Christmas season is here!

I hope you all had a super awesome Thanksgiving, full of delicious food and delightful company. This year Brian and I got to celebrate Thanksgiving four times! First with my mom and Ron (and the brie stuffed, prosciutto wrapped turkey), then a Friendsgiving with my old roomie, then with Brian’s fam and fun Alaska relatives that I hadn’t met before (SO thankful that I REALLY like Brian’s family and always look forward to seeing them), and then finally wrapped up the tour on Thanksgiving day with my dad’s side of the family, which unfortunately for Brian (or maybe fortunately) turned out to be a pretty mild version of a Pate holiday. Love that we have a holiday specifically to remind us to be thankful for all that we have.

And speaking of Thanksgiving, I’m so glad it is over so that I can legitimately be pumped for Christmas. Christmas music can be played openly, the decorations can officially come out, Christmas movies are allowed…now if only it would just snow. Thinking of getting in the Christmas spirit and preparing for the season, if you are looking for some tasty holiday recipes, my pal Shawn Stewart has started a new blog full of goodies- plus, she is an awesome writer, and just an all around stellar lady...check it out: www.shawnalogue.wordpress.com/

Brian grew up with a fake tree for Christmas, so this year he was super excited to find the perfect live one…like the Griswold family trip out to the middle of nowhere to find the tree that heaven shines a light on…but for us, no need for the middle of nowhere part, we found it at Fred Meyer. We may have stolen someone else’s tree…Brian spotted THE tree while someone else was checking it out…the second they stepped away, we stepped in and snatched it up. Next is the tying it to the roof of the car…neither of us had done that before on our own, but we got some twine and figured it out, driving ever so slowly back home. Then we got home and realized we didn’t have a saw to cut off an inch at the bottom…but oh well, the tree (who we have grown quite fond of and named Doug) would probably be fine. Then the tree stand was too small for Doug, so we had to go back to Fred Meyer for another tree stand. Finally we got him up and wrapped four strands of lights around him, plugged him in, and boy was he glorious!

But three days later, the water hadn’t gone down any…Doug was going to die quickly if he didn’t get some water. So we borrowed a saw, took all the lights back off, and in Brian’s living room I hugged the tree steady while Brian sawed an inch or so off, and then trimmed the bottom branches (which was definitely needed). We set Doug back up, re-strung him with lights, and he looks much more like a Christmas tree now. Especially because….

Guess what I did? I got about as crafty as I get, and made a felt tree skirt! We made the trek out to Jo-Ann fabrics to get the material, made a guess at measurements, grabbed the basic Christmas colors (red for the base, sparkly green for some evergreen trees, and white for the snow), and I did some cutting and gluing…and I think it is almost cute. Certainly a nice addition to the full Doug package. I also made a couple of stockings with extra felt…but they turned out like something a 4th grader did during art in school…oh well.

Trader Joes has made me super lazy about cooking. Their frozen options are good, and so easy. Usually I don’t love the meat options there, but Brian and I tried their BBQ pulled chicken the other night, and it was pretty darn good. That will definitely need to be added into the dinner rotation. They have some tasty (with garlic butter and nice seasoning) frozen vegetable medleys also, that even Brian likes…and they make the kitchen smell yummy too.

Oh- I hope you saw the awesome flight deals Alaska Airlines released earlier in the week! One way tickets to destinations you actually want to visit ranging from $40-$150 (some, like Mexico or Alaska were more than that). It seemed like Friday and Sunday travel dates were blocked from the cheap fares, and you have to fly before March…but other than that, pretty easy to book. I’m going to San Fran to celebrate one of my dearest friends 30th birthday in February…after taxes and everything it was $121. So excited to be able to make that trip.

Okay, this is getting too long…wanted to talk about the Apple Cup (Brian and I went and had awesome seats…SO much fun!), but I’ll just leave it at that…great game- way to go Huskies!

Have a great week!