holidays

Dec062010

Post-Wedding Update Type Post (Including TTD Pictures!)

Whoops! Had that OvernightPrints link all wrong! My bad.

Wow, has it really been 3 days since I last posted? Craziness!

This weekend has been really productive for me in terms of post-wedding stuff. And considering that we bought ourselves a Hanukkah/ early Christmas Wii, that’s really saying something!

Let’s see, in the last 5 days I…

+ordered our marriage certificate
+received our CD of Trash the Dress pictures from the amazingly talented Emeric Photography
+ordered our holiday cards (using an Emeric picture) from Shutterfly
+wrote, completed, changed, and ordered our holiday newsletter from Vistaprint
+ordered our Thank You cards (also using an Emeric picture) from OvernightPrints
+just finished and ordered our 2nd Inkubook that we won in the giveaway (all Emeric pictures)
+played lots and lots of Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
+spent loads of time with my amazing hubby
+began knitting a pair of socks for a test knit

You want to see some of them, right? Seriously, I am in love with these pictures!

Using my Ebates account for Shutterfly, OvernightPrints, and Vistaprint, I am expecting a nice big fat refund check soon. I will never again shop online without first checking there to see what rebates I’ll get. It’s like the best “discount” ever! For OvernightPrints, I already had a coupon (HOLIDAY) for 50% off the cards, so not only was my order discounted, but I’m getting cash back. Yes, I’m cheap like that.

Most of our stuff was dependent on getting the CD, which is why so much happened so quickly. I had everything all laid out and just waiting for the picture. Of course, even then, I was still popping different pictures into the layouts.

This post is not sponsored by any company, I just happen to love Ebates and online shopping. <3

Dec022010

Hello Miami “Winter” – Please Stay A While

Days like today warm my little winter-starved heart. It will be in the 50s all day long in Miami and that just makes me ridiculously happy. The windier, the better because that drops the temp even more.

Sure, I knew what the weather was like down here before we moved. I was never moving here for the weather and was pretty damn depressed that I was leaving my cold weather and chances of snow for extreme heat year round. No, I’m not a freak, I LOVE cold weather! I also hate Miami. Yes, that does make me weird to the majority of the non-Miami residing population. We moved for family, cheaper rent (alas more expensive everything else), and a job. But mostly family.

Never in a million year did this Miami born and raised girl expect to be craving snow and weather in the 20s and 30s. It’s gotten to the point where I am seeking out jobs to apply for in states that HAVE an average snowfall listed. This 50* “winter” stuff doesn’t cut it for me anymore. I want to be able to wear my hats, scarves, and sweaters. Yesterday, it was over 80* all day and I went to work in shorts and a t-shirt. Also, I saw many Facebook postings of snow and freezing weather. Yeah, color me jealous. I’m sure they were jealous of the heat down here and, frankly, they can have it.

Yesterday I was searching through pictures from the last 11 months for our holiday newsletter and relished looking through the 2 folders of snow. It was depressing me. I do know that heavy and long winters can take a toll on people, but that’s what all this heat does to me. I don’t want to leave the house. Our a/c bill skyrockets the hotter it gets. It’s just so blah. Poor Phoenix doesn’t get why it’s so hot out as his winter coat keeps reappearing. There’s seriously enough fur for a whole new kitten every time I brush him.

In other news, I’m finally compiling what is needed for our January reception/ party. With the holidays coming up and mail likely being delayed, I should order it soon. Gotta pow-wow with our “party planners” soon to figure out what we need!

Nov252010

Designing our Holiday Cards

Tonight I decided to spend my down time after Thanksgiving dinner festivities working on our holiday cards, thank you cards, and a few photo books on Shutterfly. I have a few coupon codes, plus all our pictures – professional, mine and Cathy’s – were all uploaded to Shutterfly, so it’s about time to work on them. My biggest problem is picking which pictures to use! There are so many great pictures between the wedding day itself and our Trash the Dress session 2 days later. Jessie and Jason Emeric took some truly phenomenal pictures of us laughing and having a grand time and I have a strong feeling that their pictures will be on both the thank you and holiday cards.

This pictures is another possibility as it’s one of my fave from the wedding day itself. Tough decisions!

I’m still awaiting the disc from Emeric, which hopefully will arrive soon as our free book code expires on November 30th!

When you make holiday cards, do you use their templates and pop pictures in or do you upload a full design? I typically have been uploading my own design whenever I make cards of any type, but the ones in Shutterfly are actually super cute!

Also, for those still awaiting the Trash the Dress pictures, I will post them once they arrive! I don’t want to post the slide show as there’s a few I didn’t like how I looked in them, so y’all will just have to wait a bit longer. =D

Nov252010

Happy Thanksgiving!

I may complain and be overly paranoid about having children “this late in life,” but I know I am truly thankful for what I do have.

I am thankful for, in no particular order:
… my family
… my friends – strictly online or real-life
… my best friend and my 2 amazing godsons
… you, my blog readers
… having a puppy snuggle my belly and a fat cat snuggle my feet every night while I sleep
… the few hours a day that I get to spend with Steve
… our weekends together
… my creativity
… my ability to walk, talk, and breathe freely
… having a roof over my head
… not being subjected to sheer misery on a daily basis at my previous job
… my health
… so much more!

And certainly, I am the most thankful for my fantastic husband. We are celebrating 3 years together this Sunday, the 28th (though there is debate about that) and I couldn’t be more thankful and lucky that he came into my life. This is truly a case of kissing a lot of frogs before finding my perfect match. No, not “prince” because I, quite frankly, never wanted a prince. I wanted an equal in my life, someone that respected me, loved me, cherished me and had fun with me exactly as I am. I received all that and even more the day I agreed to meet Steve after months of emailing and IMing.

The date of our anniversary is under debate as our first date had some pretty major hiccups. My friends Nichole and Miles started texting and calling frantically before I was done with my first course. It turns out their apartment complex was on fire so our date was cut majorly short. We had our second date 3 days later and that is when Steve thought the official date was. To me it will always be November 28th. <3

OK, so this turned into an anniversary-type post as well. I’m still a newlywed!

Nov242010

Making Apple Butter, Attempt #1

So tonight I decided to make apple butter. My contribution to our huge joint family Thanksgiving is the biscuits I made last week (smaller and lots more) and figured I’d give apple butter a try to serve with them.

I’d found a recipe last week that looked pretty simple. Last night I bought all the ingredients that we didn’t have and after hubby left for work tonight, I started chopping up the apples.

Ingredients
4 pounds of Granny Smith (or other sweet/tart) apples peeled and cored
1/3 cup fresh pressed apple juice (not from concentrate)
2/3 cup maple syrup (or use dark brown sugar)
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and/or cloves to taste

I tossed everything into a big pot like the recipe said. First the apples, then the juices, then the sugar and spices go in last. I covered the pot and kicked the stove to medium high (6-7 on my stove) and let it boil.

Oh, my modifications are:

4lb mini Granny Smith apples (I didn’t take the coring into account so it ended up being less)
Martinelli apple juice instead of fresh pressed
I only used Ginger and Cinnamon as I didn’t have other spices

After boiling, I stirred everything to ensure the mixture coated all the apples, then turned the stove down to 2-3 and simmered for 30 minutes.

After making sure they were soft enough (OK, so I used a potato masher to test this), I scooped about a cup at a time into my mini food processor to puree the heck outta the apples. There’s still some chunks. I fail at this sometimes. Also, had I used the immersion blender from my wedding registry, it probably would’ve turned out a lot smoother.

It was still pretty wet, like apple sauce, so I dumped everything back into the pot and simmered it for 15 minutes at a time to “dry it out” as suggested by my twitter friend Susan. It took well over 2 hours to get the right consistency, and burned the whole entire bottom of the pot. Le sigh. Maybe I’m not meant to make apple butter.

I’m going to test it again in the morning. Right now it’s cooling and then going into the fridge. Fingers crossed!

Nov232010

Why do the holidays arrive earlier every year?

Is it just me or do the winter holidays arrive earlier every year? I may not celebrate Christmas, but I do put up a tree. (don’t judge) I thought the “acceptable” time frame to put up the tree was the weekend after thanksgiving.. You know, after spending the day shopping during Black Friday.

This afternoon, November 23, I witnessed the building of what I thought was a cool little tiki in the middle of Coral Gables. After posting the picture to twitter and Facebook, I was told that it’s for the nativity scene that particular restaurant/ hotel puts up every year. Really? It’s still November.

Granted, the holiday of my upbringing, Chanukkah begins on December 1st, but it’s not a commercialized holiday. Our little menorah sits in the window and you get 8 days of gifts. In my family they were always useful things like socks, clothes other stuff like that. Every so often we got fun stuff, but it was definitely a practical holiday for my family.

Having married a Protestant, our kids will be celebrating both Christmas and Chanukkah and can decide on their religious paths when they’re old enough.

Did you marry someone with a different religious background? How do you handle the holidays between visiting families and with kids, if you have any?

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