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!