Long time no post = a picture post

Why hello there! It has been a long time since I put much of anything about our goings-on on here.  

Mmm.  I was about to ramble off there but I realized I'm kinda sleepy and it was going to come out very strangely, so I've decided to cut to the chase.  Consider yourself lucky that you didn't have to sit through that.

Without further ado.....here is our Christmas Tree!  Ah! The splendor! The grandeur!  The hand-crafted ornaments!  

Ok so really we got the tree super cheap at Walmart but didn't want to spend any money buying ornaments, so I made some (besides, who am I kidding, I loved the excuse to make stuff).

I found this super awesome tutorial on the internets and was thrilled! I mean, fuzzy crocheted christmas baubles?  yusssssssssss. besides, it was really easy and fun too :D  

Those are most of what is on the tree, but I found some other random stuff online and made these too! 

Yep.

And here she is, all lit up.

Preeeeeeeettyyyyyyy.

In other news, we went to Jesse's parent's house for Christmas! It was my first Christmas not at my parent's house, which was a little sad, but his family is awesome and we had a really good time anyways :D  

And we got to hang out with this little guy!!!

His name is Calvin.  He is our nephew, Melissa's baby. 

And he is the sweetest baby that I have seen so far in my life (because obviously, my children will be the sweetest babies I've ever seen....right?  ;D) 

When you catch his eye and smile at him, his whole face lights up in this gigantic baby smile. It's infectious.  

We sat around in the livingroom for a bit, playing with him.  I particularly like how proud Dave looks in these pictures.  For such a cowboy, he is mighty soft around that little one.  It was awesome, really. 

Aaaand that's apparently all I have from Christmas!  I really do need to say though, that I'm very grateful for a wonderful family in law.  I couldn't be with those blood related to me this Christmas, but I was able to be with them, and it was really really nice.  

And then to today!  Jesse and I worked for just a few hours this week, but have spent the rest of our time playing The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which I got for Jesse for Christmas.  Actually, Jesse has been playing it, and I've been crocheting!  It sounds dull, I know, but it's actually a fairly clever game, and I like to help him solve the puzzles and watch the plot progress.  It's been really nice, mostly, to sit around and be lazy for a few days before we get into school again. 

The other thing I've done this week is COOK!  I'm finding I actually really enjoy cooking when I have time for it.  During the semester we get so busy and stressed out that we don't have time or energy to cook anything and just end up eating junk all the time.  I feel like I've balanced some of the sitting around in my jammies by making good food this week :D  

Today, for example, I made Tomatillo chicken soup. Speaking of which, if any of you out there on the internets reading this are at all interested in cooking then you should seriously subscribe to better homes and gardens' email list.  Every day they send me a 30 recipe compilation on some theme--christmas dinner ideas, party appetizers, easy salads, crock pot stuff, cookies, etc.  And every day I flip through it and inevitably find a few recipes that speak to me.  It's a really awesome way to find new recipes without having to spend tons of time searching the interwebs for the thing you think you want. I highly recommend it!

Speaking of which, I got this great recipe there too: Brown sugar shortbread cookies.  

They're really easy, just a few ingredients, and the best part is that the recipe calls for a cookie stamp to flatten them out...and I decided to make my own!  I just carved my design into half of a potato, greased it up with some cooking spray (so the dough wouldn't stick) and presto! Designed. 

When they baked up the design got lost a little though.  The star showed up better than the heart so I think with the rest of the dough sitting in the fridge I'm going to try another pattern, something with more straight lines and such. 

Allllllrighty, that's all I got.  Happy Early New Year Friends! Or HENYF for short.  Okgettingweirdbye!