Goodbye Twenty Ten!

(My Absolute Favorite Event of 2010)

We've laughed, we've cried, sometimes within moments of doing one, we've done the other. We've been overjoyed and underwhelmed. We have great highs and some pretty (average) lows. It has been a rollercoaster ride 2010, and now we part as friends. I will look back at you fondly because within that 12 month span of time, I have grown and changed all for the better.

Times I've loved most of all:

• Rescuing My Little Remy- it is true love
• Weddings- being in them, being at them, planning them
• Being a bride- now matter how much I do not like the spotlight, It was the most fun day of my life
• Having a hot lil groom- Man! I love that face!
• Camping trips- fires a-blazing, s'mores a-roasting, trails a-hiked
• 4th of July in Telluride- It was like being in a postcard
• Picnics in the park- though we didn't particularly like picking burrs out of the blanket
• Reuniting with old friends- always pick up wherever we left off
• The Freakin' Honeymoon- Woot woot! Pura Vida!
• Falling in love again- at least once a week

I am a New Year's sap. May everyone have a safe, but boisterous night!



Two years ago, at 11:59 p.m., Shawn dropped down on one knee...

A Very Married Christmas

Hubby and I had a wonderful Christmas 2010. It was the first we have celebrated as a married couple. It was also the first with my dog-child, Remy. It was also the first that neither of us saw our families. I kept wishing for a teleportation device to whisk us away to the blizzardy-cold frozen tundras of New Jersey and Illinois, but, alas, those Christmas dreams were not realized. On to wish for it another year!

Hope all had a very wonderful Christmas. Remember the reason for the season. God Bless one and all!!

(This is Remy's "smile." His ferociousness cracks me up. He's wishing you all a holiday full of wonder.)

The Sun Rises in the East

If you live in Arizona, you know these were taken about a week and a half ago (before Winter came crashing down on the Valley). There were taken at 7 a.m. on my drive to work. I had kept saying that I wanted to photograph the incredible sunrises on my early commute. They are about 5 minutes apart (stopping at a couple of stop signs and traffic lights; no twisting my body around while driving, safety first), but the color variance is striking.

Speaking of the sudden season change...
One day we had 83 degree heat (yes, deep, deep into December) and the next...

BANG! Our tree dropped all of its leaves. It was literally overnight. Hubster had a swell time raking it and bagging it. Little Remy didn't want anything to do with the piles of leaves.


So there you have it! Proof that Chandler gets more than one season. So what if it happens all in one week?

Reindeer Games

At the CW6 Holiday Party, we had a bit of fun. One of our games was to dress up a team member as a reindeer. The materials were a dark brown shirt, 2 felt "hooves," a white felt "belly," a pair of tan pantyhose, six deflated balloons, a red foam "nose," and two really creepy fur eyebrows. I knew as soon as we pulled the nylons over Doug's face that we had won.

What did we win, you ask?

Why a bag of reindeer poop!
**chocolate covered raisins and chocolate covered peanuts

Candy Coated Everything

There is nothing like taking something beautifully nutritious and drowning it in caramel, chocolate and cookie chunks. 'Tis the season, right?

Isn't Happy Husband cute?

The Joy of Baking!

Let the Season of Sugar officially commence!

Every December, as far back as I could remember, I bake Christmas cookies - a lot of them. I have done the tried and true recipes (the chocolate chip, the oatmeal, and the holiday staples - sugar cookies and snickerdoodles). A few years ago, I dove into Mom's cookbook collection and selected the Betty Crocker Cooky Book from the 60s or 70s. I cannot praise that masterpiece of baker's delight enough!

I have tried to recreate a couple German cookies that I fell for during that year: Zimtsterne and Pffernusse. Hubster and I love spiced cookies and these two have a real zing! Zimtsterne, so heavenly-cinnamony,  are rolled out then cut into star-shapes and basted with an eggwhite-wash before baking. I have also seen them iced.* Pffernusse have a good dose of black pepper in them, but that heat is subdued by the dusting of powder sugar on the outside (after baking). The cloves, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg make this a real warming treat in a white snowball.

*My Zimtsterne were a bit different because I do not own a cookie cutter that is not in a Halloween shape. So I made mine into a drop cookie, making them a softer-pillowy texture unlike the hard and crunchy texture they are "supposed" to be. Also, the photo above is from audrinapatridge.com (I am writing this at a time inconvenient for plugging my camera into computer... tee hee hee)

For the Children

I know I have had a long day at the office; it is evident in the recent goings-on in my mind. Several times in the past hour, I could swear I heard a baby's cries. "Not normal," I thought to my (already overheated brain) self. Again, a baby cries.

"I really do have baby fever!"

Wow, not even a minute later a pair of children run by my desk. Today is our TV station's Childrens' Party.Whoops!

What a way to realize that I do have babies on the brain. Is it also normal to blush when I embarrass myself only in my head?