of the ones that rise high up the leg, so I went for the ankle-biter option. Cute, non? They'll go great with my jeans and lounge pants this winter.... I think I'll wear them to Thanksgiving! :)

Fire Update

Thanks so much to those of you who have called, texted, emailed, facebooked, whatever to see how my family and I are doing. As many of you know, we had to evacuate our homes yesterday afternoon because of the wild fires in the area. We packed our belongings as fast as we could and fled to Downey to stay with my grandmother until we found out it was safe to return. Boy, was she ever glad to have all of us PLUS our dogs and cats at her place! She was a trooper :) This morning I called our complex and found out that Matt and I were safe to return home, so we came back along with my parents to move back in and wait for their place to get the all clear. Everyone is safe, our homes are ok, and we're all happy it wasn't worse for us. Homes in my parents' neighborhood didn't make it, and there was no rhyme or reason to which homes burned and which ones didn't. We are so thankful we were so lucky. My heart goes out to those who have lost their homes, I found out through friends that some people we grew up with lost theirs. It's a sad time here, and I just hope that it gets better soon.