Tuesday, December 29, 2009

The end of the 200-'s

My Christmas was lovely, filled with all sorts of family, friends, and fun. I've been baking quite a bit (more crackers, marshmallows, graham crackers, brownies....you get the idea!) and to add fuel to the fire, Chris bought me THREE cookbooks for Christmas! Not little wimpy cookbooks, either. He gave me both volumes of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child (after watching Julie/Julia with me I think he wants me to cook through the entire book like she did!) and "Joy of Cooking," as well as an Alton Brown-esque book about the science behind cooking. I suppose that's four books! I better get back in the kitchen! :)

Anyway, we spent time with both families, got a good bit of snow in Indy (that somehow made me nostalgic for Colorado!) and just have had a relaxing time. Chris got a bunch of new video games, so he has been ignoring me and I've been playing in the kitchen. Everything is working out perfectly! We also saw Avatar in 3D (which is the only way to see it, really!)...the storyline was OK but the graphics were unbelievable! If you need to borrow some 3D glasses I have a couple spare pairs lying around, too.

My latest concoctions (as in today) have been graham crackers and olive oil crackers. Freakin' yum is all I have to say. and I wish I could make my food photography as pretty as theirs! I also wish I could have a digital converter on MY computer so I didn't have to pass everything through Chris (he is busy playing Wii, I can't bother him right now!)... Oh well!

Oh, and I also made homemade marshmallows. Did I tell you that? Because I used them to make baby smores tonight...and they were unbelievably good. I promise, they weren't that hard and definitely not as messy as I thought (they were a little messy, but they're marshmallows, what do you expect?!)

My dear friend Amanda (who lives in Peru!!!) came by tonight since she's in town for the holidays. It was great to hang out with her AND I'm super lucky because she is coming back tomorrow! I'm going to make her some delicious "America" food and also have our friends over, Jessica and Matthew. I've planned a menu that I hope to be AMAZING...we'll see if it's picture-worthy tomorrow night!

On a sadder note, my poor puppy dog is very sick. Prancer is 11 years old now (which is old in boxer years!) and has heart failure. We almost lost her on Thanksgiving but she got a bit better, but has gotten sick again, and isn't eating much at all. It's heartbreaking - I've never lost a dog before (my only past pets have included several goldfish that lived for excessive periods of time, and a creepy chameleon, but nothing furry, happy and loveable like my little Prancer). It breaks my heart to see her sick and know that she has no idea why. I'm not dealing with it as well as I would like, but I suppose it's the circle of life and we have to just cherish every moment we get with everyone, and everything.

I'm still trying to figure out new years resolutions. I think I should write an entire post on all the workout DVDs I've watched (thanks, Netflix!) since I'm pretty much an expert in that arena and it seems like everyone always wants to get healthy in the new year. I am more for choosing resolutions I think I can keep instead of something vague/crazy. Maybe it will be to eat less flour (I seriously ate like 3 cups of flour in 2 days the first time I made crackers - oops!), or maybe something better. Hopefully I can come up with something cooler, since this is the last 6 months of my life that I will have no real job. I need to make the most of it!

Enjoy the rest of 2009!!

PS-I donated my hair on Christmas Eve! Photos to come!!

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