My girls

I think most women have it. That group of girls. Maybe from college, high school, elementary school, neighbors, church, etc. No matter how much time has passed, how little you've talked in the past year, they're still your "girls." Maybe not besties any more, but those girls, they know you, in a way that no other girl friends will ever know you.

My girls are from elementary school with a few additions made in the early years of high school. Every Christmas Kimmie (who I've now been friends with for the past 16 or 17 years) has her birthday and every year there's the annual sleepover. We all know to get together at Kimbo's house and there will probably be an overabundance of food, snacks, treats, movie watching, movie making, dancing, talking...etc.

It's interesting to see how we've changed and how we've stayed the same. I love that these girls have known me almost my entire life and have seen me go through all of the ups and downs and changes that come along with that. It grounds me, reminds me of who I am and where I've been.

Becca, Kristen, Cayce, Kimmie, Me and Dana
Becca-boo, KP, Cayce-Bear, Kimbo, Madelina, Daaaaaaaynaaah
The Forkner Blondes : ) Cayce and I were in the same 1st grade class and Kimmie was in our second grade class. We always have to take a picture of the 3 of us when we're together.
Mama Kelly. I don't know how she slept through the countless sleepovers with music blaring and us screaming until the wee hours of the morning.

I don't chat with my girls often enough, but they're still my girls and I can't imagine my life without them.

Merry Christmas!

This was mine and Dan's first married Christmas. We started it out by going out to Greenwich to party on down with the Larkin-Petrov-Thomson gang on Christmas Eve. It was good times and good food, and we all were highly entertained by little Nichalou. Sadly I have no pictures, but it was fun.

On Christmas morning Dan and I had our first Christmas just us. It was really nice to spend a few hours in the morning with just us doing our own thing.

The tree with presents beneath
Dan opening Blue Planet : ) I was so excited to get it for him
I think he was pretty excited to get them too!
I got 7th row tickets to go see Lion King with my boo! woot woot!
Awkward Christmas morning picture...
So happy watching Blue Planet
Yay for Lion King!
Isn't he the tops?!

We were then picked up by the Super Shuttle at 10 and began our trek out to Cali. We arrived in Fresno at 10:30pm our time and 7:30pm Cali time. It was a looong day. We then had Christmas with my grandma. This morning we woke up and had our family Christmas (delayed a day to wait for Danny boy and me) and went to the traditional movie. Tonight we're going out to Grandad's for Christmas and tomorrow we'll spend time with my dad's sister... and then I think it'll be done.

Christmas is a bit of a whirlwind, but I love spending so much time with family!

Dino-man

So a week ago Dan decided he needed a new "tuke." There are presently Christmas fairs set up all around the city with vendors selling all sorts of Christmas present paraphanelia. We stopped by the knitted products. I got a cute white beanie with a red flower on the side. While Dan decided to follow the kid in his heart telling him to get an animal one. First there was a shark (Dan loves sharks!), however, the side fins/flipper things made it look a bit like a grey puppy dog. Then there was this...

It's green...
With scales and spikes...
And teeth oh my!
That's right. My 26 year old husband got a dinosaur beanie. I am one lucky girl aren't I? : )

First snow storm

As we were going to bed last night we looked out the window and saw ridiculous amounts of snow coming down. I love that first snow night. Everything is so bright even when it's midnight because it's all pure white and reflects all of the street light. Everything is quiet and muffled, and if you're lucky enough to be inside rather than out in the snow, you feel all wrapped up and snuggled. We woke up this morning to this...

It was deep! NYC you don't mess around do you?!

I wore my galoshes and stayed nice and dry

Snow, snow everywhere! I hope there isn't any more until after our flight leaves on Christmas!

In other news... FIVE more days until Christmas! Which means FIVE more days until home!!! YAY!!

An attempt at being a domestic goddess...

So last Thursday I started to feel the inkling of a cold lurking around my throat and nasal passages. That night I tossed and turned as the nasty-ness began to take hold of my head. Friday morning I worked from home getting caught up on paperwork while my cold maintained a slight level of discomfort and low energy levels, but nothing too bad... yet. I had to go out that evening and get my wonderful Christmas pressie from J-Meezy and get it signed by the Pioneer Woman... and all of this activity probably didn't help foster an environment of healing in my body.

Saturday morning I had church duties to help stuff things for relief society the next day which again got me up and out of bed too early and walking around in the freezing cold. I came home and crashed with a major case of grump butt (as my dad called it while we were growing up) which Dan did not find as entertaining as the Daddio did with his little girl. That evening I felt a little better and decided I would go through with my plan at attempting to be a domestic goddess by baking mini loaves of pumpkin chocolate chip bread to give to Dan's home teach-ees and my visiting teach--ees. I figured as long as I washed my hands frequently and wore a scarf over my face so I couldn't breath any noxious fumes into the dough, I'd be good. Besides, the bread went into a 350* oven, germs will definitely get killed in that right?

I baked and baked and all appeared to turn out well. I put the little lids on, wrote "Merry Christmas! from The Thomson's" and taped on an ornament with a little sticky bow. I was quite proud of myself. We were all set to bring them to church and deliver the yummy goodness, but that was not to be. We both woke up Sunday morning with even more nast filling our heads and looked out the window to find the weather expelling the same thing. We decided to forgo the three hours of church plus an hour of public transportation, where we would doubtlessly spread our bubonic plague version of holiday cheer to the general public at large and the wee one's at church. I know the parents would have thanked us for not spreading the goods.

So to make a ridiculous story short...

I conquered my inner domestic goddess, baked yummy goodies, and made them almost appropriately cute by Mormon craftiness standards only to now have 8 mini loaves of pumpkin chocolate chip bread sitting on my table with me praying they don't get yucky by this coming Sunday so we can actually deliver them. Being a domestic goddess is tricky work!

oh and Abbie, if you don't want one after my nasty story... I understand : )

Pioneer Woman

*Disclaimer: I wrote this while my doozy of a cold was invading my head. So if it's extremely poorly written... that may be part of it and I may still be a little star struck that I actually met Pioneer Woman : )

On Friday my nyc bff Julie Mack-a-doodle texted me about hanging out. I told her "no, Pioneer Woman is coming to town, and I've got to get a book signed by her!" or something to that nature... She then insisted that I come over before the signing for "brownies" and low and behold when I got there, a wonderful early Christmas present was waiting for me! A copy of Pioneer Woman's cookbook all ready to be signed! I trekked over to Borders in the freezing cold NYC winds and got my orange wrist band. And began the wait.

People with blue wrist bands got to sit down the lucky ducks.
And then she appeared! She was just as funny in real life as she is on her blog. I think that's what I love about her blog, you can so completely hear her voice in your head when you read it.
Yay for Pioneer Woman! Dan showed up about 10 minutes before I got my book signed so he was able to take the picture for me. He even commented on how her recipes have been some of the best things I've made since we've gotten married. She thought it was tender we were newlyweds.
My book thanks to the lovely J-Meezy!
Signed and personalized by Ree herself! Aren't I a lucky girl?

Now I've got to figure out a way to go through all her recipes without gaining 4347897589421 pounds...

Christmas bells are ringing...

Tonight, Dan and I went on a quick date and went and saw the Christmas sights here in the city. We started out at Rockefeller Center to see the big-a tree.

30 Rock. I would have looooved to see Liz Lemon : )
The tree and skaters
TA DA!!!
Dan looks like a star is coming out of his head.
I heart Christmas : )
Sak's had really weird window displays again. This star is possessed and Dan is frightened.
Tiffany's was already closed : (
Crazy, mess with your head window displays at Bergdorf Goodman the theme was Alice in Wonderland. This is a straight into the window shot and as you can see it looks like you're looking straight down into a room. Kinda messes with your mind.

It was really nice going out with Dan tonight and taking a break from everything. I'm so stressed with work right now and feel like such a failure the majority of the time, it's really nice to relax in the middle of the week and not even think about work.

And it's especially nice walking around hand in hand with my boo feeling the Christmas spirit and remembering why I love this man.

Christmas time is here...

And I have finished the decorations...for now : ) My aunt gave me an amazing bridal shower gift of a bin full of Christmas decorations. I wasn't able to ship all of them due to some of their more fragile natures, but it was nice to start out with quite a bit, then I augmented with a quick trip to Gem, a cheapo store in Harlem right by my office. I got a ton of stuff for not a lot of money. Good times.

FYI: ridiculous amounts of pictures ahead. I get a little excited for Christmas : )

The Christmas Tree balls. I love the polka dots and swirly ones.
BEST CANDLE EVER. go buy one. End of Story.
Grandad and Marcie sent us a starter ornament. Very cute, and sadly I was a rude granddaughter and did not send a thank you note or let them know we'd gotten our package. Sooo grandad and marcie, we got it! Thank you! : )
Polka dots!
Swirls!
Really pretty glass stars from Aunt Carey's bin. They're super cute and classy (a la aunt carey)
The whole shebang!
Christmas time is here...
Happiness and cheer...
fun for all, that children call their favorite time of year (name that song!)
The Precious Moments nativity my parents gave me the Christmas I was 12
Fun sign I found at Gem. It's covered in glitter. The only time of year I like glitter is Christmas
More Aunt Carey supplies
I need to put candy in my candy dish...
Yay for Christmas!

Only 19 more days : )

The parentals

I talked with my parents the other night. My dad is currently out in New Jersey somewhere for work, but not close enough that we can meet up after work. It's soooo close though!

I butted heads a lot with my parents as a teenager, but that's because I'm so similar to both of them in different ways. Now though, we're all really close.

My mom is the best. We are so close and I love it, I wouldn't have it any other way. Sometimes I worry that if I have more than one girl I won't be able to have a relationship with them like I do with my mom and I want a relationship like mine with my mom with my girl(s). (if that made any sense)

My dad is so kind. He's really tender hearted (I don't know if he'll like me publishing this on the internet, but it's true!). He's so sweet and caring and he only wants the best for me always. He's so supportive and he's a really good talker for a man which is nice : )

I just really like my parents, and I can't wait to go home for Christmas. Only 23 more days right?

mmmm mmmm good!

You know why my Dan is awesome? Because while I'm stalking people on the internet, he goes and heats up some water and makes me some hot chocolate and even put in a little bit of milk, just the way I like it! Isn't he the bomb dot com?

Please excuse the Ghirardelli chocolate chips on the bedside table...
And please excuse the strange bangs, I am getting them fixed as soon as possible when I get back to California.

Anyways, I really like my boo.