Holiday Mush

I had a delicioso 5 days with my smoochie pie Matt. I am sure that he was glad to go back to work today after being my non-stop elf/diet coke fetcher. haha, BTW, I love that man : )

We had a fun Thanksgiving with family and friends and I kept my vow to not get stressed out. Last year half way through dinner I had to run the store for a pack of Lucky's. Well not really but that is what we say around here when we are stressed out to the point of running away. That reminds me, now that we have been married forever, I have taken to saying to Matt "remember that time" without actually referring to a time or event. I just let him go through his memory to find an applicable situation to relate to. I really am lazy.

After the house was empty Friday morning and all the dishes were done, we started putting up the tree. It is a fake. The reason: my house is surrounded by real pines and I don't need a fire hazard in my house. Besides, I like to over accessorize my tree and you can't put up nearly as much crap on a real tree.

If you have a fake tree, I highly recommend this candle.

mandatory cute dog photo (cant help it)

 We left the bottom 2 feet off our 12 foot Christmas tree this year. Am I starting to exercise restraint in my life?

I love going through all the sentimental crap.

Matt and I were married by Elvis. This ornament was from our first year together.

Matt's baby shoes.

Chase's baby shoes

Uh, mom, why did you not save my baby shoes? I had them right?

One of Chase's ornaments from childhood (this one is from 1996)

Chase's childhood Christmas books. I swear I get teary eyed taking these things out of boxes every year!

Normally my friend Elizabeth comes over and helps me with my tree. This year she decided to be a meanie and go to California for the winter. Despite this unfortunate turn of events, Matt and I were able to finish in a record 6 hours (though I have to say Elizabeth is never the drill seargent that Matt was. holy dictator batman!)

Just some of the many, many, many decorations I have collected over the years. 

last year we had a party and I did not have any mistletoe, so I made this banner instead (lol).

I will spare you the bathroom and other details : )

oh and I finally purged the nativity scene and crosses from my life. I am too damn old to fake my beliefs (but I will always believe in Santa Claus).

In other holiday news, Chase went shopping on Black Friday and brought me home this as an early Christmas present.

YAY FOR ME!!!

So that meant on Saturday and Sunday, I baked with the help of my new toy.

Sunday after we took the dogs for a wintry walk, we did a puzzle (or part of one).

Lori's Diet Log Sunday November 28, 2010

4 cups of coffee

3 small cinnamon rolls !

2 diet cokes

1/2 loaf fresh baked bread !

3 coors lights

Cheers!

Holiday Mush

I had a delicioso 5 days with my smoochie pie Matt. I am sure that he was glad to go back to work today after being my non-stop elf/diet coke fetcher. haha, BTW, I love that man : )

We had a fun Thanksgiving with family and friends and I kept my vow to not get stressed out. Last year half way through dinner I had to run the store for a pack of Lucky's. Well not really but that is what we say around here when we are stressed out to the point of running away. That reminds me, now that we have been married forever, I have taken to saying to Matt "remember that time" without actually referring to a time or event. I just let him go through his memory to find an applicable situation to relate to. I really am lazy.

After the house was empty Friday morning and all the dishes were done, we started putting up the tree. It is a fake. The reason: my house is surrounded by real pines and I don't need a fire hazard in my house. Besides, I like to over accessorize my tree and you can't put up nearly as much crap on a real tree.

If you have a fake tree, I highly recommend this candle.

mandatory cute dog photo (cant help it)

 We left the bottom 2 feet off our 12 foot Christmas tree this year. Am I starting to exercise restraint in my life?

I love going through all the sentimental crap.

Matt and I were married by Elvis. This ornament was from our first year together.

Matt's baby shoes.

Chase's baby shoes

Uh, mom, why did you not save my baby shoes? I had them right?

One of Chase's ornaments from childhood (this one is from 1996)

Chase's childhood Christmas books. I swear I get teary eyed taking these things out of boxes every year!

Normally my friend Elizabeth comes over and helps me with my tree. This year she decided to be a meanie and go to California for the winter. Despite this unfortunate turn of events, Matt and I were able to finish in a record 6 hours (though I have to say Elizabeth is never the drill seargent that Matt was. holy dictator batman!)

Just some of the many, many, many decorations I have collected over the years. 

last year we had a party and I did not have any mistletoe, so I made this banner instead (lol).

I will spare you the bathroom and other details : )

oh and I finally purged the nativity scene and crosses from my life. I am too damn old to fake my beliefs (but I will always believe in Santa Claus).

In other holiday news, Chase went shopping on Black Friday and brought me home this as an early Christmas present.

YAY FOR ME!!!

So that meant on Saturday and Sunday, I baked with the help of my new toy.

Sunday after we took the dogs for a wintry walk, we did a puzzle (or part of one).

Lori's Diet Log Sunday November 28, 2010

4 cups of coffee

3 small cinnamon rolls !

2 diet cokes

1/2 loaf fresh baked bread !

3 coors lights

Cheers!

Dragons and Dulce de Leche

Yesterday was that time again.

Bookclub.

And this month it was my turn to host.

If you have ever been to my house, you know I am a huge fan of the bundt cake. I make one on for pretty much every occasion. I actually feel sad if there is not a bundt cake sitting all pretty on my counter. It is like I am stuck in 1974 and refuse to leave.

As expected, I made a bookclub bundt. I thought I would try the wonderful fall flavor of butter pecan.

I also thought a good complement to butter pecan would be Ben and Jerry's new flavor called Dulce Delish. While I don't approve of the term "delish" (due to Rachel Raytard using it every third word), the ice cream is highly recommended.

I am going to have to talk to Ben and Jerry about the little name situation. BTW, if you say "delish" "EVOO" or "Groovy" we cannot be friends.


Oh and hey, do they give Nobel prizes for food?  If they do, I nominate Ben and Jerry for this genius flavor:

Go to the store and buy some right now.I will wait right here.

Okay, you back?? On to the bookclub and book review.

The book we read was the Swedish book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

Here is a picture of my niece, Tara, reading the book (that I stole off her blog).

(I sure hope she doesn't sue me).

BTW, Tara is not in my bookclub, but she does like to read.

While I am the fool that selected the tattoo book over a month ago, I farted around and did not start reading it until Monday at 10PM.  Uhm, I did not know it was 600 pages long and that half the words are Swedish things that I am clueless about. Oh and excuse me. It is a very violent and graphic book.   (Sidenote: I just thought of something. Isn't the bundt pan a Swedish thing?  Oh I bet those bookclub girls think I am super clever. HA!).

Ok. Enough about me, on to the book:

Attention Swedish publishing people.  Guess what?  I don't know the value of a kronor. For example, when I read this paragraph, I am confused:

       

   "At 9:30 she had breakfast in the hotel bar: two cups of coffee and a bagel with jam. The cost was 210 kroner. Are these people soft in the head?"

For all I know 210 kronor could be worth seven cents or it could be worth 54,311 dollars.  This is America. Put things in terms I can understand. I am on strict reading deadline and I don't have time to google currency converters.

Then there were lines like this one at the beginning of the book.

    "Three months in goal and 150,000 kronor damages. That's pretty severe." 

Oh, I see how it is going to be. An "English" translation, eh?  Again this America, I am pretty sure we say "jail."

And the money thing. Sooooo  irritating.

One of our bookclub members, Jane is from England and I tried to convince her that she needed to be in charge due the "English" translation, but she claimed that she was confused by a lot of the terms. I tried to argue that as a native European she needed to take full responsibility for the situation-- but shockingly, that logic did not really go anywhere.

On a positive note, I do like the idea of tattooing people with "warning labels" when they are mean to me.

Remember that time when Matt was super bossy and wouldn't let me watch the second half hour of Sister Wives because he wanted to watch Eastbound and Down?  That was so rude. How cool would it have been if I would have thought of handcuffing him to the coffee table and tattooing "GREEDY" right on his ass.   I bet he would let me watch whatever I wanted if I would have done that.

Well, that is my review. If coherency is your thing and you don't like my review check out Tara's.

Dragons and Dulce de Leche

Yesterday was that time again.

Bookclub.

And this month it was my turn to host.

If you have ever been to my house, you know I am a huge fan of the bundt cake. I make one on for pretty much every occasion. I actually feel sad if there is not a bundt cake sitting all pretty on my counter. It is like I am stuck in 1974 and refuse to leave.

As expected, I made a bookclub bundt. I thought I would try the wonderful fall flavor of butter pecan.

I also thought a good complement to butter pecan would be Ben and Jerry's new flavor called Dulce Delish. While I don't approve of the term "delish" (due to Rachel Raytard using it every third word), the ice cream is highly recommended.

I am going to have to talk to Ben and Jerry about the little name situation. BTW, if you say "delish" "EVOO" or "Groovy" we cannot be friends.


Oh and hey, do they give Nobel prizes for food?  If they do, I nominate Ben and Jerry for this genius flavor:

Go to the store and buy some right now.I will wait right here.

Okay, you back?? On to the bookclub and book review.

The book we read was the Swedish book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo."

Here is a picture of my niece, Tara, reading the book (that I stole off her blog).

(I sure hope she doesn't sue me).

BTW, Tara is not in my bookclub, but she does like to read.

While I am the fool that selected the tattoo book over a month ago, I farted around and did not start reading it until Monday at 10PM.  Uhm, I did not know it was 600 pages long and that half the words are Swedish things that I am clueless about. Oh and excuse me. It is a very violent and graphic book.   (Sidenote: I just thought of something. Isn't the bundt pan a Swedish thing?  Oh I bet those bookclub girls think I am super clever. HA!).

Ok. Enough about me, on to the book:

Attention Swedish publishing people.  Guess what?  I don't know the value of a kronor. For example, when I read this paragraph, I am confused:

       

   "At 9:30 she had breakfast in the hotel bar: two cups of coffee and a bagel with jam. The cost was 210 kroner. Are these people soft in the head?"

For all I know 210 kronor could be worth seven cents or it could be worth 54,311 dollars.  This is America. Put things in terms I can understand. I am on strict reading deadline and I don't have time to google currency converters.

Then there were lines like this one at the beginning of the book.

    "Three months in goal and 150,000 kronor damages. That's pretty severe." 

Oh, I see how it is going to be. An "English" translation, eh?  Again this America, I am pretty sure we say "jail."

And the money thing. Sooooo  irritating.

One of our bookclub members, Jane is from England and I tried to convince her that she needed to be in charge due the "English" translation, but she claimed that she was confused by a lot of the terms. I tried to argue that as a native European she needed to take full responsibility for the situation-- but shockingly, that logic did not really go anywhere.

On a positive note, I do like the idea of tattooing people with "warning labels" when they are mean to me.

Remember that time when Matt was super bossy and wouldn't let me watch the second half hour of Sister Wives because he wanted to watch Eastbound and Down?  That was so rude. How cool would it have been if I would have thought of handcuffing him to the coffee table and tattooing "GREEDY" right on his ass.   I bet he would let me watch whatever I wanted if I would have done that.

Well, that is my review. If coherency is your thing and you don't like my review check out Tara's.

Sign Sign everywhere a sign. (Blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind ..).

SATURDAY:

We took the dogs on the Salt Lick Trail in Eagle's Nest Wilderness area.

Georgous.

Do you remember those movies from the 70's where that family gets fed up with city life and moves to the middle of nowhere to get away from The Man and all his trappings?

Yeah,  I loved those movies and fantasized about living such a life.

I am making my dream a reality right?

HAHAHAHA!!

In reality, The Man won't let you enjoy the freakin wildnerness!!!

Here are some signs from our little outing.

The Man is even trying to keep the wildlife down.

LOL!  Keep it calm Mr. Moose. You best behave in the national wilderness. Who do you think you are?? Don''t you know about 36 CFR 261? Don't make me call The Man.

****************************************************


SUNDAY:

Fall rituals are in full swing:

Out come the pumpkins:

Semi-Homemade Green Chili.

(Too lazy to roast the chilis this year so I cheated with these guys from the freezer section)

Semi-round tortillas.

It is all bueno. 

(Chase and I made the chili-- guess who cleaned up?)

Double dipping (on sports watching).

GO ROCKIES!!!

GO BRONCOS!!!



Did you notice the bear? 
Matt shot that bear when he was 13.   The first week after we were married and we got moved into our house, Matt's parents loaded that bear up and brought it straight over.
(I guess they were tired of that guy in their basement for 25 years).

I think he is cute.  
(And don't you know he will be sporting a Santa hat here in a couple of months).   

Hope you are having a great fall weekend.