Sunday, December 29, 2013

New Year's Resolution / Christmas 2014

This was the first year I've ever been legitimately late taking care of Christmas presents. I mean, it all got done before December 24 (my family does Christmas Eve night) but still... I didn't like that one bit, being that far behind. (I do, however, appreciate that Amazon is not joking around with their shipping guarantees... everything got here on time or early, thank goodness.)

So for next year, I have a plan. I'm making one present per month (skipping March because of the wedding) and I've already started on the first one. Here is Georgie, being a big help:


As it turns out, he's an excellent cross-stitcher! Which is good, because we're going to be doing a lot of that. (And I'll still be doing a lot of that after he leaves.)



Wedding Dress!

Georgie accompanied me on a very important errand yesterday... picking up my wedding dress!!!

I'm a few sizes bigger than him...

So that's taken care of! We also got the card box and the book-turned-into-a-ring-box for the mistress of ceremonies to hold from my mom for Christmas, so things are really moving along nicely (considering I took the month off from wedding stuff to take care of my new job and Christmas).


Thursday, December 26, 2013

Christmas!

Well, I forgot to take photos at my family's Christmas on Christmas Eve (we don't usually take any photos, so my camera stayed in my purse) but I did take some Christmas evening with Fiance's family...

Waiting patiently at the table, behind the Buche de Noel (French chocolate cake or "Yule log")

Closeup with the beautiful Buche de Noel

We didn't eat the Buddha's hand, but it looks too cool to go unphotographed

Cheese, bread, wine, blood-orange-prosecco punch... this is an appetizer.

Frying latkes! (Yes, we had Hanukkah dinner on Christmas... it was a scheduling thing)

We hope everybody else had a wonderful Christmas!

Friday, December 13, 2013

The Hobbit

Seeing the installations of The Hobbit and Hunger Games at midnight premieres is apparently a thing we do, so Georgie got to go with us to the The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug premiere... in IMAX 3D!



As you can see, the glasses are a bit of a difficult fit for Georgie...


Thursday, December 12, 2013

Office Potluck

Just in time for the food photo challenge in the discussion thread, I needed to make something for the work potluck! There's another one tomorrow, but I get the day off, so I won't be making anything for that one. This is apple pie dip with cinnamon-sugar tortilla chips:


...after everyone had a go at it. If I don't get sick (fingers crossed, because I already feel like I'm on my way there) I'll be making this again to take to a party out of town on Saturday!

(I used Vietnamese cinnamon, which is sweeter and stronger than regular cinnamon. I used flour tortillas instead of wheat. I had to add more cornstarch to thicken it - which is probably because I used slightly more than 2 cups of apple.) And the recipe doesn't specify a type of apple; I used Granny Smith (it's what my stepmom uses in apple pie, so it made sense to me).

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

MacArthur Mall

Since we had to park at MacArthur Mall (a huge, upscale mall in Norfolk) in order to go do my new employee orientation for my new job, we stopped really quickly to snap a photo with the winter globe that Santa sits inside:


It's the hap-happiest season of all!


Friday, December 6, 2013

JOB

GUESS WHAT?!? I was offered the full-time job I've been waiting for!!! Which is basically my current job (which I adore) except full-time (which means benefits and more time doing the job I love!) so YAY!!!!!!!! Here we are expressing our joy:


This also means I'll have WEEKENDS! I haven't had weekends in two years. I mean, during school breaks I have, but it's still a big deal. And it means Georgie and I can have more adventures!

And here's a bonus photo of Georgie with our jingle bell wreath on the front door, because it's cheery and makes me happy:


Friday, November 29, 2013

Thanksgivukkah

It's Thanksgiving... AND Hanukkah! So Happy Thanksgivukkah!

We had two meals like always: one with my family, one with Fiance's family.

Challah! With cranberry-orange butter. Fiance's mom makes a balla challah...

The spread chez my grandparents

On my grandparents' table

Fiance's parents' table (the plates are Paris-themed because we went there this summer)

Mighty turkey, fresh out of the oven!
So now we are stuffed full of food and we've slept in and it's time to test our abilities against the Black Friday crowd. I definitely was looking forward to the food more than to this shopping trip...

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Yummy Things

We've been staying pretty close to home, but we're eating delicious things while we're at it!

Mochi candy from future-mother-in-law's trip to Japan!

Georgie mixed up a hot chocolate for me while I wrote for NaNoWriMo!

We'll go on some kind of fun adventure soon! If nothing else, Thanksgivukkah is coming up next week, and we'll have lots more yummy food to explore!


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Save the Dates

Georgie accompanied me to the post office to mail the save-the-dates for the wedding! (A month or two after I had HOPED to have them done, but... alas.)


(Check out that old-and-busted mailbox... and my pretty envelopes!)

We will have a lot more wedding stuff to cross off the list while he's here!

Clementines

It's clementines time, y'all! I don't know how widespread this is, but in the winter, I just can't wait until I can go buy a big box of clementines (which I prefer to call "tiny oranges" because that's really what they are).

I shared the first one of the season with Georgie:


Yum, yum! I have a big fruit bowl full of them... not for long, because these never stick around long before being devoured, but I can always refill it!

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Fight for CNU our Captains!

Last night was CNU's homecoming (my undergraduate alma mater) so Georgie and I drove to Newport News to attend!


We won, 24-7! Hooray!

To pump me and Georgie up before the game, I taught him our fight song:


(Which is saying something, because out of my alumni friends, only the ones who were in marching band know the song.)

Speaking of marching band, Fiance was in it all four years, so he participated with the alumni band at halftime... which I was so involved in watching, I completely forgot that I had pulled out my camera and Georgie, so I only got a shot of them leaving the field:


We also had fireworks, which is not something we expected (this is only the... second?... night game I've been to at our school, because we didn't get field lights until after I graduated) so I have no photos of that, either.

We had a fun time, but I decided that Georgie is going to need some winter clothes very soon, because we were bundled up and still couldn't feel our toes!!!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

Happy Election Day!

I love voting! Consider: kids and teenagers complain all the time about how nobody asks for their opinion on the big things, and then suddenly, once you're 18 years old, you get asked once a year! And you get a STICKER for it! (Also I have strong opinions on some political things, but also... sticker!)


Lots of signs outside the polling place... including the only McAuliffe sign
I've seen in our entire neighborhood

Georgie shows off the "I Voted" sticker!

Now to kick back, eat pizza, and watch as the results roll in!

Saturday, November 2, 2013

At the Library

Georgie came to work with me today!


He got to see some of the highlights of my typical workday:

Lots of books need to be shelved!

Taking heed of the "no food or drink" sign on one of our classrooms

Where I spend most of my time: at the reference desk!

In the stacks

Who knows what we'll get up to tomorrow?

Friday, November 1, 2013

NaNoWriMo Day 1

It's November 1! Which, for me, means (1) stop eating the Halloween candy, you'll make yourself sick, (2) happy birthday to my stepsis, and (3) NANOWRIMO IS HERE AT LAST!

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month... along with thousands of other people across the world, I will attempt to write my very own 50,000 word novel between 12:01am November 1 and 11:59pm November 30. I managed to do it last year, so I know it's doable!

I'm already over 4,000 words! Here's Georgie helping me out:


Bonus photo: here's Georgie with his box (excellent for carrying him safely in my purse!) and his guest book. Friends: if you see me before March 1 (and most of you will), remind me to have you sign Georgie's guest book! We're going to fill it right up!!!


Tomorrow: adventures at the library!


Arrival

My new friend Georgie is here!!! I was going to post some photos (both here and in the swap gallery) last night after work, but work was so crazy, I didn't really have time. So I'll just have to do that later today!

Sunday, October 27, 2013

Meet Georgie


This is Georgie, my Little Visitor for round 18! He hails from New York, and was handmade by my partner, blupaisan! The potential best part ever? He's POSEABLE. This is going to get awesome.