Holy Christmas Party time

Seriously.  As many of you dozens of faithful readers (and Im sure, fans dare I say) know, I am a hopeless lover of the season.  I always ALWAYS plan way too much stuff for our family to do, trying to squeeze the joy out of every possible thing that even hints to be Christmas...but even I cant believe - its almost here.  Where has this year gone?

Anyhoo, I somehow find myself at that blessed time of the year.  The Christmas Party.  I do love me a good partee.  I love to hostess, to make everything look impossibly pretty and fill everyone up on goodies (edible and liquid), but for some unknown reason this time round you know what I was finding totally difficult?  Cocktails.  I know what you are thinking but its true - I was stumped.  Well good news - after weeks of looking for the perfect 2 cocktails to make, I've settled on a prickly pear tini - which I need to think up a clever name for *calling for suggestions please) - its basically absolut pear vodka, cranberry, apple and lime juice, grenadine, simple syrup ...all shaken to within an inch of its life and served in a frosty glass.  The second is my own invention ALSO NEEDS A SEASON NAME PLEASE - cassis and orange liquer with champagne.  Course we will have wine and a little bar but these will hopefully be the well received stars.

Mr Big is currently in St Louis (actually to be acurate he is making his way home as we speak) so he is yet to give the nod of approval for the tails, but Im sure he will agree that they are the winners.  I didnt want to make anything too creamy this year.

Food is all sorted - only 2 hot things YAY -- so no stress about keeping things to temperature.  I know - you are as relieved as I am right!  Good.  That makes two of us.  Mr Big is of course insisting on one of his favorites to be in the line up ..... meatballs.  Dont worry yourself that we have white carpet and that the meatballs will be in a swedish brown gravy HA - HA - HA, our friends will hardly drink at all and will keep a sphere shapped object perfectly balanced on their party plates while supping there beverages and chatting with friends....right?  Arggghhhh - meatballs, delicious as you are, you really have no business being at a standing cocktail party - you are here at the bidding of my beloved, so do stay on the plates...umkay?

Off to pick up Mr Big for a beautiful reunion.

Thankful

What an interestingly weird  time it has been over the last few weeks.  We've had so much stuff worling around:

1. The dreaded stair project - STILL GOING ON

2. The unexpected (yet welcome) early snow

3. The difficult time getting to work in said snow

4. The car's water pipe freezing and the car overheating

5. The need to buy new cars (yes, not just CAR, Carzzzzzz)

6. The Christmas hub-bub

So altogether now - lets join hands and take a deep cleansing breath....breathe in ****** and breathe out haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

K - thats better.

I have lists aplenty whirling around, thank GOODNESS for my new BFF  they are all safetly in one hand place

I heart you i-phone.

DAVE

Yesterday something wonderful happened  - I blogged a little bit about it but we got home so late there wasnt time to post pictures and rail on longer about it.  Dave. Was. Here. And....Dave was free and playing in the mall.  While intially that sentance bothered me (Dave is really too good for the mall) I quickly put that to one side and squeeled with delight that Mr Big weaved his magic and made this happen on our anniversary.

With favorite friend in tow we high-tailed it to Bellevue Square to join a bazillion other fans

Did I mention this was a surprise concert? He announced it only a couple of hours prior to it actually happening - its incredible the power of a Dave fanbase - look at them all!!  Course, Dave's-soon-to-be-new-BFF's are waayyyyy over here

HI DAVE!!

Being that it was Mr Big and my anny, Mr Big pre-arranged the perfect song, neigh - our song - "You and Me" for Dave to include in the set list. 

Thank you honey, I love that song, I love you, and I love Dave.

And now I give you....shaka laka boom boom.........DAVE AND ME IN A PHOTO

ok, I should have pre-empted this by saying, no matter how I try (and OH HOW I TRY) to take a self portrait that looks like a normal person I always, always look like a crazy woman on crack.  DO NOT FEAR me Dave.  I am normal and quite charming (no matter what Mrs Nguyen said about me)...

You played for an hour and it was a wonderful way to celebrate our anny.  Love you Mr Big!!

Christmas in the Northwest

I'm waiting.  Patiently.  Now with only a scant few sleeps till Christmas I'm so proud to announce that Mr Big is finally on the crazy train with me and was the FIRST ONE to purchase a new Christmas ornament this year.  Thats right - HE was the first one.  Oh plus, PLUS  - he was the first one to put one up.  Uh huh!  He de-falled the giant vase and filled it to shimmering glory with SILVER BALLS. Ha!  In the immortal words of one Mr Bro Bee - You. Are. Awesome!!!

While it isnt quite dancy dance time, it is "that time of the year" and what better way to kick off that to visit a while with Wights Nursery in Lynnwood.  Me, Mr Big, Genever and Dot....of course before any of the reel Christmas stuff started we needed to have the girls walk the walk.  What walk you ask?  The cray cray walk - with DOUBLE KALEIDOSCOPES.  Dot was first

and Gen went second

Look how gosh darn happy she is.  I know what you are thinking and you are right.  We awesome parents (I graciously accept your air high five, thank you). Once this was ably completed by the gals there was nothing left to do but head directly into the heart of the matter.  The Nativity scene.

I was appreciative of Dot's reverence for Baby J

Gen had seemed quite adoring of the camel - and Dot really liked hanging out with Donkey - but then Mr Big's mad super power kicked in and we all drew a sharp breath when he pointed out a camel toe.  Fashion faux pas Nativity scene makers - FASHION FAUX PAUS.

As we were all aghast at this we continued to walk through the different nativity scenes one could purch and I noticed a key member of 99.9% of the scenes was missing.  One Baby J.  Dorothy noticed this first and asked where he was.  I tactfully suggested perhaps all the other members (wise men, donkeys, camels, Mother Mary etc) were just waiting for him to arrive.  A Wight's staff member overheard our ackward discussion and offered the truth.  Sadly Baby J's are always stolen every year from their store and they have to hold him (..or "them" as the case may be) in a secret location within the store so that he is not captured.  The lil guy we paparazzi'd...actually was left out in error.  What a sad world we live in - and PS baby j stealers....karma.  Im just sayin.

The trees were ... ok this year - but not as wonderful as most years, but we definatly were in the Christmas spirit of things when we left

Winey

Who dosent love a drop of wine from time to time, especially in the company of lovely friends...and so it began, one grey Saturday afternoon, our merry band (Mr Big, Tadpole, Ronnie and Johnny) headed out in our old explorer for the wild Skagit Valley.  Who knew? There are hidden vineyards and wineries a plenty and some delightful drops of wine to be had.

First stop was Carpenter Creek Winery.  The first thing that greeted us was a row of beautiful rainbow flags, so we knew that this was going to be a fun place to go.  The flags lined the driveway to the tasting room and filled our eyes with happy colors.  The next thing that greeted us was Jeff, the vitner and all round wonderful fellow.  Here is Jeff in the tasting room with his delicious wines:

Jeff even gave us a behind the scenes looksie into the art of making this yummy wine, look at what

ONE TONNE of merlot grapes looks like with two lovely boys....Johnny and Tadpole :

 imagine what a lovely time it would be having access to all these barrells

I chose a riesling which is utterly scrumptious

Of course - with all that hard work behind the scenes it was time to sup a little more vino with Jeff - here's my empty glass

Sadly it was time to move on...we loved Carpenter Winery and will be there again sometime soon!!

Next stop - was Pasek Wineries in Conway.  Yes this is a wine shop at a gas station, yes most of their wine is made from fruit - but as you can see, their complementary wine tasting (10 bottles strong INCLUDING port) was quite delicimo and ... they had wine cracker mmmkay?

and lookie here - someone seems quite happy about the fruit wine selections, in fact, if I am not mistaken this is a drunk smile John Jensen

no man left behind was our motto this day and yet, look who was last.  None other than Mr Tadpole, refreshed and bright after his 10th glass of fruit wine

We were quite hungry after the first two wineries so we skipped across the road to world famous Conway Pub.  I liked their sign (and the sign below) and so I was excited at what might lay ahead

as you can see, its no enchanted forest - but cozy enough and I LOVED that the waitresses screamed across the room at the patrons.  That just added a certain gen a say qua to the place.  There were dude sitting across from us in full camo gear which added to the excitement - they are there in the photos but you cant see them.  They are in camo.  Pretty much the perfect outfit for a pub dont you think?

Here is Ronnie.  He's shy - unless he's dancing

Here's me and my boi.  The lighting was interesting at the Conway Pub so sorry about the photos

and me with Johnnie - though we were drinking diet fizzy at this point, we both were still proudly wearing the drunk smile as you can see

So return to the conway pub?  I dont think so.  Food was mmmeeehm.  Nothing to blog about.  Still friends, a quick trip to the fish shop and we were off to our next stop a winery slash glass blowing joint.  This should be interesting.......and it was!

I dont remember this chicas name but she was very sweet, as was the huckleberry wine that we had there.  Dont you think those things on the wall behind her with the tails look like giant colored sperm?

Did I mention I really REALLY liked the huckleberry wine? By the way - my hands arent actually the size of snausages - its just that they are right close to the camera...really, they arent the ham hocks they appear to be

The glass was really pretty here - I loved that you could drink wine, listen to a little Jimmy Buffet, be warmed by the kilns on a cold day and see a masterpiece made

Sadly - we had places to go and wine to guzzle so it was onwards to....highland cattle?

Yup - these little chicklets were hanging around and were quite interested in our aucspicious arrival as you can see. A short drive down the road and we were here.  Eagle Winery - Tad and Ronnie's Fav.

I liked the people here, they were very sweet, but the fruit flies buzzing around the tasting room took away my amor a little, I battled through though and I have to say the rose from here was outstanding.  So elegant and delicate and a perfect celebration wine.  I enjoyed it so much I forgot to snap a pic - just pretend this is rose and not something else:

WHAT?

YES!!!  Free suprise Dave Matthews Concert in Bellevue AND its snowing...could life get any better? Love you Dave, see you in a couple of hours Tiger!

http://bellevue.komonews.com/content/dave-matthews-hold-surprise-concert-new-microsoft-store-tonight

Wrapping ideer

It was Miss Mac's 18th Birthday this weekend - I was excited to shop for her giftie - but what to get an 18 year old these days - they have everything.  We settled on a lovely silver necklace that had three tiny charms - a compass (to guide thee), a heart (to remind the wearer you love them) and a tiny little rectangle charm that says "to thine own self be true".  We think this is a wonderful quote to live your life by and so we were thrilled to find something that had this line on it.  I forgot to buy wrapping paper and only had tissue - I thought this turned out nice AND think I will go this route again.....

Take a 5 layers of tissue (at least 5 times larger than the package)
Fold the tissue over like you are making a fan
Smooth out the tissue layers and place your box in the center
Roll the tissue around the box
Pull the excess up around the top
Tie tightly with a ribbon
Carefully pull out each sheet to make petals...bobs your uncle, pretty as a picture gifty.

Decorating Time

As you can see its that time of the year, the most wonderful time, when "The Man Tree" is re-erected in all its glory and my neighbors bring their favorite men to decorate it.  As you can see, I have put the angel on the top of the tree - Mr Big, and then slightly below him Jeffrey Dean Morgan ffffwaaaaa!

Currently the man tree is amoungst a forest of hand crafted tree ala Kirsten Clark, my neighbor.  These are on loan for the purpose of this installation.

Speaking of neighbors...Miss Carrie Hollingshead one such person.  She is such a delight and makes me laugh every day PLUS she is always giving me fun things to include in my whitty repitoire.  She is the maker of such hilarious terms as "Bon Chance" ... (good luck/fortune in French) best said WITHOUT the French accent for maximum yuks, also "Lo cenento mucho" is her's too, again, without the Spanish accent, used when you are sarcastically saying you are sorry.

Carrie is a fan of Qdoba - here she is eating the worlds most delectable guac just a scant few hours ago:

She is hanging over my cubie wall here - note the patriotic placement of the NZ flag - which is her typical stance.  You know what else I noticed while looking at this picture? Dang those are white toothy pegs you have there madam.  Do you use whitener for that all American smile??

I had to have a mini-family meeting this morning.  Present was me, Betty and Lucy.

The meeting was quick and I got right to the point.  The barking.  Dudes - it has to stop, especially because you are actually barking at NO-THING.  I actually told them as they were listening intently that I would consider a shock therapy collar for them....I know, I know, its a cruel mean way to stop them barking and I probably would'nt do it (probably) ... but I hoped that mentioning this in my stern voice in our family meeting would be enough to stop them, so here's hoping.

Sorry you haven't heard much from me friends, Mr Big and I are STILL working on the stair pro-jay..still.

We mostly have the upstairs landing done - just a couple of little touchups required and we will be completely done.  Tonight I will be employing my little known talent ... BALANCE.  Believe me, it will come in quite handing while I am procariously balancing between to ladders "tight rope style" with a wet roller in one hand and paint laden brush in the other as I attempt to finish up painting the ceiling (a 10 footer).  Luckily for me this is simply the precurser to doing it again later this weekend when I paint the wall leading up the to ceiling.  Just in case anything happens to me while I do this just remember - I've always loved you.

Monday

Well the weekend went by in a snap sadly.  Plus, day light savings ended.  Usually I would be welcoming the extra hour of sleep but honestly friends, it always plays havoc with the temple that is my body.  So Im going to try and get to bed early every night this week...once the laundry is done...once the painting is done....once the blogging is done...once my craft projects are done.  I promise to report back re this.

Speaking of craft pro-jays - my work place is a varitable hive of crafting - case in point, the wall of my cubie happens to find me neighbors with the delightful Miss Kirsten Clark.  Kirsten is just to dang handy - look at what she whipped up in a jiffy recently:

Yup - you are seeing it right.  Styrofoam cones with ribbons of all manner of colors.  Arent these lovely?

One cubie over is the daytime abode of Unnamed Friend.  She is currently knitting a man-scarf for her beau.  I took this picture purposefully to preseve her anonimity - lookey at how clever she is with her knitting.  She started this scarf earlier today - and after only a few hours of the needles shaka-laking.

SHAZAM. Man-scarf. 

 

and now here is a christmas ornament I whipped up for a thanksgiving gift for one of the sister-in-laws (whomevers house it ends up being at).  Its a huge styro ball with petals made from individually cut circles pinned on.  Pretty nifty.  My plan was to make several but it was much more involved and exhausting than I planned it would be so I present - limited edition christmas orney, and by limited edition I mean this is the one and only.

Time for me to ship out and start painting the upstairs landing.....

Oops  - I nearly forgot to be thankful

For Sunday

I was grateful Mr Big's incredible drive in getting the stairs to almost completion and working all weekend to do so

I am grateful we FINALLY got the invitations out for the upcoming party

For Today

I'm grateful just for the day in general - it was a goodie!

Photo Challenge

Its time for another happy entry into the photo challenge at http://www.iheartfaces.com/.  This weeks challenge is "celebrating fall" and I thought about how I celebrate fall....laugh as you may, one of the things I do to celebrate fall (actually, truth be known celebrate is the week description of what I do its really more REVEL!! I heart fall)....anyhoo, what I do to celebrate is retreat.  To home.  Surrounding myself with family and with warmth.  Its a time for introspection and for planning...and more.

Anyhoo - here is my humble entry into the world of the photo challenge.  This was taken with tiltshift generator effect on....MY iPhone 4.  I wasnt intending that this would be the camera d'jour for this weeks challenge but Im in love with this picture and it really embodies the colors of the season and my home.

Grateful for technology

I am sooo grateful to Steve Jobs and his team of incredibles creating the iPhone...of which, I am now in receipt of (thanks Mr Big, what a splendid treat).

Honestly friends, I never thought I was a gadget geek, but this is totally TOTALLY freakin cool.

Check out the pictures taken on my iPhone 4 with the Hipstamatic Camera - the first one is taken looking down on my cubie desk

This one WAS a little shrine, I really dont know what it is now (maybe a dumping ground) as you can see - there is a lovely GQ style photo of Alexander Skarsgard (what a delicious scrumptious morsel you are Alex.  I would not kick you out of bed for eating crackers).....a beautiful buddha from Mr Big (supposed to bring calm presence and serenity to ones work space), my self-awarded-award for improvement, a lovely owl candle holder AND>......smurfette, who of course is always face down because (shhhhh) she's a drinker.  And anyone worth their salt as a drinker knows that drinking and high heel wearing don't mix.

and one taken with the TiltShiftGenerator App
This is taken from the window by my desk - look how pretty the trees are, delightful!

IM. IN. HEAVENNNNNNNNN

Plus - guess what else.  Its ALREADY making me loose weight.  I know I know, hard to imagine but Yesssss - there is a wonderful app you can download where you enter your current weight (not so svelt), your current height (just perfect) and your dream goal weight and dream goal weight achieve date and it works out 1. How many calories you have to eat a day to loose weight at the correct rate per week AND has a handy dandy food journal with hundreds of thousands of foods that you can enter so you can count calories.  You are correct.  You must get this gadget, and soon.