Happy Valentine’s Day! This morning CK and I enjoyed a trashy yet delicious breakfast of McGriddles and Mimosas (made with orange juice from McDonald’s). I promise our Valentine’s Day dinner will be much more romantic and holiday appropriate. How will you be celebrating today?
I’m not ready to give-up my pretty little tree yet. I’ve managed to taper off the constant Christmas music playing, as well as delete all of the holiday themed movies and specials from the Tivo, but I just can’t take down the tree. Maybe this weekend? To further aid in my Christmas-is-over denial my friend Carrie sent me these fabulous kitchen themed ornaments. They are so adorable that I’ve decided they can’t possibly be put away after New Year’s Day. They have to live on the baker’s rack, hanging next to the LED stars that I also refuse to put away during the year, forever and ever. This is a doubly perfect place for them since Carrie has claimed on more than one occasion that she’s going to move in with CK and I and live on that shelf.
Remember your favorite teddy bear and how soft and comforting it felt to hold it? How about the silky fur of a Persian kitten sleeping on your lap? Well my favorite teddy got washed and went from being called Fluffy to Scruffy, and long-haired cats make me want to curl up and die from allergies so when I felt this blanket for the first time I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
CK and I actually came across these blankets back in October during our trip to Seattle. It was raining and we hanging out in a mall until it was time to go to the airport. While browsing around Restoration Hardware we stumbled upon magical decadent brown leather club chairs covered in the absolute softest throws I’d ever felt. I would have gladly stayed there all day snuggled up with those cozy blankets, but instead we flew back to Boston and I bought throws for my mom, grandmother, and sister for Christmas. Then I proceeded to steal my sister’s throw and curl up in it anytime she wasn’t looking. I was so annoyed with myself for not buying one, but CK (aka the best boyfriend ever) secretly ordered one online and it arrived today. In pink of course.
Perhaps the best part is that they’re on sale right now. I’m sure they wont last long and it’s going to be a long cold winter. Why not invest in something comforting that will make you forget that fact for a few moments?
CK broke my ballerina. He walked in, tossed his keys in the basket by the door, and sent the poor girl flying across the room. When she landed her head was knocked clean off. Time to go find the superglue. Hopefully I don’t seal my finger to my nose or some other nonsense while completing ornament surgery.
This is my grandmother’s nativity scene. She painted all of the pieces in a ceramics class many years ago and it’s been a part of my Christmas memories for as far back as I can remember. The donkey may be missing his ears, one of the wise men appears to have broken the top to his Frankincense container, and the shepherd on the left only has one leg, but I still love it all dearly.
When I was little I would spend a huge amount of time arranging and rearranging the figurines. Then I would inevitably have to do it all over again after a meddling relative would move the people and animals back into their “proper places.” I treated the nativity scene like my own personal dollhouse. Yeah, She-Ra was cool and I loved my Crystal Castle, but She-Ra didn’t have lambs and an itty bitty baby Jesus that fit perfectly in my mischievous little hand.
Honestly I can’t believe that the poor little guy is still in one piece as I not only used him as Ken and Barbie’s stand-in baby, but also was known to take him in the bath with me. Maybe I was pretending he was baby Moses floating down the Nile? I doubt it though. More likely than not I probably coverd him in green sparkly roll-on soap and pretended he was Kermit the Frog.
During the huge storm that hit Maine on Sunday I got it into my head that I was going to enjoy the snow from the bubbly depths of my mom’s hot tub. So I bundled up in a borrowed parka (no way was I doing manual snow removal in my pink coat) and got to work. Well 20 minutes later I realized I was insane and that even though the back deck was cleared off, it was filling back in quickly. Also, I was now thoroughly frozen solid and there was no way I was going out there again in my bathing suit when it was so bitterly cold outside. On the upside, all of that shoveling probably burned off a few cookie calories so I suppose it all worked out in the end.
It was all of 2 degrees on Saturday evening in Maine, but that didn’t stop me from going through the McDonald’s drive-thru and ordering an Eggnog Milkshake.
I watched two movies almost completely through while I wrapped packages for my family this afternoon. In case you were curious the Christmas movies of choice were: The Family Stone & The Holiday. The wrapping paper, tags, and ribbon are all from Target. I loved using actual ribbon this year! In the past I’ve always bought metallic curling ribbon, but the presents look much more polished with shimmery trimmings. My only regret was that some of the ribbon lacked shaping ability so they look a little floppy. I’ll know better next year. You can view more images of my wrapping adventures on flickr.
Every year I buy a new ornament for the Christmas tree. For some reason I have a lot of ballerinas which is really strange since I’ve never taken a dance class in my entire life.
During the first Christmas that Chris and I celebrated, after we moved in together back in 2006, we each picked out new ornaments. I selected a cozy kitchen scene to celebrate my foray back into blogging via ErinCooks.com and Chris picked out a snowboard. The poor guy dreams of the fresh powder in Utah like Blair Waldorf dreams of Manolos and diamonds.
Last year we settled on a David Ortiz ornament to celebrate winning free furniture in the Jordan’s Red Sox World Series contest. Much like Ortiz’s on-field personality, this ornament literally dominates our tree. I swear all you see is Big Papi. He completely outshines all of the other glass balls and tchotchkes in his vicinity. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if I came home from work one day and the ornaments were smashed half way across the room.
This year we chose ornaments that would remind us of our fabulous trip to Seattle. Now we’ll never forget all of the delicious meals and food we ate in and around Pike Place Market, or the eventful ferry ride over to Bainbridge Island when a mischievous bird gave me an extra special “welcome.”
It’s definitely looking a lot like Christmas in our apartment right now, but I’ve also been decking the halls a bit in my house on Animal Crossing too. How cute is the little tree that I bought at Tom Nook’s store!? I hope they’ll have more decorations available soon. I keep waiting for it to dawn on me that picking peaches, fishing, and delivering packages to the other quirky game characters is going to get old, but it just doesn’t. It’s actually extremely addictive. Did I mention that “Gherkins” is the name of my town? Today I picked every peach in the village so I could pay off my mortgage.
I’m a little bummed though since my favorite curmudgeonly town resident, Butch, decided he was going to move out. I probably should hate him since he sent me on a three day wild goose chase in search of a Char fish that never materialized, but honestly I’ll miss him and his matronly green striped outfits. Hopefully someone cool moves into the vacant house.
According to the weather report it’s supposed to snow a little in Boston tonight. Video games must be imitating life now as it’s been snowing in Gherkins all day. Really this post was all just an excuse to show off my new purple outfit and matching violet shoes.
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