Happy Friggin' New Year.

Okay, I am going to vent here for a little...

Last year we had a NYE party at the house. This year a few people asked us if we were doing the same this year, because they had fun. So we thought, okay, we will have another party this year. Sent out the Evite on December 1st so that we could get it out there. Well guess what, we just canceled becasue NO ONE is coming. Johns parents and bro are the only ones that replied yes. I am so annoyed right now. More than you can imagine. People always wait to see what else will come up. I wish me and John planned to go away somewhere or something. I wish I was on a beach with a drink in my hand.

Sometimes I really hate vermont and wish I didn't live here. Its not because I don't like it here. I miss my family and friends back home so much. I don't have good friends up here. It gets really lonely. There is no one to call and go grab coffee with or get a mani/pedi with. I was just home for a few days and did not want to come back, except to see John and Piper. Saturday night Jeff and Krissy came over to my parents and we had dinner and just hung out and chatted, which was great. Miss them so much. Sunday Mom and I ran errands and then I went over to Lauren and Bens that evening. Lauren and I had about 12 hours together while I was home and that 12 hours was the most quality fun I had had in a long time. We went and got mani's and pedi's. Went shopping, went out to dinner with her husband and my parents. Monday, ran more errands, visited with my friend Missy and her daughter, who is 1 1/2 years old. So good to catch up. Hung out with Dad and then cooked tacos for dinner with him. Tuesday, got up early, hung out with dad. Visited with friends from Subway and then back up to VT.

Wish I was still in CT. Can't wait for San Fran to see Heather in a few weeks and have some good, quality girlfriend time :)

Sorry for the negative email, but I am just really annoyed right now..........NO MORE PARTIES at our place. Not after this. People always want us to have parties and then they don't come. Tough shit now.

Christmas

Well, I am back. Been trying to stay off the computer for the week, which is very nice.
Our Christmas was pretty hectic. Here is the quick rundown:
Dec.17th-Jules and the kids arrive in VT
Dec. 18th-I went up to Johns parents to hang with everyone and build a gingerbread house with Maisie (see previous post)

Dec. 19th-Last day at work for 2008. Johns bro Chris arrives at midnight.
Dec. 2oth-Johns parents Christmas Party. Chaz (Johns dad) sung a bunch with the bad. He has a great voice.





Dec. 21st-Curren's baptism and then everyone over at our house for the day. SNOWSTORM!






Dec. 22nd-Christmas Shopping. Mexican Dinner. Johns bro and sister-in-law brought their opare with them to VT to help out with the kids as well as show her to VT. She is from Mexico and is a PHENOMINAL cook. She wanted to cook us all dinner. They all came over to our place for the night. Carla made a hominy soup (corn) with pork and hot sauce. SOOO GOOD. Second course was beef burittos, again, amazing. Third was chicken in green mole sauce, AMAZING. Wish we could eat like that all the time :)


Dec. 23rd-Christmas dinner.



Dec. 24th-Santa came!! Presents in the AM. and then leftovers for lunch and dinner. YUMMY!
Alos, lots of drinking. The west coast fam's last day in VT













Dec. 25th- Up at 4am to bring everyone to the airport in Montreal. Breakfast. Watch The Christmas Story. Nap. Go to the movies.
...Until next year!

Hope everyone had a great holiday.

Merry Christmas...

Hello everyone.Well, we celebrated Christmas all week it has felt like. Johns bro from Cali and his family were here, so we have been busy busy. We had our Christmas dinner on Tuesday night and then Santa came and we opened gifts on Christmas Eve morning. They left early this morning, left the house at 4am! Today John and I are just hanging out and then going to the movies later today.I have lots of photos to post, but too tired right now. Between the last 4 days we have drank more than I can remember. Is it not normal to go through a bottle of vodka a night, and 5 bottles of wine?!?!?

no more work in 2008

WooHoo!! I am done for the year. We are open next week on Monday and Tuesday, but I took the days off.

YAHOO!!!!

Happy Holidays everyone.

Gingerbread House

Maisie and I made a Gingerbread house on Thursday night (this one was super easy, bought it at Trader Joe's for $7.99).



Smile Maisie!


Goodnight Curren.

...I will stick to Baking.

Here is my Christmas tree cake that I made Wednesday night.

The Cake Pan


The naked cake


A Frosted Christmas Tree cake



And finally the decorated cake.
I forgot to buy multi-colored sprinkles, which I was going to use for the "lights", so instead I had to settle for "cranberry" garland.

An Attempt to Make a Wreath

In the attempt to save some money, I decided i was going to make my own wreath out of the "scraps" from our Christmas tree. I was much harder than expected.

Here is what I was shooting for (granted some set designer probably had 2 months to make these wreaths):



Here is what it looks like (after an hour and a half of work):
Don't think I will be hired at Martha Stewart anytime soon.

PATHETIC!

A Beautiful Sunset

Reminising about the HS years...

I went to the Academy of our Lady of Mercy, Lauralton Hall for high school. It is an all girls, Catholic, college prep school. I loved high school and most of my best friends are from there. I was just thinking about it, for some reason. Thought I would share some photos of the campus.


The Stone pillar at the entrance


Front of the main building


The Chapel


Stained Glass windows above the altar


The chapel looking out from the altar


The Mansion


The staircase in the mansion


Christmas in the Mansion
"Christmas in the Mansion, Lauralton Hall’s annual signature event, will celebrate its 19th year in December 2008. Held every year since 1990, Christmas in the Mansion is an elegant and premier "showcase of the season" that provides a special opportunity to visit Lauralton Hall’s beautiful thirty acre campus, shop, sample gourmet fare and admire the grand architectural features of the school’s 1864 Victorian Gothic mansion, the ideal backdrop for this spectacular holiday extravaganza. The tradition of Christmas in the Mansion is known as "the" event which heralds in the season in both New Haven and Fairfield counties. It has twice been nominated as one of the top 100 events in the nation and attracts thousands of guests annually."

Piper dog in the snow

Getting the tree

Here are a few pictures I took when getting our tree.
The tree farm. They had no bad trees. You could walk around fro 5 seconds for 5 hours and still come out with a great tree. And every single one of them is $30.


Decisions Decisions


This is the one that made it home with us. The boys putting it up. I hate this part.


Lights on, ornaments hung.

Cookie Party

Every year one of the girls I work with has a cookie decorating party. She bakes a bunch of cookies and then all the girls go over and snack on yummy hors d'oeuvres, drinks lots of wine and decorate cookies.

Here are two of mine, I ate my gingerbread man and gave away my Christmas tree.

Winter Wonderland

It started snowing at 8pm last night and then snowed almost all night I think. It just started snowing again...10 inches and going. Should have gone to the mtn. this morning....damn last minute client call...UGH!


Our backyard...the pool is almost covered



Looking out from the front door.

Waiting for the snow...

We are supposed to get dumped on tonight and tomorrow.
Up to a foot of snow. That means I can go skiing in the morning and come to work late :)
That's the rule here at work, if it snows at least 12 inches at the mountain overnight you can go skiing/riding in the AM and then come to work by noon. You are supposed to stay late to make up the time, but that never happens.

It's going to be a White Christmas after all!

This picture was taken December 15th, 2007. Almost exactly a year ago. Looks like it may be looking similar on December 15th, 2008.

Tonight

I am going to be a baking maniac. We have so much going on this week and I need to get some baking done, since I havent done anything!!

Here is the list for tonight:
-Toffee Squares (2 batches maybe)
-Chocolate covered pretzels
-Peppermint Marshmallows (for hot chocolate)

Thats all after I go grocery shopping for everything and make dinner. Thank goodness I went to the gym at lunch.

Wish me luck.

Christmas Tree Cupcakes

So, this weekend I am going to make an attempt at these...

I will let you know how it goes.

Making my own Wrapping Paper

So a few weeks ago I went to Lowe's with Lauren and Jeff and we found this huge roll of brown paper. We looked at it and though, wow, this could be cool to make our own wrapping paper, and much cheaper. It was $9.99 and it will probably last me two years. Afterwards I went to the craft store and bought a few holiday stamps and some ink, which were all on sale, and I will stamp some of the paper for Christmas. A pretty cheap and creative way to save money.
Now I don't have to buy wrapping paper for a while.

BBRRRRRR....

It is COLD out today. Yesterday it snowed all day. Last night the temps dropped, big time.
When I was driving to work it was 1 degree below zero...YUCK! That's a little to cold for me. Plus with all of the snow and ice on the roads, it made for a crappy drive to work. It is now 10.30 am and the temps are above zero! Woohoo! Its a warm 4 degrees outside. The crazy thing about the weather in VT is that it is always all over the map. People always say, if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes, and it will be totally different. With that said, look at the forecast for this week...


We go from a high of 15 today to a high of 56 on Wednesday and then back down to 22 on Thursday. No wonder Vermonsters are obsessed with the weather.

Christmas Tree Time

We are going to cut down our Christmas trees this weekend. Yes, that's right, plural. One for upstairs and one downstairs. The trees in VT are super cheap, $25, no matter what the size!!

I can't beleive...

...i forgot the best one! !

My favorite Christmas Movies

...in to particular order of course.






And I am sure I will remember tons of other ones that I love!