Harry Potter Party!

Every year my friends Kate and Andy celebrate Christmas in the style of a different culture. This year they chose the culture of Harry Potter! And, they included all their friends to come! They had a bajillion course meal at their house with all the tradition English foods. It was yummy. We dressed up, talked about Harry Potter some, and ate, drank, and was merry. I'd never been to a Harry Potter party before. It took me some convincing that you could even consider Harry Potter to be it's own culture. However, despite my not being an HP fan, I had a great time. I even got into the spirit by dressing up!

Santa's Been Here! Santa's Been Here!

I got a flat iron for Christmas!

Abigail was so excited and so sweet Christmas morning! I was the one who couldn't sleep the night before because I was too excited. I woke Jeremy and Abby up at 7:00 AM. The first thing Abby did was check to see if the cookies and milk were gone. When she saw that they were she shouted "Santa's been here! Santa's been here!" She was so excited for her new presents. She said "Wow! I wasn't expecting all this. I only asked for a racecar. I must have been a very good girl!" After opening gifts we went to Jeremy's aunt and uncle's house a couple of hours away. We had a delicious meal and a great time with family. It was great to see everyone. I hope everyone had a happy holiday season!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Abigail was so excited that it was FINALLY Christmas eve! She woke us up this morning saying frantically, "Hurry, hurry! Get up! It's Christmas eve! Santa's coming! We have to bake cookies! GET UP!" We had a pleasant Christmas eve. We were surprised by a good friend who brought a plate of goodies. They were delicious, by the way. Thanks, Tara! This evening we had the missionaries over for our traditional Italian food Christmas eve dinner. After dinner the missionaries read the Christmas story from Luke 2 with us. I was happy to hear Abigail say that Christmas is about Jesus instead of talking about Santa and toys. Although, she is pretty excited about Santa and toys. She has been asking for a racecar since she realized Christmas was coming. Tonight we baked cookies and wrote a letter to Santa. I hope she's able to sleep tonight! Merry Christmas, everyone!

Eclipse!

And no, I'm not talking about the kind that involves sparkly vampires. Last night was a total lunar eclipse AND the beginning of Winter Solstice. The last time that happened was 1638. It will happen again in 2094. So, this truly is a once in a lifetime event. I fought my eyelids and stayed up late to watch it. I'm so glad I did! Jeremy and I ran outside every half hour to see how the moon had changed. It was until the eclipse had almost reached totality that we realized we could see it from our back door window without even going outside. D'oh!

Lights and a village, and Santa! Oh boy!

Yesterday our little family went to Macy's downtown for some Christmas fun. First, we checked out the beautiful light show. For anyone who hasn't seen this, it's a must. The show is truly amazing. Go read about it here: http://www.wannamakerorgan.com/xmas.php . After the show we went up to the third floor which they had turned into a Dicken's Village. You got to walk through the streets of London in the 1800s and read the story of Scrooge. It was adorable. At the end we got to see Santa! I was so impressed with the Santa! He was in his own private room and the staff let us take our own picture! I'm so happy that this will be a Christmas tradtion of ours!

Happy Birthday to Me!

My birthday isn't actually until December 26th, but we celebrated a bit early before the holidays took over. This year Jeremy asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told him a party. He made it happen. What a great guy. :) I was so happy that so many of my friends were able to make it. Our little one bedroom apartment was slam packed! A friend of mine from church made me the most amazing birthday cake I'd ever seen! I'm a huge Mario Bros. fan and I told her that I wanted a Mario themed cake. Man oh man, did she deliever! So far, this was my favorite birthday. Thanks to everyone who came!

Abby's Christmas Portraits

It's that time of year again! Here they are!

I took these in Drexel University's main building. She's sporting a hairbow made by my good friend Simmandi.

Rittenhouse Square Tree Lighting

This is the second year in a row that we went to the Tree Lighting Ceremony at Rittenhouse Square in downtown. It was fun and pretty but there were so.many.people! It was really hard to move. Last year when we went we actually missed the lighting of the tree, but that meant that we were able to enjoy the decorations without the crowds. :) Whatever the case, it was still a great way to put us in the Christmas spirit with a marching band, lots of lights, and free hot chocolate and Santa's hats! It'll probably be a yearly tradition, despite the crowds, just because Abby loves it so much.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Yay for Christmas decorations! Decorating the house has got to be my favorite part of Christmas. It's so nice to walk into my living room everyday and see a tree, stockings, and mistletoe. I'm going to miss it next month. We always put our decorations up the day after Thanksgiving and they will go down on New Year's day. Even Killer, our dog, gets into the Christmas spirit! I'd better enjoy them while they last!

Thanksgiving!

This year was my FIRST YEAR EVER preparing a Thanksgiving dinner. Well, that's if you don't count mine and Jeremy's first Thanksgiving together when I served pre-cooked turkey breast, instant mashed potatoes, and Kraft mac and cheese. I would say that everything turned out pretty good. I was grateful to have two helpers in the kitchen - Abigail and our friend from church, Ronda. Unfortunately, Abigail wasn't feeling good so she slept for a lot of the day, but she was able to help with the pumpkin pie before she crashed. We had several friends over for dinner. There were NO leftovers (except for pie). I hope that's a testament to my cooking! I made turkey, baked mac and cheese, homemade mashed potatoes, green beans that cooked alllllllll day long, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, just to name a few. Here are photos to prove that I can actually cook. It may not look pretty, but it was edible.

Trick or Treat!

We had an AWESOME Halloween! We went to Boo at the Zoo, the church Halloween party, and Trick or Treating in our neighborhood. Abigail really racked up on lots of candy. I was pretty happy! For Boo at the Zoo and the Halloween party Abigail dressed up as Minnie Mouse. Then, to go Trick or Treating she had a change of heart and decided to wear Mom's pirate accesories from the party. She was the cutest little pirate I've ever seen.