Merry Christmas!

We're heading out on our cruise. We're sitting and stuffing ourselves with lunch as we speak. I am so grateful this Christmas that we're able to go do something fun with our parents and have an "alternative" Christmas. I hope everyone thoroughly enjoys their christmas and spends it with the ones they love!

Xoxo
Maddie

Rockefeller Center 2010

As per usual, Dan and I did our yearly Rockefeller Center and 5th Ave. walk. It was good times as usual. The tree was big...
And covered in lights.
Dan wore the dino hat of course...
Bergdorff and Goodman's windows were amazing as per usual. We loved the trip to the moon one in particular.
Really cool.
And I'm obsessed with using the Instagram application on my phone...
Tender times with Dan on the phone...
Awkward gentleman
Of course we stopped by the church
And ended the night with Starbucks. Caramel apple cider for Dan and Salted caramel hot chocolate for me. YUM!

Yay for Christmas!

Lately...

Here's what happened last week:

1. This wonderful girlie happens to be in my ward. She's also an amazing hairdresser. Actually she's the Hairdresser on Fire! I was lucky enough to claim a bit of her time last week and she trimmed up my locks and gave me cute bangs again. Me likey mucho!
Then on Tuesday we went and saw one of Dan's kids in a play downtown. It was good times. This kid is amazing and extremely charming. After the play we took him out to Korean. He hadn't had it before but was a really good sport about it. It was a lot of fun getting to meet one of Dan's students and hear about how Dan is as a teacher.
And! I got my ornament from Poppa, she sent over a bright star to top our tree. It makes me happy.
This week is looking uber busy. It's only a four day work week and on Friday we fly out for our cruise! Lots of things to get done!

Oh that puppy

Sunday night while relaxing on the couch, this is what fitz-o looked like...


That's right flat on his back (his favorite sleeping position when he's between us) and with his face up Dan's shorts. I don't know if his nose was cold or if it smelled nice up there or what but he stayed that way a good while! Good times : )

I dream...

That we could be as talented and entertaining as this family! This is the third year they've done this instead of a Christmas Card and I am mildly obsessed. Enjoy!

Here Comes Santa Claus - A Christmas Video Greeting from Jared Foster on Vimeo.

Holiday crafting...

On Saturday I went on a much longer than anticipated crafting trip to Michael's with the craft-tactic Ashley Stevenson. I wanted to make the amazing trees that Abbie made but became too overwhelmed with a lack of cuteness inspiration and ridiculous anxiety that mine wouldn't be as darling as abbie's (she's one of my NYC super mom's I wish I could be : ). So instead of being sad at my inadequacies (and after running into Kimberly and her inspirational magazine) I decided to make a felt wreath instead.

I got a wreath form, felt and borrowed Ashley's glue gun. Pretty simple. My kinda craft!


You cut 2-4in strips of felt and warp them around to see if you need to trim length. Lay it around to make sure you have enough. Then you just start gluing!


You then end up with this. I then looked for a poinsettia tutorial to make my cute flower. Just google it and tons comes up. So I traced and cut and found a cute button to sew on and wah-la!


Super cute holiday wreath (that I kinda want to leave out all year. It's that cute right?) holiday crafts are good : )

Taking time out...

This weekend, Dan and I went to the temple and did a session. It was good reminder of what this season is about. It's about service right? We're celebrating the birth of the Savior who gave us the ultimate service. We give gifts in the memory of Saint Nicholas who helped people and left secret gifts for them. This time is really about thinking outside of ourselves and showing love and care for others. It was good to go to a place where all you do is service for others. I get sucked into the commercialism of Christmas and all of the amazing sales! : ) But I'm glad that we went and did something for others at the start of the season and put me in the right frame of mind.

What do you do to help remember what the season's really about?

Ginger Bread Bonanza

Saturday night, we had a little Christmas themed shindig with our always buddies the Hansen's and Stevenson's. It was good times of course, hosted by the Doctor's Hansen and filled with football and Christmas music.

Dan and I struggled a bit with our theme for our little cave/landing strip/bungalow. Then we made a tree with lots of decorations. The tree took forever, we were pretty tired of it at the end... it's a little thrown together but looks nice on our dining table!
our little casa
the Hansen's amazing casa
tender Christmas times
The Stevenson's amazing tribute to the med student towers
a little better shot of our place
and again the Hansen's (I was a bit jealous : )

We're so grateful that we've made such great friends here that we can hang out with so often. They've definitely something we're grateful for and have been blessed with this Christmas season.

The Cone of Shame

Reasons why today is good:
1. Poor Fitzwilliam's cone of shame is being taken off today! He's getting his stitches removed, followed by a much needed bath for mr. stinky. Yay for no more bumping around and whining cause he can't reach something due to the cone
2. We will be on our cruise in 18 days and flying out of NYC in 17. Woot Woot!
3. A patient that has been in my unit for waaaay too long is going home today, thank goodness!
4. We watched A Christmas Story last night, I heart Christmas!
5. I start at LDS Family Services this week. Yay for doing therapy again.

Let's hope today's goodness carrying on throughout the week : )

Image from here

I think this could be a really amazing Christmas present for a person with baking tendencies. (Like me!) I've had chocolate chip cookies with mexican vanilla one time and they were amazing. So awesome how vanilla can totally change the whole flavor. Yum yum!

Christmas Music

I lurve listening to Christmas music. I play it non-stop all throughout December and while I don't get tired of the songs, El Dan Thomson certainly does. So this year I got some new ones. Here's what's on my current Christmas mix...

Click on the image to see it bigger.

Current faves are Natalie Cole's Joy to the World. It's a favorite from childhood for me. And Dan introduced me to Sufjan Stevens and I got his version of Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, which is my absolute favorite hymn. I'm also loving Mele Kalikimaka by the Puppini Sisters. Repeat faves every year include Baby, It's Cold Outside from the movie Elf, but this year I've downloaded the Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald version as well *swoon! I also adore Vince Guaraldi's Christmas Time is Here a la Charlie Brown's Christmas. Always a classic.

What's on your Christmas mix this year? Anything I should add?

Christmas is coming!

Like any Christmas-happy person, I made my husband take down the heavy Christmas decor box and put up the tree the night after Thanksgiving. I like Christmas a lot. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Now here's my main problem currently. I need a tree topper and some more ornaments. I've got a silver and red thing going with the tree with little hints of green. Any suggestions on where to get a non-tacky looking tree topper? I tried to find one last year with no luck. I just tied a ribbon around the top but it kinda looked funny on my big tree, like it had this fro sticking up...

I've got lots of thoughts about this coming month... some Christmas related, some not so much, but I want to get back on the blogging bandwagon. I think my difficulty has been that before with my crappy job I needed a happy positive writing outlet, but now I have a nice happy job that so far has been fulfilling so I haven't felt the need to do extra ya know? So we'll see how this lasts, but I really like Christmas and it feels bigger when you're sharing it with blogger space. YAY for Christmas!

The MTA Subway Museum

So this was a few weeks ago, but I wanted to show y'all how cool the subway museum is. It's in Brooklyn and very easy to get to, I promise! We went there when my parents were in town and while it was funny because we were the only people without a little kid, it's really cool.

The best part is this. The museum is in an old subway station that's been converted. So on the track level they've filled it with some old school subway cars. So neat!
I loved the ads that were in some of the older ones... it says " 84 out of 100 women prefer men who wear hats" haha so awesome!
Then there were all of the old subway maps which Dan was obsessed with...
I enjoyed hanging out in one of the older ones with the wicker seats. Very comfy.
If you come and visit NYC and have some extra time I would definitely recommend going here! And if you live here, you definitely have to go.

Poor puppy

Poor Fitz-o got his man parts snipped today. Now he must wear the cone of shame. I have never seen a more pathetic creature. I cam home and he waggled over to me crying and when I sat on the ground he promptly climbed up without any intention of leaving. Good thing he's small!

Thankful

Dan says sometimes I'm delusional, meaning I forget things easily. But here are some things I do remember and I'm thankful for.

-Dan the man, for loving me always no matter what. Even when I wouldn't really love me if I were him.
-A new job that I'm loving. Dan doesn't know what to do with a wife not complaining about work every night!
-An energetic puppy who's added a little spice to our lives. (and is totally adorbs!)
-Amazing NYC friends. What would we do without you guys?!
-Christmas time in NYC. I think I like this time even better than spring! (at least for right now : )
-Family--they're solid, I like them.
-Feeling happy.

Life is pretty good and I'm grateful : )

The Padres visit

This week two of my favorite people came to visit El Dan Thomson and I this week. It was pretty awesome. We went and did something every single night and I am pretty stinkin ready to go back to my normal routine : ) But it was a lot of fun while they were here. Here's what we did:

Saturday night:
parents arrive
eat some yummy new york pizza

Sunday:
Go to Church and meet all my friends
Bake the most amazing french bread with the help of my new RED! : ) kitchenaid mixerEat dinner with my parents and Dan's mom and get things situated for the Christmas Cruise!!

Monday:
Dan and I work--meet up for dinner at S'macks and then go to Strand bookstore to wander around

Tuesday:
Work, then I met up with the parents for dinner at Max Brenner's (The Bald Man's Chocolate Place) and then go see Jersey Boys. AMAZING musical!!! I highly recommend it, I'm still humming/singing Four Seasons songs.

Wednesday:
Work, meet up for dinner at O'Grady's and then go and see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. So fantastic! I can't wait to someday take my girls to see that. It is awesome.

Thursday:
No work! Finally! Run central park loop in the morning, eat bagels... and more stuff but none of us can remember exactly what we did... too much!

Friday:
No work. Go eat lunch at A Salt and Battery (yum-o fish and chips--my dad says they're legit, he lived in Scotland for 2 years so he's familiar). Then we went to the subway museum in Brooklyn which was really cool, also highly recommended. We stopped by canal street and got cute scarves of course. For dinner we went to Serendipity and got the Frozen hot chocolate among other things.

Saturday:
Daddio left for Cali. Mom and I went and saw The Addams Family. Dinner with friends at Patsy's Italian and then the Opera to see our friend Nicholas perform.

Sunday:
Dan and I give talks, dinner and packing : ( sad times

More pictures of the Subway Museum to come!

Oh the smell of clovers

Our pup thoroughly enjoys rubbing himself all over the ground. I couldn't figure out what it was until a friend said they like the smell of clovers. I think fitz does this every single time we take him to the park (which is every day, multiple times a day). Good thing he's easy to clean!

Weekend project

In an attempt to get our place completely done (I know we moved in 6months ago) we did a little painting a la Jackson Pollock this weekend.

It was fun to throw some paint around and let off a little creativity steam. Here they are drying...


Here they are on the wall. We decided we'll need to something more to make them pop better on the white wall...


Here they are over the tv (don't mind fitz's "toy" box to the right. He's got a lot of stuff that needs corralling sometimes!)


It was fun to do with my Danny boy and much easier than we thought it would be. I highly recommend it!

Happy Halloween!

From some ketchup, mustard and a hotdog!

first day

Today was my first day at my new job. Here are the thoughts that went through my head:

1. I am a social worker based out of the Spanish adult psych unit, while also being a floater. So when there are too few people on other psych units, I'll go help out there because I'll only have 5-7 of my own clients.
2. Spanish is going to haunt me the rest of my days. Why did I ever want to keep taking it past high school?!
3. adult psych reminds me a lot of working in a nursing home. I love me the crazys.
4. How did I EVER get anything done before when I was working? I have no time in the evening whatsoever!
5. I am exhausted.
6. I hope Fitz doesn't end up going crazy after he's been with me 24/7 for a month and is now by himself for 10 hours straight.
7. NYC commutes are horrible for how long it takes to go less than 5 miles BUT wonderful for how much reading I'm able to get done.

Ay me, let's hope this works...

New York

The other night when Dan and I were taking a taxi home from the concert I was watching the NYC skyline fly by. I commented to him that sometimes I can't believe I live here. I never thought I'd be a metropolitan kind of person, and I don't think I am really. I'd love to be back in the suburbs, driving a car, living in a home with a backyard, not paying more than my parents mortgage in rent each month, going to a grocery store with a parking lot and cereal prices less than the standard $6 here at ours.

Then yesterday I ran into some mom's from the ward at the park while I was walking Fitz and we were talking about living in the city and whether or not we liked it or if we want to move somewhere else eventually.

There are times that I do enjoy living here. The second I leave my apartment, I'm outside walking around. I'm a lot more active than I would be somewhere else. There are opportunities here that I wouldn't get elsewhere in the suburbs like the book signing and the concert. And there is definitely more of a close knit community with our friends here than I think we'd get any where else. But there are other times when I just want the "normal" life I grew up with in the suburbs. That's where I was raised and I liked it and I miss it! And sometimes I feel like I just can't appreciate everything that I have here at my fingertips so what's the point in staying here.

I think what I'm trying to say is that I have a love hate relationship with New York and I feel so guilty when I'm hating it. It's New York City for heaven's sake but still, it's okay to have those feelings right? Just a case of the NYC blahs...

Ingrid Michaelson 2010

I know I've said before that I adore Ingrid Michaelson. Dan, Julie and I went to her concert last night and it was amazing!
One of her back up singers/guitarists was an opener and she did an amazing version of Pour Some Sugar On Me. I took a video, I'll try and post later.

Ingrid switched up her concert this time. She and her band walked out covered in black shrouds to an amazing rock song (which I can't remember what it was right now).
Then she sang her way through her songs. She did a cover of an REM song with a looping pedal (AMAZING!). And the final song was a cover of Britney's Spears' Toxic.
Then at the end instead of doing the normal leave the stage and then come back acting surprised and giving an encore, they dimmed the lights and hid on stage. They then popped back out and played a couple more songs. One of which was the song "The Way I Am" in a rock version.

LOVED the concert! : ) I highly recommend it!

The Help

Last night I went with some friends from the ward book club to a book signing of Kathryn Stockett who wrote The Help. This is the only awkward picture I got of her...


And here's my signed copy!


I kinda love that in new York there are so many opportunities to meet authors and whatnot. It's fun to be able to go here them and see them in person. Kathryn has a super sweet southern accent and did some readings that just soured perfect. Yay for NYC opportunities!

Productivity

I've been having a hard time being productive while not working. Today I solved that problem by doing laundry, taking out the trash, general cleaning/tidying, taking fitz on walks and...

Making these bad boys...


They've just finished their final rise and I can't wait to eat them. They're pioneer woman's cinnamon Carmel apple yummy deliciousness rolls. I'm think these are gonna be good.

(I hope so because I've got 2 more pans in the freezer and one in the fridge! And that's after halving her recipe!)

Fitzwilliam takes a bath

I gave our little fitz a bath tonight.

He's pretty entertaining afterwards. Why do dogs freak out when they're wet?

What we do all day

This is what the puppy and I presently do all day.


Cuddle and watch tv. Goooood times! : )