The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Sunday morning, Chris and I celebrated our Christmas together. Since I leave to go home Thursday, it was our last weekend morning together before the actual holiday. 

We woke up and made our Christmas breakfast of muffins, bacon and hot chocolate, and then settled down to open our presents. 

                                                          Eggnog muffins for Xmas morning

First, Chris opened his present from my fam, a sweater which he loved and wore later that day (looked great and fit him perfect). 

Then, it was my turn to open his present from me. As I'm wont to do, I'd been trying to guess what it was since he put it under the tree. The box most closely resembled a shoe box, but I had a hard time believing that he would buy me shoes. As I started to unwrap, Chris told me that there was an explanation that went along with the present. As a veteran of my family, I am used to this, as our presents tend to come in the form of card with picture/poem, and an explanation of why the object isn't actually there in physical form/when it will be coming.

So, when I opened Chris's box to reveal a can of bike lubricant, I immediately feared that he was getting me a bike. This seemed unlikely since I don't ride bikes and don't like bikes, and have mentioned this several times. Still, I didn't know what else to think. 

Until Chris went to the closet and pulled out a much larger box, which I came to understand was actually my present. The bike lubricant was completed unrelated, and the shoe-sized box was just a diversion. He didn't want to put the real box under the tree and thus give me time to guess what it was. 

So, with joy and relief, I began to unwrap my actual present. There are no words for how surprised I was or how much I love it. The pictures will have to speak for themselves, but let me just say: much better than bike lubricant. Or a bike for that matter. 

                Glamor shots of my wonderful Christmas present from the wonderful boy I live with.

Then Chris opened his present from me, which was a nice pair of dark jeans to wear to work and go with his sweater and new grown-up persona. After gift-giving, we watched Love Actually, to further deepen our Christmas spirit. 

Leaving the mess behind, we eventually changed out of our pajamas and went to his mom's house, where we were having a little family party to celebrate Chris's birthday. I also used it as an opportunity to give his family my Christmas gifts to them, and received their gifts to me: a great, big L.L. Bean bag from Margaret, inside of which was a smaller cosmetic bag, inside of which was a cute headband. From Stephanie I got a manicure kit with two nail polishes, which will come hugely in handy, as I repaint my nails about twice a week. 

From there, we headed to his dad's house for his Christmas party. Starved by that point, we spent the first twenty minutes being anti-social and stuffing our faces, but eventually joined the party-goers to participate in actual conversation.

When we finally got home, we changed back into our pajamas, made ourselves a little Christmas drink, and stared at the mess in our living room without making any attempt whatsoever to clean it up. 

                                              The remains of Christmas. We'll clean up later!

A very merry Christmas indeed.

Reunited (it'll feel so good)

Well, the weekend is almost here (hooray!).

For my part, I am eagerly anticipating the arrival of my three dear girlfriends from New Orleans, who are arriving Saturday evening to decompress from their finals, and visit the boy and I.  I have not seen Alexa and Sara since May, and I have not seen Hannah for almost a year! So, it will be a very happy reunion.

As far as I'm concerned, a huge chunk of the agenda is watching Sex and the City DVDs, and continuing the (several) vigorous conversations we've all had about which one of us is which one of them. Chris, as you could imagine, is very excited.

Have a good weekend!

Merry Christmakkah...

This weekend, the celebrations began. On Friday, Chris and I hosted friends Caitlin and Steven, as well as Chris's mom and sister, for a Hanukkah dinner. Being the first time I had undertaken a Jewish meal of such magnitude, I planned it down to the wire, and it actually came out pretty ok. 

Our menu included: brisket (many thanks to Barbara Brown for the easy and delicious recipe), latkes (many thanks to Chris for peeling all the potatoes), applesauce (again, many thanks to Chris for peeling all of the apples), and kugel, which I made using my grandmother's recipe, which had to be verified and edited several times. But which was extremely delicious. 

In an effort to time everything precisely, I made the brisket Thursday night, where it tortured us by smelling delicious for three hours in the oven. We also did the apples on Thursday, by which I mean Chris did the hard part by peeling them all, and I helped him slice them. 

When we got home from work on Friday we went, well, straight to work putting the rest of the meal together. I mapped out my burners and set the applesauce on the left back burner. Meanwhile, Chris peeled potatoes. The water for the kugel noodles went on the front right burner, and while it boiled, I changed and got ready. Meanwhile, Chris peeled potatoes. I then added the noodles and tended to the applesauce, while, you guessed it, Chris peeled potatoes. When the noodles were done, I put the rest of the kugel together and stuck it in the oven. Chris, bored (and finished) with peeling potatoes, began, instead, to grate them. A hard-working goyim!

The brisket reheating in its yummy juices and the applesauce doing its thing, it came time to face the latkes. I had grated the onions and Chris had drained everything, so when the oil was heated, it was time to fry. Chris entertained our guests, and, in between sips of red wine, our potato pancakes got made. 

Rather than simply allowing everyone to eat as soon as dinner was ready, we all gathered in the living room to light the candles. When that was done, I figured I had denied my guests long enough, so we all crowded around the dining room table to eat and eat and eat. Chris's mom gave us wine glasses as our Hanukkah present, which were immediately put to use. Suffice it to say, we were very full and satisfied. 

                                            From left to right: applesauce, brisket, latkes. Yum.

                                                                         Full up!                                                          

                                                     Opening our Hanukkah presents!                                                 

 

Lovely. Will go to good use.  

On Saturday, Chris and I woke up and headed downtown to run the Jingle Bell 5K. It's a race to benefit arthritis, and included with your number, you get two jingle bells to pin on your shirt or tie on your shoelaces. The effect, as you might guess, is a very noisy race that jingles along for three miles. The weather was gorgeous, though, and we had a lot of fun. I'm a bit out of shape, but, as one of the basketball players holding signs up along the route said, "Santa will know if you walk." So, we ran it out.

After leftover brisket for lunch, we switched into Christmas mode, and headed out to buy wrapping paper, a few ornaments, and our Christmas tree. More so than paying rent, having my own Christmas tree makes me feel very grown up. Saturday night we stayed in, ate pizza, watched a movie, and decorated. 

                                                          Christmas tree in the living room. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmakkah!

Gobble Gobble

Taking a short break from Living With a Boy to go home for Thanksgiving! Half day of work, two flights, and then I'm there!

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

DIY

Last weekend, in a burst of energy (and/or guilt at having done nothing else productive the entire weekend) I re-covered our dining room chairs. 

We got the chairs from Chris's dad and stepmom, who had them in their attic, and though they are nice chairs and the perfect height for our table, their cushions, shall we say, were not exactly my style. 

I meant to re-cover them two months ago, when I bought the fabric to do such a thing, but of course never managed to get around to it. With the rest of our house in entirely livable condition, it gets harder and harder to worry about the tiny little details. 

But, as I said, I'd spent the rest of the weekend flopping around the house, watching the Harry Potter marathon on ABC family, and the weekly Sunday marathon of Law and Order: SVU. So, I determined to do something worthwhile. 

It's sort of amazing the difference it made. All of a sudden, we had our chairs, not just chairs that we had gotten from Chris's dad (though of course we are eternally grateful for the loan). I am quite possibly the least artsy person on the planet, and I generally have to have pages of detailed instructions for even the most basic DIY project. Occasionally, though, I have bursts of handiness, and one hit me on Sunday at just the right time.

And, as is to be expected, with the completion of that project, there are suddenly dozens more that I want to undertake. I want to hang more pictures, clean more surfaces, and start brainstorming our holiday decorations. The boy I'm living with is, happily, game, and in fact has already bought our Christmas lights. Rest assured; we won't be putting them up until after Thanksgiving. We have standards. 

Speaking of Thanksgiving, I am six and a half (including one press day) days away from being home for the holiday! Besides seeing the fam (holler), I am most excited to eat stuffing, see how our den looks without a carpet, spend time with Polly (who is hopefully planning for this as well) and see the dog. In no particular order.

Halloween Wrap-Up

This post is a bit delayed, but it has been a busy week.

Chris and I enjoyed ourselves a lovely Halloween weekend here in Little Rock. Though it's hard to beat some Halloweens of past, by which I mean third grade when I was a bag of m&m's (with a terrible pixie haircut and bangs no less) and last year when I along with several New Orleans friends managed to beat the trend of going as the cast of Glee, this year's celebration was pretty great. For convenience's sake, I'll provide you with a timeline:

Saturday, 10/30:

• 6:57am: Wake up, because I have to be at a testing site at 8am to take the GRE, and we (I) have to stop at Starbucks on the way there. Coffee makes my brain work better.

• 11:00am: I finish the test happy with my score, and Chris comes to pick me up with a cupcake decorated like a Mummy. He eats one decorated like Frankenstein. Halloween celebrating has begun!

• 2ishpm: Get back home after spending some time out and about, having lunch and shopping. Chris bought a really nice jacket, and I bought bowls from Anthropologie. They are the one thing I cannot escape that store without buying. Good thing they keep making new colors.

• 5:30pm: Start getting ready for Stephanie's Halloween party. Stephanie loves Halloween, and her parties are always amazing. Her Halloween party last year in New Orleans included a fog machine, so it's safe to say she goes all out. She opts for cocktail parties instead of costume parties, but we were going out after, so we did a combo of both.

• 8:00pm: Get to Stephanie's party, and the house looks amazing. Tons of really cool, old, antique type decorations, like birdcages and candelabras. Everyone was very well dressed, and we had a lot of fun eating and drinking  (gingerale, vodka, cherry jello. seriously.). 

• 10:00pm: Meet up with some friends to go to the big Little Rock Halloween party, at a club called Discovery (disco for short). Lots of typical costumes, but good music, good dancing, and several drag queens. Ingredients for an excellent Halloween celebration. .

Sunday, 10/31:

• 11isham: Wake up, start the day right by getting huge, greasy burgers and flopping around on the couch.

• The rest of the day: Lounge around, eventually go out to get candy, hand out said candy to several adorable trick-or-treaters, watch the Saints game. The end.

At work this week, highlights included writing my second cover story, getting a flu shot (free for employees and their housemates, so Chris got one too, and got to see my office) and meeting our owner's dog. Though I have never formally met our owner, Olivia, her black lab, Moose, and I are now quite friendly. 

Also, it's finally cold! Chris and I got the heat in our house checked on Tuesday, and luckily had not yet tried to turn it on, because if we had, it wouldn't have worked. Now, luckily, it is working, because it's dropping into the high 40s at night. While I am conscious of the environment and our utility bills, it gives me great pleasure to be mostly in control of what temperature my house is. Wonder why (cough *dad* cough). 

Less than three weeks until I'm home for Thanksgiving! Woo!

The Mud Run

After a fun night out at an early Halloween party Friday night, waking up at seven on Saturday morning wasn't the easiest thing to do. We managed to do it, however, because we had a very compelling motivator: the mud run. 

The Mud Run, now in it's eighth year, is advertised as "Little Rock's Dirtiest 5k," due (mostly) to the fact that it ends with a giant mud pit. It sounds crazy, I know, but it actually is even crazier. 

                                                                                              Undisturbed mud

We got to the park where the race was being held around 8:00 Saturday morning. Though we were dressed in normal running attire, the majority of the people there where decked out in all kinds of Halloween costumes, which, impressive by itself, was made more so by the fact that everything they were wearing would end up being completely covered in mud. My favorites were a group of Crayola crayons, a family of penguins, and three kids dressed as rock, paper, and scissor. The announcer was dressed as Miss Piggy, and Brian the Barbarian (so named because he's won the race every year since its inception) was in his familiar Superman costume. He must know a really good dry cleaner. 

                                                                                             The before shot

Anyway, we took off from the starting line around 9:00, and most of the race was normal. Sure, we ran through fields, past people gardening, and alongside Oopa Loompas, Fairys, and several Brides, but other than that, it just seemed like your average 5k. 

Until, of course, we got to the mud. Less mud pit, more mud swimming pool, by the time we were heading into it, all out mud madness had begun. Within thirty seconds of entering, a person I'd never seen before was flinging mud at me, and my shoes were getting stuck in the stuff. Chris and I weren't afraid to go for it, though, and pretty soon we were just about swimming in mud. The hardest thing, of course, was actually trying to walk through and get to the other side, because our shoes were stuck in the mud. 

But, we managed to make it through eventually, and, thanks to the box of trash bags we brought with us, we made it home without completely ruining Chris's car. Hot showers ensued. 

The pictures are thanks to Stephanie, Chris's sister, who turned up with his mom to cheer us on and capture the madness!

                                                                             About to head into the mud!                                                                   

                                                                                         That splash is us.

                                                                  Not as easy as it looks.

                                                           But we're loving it!

                                                                      Muddy smiles.

                                                             Whew. We did it.      

                                                             Muddy madness all around.

A Short List

Not a lot going on here this week, but I have made a few rather important discoveries:

1) Working in an office that also houses a bridal magazine occasionally results in free swag leftover from photo shoots. I now have a beautiful bouquet on my desk at home, and Chris has a boutonniere should he ever need one.

2) Williams Sonoma makes all-natural, low calorie tonic water. Found this out on Wednesday when Chris and I, still without a washer and dryer (got delivered today!) went over to his mom's house to do laundry. The three of us and Stephanie ended up playing a rousing game of Life (so much easier than actual life), and drinking gin and tonics. Yum.

3) I am now at the point of my life where I have an office Christmas party on my calendar. Um, when did that happen?

4) Friday can never come soon enough.

As for this weekend, it's turning out to be rather busy. Chris and I are going to an early Halloween party tonight, then tomorrow we have a 5k in the morning (expect a later blog post to be about that). Then I am getting a haircut (I can practically hear my mom and Remy cheering from here) on Saturday afternoon, and Saturday night we're having a barbecue at our house for some family friends that are in town. Sunday will, as usual, be about football, and, hopefully, getting a pumpkin.

Embracing Arkansas

Chris and I workout every Saturday morning with Chris's dad at his gym. This weekend, that workout proved more crucial than ever. 

After coming home from said workout and showering, Chris and I headed out to the first ever World Championship Cheese Dip cook-off. Yes. Cheese dip.

Whatever you're imagining, I promise you, it goes beyond that. 

At its most basic level, cheese dip is made up of Velveeta and Rotel, and indeed, they were the sponsors of the event. But most of the vendors (a mix of professionals and amateurs, competing in separate categories), went way beyond that. 

We had the original cheese dip, created a restaurant in northern Arkansas. We had cheese dip with bacon and chives, cheese dip with crawfish and sausage. We had white cheese dip, and did cheese dip shots when one of the vendors we wanted to try ran out of chips (I am not proud of this. Nor do I regret it). We got cheese dip from one booth, and ate while we stood in line to get cheese dip from the next booth over. We stopped only for beer. 

Being from the east coast, I did not grow up in a cheese dip culture. It is, it seems, a southern thing, and, considering its origins, it is understandably huge in Little Rock. 

There were so many people there that by 2:30, most everyone had run out. The event started at 12. It was scheduled to last until 9. 

On Sunday the eating continued, at the holy land of fried food: the state fair. 

Chris and I had been planning to go for a while, with his mom, Margaret, and sister, Stephanie. We'd been doing our research, by which I mean we'd been reading food blogs and articles so that we didn't waste our time. 

We parked near the food court, and got to work. 

First, there was the traditional corn dog. Somehow, it was my first. So simple, so bad, and yet so so good.

Then, Chris got gator on a stick, which I liked, but it was a little too salty for me. Margaret got roasted corn, which we all ate bites of, in an attempt to feel better about ourselves because we could say we ate a vegetable. Since we followed with fried mozzarella sticks, though, I'm not sure it really made that much of a difference. 

After that, we took a break from food to do the other fair things. I was the only one of our foursome who actually likes big, scary rides, but I did get Chris to go on one that basically consisted of me crushing him, since he happened to be sitting on the left side of our car.

We also took time to see the animals, which is my favorite. Pigs, baby ducks, cows, goats, rabbits. Everything. We braved the smells and saw it all.

And were well rewarded. In our readings, Stephanie and Chris and I had come across what is known as a smooch: a deep fried Hershey's kiss. Now, I like Hershey's kisses more than your average person anyway. So to take one and deep fry it would, I imagined, create a treat so delicious and fattening that it could only be allowed to exist at a once-a-year event, like the state fair.

We had searched the food court for them, but with no success. None of us was willing to leave without them, but we weren't sure where else to look for them. Luckily, they found us outside of the animal house.

So, after sanitizing our hands, we ordered two plates of four, and found a picnic table in the shade to indulge. There are no words for how good they were. It was like eating a chocolate filled beignet, but instead of the sometimes-too-sweet chocolate filling that can come in a croissant, say, it was a Hershey's kiss. Just sweet enough, but definitely and deeply chocolate. We all very much enjoyed our two. 

And then we felt complete, and after one more ride and a look at the giant watermelons, we headed home.

The diet, as you might have guessed, began today.   

 Waiting in the beer line, on a break from cheese dip eating.

 I'm a convert. Cheese dip rocks.

 The native shows me how it's done.

 Cheese dip with salsa, pico de gallo, and a few fresh jalapenos. Yum.

 Loving a bunny at the state fair.

 Deep fried Hershey's kisses. What more is there to say?

The Agony

As a creative writing concentration, I took many workshop classes in college. I've had stories ripped apart by students and professors alike. One student wrote in his comments to me that he hated my characters, my setting, my plot, my dialogue, and the tone of my story. Which boils down to, he hated everything. And sure, I cried a couple times in the privacy of my room (and once in a professor's office). But, eventually, I toughened up.

Or so I thought.

Today, however, when I got back the draft of my first cover story for Arkansas Business, I couldn't stop the tears. Most of it was style issues, and I know that it's not personal, but it's hard to see your writing bleeding right in front of you. Luckily there are bathroom stalls for just this occasion, which I fled to in tears. They've been coming and going throughout the day, but by now I mostly have them under control.

And I think that, against all odds, my story "will make" as they say. I've made the changes and cleaned up the sentences and expanded on some points of interest. I've moved things around and cleared out the typos. I've calmed down.

But, it has been a trying day to say the least. So trying that I had to go home at lunch, watch most of last week's Glee, which I still have saved on DVR, and eat two of the brownies I baked last night as dessert for the delicious dinner Chris made (swordfish steaks, wild rice, and broccoli, yum). So trying that since coming back to work after lunch, I have done nothing but read washingtonpost.com articles and write this blog post. So trying that after work I will likely have to change into sweatpants, watch this week's Glee, and eat two more brownies.

Those interested can look for the article, which may or may not bear and resemblance to my original story, on ArkansasBusiness.com on Monday.

Burritos, Bananas, Britney

Ok. I'll admit it. I'm one of those people who love Glee enough that even when the episode has little to no plot or character development, I still won't hear a bad word against it. Some side of me (the side that played Annie in Super Summer Actors camp and lip-synched all the songs) needs to have an outlet for my love of showtunes/trashy pop songs/classic rock hits. Glee gives me that, and as such, I will be a loyal and devoted fan no matter what. 

That being said, I will admit that last night's episode was little more than an excuse to recreate music videos from the Britney Spears golden years. Since that's a secret fantasy of mine, however, I loved it. I'd forgotten how amazing she used to be, pre-babies, pre-kevin, pre-shaved head, pre-paparazzi attack, pre-walking into a gas station bathroom barefoot. Last night, as Santana and Brittany got their anesthesia on, I got my nostalgia on. 

I also ate a lot. One of the things I do at work when I have nothing else to do, is look at food blogs. It helps to pass the time, but it also works to make me very hungry by the end of the day. Luckily, I live with a boy, so big eating is not something I have to be shy of. 

While Chris worked on a dinner of beef burritos with refried beans, cheddar cheese, green chilies, jalapenos, and hot sauce (we like spicy food, can you tell?), I made banana cupcakes. Chris's mom and sister had given me the mix as part of my birthday present, so I decided to go for it, with chocolate frosting on top. I won't say who ate how many, but by this morning, five were gone. 

Tonight we have plans to take Chris's sister, Stephanie, shoe shopping and out to dinner for her birthday, which was last Tuesday.  The weather is finally turning towards fall, and she and I are both in the market for some new boots to greet the season. It's almost October, after all.