10 things you should know...

1. plasticjungle.com switches your gift cards for cash. 

Why did I not know about this before?

2. From now on, when you buy a gift card, make it a Visa. 

Am I right?

3. KSL rocks! We sold one of our Christmas gifts and made $40. Talk about a win-win.

4. Jake and I booked our flight to Scotland. STOKED.

5. Christmas this year was great!

6. My iPod needs a makeover... suggestions?

7. Paninis rock my world.

8. It was 13 degrees at 10:30 this morning... 

no comment.

9. Les Mis is worth seeing, but not my favorite of all time. 

What ever happened to intermissions 

for productions that are 3 hours long?!

10. I love snow.

San Diego

I have a problem.

It's something along the lines of,

"I feel guilty 

every  

single 

time 

my husband leaves for work and I don't."

The second he leaves, the self-depricating thoughts begin:

Lazy.

Worthless.

Boring.

etc. etc. etc.

BUT. Despite all of this, I have to remind myself 

that this is a time that will never come again 

and although it would be nice to have a job that is more stable,

it is also nice to have time all to myself 

to improve my cooking and baking skills, 

to find and make the perfect gifts for family and friends 

and to sometimes have a clean house. (sometimes.)

It's also nice to have time to do other things like documenting our life together through journaling and blogging. Just like I'm about to do when I tell you that we went to San Diego this last week with my family and had an awesome time 

soaking up the warm rays of the California sun. 

 

(Okay, it was only 60 degrees, but when the high in your home town is like, I dunno, fourteen, 

then 60 degrees feels pretty close to 80.)

We went to the beach

 Hit up Knot's Berry Farm 

(A close cousin to 'Lagoon' 

if any of you are familiar with that guy...)

  Obsessed over one of the cutest babies on planet earth

 And succeeded in going to Vegas no less than 2 times... 

one in which delivered a small lotto prize. (Win.)

 

And the other, a minor heart-attack

 and a quick trip to a pawn shop.

 

All in all, we had a blast.

And now that we've got most of our gifts wrapped...

Let the Christmas traditions begin!

Death by doughnut

Once upon a time, my mother-in-law gave me a cookbook.

(Thanks. You rock.)

But this is no ordinary cookbook, 

it's Pioneer Woman's cookbook,

which means 283 pages of finger-lickin', lip-smackin' goodness.

Especially the first page, which involves glaze and doughnuts.

Glaze and doughnuts people... We had to try them.

And try them we did. 

Even before reading the recipe!

The "WHY??" face...

  Seriously though.

We really could have done ourselves a favor had we

read the recipe before throwing together the dough,

seeing as it told us that

 the dough should rise for 8 hours in the fridge.

and 4 hours not in the fridge.

and should be rolled.

and cut.

 and raised.

and deep-fryed.

 and cooled.

and glazed.

 and... 

okay. I'm done now.

Let's just say I probably won't make doughnuts again for a while.

 Unless you say please.

Then maybe we could work something out...