Christmas Update

I have no Christmas pictures. I had my camera with me as we opened presents, but I was really tired (we're talking four hours of sleep because we were up until after midnight, I woke up sick around 4:00 a.m. and our nieces and nephews were ready to open presents at 5:00) so there is no photographic evidence of our Christmas this year. That's okay because there wasn't much exciting to record. Troy got very practical gifts this year (e.g. windshield wipers and a mouse for the computer) and I told him not to get me any junk, which is pretty much everything.

Christmas was nice, however. Relaxed and quiet. We did get a camcorder, so once I have something worth recording I'll get to start putting videos on our blog. Hooray!

Sorry for the fall blog decor in December. I'm still internet-less so I don't have time/access to do good things with it. You'll just have to suffer. I'm scheduled to get set up next week, so maybe I'll get a Christmas theme and music up in time. Then I'll at least have one decoration in my life (read: the Petersons do not have a tree this year). :)

My hubby is AWESOME!

This is what a box looks like after Troy finally gets what he wants out of it.

Troy's Xbox broke the day we got home from Christmas with his new Guitar Hero game. Of course we had to get a new one, and it arrived today. This is what I saw when I walked in the door after work today. After I took the picture Troy told me that he had to tear the box apart because the packing was shoved in there so tight that the contents wouldn't budge. I was a little sad to learn that it wasn't his excitement over playing his new game that destroyed the box.

Anyway, Troy is good at Guitar Hero (well, I'm sure it depends on who you compare him to) and I am bad. He plays lead guitar and gets 100% and I play bass and get 90. But we have fun making The the best band in the land.

Tonight Troy broke out the drum set. I haven't sat down to watch him play, but I know from my Rock Band experiences that those things are way harder than they look. Rock on Troy, rock on.

P.S.--after taking a blogging break, I have learned that I am not such a crappy drummer and Troy is as sketchy a singer as I suspected. What fun.

My more practical Christmas presents

I got another pretty awesome gift for Christmas. It wasn't a surprise, but my parents gave us food storage. Certainly not enough for a year, but a general smattering of the important stuff (I think). One of my primary goals this year is to jump on the bandwagon because 1) isn't a commandment and I shouldn't need any other reason than that, but 2) it's (hopefully cheaper) and 3) I'm trying to make us healthier, more rounded eaters--I know, good luck with that, but I figure it's worth a shot.

Anyway, my mother-in-law gave me a flour mill for Christmas and I used it last week for our first food storage adventure. I was making pizza dough and decided to get brave and put a little wheat flour in it (it only ended up being a cup). Now, although my mom raised me better than this, I am a white bread girl. There's nothing better than a hot grilled cheese sandwich with white bread, so you can imagine my concern about wheat pizza dough, but I persevered. And it turned out good, probably because only a third of the flour was wheat, but whatever. I couldn't taste much difference. Troy said he could a little, but hey, unless he's cooking, things go my way. (Love you babe) Anyway, wish me luck.

semi-wheat calzones--delish

Finally, a shout out to Mande for being my mentor! She always sends me mega-helpful stuff, like a link to this site with info on all the phases of food storage.

The Good News

So I've shared the bad news of my Christmas break (water slowly claiming my kitchen floor), now for the good.

This is my Christmas present. Hooray! I love it. Troy totally surprised me. We've talked about getting a second car, but I'd been putting it off because it's such a hard decision. So he just made the decision for me. Yay! It drives beautifully and has all kinds of fancy things about it. It even talks to me. Well, I talk to it and it just repeats the command, but it makes me feel special nonetheless.

Tag Christmas Style

The Christmas spirit is spreading. I spent one night last week getting my Christmas layout ready, so get ready for December 28! Mande tagged me so let's see if I come up with anything new.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper for sure. I like to wrap and I like how they all look under the tree.

2. Real tree or Artificial? I grew up with real, ugly trees and loved it, but have a cheap-o artificial now.

3. When do you put up the tree? Thanksgiving weekend.

4. When do you take the tree down? A day or two after new years.

5. Do you like eggnog? Ick.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? Umm, I think I loved getting new Barbies. I remember being really excited the year we got beanbag chairs.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My dad.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Usually Troy. He's good at telling me what he'd like.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? No. My house is too little--no where to put it.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Neither. No one wants a picture of just Troy and I.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I'm sure there are lots, but I've probably blocked out the memory.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? I saw one on ABC family a few years ago that I really liked, but I don't know what it's called. It has Will from Will & Grace in it but he's not gay and has long hair.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? November

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Probably. Work has a white elephant party so I'm sure I've re-gifted a few items.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Tear bread. Ooey gooey calories.

16. Lights on the tree? Essential.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Oh, I was just browsing my Christmas playlist and am getting so excited. Just check back Thanksgiving weekend and you can see them all!!!!

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? It depends on which family we're partying with. We don't celebrate my ourselves

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer's? I think so.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Angel and Troy hates it.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? PJs on Christmas eve when we're with my family; the rest Christmas morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Standing in line and stupid department store commercials.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? For looks--red. For sentiment--all the random stuff we've hung on the tree since I was 3.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Christmas day dinner--all the traditional stuff. My family has a Jesus dinner on Christmas eve and eat semi-Jesus food (fish sticks, veggies, pitas) by candlelight. I love it.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? If I could answer that I'd have a lot of happy relatives. Probably something practical.

I tag Trish.

Christmas Memories

Where to begin, where to begin. Actually, I don't really have that much exciting stuff to say except that as I was getting ready to post I was very upset because I couldn't find the cable that runs from my camera to the computer. I took it with me to Richy but never got it out, but after emptying our suitcase I hadn't found it. Very upsetting because I was considering participating in a photo blog with Kamie, but if I had now cable, I couldn't very well participate. But have no fear, it turned up in a random pocket of our overnight bag. I still have no idea where my cell phone charger is, but Troy said he grabbed it as he was packing, so let's keep our fingers crossed.

Christmas break was rather uneventful. We just hung out with the fam. Along with nine people in the house, we had four dogs in the backyard, sister Rachel's and Lance's three. That was madness. This is Jason attempting to play with the dogs. I have no idea where the fourth one is. Probably getting ready to attack.

Being with my brother was the best because I rarely get to see him and he's very funny. We had to go to our not-so-fun-now-that-we're-older family Christmas party (which is held after Christmas) were all we do now is just hang out with our own family. Someone decided we needed to have a family sing along and Jason, who seems to have very little shame, joined in with gusto. This is my first attempt at video and it did come from my cell phone, but you get the idea.

And there you have it. Christmas vacation in a nut shell.

And Not One of Them for Me

Yesterday I decided I was tired of the bare space under my Christmas tree and gift filling up all my good hiding spaces, so I wrapped all my gifts. I started pulling things out of hidden nooks and crannies at 5:00 and didn't put the last gift tag on until 10:00. That's right, 5 hours! Phew. But it's done and I feel very accomplished, even if my gifts don't have bows and ribbon on yet.

Quite a Dilemma

I'm sitting here trying to decide if I should go out of town tomorrow and do some Christmas shopping (and watch my hubby's basketball game) or not. I'm just so tired and it would great to have a day to myself, but I really do need to go to an actual store and finish my shopping. What's a girl to do? I also need to finish my primary lesson, but I guess I could do that tonight instead of surfing the net. Ha ha. A serious quandary.

Drum-roll Please . . .

Okay, so this really isn't that exciting, but here they are: pics of a Peterson Christmas. Just in case the pictures don't explain enough, I'll narrate.

Aaaa, my living room is on fire! (I was experimenting with the setting on my camera)

This does not look like Christmas at all. Far from holy. Just evil.


Finally a picture you can see. It's really nothing special, particularly since I've been doing it bit by bit for a week. But it's done and this is the only part of my house with any Christmas spirit at all. Oh well. With this much we've managed to block off our coat closet and I have to climb over the tree to get Troy's sweatshirt, so this is enough. Merry Christmas everyone!

How Festive!

Well, I was going to finish my music selection for ya'll, change font color and post pics of my meager Christmas decor all at the same time so you'd be overcome with the merry-ness of our blog, but the decor isn't coming together too quickly. However, I couldn't wait to do everything else! I've picked some old standards, some new favorites and a few little twists for your listening pleasure, so please enjoy and hopefully it will get you in the Christmas spirit as it has me!

Christmas, Christmas Time Is Here

Well, Thanksgiving is past and Christmas finally approaches. Although I must say I'm not really feeling the Christmas vibe yet. I've got most of my shopping done, but when I buy things, I feel a little guilt in buying stuff. But then I say to myself, "Self, you HAVE to buy this because you are required to give a gift to your sister/father/mother-in-law/husband." Maybe getting our tree up will help. I'll let you know tomorrow.