Dipping Chocolate

This past Saturday, my lovely sister taught me how to Dip - pi - dee - dooo things in chocolate. You see... delicious, wonderful, melty bowl of happiness above? Yeah... it's all that and more. More like... PERSONAL HEAVEN. :)This is before the melty gooiness can get all over the place. The dropping of the Mallows... quite a fun experience. It's lots more fun trying to get them out... slippery little devils.

One of the lovely finished products - I figured that I would sprinkle a little pepper-minty happiness on the tops of my mallows of chocolate bliss.

AND ALAS! An entire cookie sheet of chocolaty melted bliss! And I did them all myself- with a little help from the eldest... Aren't they the most lovely goodies you have laid your eyes on? Ok, fine, that could be taking it a little bit too far. After all, I have seen better. But for my first attempt, they turned out pretty well. And they weren't very hard to do. I am grateful that Ais showed me how so I can dippity doo the chocolates each Christmas season now. (Hey, that rhymes...)

Lovely Snow Flakes

So, have you ever wondered what the lovely white snowflakes that are falling from the sky look like up close? You know - no two snowflakes are the same:

http://www.treehugger.com/galleries/2009/12/the-unbelievable-world-of-snowflakes.php?page=1

Just wanted to share some of their Beauty... :)

ALAS! The Festival Of Trees!!

So, Last night Rick and I went on a... d-a-t-e... tee hee. We don't do that very often, and I have never been to the Festival of Trees, so - off we went. For those of you that are thinking of going, it's busy - and there are LOTS of people - and no one has break lights on their butts, so be careful because people stop abruptly to view... BUT, it was only 4$ per adult, and that is quite reasonable for dating standards. *and remember, all proceeds go to our wonderful Primary Children's Hospital... what a treat!*

BEHOLD! The ROW of TREES!

Actually, I took this picture on the way out, but I just love how it turned out - so there ya go. Trees upon trees upon trees... and more trees. Pretty excellent if you ask me.

This was the picture I took about halfway through the tree looking process. LOOK at all the people. And for those of you that have been scrapbooking with us before - this wasn't just that one section of the Expo center - it was the WHOLE expo center. All three areas were opened up for this tree experience. So, this is halfway through the entire center... craaaayyyyyzzzeeeeee!!

This was the camping tree... We really thought that the Marshmallow top was cool - so, naturally, I got a picture of it.

1000 Origami birds make up this tree.

This was the Michael Jackson tree - notice the glittery gloves and the white socks.

This Santa is HUGE - I would say bigger than 8 feet tall, but I am not positive. I know that I am shorter than the black background sheets, and it's taller - so... it's pretty tall...

This one was really cool - the toymaker - someone carved it. Really well done.

And, naturally, my favorite of the bunch was the nightmare before Christmas tree. Whoever did it used one of those nifty upside down trees as you can see. And the white balls on the tree all had a different Jack Skellington facial expression painted on them. I thought it was very well done.

I have a ton of other pictures of trees that I felt were impressive, but this is a blob so I didn't add them here. I do think that everyone should go - try not to worry so much about the crowds, and just look at some of the creations that people come up with. VERY impressive! What a great way to start out the month of December.

Thanksgiving Day Celebrations!

It's Black Friday - time to update on Thanksgiving! All went so nicely. I let the kids make their Christmas cards while things were cooking. (I still have glitter all over the place...)
Finally, the turkey was done! Rick carved the delicious bird the best that he could with the rotten knife that I have- but he managed to get things together. :)
And we set the table with as much formal stuff as I really have. I realized that I don't really have all that much when it comes to formal place settings. I have the glasses, and the stemware (Kind of) and I have napkins... but the gravy was still served with the trusty 1c pyrex measurer. :P
Everything was lovely and wonderful... Rick is (seriously) the best cook I have ever been married to. After the feast we went downstairs and watched as many Christmas movies as we could before it was time for bed. I did go out for Black Friday shopping before work today - and I was mostly successful. :) I got everything that I really wanted to for now. I just need to remember to go to the Mexi-Mart on 13th - I think that because of the cops, there was a better selection. Centerville was so uncivilized this year... Yuck. Never again there, if I can help it...

One Thousand, Three Hundred, Fifty One Lights

That's how many lights are on this tree... One thousand, Three Hundred, and Fifty One. Where did the one come from? The one bulb in the star. Three boxes of 450 lights, and we are set to go.

And here it is after the decorating is done... :) The kids did the same thing that they do every year - all the ornaments are on the front - and there are hardly any around the back. Now, I do understand, after all - you can't see the back, but there is only so much of the front of the tree, and I have a-LOT of ornaments...

So, you are hereby invited to come over and bask the the lovely glow of one thousand, three hundred, and fifty one lights whenever you want - just give me a call first so I can be sure to tidy up! HUGS!

My New Moon Semi - Review

Sooo, way back when (This past July) I decided to finally break down and read the Twilight series. I will admit that it was VERY addictive. And I think that I read all 4 books in a weeks time. After the books, I rented Twilight - the movie... and I was pretty disappointed in the acting and how much information that was left out of the movie that I think should have been put in... BUT, my co-worker / friend Mandy convinced me to get tickets MONTHS ago to go see New Moon.

I wasn't so sure about the upcoming movie, I will admit... BUT, I already paid for the tickets, and I figured that it wouldn't hurt to have a girls night out... why not, right? So, I started reading what I could about the movie, and finally - this morning at 12:30AM, I got to see Part 2.

And I will admit, that I was surprised. Slightly irritated at the screaming girls each time some young boy went shirtless... but that's besides the point. It was as if the cast finally read the books themselves, or took acting classes. This movie was (in my honest opinion) so much better than the first movie. It even followed the book better. So, I will have to say that you should go see it ... it was pretty good.

On a side note - I haven't been to sleep yet... I came from the theater to work .. .. and I have been here since. I need sleep - and I will get it... but time is just a draggin' away...