It's been a crazy year, y'all. Let's look back, shall we?

2008 started pretty early in the morning for me. I had trouble going to sleep on New Year's Eve. We had a party and then I just couldn't go to sleep. Our house was filled with girls in the wedding party and I had about a million thoughts running through my head. Not only did I have my wedding the next day, but we also were about to leave for Bulgaria and we didn't have our visas yet. I had a crazy two weeks coming up.

We started off New Year's Day with pancakes that my Daddy made for the girls and me. Then, we all hustled to start getting ready for the wedding. We needed to be at the church at noon and there was a lot to do!

The rest of the day flew by. Our wedding was gorgeous, our reception was loads of fun and we might have stayed all night if it had not have started snowing around 7:00. My mother kicked us out of our reception so that our guests would feel free to leave.

I cried a little bit during the ceremony, but then held it together until I had to say goodbye to the Princess before walking out of the reception. My mother broke that up too because I was a bit heartbroken at not being able to see her until her wedding in June.

We finally made it out, I smiled for the cameras and we drove off and forgot all of our stuff. We had to secretly drive back to the reception and have a bridesmaid bring our luggage to us.

The rest of January is sort of a blur now too. We went to San Diego for 10 days, eventually received our visas, ate a lot of Moe's queso (leftover from our rehearsal dinner) and flew to Bulgaria on January 13th. I freaked out a lot in Heathrow and Nathan got sick almost instantly upon arriving in Bulgaria.

In February, I was really hungry and was accepted to graduate school in Boston. At the end of February, we flew to France.

March began with 10 days in France. I loved, loved, loved France, y'all. I can't wait to get back. We also spent a very long night wide awake in Rome. In Greece, someone asked me if English was my first language. I had a Red Letter Day when I got accepted to another grad school, received a tax return and my brother secured our apartment for us all in one day! I went on a day trip to Melnik a famous Bulgarian winery and ate lots of mish mash. We went to Istanbul for the weekend and saw a lot of machine guns and ate a fish sandwich that left me without an appetite for a week. My parents came to visit and we explored Phillipi and Kavala with them. March was a busy month. I'm tired just reliving it.

April was decidedly calmer. Early in the month, Nathan had a most unpleasant wake up. Every time I tell this story, I start laughing uncontrollably. I started reflecting on the future. A shiny, new, German grocery store opned up next to us and I was a lot less hungry. I really missed everyone back home, so I posted a lot of wedding photos. I wrote a travelogue for The Blue Banner. At the end of April, we celebrated Easter Eastern Orthodox style.

May was a great month! We said goodbye to Bulgaria and we flew home. One of the Absolute BFFs got married and we had a blast at her wedding! We packed and packed and packed some more.

June 1st we moved into our apartment in Boston. Oh, and I got a job! Also, our best couple friends got married. It was beautiful!

In July, we celebrated Independence Day downtown and took some, um, crazy pictures of ourselves. The big news of July was that Nathan got a job!

In August, we went to the Cape. My Sorority Little Sister came for a visit. I tried out a knitting group that wasn't for me.

In September, I coined a word--Bostontacious and Yankee BFF came to visit.

In October, we went apple picking, A and C came to visit, and we went to the Head of the Charles regatta.

In November, we voted with few choices, I turned 23, Baby Girl turned 6, and I made fondue in a pumpkin and after Thanksgiving we decorated for Christmas.

We closed out 2008 in December with soul searching, ranting, and lots of snow and bagels.

I'm so glad that I have a written record of this year. It was quite a doozy--lots of traveling, learning how to be married, moving to a new city, getting our first jobs. Here's to a more settled, less crazy, but still fun 2009!

Merry Christmas!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it.

Just a few pictures of my favorite Christmas morning...
I had no idea what the little gold box at the bottom of my stocking was.
But then I realized...it was an engagement ring!
Love Sis-in-Law's face when she figured out what I was showing her!

Before I can leave for Christmas, I need to:

-eat 5 bananas.

-finish off half a Crockpot of pizza soup.

-get Nathan to drink the last of the milk.

Why, oh why, did we buy any groceries this week?

Hello there! I have lots and lots of pictures to share today...

This is one of my favorite Christmas ornaments. Our serving dishes are the Arthur Court Magnolia pattern and this is an ornament from that collection:
Here's one of our Alma Mater ornaments.
This is for southern girls like me who didn't know snowflakes actually looked like snowflakes! I had never seen flakes this big before.
Another Alma Mater ornament. This one with our lovely mascot Rocky on it.
A close-up of the wise men and camel in our nativity set.
And here's the shepherd and donkey.
OK. Now, how to make bagels. I use the dough hook on my KitchenAid. You can definitely make them without a large mixer, but I never knead by hand anymore. It's so much easier and less messy with a Kitchen Aid!
Combine 1 1/2 cups warm water, 3 Tbsp. sugar and 2 Tbsp. yeast in the bowl. Let is sit and froth for a while. Then add 4 1/4 cups bread flour and 1 Tbsp. salt. It'll look something like this once it is all combined:

Cover the bowl with a towel and place it in a warm, draft-free place. It will double in about an hour and look something like this:
Make little balls of dough and let rest for 10 minutes while you boil 2 quarts of water and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Then, you form the dough balls into bagel shapes. I like to make a hole in the balls with my thumbs and work out from there. Nathan likes to roll the dough into a snake and join the ends.

Drop the bagels in the boiling water and boil 45 seconds on each side.
After the boiling, put the bagels on a wire rack to drain (I put my rack on top of a cutting board).
Brush the bagels with an egg white and add your toppings (salt, cheese, sesame seeds, etc).
Nathan wanted parmesan bagels for his birthday. Yum.
Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes. As you can see, this recipe yielded 9 bagels that we in-between a regular bagel size and a mini-bagel size. You could probably make a dozen mini-bagels (1 bread serving each) or 6 regular size bagels (2 servings each).
And now for the snow! It snowed and snowed and snowed this weekend. Saturday was bitterly cold, but yesterday was around 32 degrees so we ventured out. Here's the view out of one of the windows yesterday at church.
And here is our church surrounded by lots of snow. It didn't stop snowing from Friday afternoon until Saturday night and then it picked back up again yesterday morning and snowed all afternoon!
Here are some pink snow people on Boston Common. It was so beautiful on the Common. I loved it.
Here is Boston's ginormous Christmas tree all covered in snow.
And here are Nathan and I on the Common. Isn't my hat crazy? I bought it a few years ago on the streets of New York. Right after this picture, we went inside Starbucks to warm up a bit and then walked around downtown for about another hour. It was so beautiful to see everything covered in snow!
Oh, and here are pigeon tracks in the snow. I hate pigeons more than anyone else I know, but these tracks were adorable.
Our family birthday plans were canceled yesterday because the snow turned to sleet and the roads were not too clear, but we'll celebrate tonight at UBurger. Then, only one more work day until my fabulous Christmas break. I won't be back in the office until January 5th!

The snow is coming! The snow is coming!

Actually, I haven't seen anything yet, but word on the street is that we're out of here at 11.

I'm so excited I'm practically vibrating.

I am going to clean, drink some mint sipping chocolate Nathan got for me, snuggle with Miss Marple, watch the 90s remake of Christmas in Connecticut, whip up some yummy pasta for dinner, bake some bagels for Nathan's birthday breakfast and maybe him bake him a birthday cake.

As soon as I get home, it is going to be a great day. Apparently, getting home is the hard part. Last year it took about a million hours for people to get home from the first storm.

I promise to post pictures of snow, bagel making, and birthday celebrations! Hurrah!

Also, in a totally unrelated note, Nathan's co-worker (who is actually my friend too!) and I just had the following conversation:

Alicia: your husband = hilarious
biega asked him if he wanted a lanyard with an id holder on the end
and his reply was "do you even know me?"

Rachel Ann: Haha
Did he accept or not?
Because apparently I don't know him.

Alicia: he put it around his neck
i was confused about what he meant, too
i don't know him

Rachel Ann: Me neither.
I guess.

Alicia: yeah, oh well

Here's the snow update I just received from a co-worker.

Our first storm arrives tomorrow with the first flakes around 11am. The heaviest snow looks to fall from about 2pm until 9pm. In fact, this storm look eerily familiar to a storm last December--the one where it took 6 hours to go 5 miles. So if that was you last year, heads up, it may be very similar. Any holiday shopping/dinner dates planned for Friday evening might want to be bumped to this evening. By late Friday night most towns have 6-10" of snow---lightest north, heaviest south.

We were supposed to watch the Baby Girls tomorrow night so Bro and Sis-in-Law could go to a Christmas party, but now the party has been rescheduled. Guess I'll be cleaning the apartment and making lots of yummy food for Nathan's birthday.

Get excited! 6-12" of snow....that won't melt until April.

True story: It really, really, really upsets me when people say holiday instead of Christmas.

I am totally okay with saying "Happy Holidays!" or "Season's Greetings!" when you are in a situation where you don't know if the person celebrates Christmas or not. I'm okay with that. As a side note, I get giddy if and when someone wishes me a Happy Hannukah. I love it.

What really upsets me though is when people say holiday and you know they mean Christmas. For instance, I just got an email that said I had two more days to order gifts to guarantee holiday shipping. Um, Hannukah starts Sunday night, so I doubt I can order gifts until Friday and have ground shipping get them to me by Sunday. They totally meant Christmas and didn't say it!

Last night, Nathan and I made all kinds of Christmas goodies to take into work. I was searching everywhere in the store for bags of Christmas M&Ms. I finally found them in a separate display at the front of the store, but they were labeled holiday M&Ms. Um, it seems to me that holiday M&Ms should be red, green, blue, silver and maybe even brown and orange** if we need to include Kwanzaa (but, seriously, a TENET of Kwanzaa is that you don't buy the gifts!). I was so upset that they actually meant Christmas M&Ms but wrote Holiday M&Ms that I wouldn't buy them. I bought two bags of regular M&Ms and sorted out the red and green ones.

What bothers me is that I actually celebrate Christmas, baby Jesus and all. If you don't, then I feel you shouldn't have ownership over my holiday and get to decide things about it. If you don't want baby Jesus involved, then you should tell people you celebrate beginning of winter gift giving. Make up a better name if you want. Then, come up with colors and ask Mars to market M&Ms to you. That way, we can buy Christmas, Hannukah, Beginning of Winter Gift Giving Holiday and anything else you want M&M blends.

**I think this mix of colors (except for silver which would be an awesome standard color) is a regular bag of M&Ms. Maybe we could solve this by doing away with seasonal blends all together?

Our company Christmas party was last night, so I am tired and worthless right now. I will say, however, that yesterday was awesome because we received **7** Christmas cards in the mail AND I'm so jazzed to put up a photo post on how to make bagels for y'all this weekend. Look for it. Get excited!

Nathan caught a cold and was rather sickly all weekend, so I have very little to report about our activities. Pretty much, I was knitting, reading a book about the Norman Conquest, watching 30 Rock or bringing fluids to Nathan all weekend. I did manage to whip up some bagels though since we couldn't go out to get them. I love homemade bagels so much. They're ridiculously easy and so delicious. Maybe we'll stop going out for bagels on the weekend.

Our spend very little money on food in December challenge is going well. Tonight is my company's fancy dancy Christmas party, so no spending money on food tonight! I'm wearing a Lilly wrap dress and my new kicky boots.

Hopefully, I'll remember to take some pictures of the two of us to put up here. I took some fun photos this weekend, but forgot to load them on BabyMac, so you can't see those yet. I really want a Digital SLR, but I'm having so much fun playing with the ISO and macro settings on my point and shoot digital that it's not too big of a deal. Who knew my tiny little Kodak EasyShare could do such fancy things?

I really love rainy days where I don't have to leave the house. Everything is quiet and clean and it seems okay to stay in bed reading and drinking tea.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the house today. It is pouring buckets in Boston and, frankly, my commute was less than stellar.

Thankfully, I have a space heater under my desk so I was dry and toasty within a matter of minutes of arriving at work.

I have a headache, but it doesn't seem to be too big of a deal. I mean, it's Friday. Isn't that reward and pleasure enough? I'm wearing my absolute favorite outfit of the moment: trouser jeans and this jacket I found in Old Navy clearance for next to no money that looks like a million bucks. Seriously--people who have never commented on my appearance EVER made a point to tell me I looked nice when I wore the jacket for the first time. Love it.

Last night after watching Christmas in Connecticut (a gem my parents and I stumbled upon last Christmas), I showed Nathan all of my home design inspiration pictures. Well, not all of them. He could only handle about 15 or so kitchen pictures before he gave up and told me to decorate absolutely however I wanted--for the rest of our lives! Nathan hates change and so resists whenever I try to bring some changes into our home decor. I think it finally clicked for him how this is one of my biggest passions, so he decided to let me do whatever I want. He becomes used to changes quickly. In fact, I'm not sure he could describe to you most of the things I've done in our apartment. He just lives there, you know. It's very different from me.

Compromise is such a funny thing. I used to be terrible at it. I know I sound like a broken record talking about how much I've changed since I was married last year (almost one year! whoa!), but it's true. I think I'm a much better person. Much easier to live with and be around. Marriage has most certainly changed me for the better. I'm actively investing in a relationship that I used to just let be. I give up a lot more. I actually agree to compromises and I'm a lot less passive aggressive. I'm happier about everything in my life more. I truly think that being married, more so than any other event in my life, has changed me for the better spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally.

I think this might be one reason why I don't miss college the way other people do. I really don't miss the person I was in college. I was self-centered (to the max!), materialistic, petty, gossipy. Not that I don't fall prey to all of those things still, but I'm at such a better place now. The friends I talk to regularly (and the ones I don't talk to you regularly but still love with all my heart--that's you P and EC) are the ones who actually inspire me to not be so base. Leaving the country right after getting married helped a lot with this. I had almost no contact with anyone from school except for some emails between my Absolute BFF and the Princess. I learned a lot about rolling with the punches, being my own person and making do with what I have.

I've been missing Europe a lot lately, but I think we've done a pretty great job at retaining a lot of what we learned about ourselves in Bulgaria. For one thing, I never order a drink larger than 12 oz. at a coffee shop. Thank you, Bulgaria, for shaving thousands of calories out of my diet. We still don't have a car and, in fact, I think it would be a bigger hassle for us to have a car at this point in our lives. We live in a cozy little place with just enough space for us. We don't lose each other. I have about a 1/4 of the clothes I had at this time last year. I learned to live with walking in the rain, with public transit and with getting lost on foot.

Nathan and I always joke that are the best Christmas present that either of us have ever received, since we started dating in December, were engaged Christmas morning and were married New Year's Day. He's certainly the best gift I've ever received.

Don't you love how boots make you feel kicky and giddy? I bought new boots last night and, I must say, I feel quite kicky and giddy today.

Cari tagged me to list ten things you might not know about me and five obsessions I have. Here goes...

Ten things you might not know about me...

1. I once correctly guessed the number of pickles in the giant jar at the NC State Fair and won 12 free jars of pickles.

2. Nathan and I will celebrate 6 years of dating on Sunday.

3. I only drink soy milk. I cook with milk and use skim milk on my cereal, but I can't drink it plain.

4. This is because milk ALWAYS smells bad to me. Always. I think the smell of milk is disgusting.

5. I am very much a morning person. I like to wake up, get on with my day and then relax after 1 pm. Unfortunately, this pretty much never happens since I work 8:30-5:00.

6. I have a nasty habit of buying the wrong size shoe. It's totally illogical. Totally.

7. I always have to have one foot peek out of the covers at night or I feel like I'm suffocating.

8. I worry more about Miss Marple than I should. Way more. I'm always worried that she resents us for leaving her during the day and that maybe, at her core, she's really sad. Nathan always reminds me that cats actually enjoy being alone and he points out that she doesn't show any signs of depression, but I worry anyway.

9. I love Coffeemate creamers (the refrigerated kind). My favorite part of orientation leaders' retreat in college was coffee in the morning with that creamer. I have never bought it to have around because it contains about 3 million calories and unidentified chemicals per teaspoon, but it is so, so, so yummy.

10. I have a 5-year natural living plan, but I'm not sure when I'll actually see it to fruition. Right now, I do what I can that doesn't make Nathan squirmy. We'll see what happens.

5 obsessions I currently have:

1. Origins Ginger Essence perfume. I've been wearing this perfume since I was 16. It's the best. I love it.

2. Fiber One Caramel Delight cereal. It's amazing, y'all.

3. Looking at pictures of other people's homes. It's pretty much my favorite thing to do. Whenever we are downtown, I get Nathan to walk with me down Comm Ave so I can try and see inside people's houses. Flickr works for this too (and is less creepy).

4. Trying to spend as little money on food as possible. It's a fun challenge we have going this month. We're have some spendy dinners for Nathan's birthday and our anniversary, so we figued we'd cut back on other things.

5. Formatting and re-formatting our schedule for the few days we're in NC for Christmas. I'm tired already. No joke. I made tentative plans yesterday for an early morning (emphasis on the early) December 26th breakfast before one of the Absolute BFFs has to drive back to Wilmington. At least it will all be worth it AND I don't have to go back to work until January 5th!

I can't believe I forgot this in my first post, but today is the birthday of one of the Absolute BFFs! Happy Birthday, Bev!

I have many things on my mind right now. The problem is that I'll go for days on end not thinking or worrying about any of them and then something will snap and they'll swirl around and around in my head for a few days. It's like a little tornado of worry that crops up every now and then.

Thankfully, the winds have died down again and Monday night I entered into a stage of boundless optimism. Seriously--I can't stop smiling and all my thoughts have turned from worry to excitement.

I'm not really sure what triggered the change, but I'm hoping it stays like this. The good news is that many, many things are contributing to the continuation of my happiness:

Swap packages are so fun to open!
Usually on my workouts, I do 3.25-3.5 miles on the elliptical. Yesterday, I did 4 miles in the same amount of time. I was jazzed.
Watching Christmas in Connecticut (one of my favorite Christmas movies) with Nathan and Miss Marple while sipping cocoa.
It is 60 degrees here in Boston. 60 degrees!
I'm wearing green shoes. Doesn't green just make everything better?
We're in the Advent season. Christmas is coming. People are actually nicer, it seems, and everywhere you turn you are constantly reminded of just how blessed you are.

The optimism is for real, y'all. This morning I hopped on the wrong bus, ended up at a different square than the one I work in so I had to hop on the T, ride that for a while and then walk a bit to work. It didn't phase me at all. In fact, I was so excited to have this time to walk around in the 60 degree weather. I just soaked it in.

I have absolutely no idea what's coming up on my horizon, but I'm excited and I hope I stay that way.

You know the Dannity Kane song Show Stopper?

Show stopping...show, show stopping...

Anyway, I'm doing a good bit of soul searching these days and I keep singing Soul searching, soul, soul searching...to the tune of Show Stopper.

I may have lost my mind.

This weekend taught me I know nothing of science or have lost all of logical faculties or both.

It snowed yesterday or, rather, it flurried heavily. Being from North Carolina, I was so delighted to find out that snowflakes can be big enough that they actual look like snowflakes. Like you cut them out of paper, y'all! I took pictures of them. I was fascinated. I actually cried at how beautiful it was to see my hair decorated with what looked like little stars.

Let's call that science lesson number one.

Lesson two is that cats have belly buttons or, at least, something similar where the umbilical cord was attached. In attempting to Google this after Miss Marple would not let me find her belly button, I learned way, way, way too much about cat birth. Gross, y'all. I will never breed cats--that's for sure.

What's crazy is that I'm absolutely fascinated by human birth. Completely fascinated. I read books about midwifery and whatnot, but I can't handle the cat birthing descriptions I stumbled upon.

Anyway, not much else of note happened this weekend besides my emotional outburst at the T stop on the way to church over snowflakes and my disgusting venture into the realm of cat birth. Oh yeah, and my husband making fun of my lack of scientific knowledge about snowflakes and the fact that all mammals have an umbilical cord involved in their birth process.

My, aren't I posty today?

I feel the need to share the news that as seriously added to my mindless entertainment. Netflix now offers watch instantly for Mac users!

This is fabulous. Our free internet paired with our $14 a month Netflix now gives us all the entertainment possibilities of cable.

Last night we watched a documentary on the font Helvetica. Don't make fun of me. I love design. It was awesome.

A whole new world just opened up. I predict a good number of 1950s movie musicals in my future.

This weekend I am hitting up the post office. I'm mailing Christmas cards, a gift and all of my recipe swap cards.

This week has been insane. I haven't cooked at home one night this week, but we haven't been going out to eat either. That's right--we've been eating toast and salad.

I'm hoping to do a little cooking and a bit of baking this weekend. We're trying to spend next to nothing on food this month. We're frustrated by the fact that people whose families are much larger than 2 people spend more money on food than we do. It's been great so far. We actually have some food in the pantry that we've been eating.

Still, I'm sure we'll find ourselves at Bagel Rising tomorrow morning for our Saturday morning bagels. This place is amazing! We both get bagels, Nathan gets OJ and I get chai for less than $10. Seriously! Love it. It's also a certified eco-friendly restaurant which we think is stellar.

Our other big plans include hitting Bazaar Bizarre after church on Sunday. It's like real-life Etsy. I'm so pumped!

Oh, and you here's a fun deal for you. Today the Daily Deal at Calista Cove is L.Erickson bow headband. L.Erickson headbands are the best headbands I've ever worn. Absolute BFF was skeptical of its comfort, so wore it for a day when she came to Boston. She agrees with me--you could nap in this headband. They're wonderful. Anyway, today only they are $22 a piece, so snatch one up if you can!

While you're there, you could enter the card contest going on. If your card receives the most votes, you win a $100 gift card to the boutique. Wow!

Anyway, my dears, I'm off to a have a wonderful day. How will I know it will be wonderful? Well, I woke up when I supposed to leave for work. I didn't have time to do my hair so it is fuzzy-looking and pulled back with a bobby pin. In my haste to leave, I forgot my gym bag. I was hit on this morning in the lobby of my building. When he found out I was married, he kept saying "You is married? You is married?" You see, there is nowhere to go but up. Have a great weekend!

In much less whiny news, I wrapped a load of Christmas presents last night. Everything that is not getting flown to NC is sitting up under my tree in green polka-dotted wrapping paper and tied up with my awesome new ribbon and gift tags from Kristen. It's beautiful.

I also purchased and wrapped Nathan's birthday present. I have already started planning what I'll be baking for him and where we'll go out to eat. Speaking of that, does anyone know a good wing place in Boston? That's what he wants for his birthday dinner. As a bonus, it would be great if the restaurant served something I could eat too.

As an aside, I have still not received my birthday present from Nathan. Whatever it was, it arrived broken and had to be returned. He's having trouble finding another one AND won't tell me what it is.

If I don't receive it until February, then this might turn out to be the longest birthday ever (measured of course from the time you receive your first gift/celebration to the time you receive the last).

My hair is making me lose my mind. Seriously.

I didn't bother finding someone to cut my hair up here because I made it through college with every 5 month haircuts and I figured I could keep it up.

The end is in sight. Really. It is. The Saturday after Christmas I'm having my hair cut and my eyebrows done. I'm thisclose to counting down the days.

I'm had it up to here with my hair. I always get haircuts that grow out nicely over 5-6 months. Believe me, it can be done. My hair rarely, if ever, looks awkward.

My problem is that I'm sick of having my hair this length. I want it short again. I need it short again. It looks better short.

23 days, y'all. 23 days.

Two Christmases ago, Nathan bought me the complete series of Friends on DVD. Oh yeah, and an engagement ring. (He knew I wanted both of these things).

Last year, he tried to go the practical route (sans list from me) and he bought me a fanny pack. An honest-to-goodness $40 fanny pack with a bike chain running through it. It weighed about 5,000 pounds and was bought with the sweetest of intentions that I would wear on it on our 6 month European honeymoon.

The boy needs a list. He craves a list. Without a list, his logic takes him to fanny packs. Needed? Maybe. Top of the line? Definitely? A good Christmas present for your soon-to-be wife? Not so much.

I'm making him the mother of all lists. Since I like the idea of a handmade Christmas, I'm trying to fill the list with handmade wares and etsy stores.

So what's your favorite etsy store? Do you have an etsy store I should check out?

Let me know!

I want to send a huge thank you to Kristen, my ClemsonGirl's Holiday Swap partner, for a fabulous package she put together. Her pictures are better than mine, so I'll let you look at it here:

Preppy Holiday Swap

I was completely blown away by her package. It was incredible, y'all! I have two colors of ribbon that say Happy Holidays from Rachel Ann on them. Amazing!

Last night I was reading this month's Better Homes and Gardens and they had an article about really practical gift baskets that are easy to put together. One basket is for the person who loves to wrap. How cute would some of Kristen's customized ribbon be in such a basket? You can see and buy her wares at her etsy shop, Taylor Made Designs.

Thank you, thank you, Kristen!

I hope y'all had wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations. Ours was fabulous. As you can see, we also decorated for Christmas this weekend. This is our tree all lit up with our stockings.
We had a lazy Sunday morning since we decided to go to the 4:00 service at church. Here's our breakfast scene: The Office, pancakes with blackberry syrup, tea with honey, a cat in the window.
This is the only piece of my Christmas china that I have. Isn't she lovely though?
One of my orchids has eight blooms on it!
And here's the Christmas tree and stockings in the daylight.
Here's a fun banner I made. I think it turned out really well!

Ready for some pictures?

Two weeks ago, Nathan, Alicia and I made pumpkin fondue using the recipe from Laura's blog. So yummy! Here is what was left over after we were cheesed out.


Here's a shot of some veggie fried rice we made last week. We cooked the rice with a chai tea bag in the water. It sounds weird, but it was so yummy!
Here are Nathan and I at Baby Girl's birthday party this past weekend.
Here is our pumpkin fondue baking (next to a delicious apple crisp).
Nathan whipped up some cream to accompany the apple crisp. So yummy!
This little kitten cat wouldn't stop flopping around and looking cute on our bed this morning, so I indulged her and took a few pictures.
This is a close-up of Miss Marple chewing on her paw. Her favorite comfort thing to do is grind her teeth next to something--her paw, your hand, BabyMac. It sounds gross, but I promise it's not!
And here is one excited Birthday Girl at her party this weekend.

Sorry the pictures are all out of order. If it helps, my brain feels a bit jumbled now too.

Every morning, I ride the first car of the T into work. I don't have any particular reason to always choose the first car. Rather, I just like to stand in a certain place and the first car always stops there.

Usually, there's nothing particularly special about my commute, where I sit or what I hear. Mornings are quiet on the T. Everyone is sleepy and, on my line, few students are up yet for classes. I mostly ride in with other young professionals who live in my neighborhood and work downtown.

You could say that I ride in with people that "have it all together." They at least exude professionalism, class and control. Control seems to be a big deal with my fellow commuters. Isn't it a big deal for all of us?

This morning, one of the doors of our train was malfunctioning. I happened to be sitting next to the driver and heard his conversation. We almost hit a car, the train went into emergency mode, emergency mode keeps the doors from opening, etc. Well, a malfunctioning door, in my mind, is nothing to get too excited about. Did I tell you about the time last month when the brakes of my train went out? That was something to get excited about.

I chose to spend the extra time we had being thankful that I had a seat, thankful we hadn't hit the car and, truth be told, making a to-do list of the myriad things I need to get done this weekend. My fellow commuters, however, took the time to roll their eyes, sigh heavily, give themselves wrinkles, and take turns hopping up and starting into the cockpit area of the train. Did any of them have great insights into why the train doors wouldn't open? No. Not at all, but they wanted the control.

I get it. It feels good to have control over parts of your life. I'm glad that I have control over whether or not I get enough sleep or go to the gym or spend all of our money on handbags and shoes. Still, you hit a point where you've got to realize how little you have control over and just let it go. I hit my point in Europe and I highly recommend international travel with very little money and a new husband in a country where you don't know the language to teach you a few lessons about what you should actually freak out about. Listen, I didn't get worked up when Nathan and I were told we were going to be arrested in Bulgaria and I'm not about to get worked up over a malfunctioning door.

Things are a little rough right now. It's true. We've got front-row seats to all sorts of crazy happenings: significant problems in the financial sector, changing views of America at home and abroad. Heck, I've got wild turkeys "terrorizing" my neighborhood.

Personally, Nathan and I are waiting on all sorts of things. Does it drive me crazy a bit? Do I wish that I could press fast forward to get to the time where we'll have all the answers? Sure, but I will never be able to fast forward my life. I can choose to give myself wrinkles and high blood pressure like the rest of the Green line commuters, or I could simply admit that I'm not in control. More than that, I can choose to still be productive with the time that I have right now and anticipate the beauty of seeing God's plan unfold in my life.

Today is Baby Girl's 6th birthday! I'm a bit overwhelmed by this. You see, when she was born, Nathan and I were juniors in high school. We had been hanging out a bit, but we had never really been on a date or anything like that. We were 17, for crying out loud.

That afternoon, my mother was going to give Nathan a ride home from school when we got the call that Bro and Sis-in-Law had gone to the hospital. We left him at school and drove over to Durham to wait for the birth. On the way, we stopped by Burger King and bought veggie burgers for dinner. Burger King had just started selling these. So yummy, but I was hungry (and cold--the waiting room was freezing) hours later.

Baby Girl was born around 10ish (I think). I really wanted to call Nathan to tell him all about it, but I didn't know if we were at that point in our relationship/friendship. I just didn't know if I could call him, so I didn't. I told him the next day at school.

Anyway, Baby Girl is 6 today and I'm married. It's a sweet time of year--full of birthdays and Christmas and all kinds of anniversaries.

I just logged into Boston.com to check out the news.

The first headline? About Northeastern not building a dorm.

The second headline? Tips: Stop being terrorized by wild turkeys.

This ranked higher than the resignation of a state senator.

Love it.

PS--I also love the pics of the state senator stuffing money into her undergarments. Seriously! FBI surveillance, y'all.

Also, that photo in the wild turkey article is from my neighborhood!

I'm feeling good. Want to know why?

--Our bed is amazing. Amazing, I tell you. Feather bed, down comforter, down pillows, nice sheets and duvet. Love it. Thank you to everyone who bought us bedding or BBB gift cards. I think of you every morning.

--Chai tea K-cups are where it's at. My office stocks these and I love them.

--Christmas shopping! I love taking the time to find gifts for everyone and I love Christmas shopping with Nathan. He actually really loves shopping here in Boston because we aren't in a mall. He can grab a coffee and just walk around downtown with me. Meanwhile, I'm getting my shopping done.

--Budgets. Knowing that we're making good decisions. Also, we re-evaluated our budgets last week to figure out how much we could cut if the need arises. The good news? We are so blessed right now that there are many areas that we could cut if we needed to.

--The anticipation of craft shopping for my swap partners tonight at Michael's. It's been a while since I've been to a Michael's. I'm jazzed.

--Baby Girl 1's birthday is tomorrow. Know what that means? Dinner at our favorite Boston eatery: UBurger.

--My space heater at my desk. It's getting cold, y'all!

--Goat cheese. Yum. End of story.

--Thanksgiving is almost here and that means my parents will soon be landing in Beantown!

--Being married. It's awesome.

--Squashes. I'm probably about to turn orange. I'm trying to eat them all before they disappear for another year.

--This elliptical interval workout. I did it last night and loved it!

--Sunshine!

--Hummus with roasted garlic and fresh pita.

--Oatmeal. Also, the image I have in my head of the sticky oatmeal in my veins getting bad fats stuck to it and out of my blood vessels. Gross? No! It's cute. The sticky oatmeal helps my blood vessels be healthier.

--The anticipation of tonight's burrito.

Before I get on with my daily brain drain, I need to share a fun deal with you.

This week, Preppy Monogrammed Gifts, is running a deal on their monogrammed keychains. I won one of these a few weeks ago and I am beyond impressed at the quality. I'll try and remember to take some pictures to show you.

I purchased a keychain like this at a shop in Raleigh a few years ago for $15. PMG's quality far exceeds my prior keychain and this week they are ON SALE at the price of 2 for $13. This is a steal, y'all! If you need small gifts for the women in your life, these keychains would be perfect. As a bonus, you also get to support a female-owned small business. Love it.

Now...on to other matters...

I had two cups of tea this morning and now my brain is buzzing. Truly. Buzzing.

I like to make really long lists of things I might actually like to accomplish someday and BlogWorld is not helping one bit at making my lists shorter. Someone is always posting a recipe, a craft, a furniture arrangement that I want to try. Right.Now.

My lists are growing exponentially. I bet that we could go 6 months eating only all new meals that I have bookmarked (and carefully organized into folders) without including any old stand-bys. This would be expensive, time-consuming and a bit sad, but we could do it.

I could make a new craft every weekend for a year I bet.

You ladies are killing me. Keep it coming though, because when I have two cups of tea and my brain is buzzing I feel like I can take on the world. I might have to modify my schedule* a bit, but I can do it!

***Oh yes, my life is as scheduled as a preschooler's. I schedule daily cleaning time, daily meal prep, daily crafting. I even schedule my sleep, I kid you not. Otherwise, how can I get everything done?

This weekend I did something I rarely do: I rebelled against my list. Will I be regretting this later? Probably. I have a busy week ahead and didn't put together packages, bake bread or cookies or fold laundry.

Can we level about how miserable folding laundry is? If I don't fold it while pulling it out of the dryer it becomes an insurmountable task in my mind. Good gracious.

Here's what I did do this weekend:
Christmas shopped!
Addressed our Christmas cards.
Napped extensively.

This week is going to be go, go, go and I couldn't be more excited. Today and tomorrow I have set aside to do all the things I neglected to do this weekend. Wednesday I'm going craft supply shopping for the many swaps I have coming up. Thursday is Baby Girl's 6th birthday. Friday we have tickets (3rd row!) to see Spamalot! downtown and then Saturday will be filled with Baby Girl's birthday party, more Christmas shopping with Sis-in-Law and some baby-sitting that evening.

In an unrelated note, does anyone know anything about dreams? I keep dreaming of green beans. Yes, you read that correctly. Green beans. Specifically, I keep dreaming of eating green beans that have been mixed with stuffing (a food that I absolute loathe). Anyone have any interpretations on what this means? For the past three nights, everywhere I go in my dreams, there is a bowl of green beans there. Is this a sign of my future? Should I become a green bean farmer and enter into the world of agri-tourism ala Schrute Farms? Let me know.

I usually never do this, but I am actually counting down the hours until I get to go home. It's drizzly here in Boston today and I am beyond sleepy.

My big weekend plans? Bake, bake, bake (I'm thinking bread, bagels and cookies for gifts), watching The Tudors: Season 1 and folding laundry.

I know we have to go to the post office tomorrow, but other than night I am so looking forward to sitting at home and chilling out with Nathan. He had a business trip this week, I had a huge event at work that I was working early and late for and it'll be so nice to sit, relax and smell baking bread.

Only an hour and a half to go.

I really love my teeny tiny apartment. I do wish I had a larger kitchen and maybe a guest room, but it really is a perfect size for Nathan and I.

Here are some of Barbara Kingsolver's thoughts on small houses that she expressed during Duke's commencement one year:

"The rule of 'success' has traditionally meant having boatloads of money. But we are not really supposed to put it in a boat. A house would (be) the customary thing. Ideally it should be large, with a lot of bathrooms … but no more than four people. If two friends come over during approved visiting hours, the two children have to leave. The bathroom-to-resident ratio should at all times remain greater than one. I'm not making this up; I'm just observing, it's more or less my profession. … Rethink the big, lonely house as a metaphor for success. You are in a perfect position to do that. You've probably spent very little of your recent life in a freestanding unit with a bathroom-to-resident ratio of greater than one. … As you leave here, remember what you loved most in this place. … The way you lived, in close and continuous contact. This is an ancient human social construct that once was common in this land. We called it a community."

This year for Christmas, I'd like some fabric. That's right--fabric. I'd also love more pieces in my china pattern and my Arthur Court pattern, but mostly fabric.

Why?

Well, I'm at a point in my life where if I want some shoes I'll buy them. If I want a sweater I'll buy it. Granted, I will most likely buy it on ebay and will certainly never pay retail, but I'll get it, you know? I don't have to wait for things as gifts.

What was so great about my birthday this year is that I received things I didn't really ask for. My parents got me a gorgeous photo album in my Arthur Court pattern. Bro and Sis-in-Law took me out for a fabulous dinner (and bought me a cute tshirt!) and my Absolute BFF flew up to spend a few days with me. My birthday was experiential and it was fantastic.

The one thing I seem to be incapable of buying for myself is nice crafting supplies. I bought some nice yarn last month to make some winter necessities with. I was proud. Still, I can't bring myself to buy papers or fabrics that I really want. So, this year for Christmas, I'd like fabric. Or gift certificates for nice fabric stores so that I can buy some Sis Boom and Amy Butler fabrics. I miss sewing and I would like to make another quilt. I miss crafty Rachel Ann. Let's bring her back, shall we?

So, parents and Sis-in-Law, take this as my official gift post. I also welcome donations to Heifer Project International, recipe cards from Monogram Chick, and ebay/PayPal gift certificates so I can buy things like:

Arthur Court Trays
Arthur Court Chip and Dip Platters
Kate Spade Teapot
Kate Spade serving bowl
Kate Spade sugar bowl (I have the creamer and could really use the sugar!)
Kate Spade ornaments that match my pattern

Most of all though, I want to spend time with y'all. I miss everyone in NC a lot. I haven't seen my parents since June. It's been almost 6 months! I'm dying, y'all. I can obviously never get enough of those baby girls and I'm pretty much counting down the days until we get to eat tofu burritos with Princess and EC. The gift ideas are only if you want to give me something besides yourselves. I'm going to honest and say that if I've ever said "all I want for Christmas is to be with the people I love" that I was lying. Not that I would've been mad if that's all I received, but I still really wanted some things in all the previous years. I'm actually telling the truth this year. I just want to be with the people I love. I would live a great life without any more Kate Spade china, but I'm not sure how I'd fare without my family.

This sounds so fun!

AGH is hosting a recipe swap. If you sign up, you'll be responsible for sending out your favorite recipe one week. All of the other weeks, you'll receive another blogger's favorite recipe. So great! Head over to her blog and check it out!

I'm so excited to see the recipe cards everyone uses!

I had quite the excellent birthday this weekend. It was super low-key and fun and relaxing.

We scrubbed the apartment this weekend to help clear my mind. I ran errands on Saturday and we took a walk through one of my favorite neighborhoods with some holiday beverages to celebrate the day. It was absurdly beautiful on Saturday. That evening we had dinner with the local family at Antico Forno in the North End and it was delicious. I had a dish of fusilli with squash, eggplant, zucchini, roasted tomato sauce, goat cheese and basil. Mmmm....

Then we headed back to our place for Cheesecake Factory pumpkin cheesecake leftovers from my office birthday party on Friday. Our neighbors were less than pleased with the continuation of our party. Mr. Heckles beat on his ceiling (our floor) to get us to quiet down. Granted, our apartment was a lot noisier on Saturday night with the addition of two wide-open little girls, but it was 8:00 on a Saturday night! Give me a break, Mr. Heckles. It wasn't even late yet!

Yesterday we did typical Sunday stuff and I started a new knitting project, finished a book and spent most of the day with a cat in my lap.

My present my Nathan should be delivered today, so I can at least extend my birthday at least one more day!

Whenever I read about the tackiness of Hollywood movie stars, I always wonder what their parents are thinking when they hear about these shenanigans.

Whenever I read about the Olsen twins, I imagine Bob Saget as their disappointed father.

Am I the only one?

Confession time:

I love alone time. Love it, love it, love it. I love sleeping with the cat or reading or knitting or sipping tea and watching Friends alone. I love shopping alone (especially early mornings in the grocery store or at bookstores). I can spend lots of time by myself and can do most things alone (even go to the movies!).

I cannot, however, clean alone.

I really don't need anyone to help me clean, but rather I need someone to sit and talk to me while I clean. Occasionally, I can get away with watching Friends or The Office while I clean (other shows just don't work), but I usually need to have someone to be there. I've been this way since I was a little girl--I used to beg my parents to sit on my bed and talk to me while I cleaned my room. When I used to clean my room in my college apartment, I would keep the doors open and talk to my roommates. Now, I'm always trying to get Nathan to follow my around and talk to me.

The point of this? Nathan's been working some late nights this week and I've been all alone. This means I haven't been cleaning. My house is a wreck. I begged him this morning to please come home tonight so that our apartment can be sparkling before my birthday.

Are you a grown-up with everything you ever dreamed of when all you want for your birthday is a clean house and dinner with your family? This will be my first birthday ever without my parents and I'd be lying to you if I said I wasn't bummed out. They are flying up for Thanksgiving, but it's not quite the same, is it? Still, I'm having dinner with my local family members on Saturday and, hopefully, my house will be clean by then!

My house has seriously descended into squalor. Absolute BFF + sickness + sleepiness + general messiness = squalor. My house is disgusting.

Also, I have no clean laundry. Seriously--how did I get to this point?

The good news is that I'm cleaning tonight while watching Please Don't Eat the Daisies. Hoorah for Doris Day!

Then we might watch Get Smart. I doubt it, but hoorah for Steve Carell!

In other random news,

Laura--I did vote to ban dog racing and I'm glad it passed. Hoorah for no dog racing in MA!

Also, this weekend I purchased:

-Black turtleneck from H&M

-Black fleece pants from Old Navy (don't hate--they are so comfy post-gym)

-New black Fossil purse from Poor Little Rich Girl (fun Boston consignment shop)

-Black dress pants

-Trouser jeans

I'd say that was a productive shopping weekend.

I'm glad this election season is over. I bawled like a baby last night through both speeches. I love America. Seriously. Hoorah for America!

In other much less important news, I need answers to two questions:

1. What happens in next week's Hills preview? It wasn't online. Is Heidi really fired?

2. What's your opinion on big hair via hot rollers?