season's greetings

um... we already started this:

there are no rules.

we decided November 16 was a great day to set up our first Christmas tree

ghost of Christmas flash:

Monday night craving

I keep making things

in totally unrelated news:

I keep wondering why I look a little thicker in pictures.

bacheloretting

I've participated in some quality bachelorette festivities in my days.

for example:

 but I had never done bacheloretting on the level I did last weekend for my dear friend Ashley.

we arrived in Vegas on Saturday morning, and left Monday afternoon.  It went something like this:

 Ashley wanted to be a queen for her party, and wasn't interested in cutesy veils or tiaras. 

she wore the crown all weekend.

 while planning this party a few months ago, we decided it would be fun to wear black and white dresses and crazy-colored wigs.  Ashley would wear a black wig because her hair is normally white. 

 we were right, it was fun.

Ash's nickname is "Smash", so we also decided to have shirts made that say "Smashing Vegas". 

we wore those on Sunday.

We played hard and I was exhausted when I got home, but it was good fun with my favorites, so it was totally worth it.  I can't wait for her January wedding in Denver. 

it was

a couple days before our wedding, my mom hosted a lovely brunch for the girls (Matt’s mom, sisters, my sisters, and me)

I received one of my favorite gifts from Matt’s mom: a collection of hand-written McDowell family recipes so I could make Matt some of his favorite things.  love.

The other day I asked Matt to go through the recipes and choose the one he wanted me to make first.  (I know... four months later ... slacker wife)

He chose banana walnut bread.  I was really nervous about making this bread.  I hadn’t ever made banana bread before… and of course I needed it to be perfect on my first try.

The recipe says it has to bake for 70 minutes!  It looked normal and breadish after about 40 minutes, and smelled good… so I spent the next 30 minutes checking the oven every 1.8 minutes to make sure it still looked like bread.  When it was done...

it looked like banana bread

it smelled like banana bread

it tasted like banana bread

it was banana bread.

:patonback:

earning our candy

I'm totally into Holidays.  Not the decorating so much (except for Christmas trees and stockings -duh), but I really like all the other stuff.  I get that they're totally commercialized, and full of propaganda, but I choose to embrace the spirit of these days anyway. 

a day/season of the year during which we are encouraged to dress up in the most ridiculous possible way for absolutely no reason and consume large of amounts of food that we are otherwise discouraged from eating... will I celebrate?  hell yes. 

*disclaimer* but there are some things I don't like : scary things, and the ever-growing tradition of women dressing up as "Sexy Doctor", "Sexy Witch", Sexy Corn On The Cob", "Sexy ____".  ugh.

this morning Matt showed up at my office with surprise Halloween Cookies

my colleagues and I were grateful

then we dressed up and went with my sister to take our nieces trick or treating.  I was Snow White, and because they were fresh out of Prince Charming costumes, Matt went for the next best thing - Biker Guy.

Biker Guy and Snow White I think captures an exaggerated metaphor for Matt and I nicely.

i really love him

Happy Halloween :)

we really do think we can dance.

my sisters and I all love a good on-screen dance sequence.  I think we all sort of have a not-so-secret dream of being dancers or Broadway stars or something.  These dreams were probably born because we spent our childhood watching and re-watching cinematic masterpieces like:

Girls Just Want To Have Fun

&

Newsies

go watch them right now.  for realz. 

anyway... my sister, Julianna,  REALLY loves So You Think You Can Dance.  like really loves.
every season she tries to get us to watch the show.  I haven't really ever seen it... just highlights on Ellen, and one dance with Ellen.  Not because it doesn't sound good, but because I know I'll be instantly addicted... and I don't need that.

her birthday is this week, so I plotted with my parents and her husband to get us two tickets to see the SYTYCD live tour at the Maverik Center on Wednesday night.  When I told her that our seats were in the 12th row, on the floor, I was legitimately worried that she was going to pee her pants.  She was SO excited. 

lucky for you, this event also gave me the opportunity to showcase my excellent photography skills.  I had to sort through 113 pictures of blurry nothing, to bring you these gems (haha)

these were my favorite dancers:

(I was happy to learn that Melanie won)

Other neat things: When we were leaving, I literally ran right into a guy named Mitchell who was the injured top ten dancer and couldn't dance that night (I didn't know it was Mitchell - Julianna told me).

and we sat next to this girl's (Caitlynn) parents: 

and 100 of her closest friends who all came from Washington to watch her.  We felt like we crashed someone's party.  But I did talk to her Dad about the whole "journey" to the T.V. show and beyond. 

So that was neat. 

aaand I loved it. 

and I'll be watching from now on.

Julianna, please don't get mad at me for telling this story

my sister, Julianna, is adorable in every way

she is also a champion shopper/money-saver

she is one of those people who knows how to get a bunch of free stuff with strategic couponing

the other day she sent an email to my other sister and I which said:
"When I can get free body wash, I get it. Typically it's for men's body wash... go figure.  Most of the time I really don't care because the smell goes away fast or is covered by my lotion. NOT TODAY. Holy cow, this new body wash is the most manly perfumey smell I have ever encountered. I reek of male deodorants."

so Shellie and I decided this was hilarious / unacceptable and conspired to give her a bunch of girly smelling body washes, deodorant, body spritzes, etc... for her birthday this week.

and I made this card for her

and my brother took this video of her opening the gift after she read the card. 

hb, Julianna.  love you