To a Great New Year.

Are you ready for the New Year? I certainly am! Except for the fact that "9" is one of my least favorite numbers to write. I also have writing the number 5. 2, 4 and 7 are by far my favorite ones to scribble. WEIRD- I just noticed that those #s are the only ones that have acute angles in them. Must be a geometry thing. That was the only math I ever understood, so I guess I'm just partial to those numbers since they have something remotely cool about them.

Anyway, I have a big announcement to make tomorrow. No babies on the way, so it's not that. I would say it today but I feel like tomorrow would be more fitting, since it's a fresh start and all.


For now I have to go pick up Chinese food for Joe and his co-workers. After that is grocery shopping and then off to exchange some Christmas gifts. Hope all is well, longer post tomorrow.

Tagged

Erin from Design for Mankind tagged all of her readers.

So here we go!

Name five “unimportant” things that make me happy!:

1. real maple syrup (made in wisconsin, of course!)
2. great beer (yes dad, our beer costs 2-3 times as much as yours but tastes 10 times better!)
3. knee high socks (sock dreams, i will be visiting soon.)
4. good design (can't get enough of this.)
5. IKEA plant pots (they are so cool!)

My brother is visiting right now. Today we are going to go shopping after I pick up my paycheck. I desperately need new jeans! Wish me luck on that venture, I can never find jeans that I like...unless they have a $140 price tag on them, then they seem to fit great! Damn it.

Shona and Sia, tag you're it!

I'm Still Here

Last year around this time I told you I'd show you our handmade Christmas tree. And I never did, mainly because I wasn't impressed with the results since we were so tight on time.

Well, since we didn't have to focus on moving this year like we did last year, I was able to make a new tree.

7 hours of measuring, poking, and stringing later, we have a tree.

I wanted a sparkly pink tree and I was able to find the perfect yarn.
There is some silver in there too...I would have loved it to be solid pink, but Joe wanted silver too so I said okay. I should add that he wanted blue as well and I cringed at the god-awful sight I envisioned. When he held the 3 colors together and asked if they went together I said "yeah...very americana-like..."
Luckily that made him put the blue down without me having to blatantly say "you're kidding, right?"

So anyway, here is Rose, in all her homely glory:

We put her by the window so she could see her pine tree friends outside.

{closeup}

Anyway, what's new with you???
It's been forever, again, I know

I'm working an almost full time job now and I'm on the computer and the phone all day long, simutaneously, so the last thing I want to do when I get home is get on the computer and correspond with people. Not that I don't like you guys. But I don't even email my best friend as much as I used to, which was up to 4 times a day. Now it's about once or twice a week.

Hope you had a good Thanksgiving.
What did you do with your leftovers?
We made this awesome soup, although I don't have any photos:

Turkey Tortilla Soup
1 can chicken broth
1 can green enchilada sauce
1 can red enchilada sauce
leftover turkey, ripped into small pieces
1-2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 partial can of corn
2 roma tomatoes, chopped
1 jalepeno, seeded and minced
3/4 cup half and half
Garnish:
shredded cheddar
sour cream
hot sauce
avocado
broken tortilla chips (the good kind, not tostitos!)

Basically you just mix everything together, adding the half and half a bit later, and heat thoroughly.
Next time I'm going to add black beans and onions.
I don't know what size cans the chicken broth/enchilada sauce were, but they were all similar sizes. Maybe just over a cup each?
Made about 5 servings.

I'm definitely going to use leftover chicken in this recipe as well since it's not every day that I just make a turkey.

Okay well work starts at 6:30 am and it's almost 11. I need sleep!
Hope all is well!