Christmas

I feel pretty guilty for not writing for so long, but it doesn't come from lack of trying... I started a post on the night of the Sandy Hook school shooting and really struggled with finding the right words to sum up how I was feeling. I'd stop, come back to it, and stop again. I've finally conceded that it will stay in 'draft' post mode forever.

The past few weeks have been filled to the brim with lots of fun things to celebrate Christmas!

One of our favorite traditions to kick off the season is getting our picture with Santa at PetSmart. This was our 6th year! Now, this tradition did not start off as a "family" picture, it was fully intended to be just Izzy and Santa but once we hit the second year she started freaking out (probably scared from the first year with Scary Santa) and wouldn't sit still unless I was holding her. Hence, it's now become a family shot and despite what you all think about me forcing John to do this, he likes it and never complains about it! Of course it's because this is for Izzy, I'm sure if his mom and I asked to get him to get family pictures (at some place else besides the pet store) there would be grumbling involved.


2007 - Scary Santa





2008

2009

2010

 


2011

I had Christmas dinners with my girlfriends in lieu of our annual Girl's Christmas party which we didn't have this year due to our crazy weekend schedules. I was thrilled when I found these little notepads at Target that said "Mildly Addicted to Cheese". This was the perfect little gift for us cheese lovers! I literally gasped when I saw them and bought every one they had. The cashier asked me as she was ringing up the stack, "um maam,  I have to ask, do you like cheese??"  I wish I could have seen the expression on my face back to her... do you really need to ask?

 

The oil was changed in my Jeep the week before Christmas and I am pretty sure by New Years I will need another one. We have been road tripping all over Pennsylvania this week! We treked back east to see my family the weekend before Christmas. It was a short and sweet time catching up with everyone I could, including my grandmother and aunt/uncle from Minnesota which was a special treat.  I was happy Lauren also came down from Jersey for the weekend. I got to see my little nephew, Joey and he is getting so big at 3 months old already! My mom, sisters and I baked cookies during the day Saturday and the only batch I made were peanut butter reeses cookies and as I was pulling them out of the oven the tray flipped and the cookies went all over the bottom of the oven and melted. I was so annoyed. Needless to say those were the only cookies I made this year.

 

Saturday night, Paige's (one of my best friends I met in college who moved to Cali) parents were having a Christmas party at their house which is north of Philly. Lisa and Carrie were going and I wanted to surprise her since she wasn't expecting that I would be home that weekend. John and I snuck into the house and hid in the bathroom while Lisa greeted Paige and told her that something was wrong in the bathroom. I had to contain my laughter when her response was that it was probably her brother or dad's doing... nope, surprise, it's us! It was great catching up with our Pitt crew and Paige's family for the few hours we spent there.

Sunday we were back on the road again home to Pittsburgh to celebrate my father-in-law's 60th birthday. Carrie, my sister-in-law organized bowling and we had a great time! It was Julia's first time and sadly I think she beat me during the first game.  I made a small come-back during the second one... I think we need to start playing more regularly, I forgot how much fun it is!

Christmas Eve, I decided to work from home and it was a good day to catch up on the stuff I'd been putting off for awhile since almost everyone else had taken the day off. That night we had dinner with John's parents and then went to church for a beautiful candlelight service. I took a moment to reflect on the poor families that are without their loved ones and the little children that won't be opening their presents on Christmas morning. I don't know if I'm just paying attention to it more or I'm really hearing more bells this season but the one line from It's A Wonderful Life keeps playing through my mind.

 

"Every time a bell rings, an angel gets it's wings"

 

Christmas morning, John and I both woke up around 9:00 worrying that something was wrong because Izzy hadn't gotten up yet. You must know that Izzy wakes me up EVERY morning somewhere between 3:45-5:30 to go the bathroom and eat. It's horrible but I've done it every morning for 5 years so I don't even think I'm fully awake going through the motions. So for me to sleep through the night until 9am, this was one of the best gifts! She was fine, also just really tired from all the traveling and interruption to her normal napping schedule.  We opened our gifts to each other (even though every year we say we aren't doing gifts because we have everything we want, need!) John surprised me with a beautiful diamond bracelet and I picked up a few more golf-related items for him to go with the new clubs.

We spent the afternoon/evening celebrating with the Kapusta family, opening presents, eating, talking and eating some more! John's parents love Christmas and they always go way overboard on the presents for all of us. It still feels like we are kids with the stacks of presents under the tree each year! Now we're just asking for more adult things, like a Dyson hard floor attachment for my vacuum. Yeah that's right, it's awesome.

 

Today, I was all psyched to hit the after Christmas sales since I was off, but mother nature had other plans in mind with a winter storm. We have several inches of snow, which has now turned into freezing rain. It was probably better off that I stayed in and did laundry and cleaned anyway!

Here's to wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas season with your families!

Cinnamon Nutella Squares

Looking for a super easy, delicious dessert?! Then try these. You won't be disappointed!

This was another Pinterest find and it's so simple it didn't even have a name, so I had to put on my creative hat and come up with one.

Cinnamon Nutella Squares

- 1 package of crescent rolls
- Nutella
- Cinnamon & Sugar


That.is.it.

Preheat the oven to 375' F.

Unroll your crescent roll dough and cut into 8 squares.

Two crescent triangles together make a rectangle. Then cut in half.

Put a spoonful of Nutella on one side and fold over. Pinch the edges to seal it.

Roll it around in a bowl of cinnamon and sugar. Place on a cookie sheet.

Disregard the old cookie sheet!

Bake for 11 minutes.

Voila. It's magic.

These are best served warm. If you aren't able to eat them all in one sitting, just put one in the microwave for a few seconds.
I can imagine it would taste delicious with some vanilla ice cream too!

bah humPUG

While it seems like Christmas cards are becoming less of a tradition with all the other modes of communication these days, I still like sending them. This is probably because I like receiving them! You must admit the majority of the year when you open the mailbox all it contains are bills, credit card offers and catalogs for stores you've never shopped at and never will!
It's boring.
I remember actually being excited about getting the mail when I was a kid, now I kinda dread it.
But not at Christmas time.
I love seeing cards tucked amongst the other junk that typically gets tossed out as soon as I walk in the door. Sweet notes and pictures from friends and family adorn our pantry door as I hang them all up for display.

Last year was the first year that I did a photo card. While I was hoping I could get a card-worthy picture of John, Izzy and I in time for this year, I knew that would likely not be the case since I'm not crazy about any pictures of myself right now. Instead I had this idea (likely from something I saw on Pinterest) to put a wreath around Izzy's head and use that pic for our card.
John declined the offer when I asked if he wanted to do it too :)

So last night I went to the craft store and bought a wreath and ribbon to be the prop for this photo sesh.
I knew this was not going to be easy since the dog typically hates anything on her besides her collar. No doggie clothes, jackets, reindeer antlers, boots for this pooch. But for a certain amount of treats, I can make her do anything so there would need to be some bargaining going on.
This was not a one person job so John and I had to plan the strategy so she didn't take off running and hide under our bed (her favorite hiding spot) never to be seen again the rest of the night.

The strategy went something like this:

Sit.
Treat.
Hold wreath in front of her face.
Treat.
Push wreath back onto her neck.
Treat.
Picture!!
Treat.

So we had her positioned and the pile of treats ready to go, but she was not going for it. She did not want to put her head through the wreath! I started thinking maybe we just hold it in front and I try to get creative with the camera angle but having John's hand in there wasn't really the look we were going for. Then she ran away so I started thinking maybe it was going to be traditional Hallmarks this year. Screw the photo card.

John caught her and said that we need to be the leader of the pack (must have learned that from the dog whisperer) and put the treats aside, put the stupid wreath on her neck and she was pretty much paralyzed in fear. She stood there like a perfect angel while I snapped away a gazillion pictures like a crazy woman oooohing and ahhhhhing!
(My future children are going to HATE me some day because I will be THAT mom)

I know this sounds like animal cruelty and I promise she was not harmed at all during this. She was rewarded with plenty of hugs, kisses and treats and I was rewarded with some adorable pictures of what looks like a pissed off puggle with a Christmas wreath on her neck.
Bah-humbug from Izzy!

Actually, I do think she may have been partially traumatized, or just really ticked off because afterwards she laid in her bed and stared at the wall rather than cuddling with me on the couch like she normally does. Guess I better think of something better for next year!

life. november 2012

This monthly update almost passed me by... I cannot believe it is DECEMBER already!
So let's see... what else happened this month...

I finally got my iPad
I know my sisters are going to make fun of me for bringing this up again, but I never followed up to my other post about the drama associated with getting this thing!
While I was home the weekend before Thanksgiving, Lauren and I went shopping in Delaware and both purchased iPads. The Apple Store was flooded with people shopping but they made it very convenient with an express table for those of who know exactly what we want and don't want to graze around the store looking at stuff. This is a moment that my Dad and John would be so proud of... I knew exactly what I wanted so this should be IN and OUT of the store in no time. Well... not so fast.
For some reason when I was checking out they needed to call for authorization for using my debit card (which had more then enough to cover the iPad)! This took about 10 minutes of the poor sales rep being on hold at which point I told him to give up and just use my credit card so we could get out of there. This was not express!
While I appreciate PNC trying to prevent fraudulant purchases, which I confirmed was the case when they called me later in the day to report that my card was attempted for use in Delaware, I seriously thought this was a final straw in preventing me from getting this coveted iPad!! Now the obsession has begun...


The steps are finished!
John has been waiting for a few weeks for custom pieces to arrive to complete the steps and officially wrap up the floor project. When you enter our townhouse there is  small landing and steps that lead down to the basement/laundry room and another set that leads to the main floor. I've been anxiously waiting for the steps to be finished since it's the first thing people see when they come in.
It wasn't easy, but he did it and they look great!!!

Last Pitt Football Home Game
The Pitt football tailgate sesason came to an end the weekend after Thanksgiving and we decided to kick it up a notch for the last home game by bringing the deep fryer. We typically bring this to one big game a year and cook chicken wings, mozzerella sticks, and anything else we can think of that would be tasty deep fried! Well this year John was set on deep frying ANOTHER turkey because his friend Dave has never had it before. We weren't sure if everyone would feel like eating turkey again just a few short days after Thanksgiving but there wasn't too much left afterwards!

It was a noon game and it was SO cold that morning so we also had apple cider & rum and plenty of handwarmers to go around!

It was worth freezing out tooshies off because Pitt scored a big WIN against Rutgers. It's always nice have a great win at home to wrap up a not so great season.

Brag book
I am a proud aunt of a beautiful niece, Julia and two handsome nephews, Jake and Joey. 
I just have to share a couple pics of these kiddos. They are so stinkin' cute!