This Christmas

Josh and I celebrated our first Christmas together this year. Typically, we part ways for the holiday; he goes to Davenport and I stay in Des Moines with my family. This year though we switched things up and spent Christmas with his family. It was a success and Josh's Christmas wasn't very different from Christmas at my house. Went to Christmas Eve mass way before it started, ate lots of good food, enjoyed good company and of course, played the requisite board game that inevitably ends in a good natured argument. I'd say it's like my family's Christmas except with beer and who can really complain about that? :)

Reunited and it feels so good...Suds just loves his Aunt Dublin and he can't wait to meet his new cousin Ditka, Josh's brother's and fiancee's puppy. But we do wish he could make a friend that wasn't a relative.

The softer side of Brasky-Josh's dad found a new love for writing poetry. Here he is treating us to a reading of "Ode to a Puppy Dog". Other works include "Eight Man Crew" and "My Irish Lass." Maybe we should commission him to do something for our wedding? ;)

Upon our return to Des Moines, Josh and I celebrated Christmas with my family. After feasting on Tasty Tacos, we opened presents and Santa gave my brother, Dean, Optimash Prime. He's been a Transformers fan since the beginning so the elves did good when whipping up this potato head toy dressed in Transformers costume for him.

'Tis the Season

Christmas is right around the corner so Josh and I bought our first Christmas tree together. And as we were about to deck the halls, we discovered that ornaments don't come with hooks. Isn't that weird/frustrating?

Second, it seems that the best way to celebrate the holidays is with sugar (and lots of it). My work hosted a treat exchange where we all shared cookies, brownies, muffins and other sweets that made my teeth ache. Yesterday, Josh was in need of a serious sugar fix so we made one of the treats from the exchange...Layered Brownie Goodness. It includes brownie mix, cookie dough, caramel, toffee and chocolate chips. It's delicious but I definitely wouldn't recommend more than two servings in one sitting. Just thinking about it is actually kind of making me feel a little sluggish.

"Oh, Martha May! Oh, Christmas!" (from the Jim Carrey version of The Grinch that stole Christmas)

"This is not pudding" (also from The Grinch)

A House to Call Home

Although we moved into our very own house in May, Josh and I still have a long way to go to make our house a home. For a long time, we were lacking kitchen chairs and had to use these hideous, metal, yellow folding chairs for seating, courtesy of my father. Other examples? We don't have a desk so the computer, (courtesy of Josh's parents), that I'm typing on right now is sitting atop a dresser from Wal-Mart that Josh bought his first year out of college. The only seat in our basement is the one I'm sitting on right now while I type on the computer that's sitting atop the dresser from Wal-Mart. And what I find most shocking is the fact that between the six years that Josh and I lived in separate houses/houses that were about to collapse/apartments/townhouses, neither of us ever found need to purchase a ladle. When it came time to feast on tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches a few weeks ago, we found ourselves in quite the conundrum as we pulled at least three different slotted spoons, but no ladle, out of the utensils drawer. And after debating the best strategy to get the soup out of the pan and into our bowls, we found that a one cup measuring cup did the job nicely.

All that being said, we are taking baby steps to make our house a home. The day after Thanksgiving shopping brought us many new gifts including Suds' first bed, accent pillows in the living room and new sheets for our otherwise drab looking bedroom. Our bedroom colors are inspired by one of the palettes from COLOURlovers, a website that I stumbled upon in the blogging world. And drumroll, please, my father, bless his heart, bought us new chairs to replace the yellow ones! Hooray! As for the ladle, they must be a hot commodity because we couldn't find one and we walked out of Target with a large stirring spoon. I guess that'll just have to be on the registry next year!

Snow not into It

Suds frolicking in the backyard.

I hate snow and I have yet to hear an argument from the Pro-Snow party that would make me feel otherwise. It causes people, (including myself), to forget how to drive, it's cold and people, (including myself), fall down in parking lots, driveways, sidewalks, etc. because of its tendency to create icy surfaces. Plus, I really just prefer the lush look of green grass on the ground and leaves up above instead of that blanket of white that everyone else seems to long for during the month before Christmas. In short, I hate snow.

Mother Nature decided to bless us with the first snow of the season the day before Thanksgiving. Two things that stopped me from cursing the heavens that morning were 1) I didn't have to go to work and 2) I realized that today would be Suds' first encounter with the phenomenon. I was excited to see how he would like this weather change. Considering he does not have a very favorable opinion of rain, I was curious about what his reaction would be when he laid eye and paw upon this slippery substance. However, the meeting between him and Jack Frost went swimmingly and dare I say he enjoyed the snow! I'm so glad he didn't inherit his mother's angry disposition, it's kind of unhealthy, don't you think? ;)

Fun with the In-Laws

Josh got them to sit still long enough for me to take a picture. Aren't they so cute?

Nobody puts Dublin's "baby" in the corner. Well, actually she tried to keep her toy away from Suds but he wasn't having it. This was the result.

Perhaps Suds was accident-free because his raccoon friend was keeping watch over him all night. Thanks, Aunt Kelly and Uncle Tom. Foxy's trash is Suds' treasure.

We hung out with Josh's parents and uncle too. This picture was post-sushi (cold, fishy, without the rice kind-I'm more of a roll girl; and thus left me feeling quite hungry) and pre-Tombstone pizza (much like a potato, I've never met a Tombstone pizza I didn't like, it definitely hit the spot).

Josh and I headed east this past weekend to Davenport to visit his parents and introduce them to their new grandpuppy Suds. He was a hit! Everyone thought he was adorable. He was accident-free in regards to the house-breaking thing the whole weekend despite the fact that he had a giant kennel to roam around. He also got a taste of his first puppy interaction when he met his Aunt Dublin. They had a ball and even I was tuckered out watching them play. Sadly though, Suds did sustain a minor injury when he ran into the TV stand. He left Davenport with a giant knot on his head and fond memories of his grandparents and aunt.

What's your theme song?

Josh and I leaping into our future together.

If I was a reality TV star and had to pick one song for my show's intro, I would pick "The Adventure" by Angels and Airwaves. I love it's upbeat melody and the line in the chorus about how "life's waiting to begin" (plus, I'm kind of a sucker for that nasal-y voice of Tom Delonge of Blink 182 fame).

I can just see my daily life unfold with that song in the background. The intro would have all the prerequisite reality TV shots-me marching into my office ready to take the world by storm, me casually sharing a cocktail and a laugh with friends and of course, for a touch of romance, me and my fiance gazing into each other's eyes over a candlelit dinner (and when I say 'candlelit dinner' I really mean a Bebop's cheeseburger minus the lettuce). Naturally, it would also have all the key players in my life turning and grinning into the camera, pretending to be caught off-guard. There's Josh, playing with Suds (our great dane), Jennifer working in her yard, Kelly waking up from a nap, Dean coming out of the mall, etc. and so forth.

In any case, the point of this, my first post as a blogger, is that 2007 has brought me many blessings. A house of my own, an engagement and a puppy, my first pet, (let's not speak about the guinea pigs of 1994-1995; I was young and impetuous). I'm doing all those grown-up things that happen post-college; those things that you think make you "old" (until you meet someone who has kids and they make you feel bad for complaining about how old you're getting when they're the ones popping out babies or picking kids up from choir/football/cheerleading practice).

This next year is going to be a milestone. As my theme song says, my "life's waiting to begin."