Galentines Day Par-Tay.

Like I previously mentioned, I was planning on hosting a Galentines Day Party. Well, I followed through! Some of my wonderful lady friends came over for a night of food, drinks, chocolate and gossip. Does it get any better than that?! I say not.

The most awkward part about this event was the purchasing that happened before hand. I neglected to get a cart at the store figuring that I wouldn’t be buying that much stuff… well, I was wrong. I looked like a crazy person. My basket filled quickly and I was hobbling around (very heavy considering it was filled with wine and champy), struggling to hold on to a festive balloon, all while carrying around a potted Valentine themed plant. It was a sight to see. I then tried to get in line… not a lot of luck. There was a lady with 15 foreign exchange students in front of me! They were all glancing at me (the crazy American chick trying to juggle a basket full of booze and a potted plant) while speaking to each other in Japanese. I am sure they were talking trash. I am still offended.

Anyway, the distress was completely worth it! Not only was EVERYTHING on sale, but we had a blast celebrating a late Valentine's Day together.

Allison made yummy smoked salmon cucumber boats! 

Mama Jo's famous chicken chili

Best and prettiest onion chopper ever! 

I hope you all had fab celebrations for love day! 

Getting ready for Galentines Day.

On Parks and Rec (many seasons ago) Leslie Knope celebrated Galantines Day with her lady friends. “It's like Lilith Fair, minus the angst… plus frittatas.”

So fun! I love my friends and I can’t think of anyone better to celebrate pink, red, glitter, flowers and chocolate with! I understand that this is supposed to be about love… as in a significant other. Well, I love pink champy! So there. And if that is really the case why is Hallmark set up with the décor of a deranged sorority girl’s dorm room? It is like Elle Woods came in and attacked the store with a confetti gun and tacky stuffed animals. Nothing against sorority girls (because I am one). That is why I want to benefit from all of this culturally accepted crazy and throw an awesome Galentines Day party for my lady friends.

I love pink champy!!!

Many of my friends will have real dates on Valentine's Day. So this party will probably happen on Wednesday the 15th. Perfect! that means all of the decorations and candy will be on sale! I will be the overly caffeinated psycho at Party City and Target clearing out the leftover items. If only I could channel Jenni and decorate creatively. But alas, I will have wonderfully tacky store bought décor and it will be awesome!

On a completely different note, I decided to buy myself some Valentine's Day gifts. Why? Because I am great, and loved… and decided that just because I am not dating anyone doesn’t mean I don’t deserve a treat!

I bought myself a cute Lululemon workout top.

And a travel case for my iPad.

Both slightly practical with a hint of frivolity… aka the perfect gift!

[Champy photo source]

Hello 2012!

Happy 2012! Isn't this year just too crazy already? It is for me. Cheer season is in full swing. My girls are awesome and I am excited to spend my Saturdays for the next month and a half watching them perform the crap out of their routine.

For the holiday weekend I went to Seattle to spend some awesome quality time with the friends of mine who have relocated north since graduating. I am like the Michelle Duggar of friends who move to Seattle. 4 and counting…

Seattle was fantastic per usual. We got glittery for NYE and watched the fireworks from Cameron’s balcony. She seriously has the BEST view of the space needle. It was AMAZING! The rest of the weekend was filled with drinking, eating, going on walks, hanging out, cuddling and then some more eating.

Lindsay and Caitlin were ready to ring in the new year!

Grandma's coat finally got some wear. 

Marina is sassy.

Check out the view from Cameron's Balcony! Amazing.

Crazy eyes? Maybe they were smizing like Tyra.

Cameron and Justin kill it on the dance floor. 

Back to the apt for fireworks!! 

Happy 2012!

No New Years kiss this year. Crossing my fingers for 2013! 

Mishmash moments: Christmas wrap.

Here is the Christmas wrap up from our household!

The Mish: 

The long weekend started with my lovely friends. We went to Peacock Lane and it was awesomely old school.

Driving down Peacock Lane. 

I have always wanted a tacky light up nativity scene. I am so jealous of these people!

The Mash: 

This Christmas was so surprising! I feel unbelievably spoiled. Yes, I received a Clarisonic! Woohoo! Get ready for good skin. Once the Clarisonic was opened I was ready for breakfast and figured Christmas was about done. Boy was I wrong. My parents threw a major curve ball and surprised us with iPads! I was seriously speechless. It was such an incredibly unexpected gift. I feel like I don’t deserve such a nice gift. Seeing how excited my dad was to set it up with me and the fun we had trying to figure it out was awesome. I understand why they do these things; it is just hard for me to accept sometimes. It has only been a few days and I am already wondering how I lived without it. Haha! Thanks Mom and Dad! 

Clearly I have quickly become obsessed with my iPad. Did you know that if you subscribe to a magazine, you automatically have access to the tablet version? I did not. I am rapidly filling all my iPad storage space with downloaded magazines. Since I started this blog, I was carting my giant laptop everywhere. The iPad will make things so much easier. I will obviously still mostly write on my Laptop, but posting and reading etc. will be so much easier now! Not to mention books. I currently have 2 books and a journal in my purse. Talk about shoulder relief! I am so excited to join the tablet reader community.

Major technology overload:

Macbook pro, iPad, iPhone, iPod. Ridiculous. Apparently I'm a Mac...

The Moments:

This Christmas was a little different. It was the first Christmas without a very beloved grandparent and my sister and brother-in-law out of town spending Christmas with his family (we did our Christmas morning a day early). My mom worked really hard to get all of our traditions in. I kept thanking my parents for such a special Christmas, because it really was. As my parents read this, I hope you know how fantastic it was!

Yet, there was a void. My Grandma Sue had a huge personality and she was greatly missed. Plus, we were down two more on the day of (without Lindsey and Brandon). I know that the holidays will keep changing; it was just extra weird to have two big changes in one year.

Regardless of the changes this year, we had an amazing Christmas weekend. I got to spend some great quality time with family and friends, the food was awesome and most importantly, we remembered the reason for the season... Happy Birthday to Jesus! 

It was a very love filled holiday at our house!

Crab dinner

Sorry for the crap iPhone photos. I resolve to use my real camera in 2012. I hope you had fab celebrations too!

Leavenworth or bust!

This past weekend I traveled north to Seattle to meet up with a few of my fav ladies and we went over to Leavenworth, WA. It was a Bavarian wonderland!

You may be wondering the same things I was: Why is it called Bavarian? It looks pretty dang German to me! What the H is Bavaria?

Well, let me tell you! It is a region of southeastern Germany. But from what I observed in Leavenworth’s version, there is also a little bit of Scandinavian tradition hanging around. I don’t know if my family is confused or if the Bavarian village is confused. Really, I just think the shops carry inventory to appeal to all travelers.

We had a delightful time. Gluwein, brats, fudge and lots of laughter, how can you go wrong!? Plus we were all bundled in our coziest winter attire.

Here are some photos of us being Bavarian this past weekend:

Such a cute little town! 

Father Christmas is not the same as Santa... and quite possibly cooler! He wears a wreath and has a satchel.  Pretty cool! 

Our poor friends. We are probably embarrassing to be with!

Have a great weekend everyone. Merry Christmas!!

Obligatory blog wish list.

Or should I say oBLOGatory!? TaHa!

Apparently in the blog world we are supposed to do a Christmas wish list. I am still pretty new to this blog thing, so my apologies for not being on my A game with the Christmas posts.

I don’t have a real wish list this year. Both things I want (numbers 1 and 2) are practical items that are simply out of my budget range. 

Here is my super cool Christmas wish list:

 1.) A Clarisonic!! Apparently this hot ticket item is skins new best friend. I thought moisturizer was skins BFF4L (best friend for life). But apparently there is a new popular kid in school, and that kid is the Clarisonic. I do believe that moisturizer is that life long friend, but I think the Clarisonic is going to be that friend who comes in and helps you grow for the better. Ridiculous that I just described skin products in terms of friendships…

2.) Make up brushes. I am just in need of some new ones. My collection is pretty good… but they are getting old and gross. I can honestly say that the last time I purchased a makeup brush was probably 4ish years ago. I clean them and stuff… but I have never actually bought a brush kit. It is all just a mish-mash of brushes collected over the years. I assume it is a crazy bacteria-fest.

3.) Starbucks card. For the caffeine consumption that occurs in my life.

Now for the ridiculous items:

4.) Cartier Love bracelet. I have been coveting this bracelet for many years. I like the traditional gold one. I don’t actually want it now. But I do have a hope that someday a super-fly guy (who loves me) will give me one. That is all. So I thought it could still go on the wish list. Okay, maybe the wish is for a super-fly guy.

5.) Harry Potter Snuggie!!!! This is a no brainer. Who doesn’t want a HP Snuggie that looks just like Griffindor robes?

Final wish (warning: this one is cheesy): 

Spending some good quality time with my hilarious family! 

Go tell it on the mountain! 

That is all my friends. I hope all of your Christmas wishes come true!

Still thankful.

Still thankful one week later. Here is my little T-giving post. Gobble gobble. 

This Thanksgiving was wonderful. I spent the entire day cooking with my mom. We have a blast in the kitchen together and this year felt extra special for some reason. Plus everything turned out great! Later the rest of the family arrived, including my grandparents and uncle from the Seattle area.

It was a wonderful dinner. I am so thankful for such a wonderful family. We genuinely like each other! That is not always the case with family. Well, mine rocks! And we sure like to eat! Haha

Here are some photos of the feast and festivities:

My mom's cute decor.

Taste testing. Look at Mama Jo! We must have liked it.

After a long day of cooking.

Bro (d-jenner) and Grandma

We named the turkey Hank. He was delish.

Listening to my 89 year old grandpa is amazing. He has great stories. 

Clean plates and my Grandma's lovely centerpiece. 

It isn't Thanksgiving if there aren't turkey cookies! 

Photo credit to my big sis Linds Jo.

So excited that tomorrow is Friday! 

Keep it real.

Founders and feathers! This is delicious!

Every Thanksgiving I make the pumpkin pie. My grandma has been trying to teach me how to make pie crust for a number of years but I still have not been able to master it. She can just feel when it is right! How does she do that?! On a few occasions she has tried to teach me, more often than not a some dough ended up down the disposal. So our solution is that she brings the pie crusts with her and I make the filling. It has been working out and our dessert is always a delicious team effort!

Over the years I have used multiple recipes and I started to combine them. Next year I will probably go back to a different method. But no matter what recipe you follow or whether you use heavy cream, half and half, whole milk or (cringe)…evaporated milk… (please don’t use evaporated milk), follow these additional directions and your pie will go from “great pie” to “holy founders and feathers! This is delicious!”

These are my two tips for a fabulous pumpkin pie.

1.) Spice it up!

I use a recipe from a cookbook, but I have written in the spices to use. I took them from my friend Tracy’s recipe.

From The Best Recipe cookbook (plus my notes)

Just replace your recipes spice directions with these!

For one 9” pie:

1 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp cardamom

¼ tsp lemon zest

½ tsp salt

2.) Process it!

Want really smooth pumpkin pie?! Toss your complete filling into the food processor. It will make it extra smooth and take out any left over "can taste" or lumps from the pumpkin filling. Then proceed to pour the processed filling into your blind-baked shell. Bake and Bon appétit! 

I know Thanksgiving already happened and that most of you aren't going to be making pumpkin pie. Just remember it for next year!

I will only be thankful if I can also have a feast.

Just kidding! We really need to practice giving thanks daily. I try… I really do!... even though I may not always succeed. It is easy to get a battitude (bad attitude) during the season of darkness here in the NW. You know… the darkness and rain that we will get for the next 9 months.

We have a ton to be thankful for and it is nice to get an annual reminder. We get to celebrate the pilgrims bringing smallpox and bland food to the Indians (who were totally fine with their maize btw). You know, to break bread before ultimately forcing them off of their land.

I love the true origin of thanksgiving (the Bible. dur). Fun fact: The pilgrims and other settlers regularly practiced gatherings and feasts of thanksgiving, thanking the Lord for their blessings.

Anne shared these wise words on her blog today and I love it! I think I will be putting this on my bulletin board at work:

I usually do the Thanksgiving feast twice. For the past few years my friends have been doing what we have lovingly coined “Kid Thanksgiving.” Most people call it Friendsgiving or something else of that sort. We called it Kid Thanksgiving in college and it just stuck. Deep down I think we still don’t want to admit that we are adults.

We all end up going home for the real Thanksgiving to celebrate with our families, but we love each other like family and want to celebrate together too! Our crowd is dwindling though… stupid friends keep moving to Seattle. Stupid Seattle taking all my friends like that! Rude.

We still had 7 people though. I consider that a nice full table. I have now officially made four turkeys in my life. I think I am getting the hang of it! I still remember that first turkey though, the excitement that it actually turned out and didn’t catch fire ala Tim Allen’s in The Santa Claus. There is always pure turkey joy and relief when it comes out of the oven intact.

My favorite Thanksgiving dish is green bean casserole. Probably because it is the worst one for you... 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!