Christmas Eve/Christmas/Boxing Day Events

On Christmas Eve Colin had to work, of course, since he is a manager in retail. And I had a bunch of running around to do. I helped my mom with finishing up some raw food dishes, took her to work, went up to Park City to deliver the food, down to Whole Foods to do some grocery shopping, over to Target to meet M, M & M (Meaghan, Mason and Max) for some last minute Christmas gifts, then pick up my mom, finish grocery shopping and get home in time to start making food! So Colin got home at 7 pm and had to wrap gifts while I made our delicious hors d'oeuvre. Sadly Colin wasn't able to make it make to Illinois to be with his family due to work so we tried to make it feel a bit more like home. Colin told me in his family they always open gifts Christmas eve and have snacks. My family always waits until Christmas day to open ours, besides maybe pajamas or a gift from my aunt on Christmas eve. So trying to compromise and hold fast to both traditions we made food and decided to open a few gifts Christmas Eve. Our "few gifts" turned into us getting way too excited and opening everything up. It worked out though, our giant bottle of wine got us through most of the night. It was so much fun, our apartment was covered in gift wrap, boxes and bows.

The next day I made us breakfast and Colin made us Bloody Mary's. I was told (by Becky) that I wouldn't like them but I actually really enjoyed them, I couldn't eat the celery at the end though. Then we headed over to my moms to spend Christmas day with her, Josh, M, M & M. It was so much fun. We made vegetarian lasagna and had some champagne, then opened gifts for each other.

On Boxing Day, we got to spend time with Ben and Meggie. First we had to buy me some awesome winter boots for the snow so Colin wouldn't worry about me walking to work in the early mornings and the snow/rain. We found some really nice ones at a good price! I will also be able to go snow shoeing with these boots, and I can't wait! Once we got to my moms we had some delicious black bean soup and veggie sandwiches. Everything was so delicious. Also Ben and Meggie gave us some delicious homemade vegan treat. A whole box full of tea cakes, fudge, chocolate balls, shortbread and more! For more on the gift boxes check out Meggie's Blog. We had to quickly webcam with my dad before we rushed off to see Black Swan...it was amazing! So thus ended the Holiday season. It was one for the history books. Also it was Colin and my first Christmas together. Now we have to wait for New Years!

Christmas Eve Eve

After Colin's day of snowshoeing with his friends, and my first orientation day at Zupas we decided to celebrate Christmas eve eve. By drinking wine and playing Jenga! It was so much fun. We also realized how awesome we are at Jenga. I see a couples Jenga tournament in our future.

It's Almost Time

Time for Christmas! It's only 3 days away! I've done almost all my Christmas shopping, we've bought and decorated our tree! And it already has been filled with gifts for us and for other people! Meaghan, Mason and Max also come in today! Lindsay's brunch birthday is this morning! And every sentence is needing an exclamation point! I can tell this week will be busy but fun! Pictures of our Christmas tree for your enjoyment while I get ready for brunch at Eggs In The City!

Yellow Fever

I've recently found this site call AsianICandy.com and want to literally order everything. I have a strange fascination with Asian women, they are gorgeous. So naturally I really like their style. Everything is pretty reasonably priced, but its Christmas and all my extra money is going to gifts, also shipping is a bitch and 1/2 in costs. Its by the lbs. So here are a few things I would like to buy once I have the money.

Making A List

4 Shows I Watch:
Currently we have no tv. But we do Hulu and Netflix:
Modern Family.
Gossip Girl.
Skins.
Lately, Survivor Man.

4 Things I'm Passionate About:
Colin.
Writing.
Accomplishing things.
Learning how to cook.

4 Phrases I Say A Lot:
Shizah: I'm not sure what it means, but I say it when I get hurt. Colin has caught on.
Telling Mugwomp she's a cat.
Asking Colin 'if he's sure'
Does meowing count as a phrase?

4 Things I've Learned From The Past:
Its important to finish things. i.e. school.
Go with your gut feeling.
Becky is usually right, and she lets you know.

4 Places I'd Like To Go:
All over Europe.
Disneyland.
China! Not originally but I can't wait to go with Colin.
Costa Rica.

4 Things I Did Yesterday:
Staples Orientation.
Mass amounts of laundry.
Christmas shopping at the Gateway.
Made egg burrito's for dinner.

4 Things I'm Looking Forward To:
Setting up and decorating our tree.
Colin's finals to be over.
Christmas!
Seeing Meaghan.

4 Things I Love About Winter:
The snow! Minus driving in it.
The holiday festive stuff (the lights, trees, decor, that shtuff).
Wrapping presents.
Winter break.

4 Things On My Wish List:
Laptop case.
Clothes, always.
Yummy treats.
Spending time/Christmas with Colin.

4 People Your Nominate For This List:
Meaghan @ Le Blog De Meaghan
Kaity @ Kaity Your Lady
Stacy @ The Adventures of Zach & Stacy
Jo @ Cup of Jo

I got this idea from another blog: Young People In Love

Tis The Season

Its a week and 5 days until Christmas! I've done some Christmas shopping but still have a lot to do, and some packages to send out this week. It has been very hectic with finals, which are ending tomorrow for me with a French final. But for Colin its Thursday, so he has a bit longer time to stress. Also some good news, I officially have one week left at my job and start working at Staples on Wednesday. I know it doesn't sound like the best job, and its not paying as much as my last job but it is a lot closer to our house, meaning a 15 min walk compared to a 30 min drive. There are some perks though, Staples offers benefits and tuition reimbursement. Also I will be working in the copy center and I'm really excited about it! I will also be working at Zupas, the soup place. Come January when school begins and I'll be taking 17 credits along with working two jobs, I will have hardly any extra time. When I do it will be spent with Colin or at the gym (got to start getting ready for swimsuit season! Only 6 months away ladies). We still haven't got our tree and I am anxious to start decorating it and want to wrap all of our Christmas presents right now. I just have to keep reminding myself I have enough time for everything. I've already written and rewritten about 10 Christmas 'To Do' lists and present lists, its a bit OCD on my part. But as I should be studying for my French final, instead I'm listening to The Nutcracker Suite and looking at Christmas pictures! Its a great time waster.

P.S. We are sending out Christmas cards, so I need your addresses!

To check out these and other great Christmas pictures, check out THIS and THIS tumblr.

Fabulous

Ever since Full House and the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen detective movies, "Solving any crime by diner time", I've always loved the Olsen twins. My sister Becky would always make me say the catch phrases of Michelle: "You got it dude". Although my brothers always thought the Olsen twins looked like monkeys when they were little they have grown into beautiful women with amazing fashion. It was always a compliment when my mom said I looked like them, even though I don't. For Christmas a couple years ago my mom got me their book Influence. I was reading through it the other day and love to take fashion ideas from it. Personally I prefer Mary-Kate Olsen's style over Ashley's. I love her hair and her clothes! And I thought I would share.

Holiday Cheer

So its December and I've officially decorated my house for the holidays. Although its like a game of Where's Waldo because we don't have much space so all the decorations are hidden on bookshelves or squished in between plants. I'm still in shock that the year has gone by so quickly. Its already December, finals are next week and I haven't even begun listening to Christmas music and Colin and I haven't gotten a tree yet. So the first month of December is going to be a rush for writing papers, studying and memorizing languages (French for me, Chinese for Colin, its basically a trilingual house where in the living room we 'Parler' and the bed room we 'shuō'). Then after our treacherous semester is done, we can focus on buying and sending out Christmas gifts. Luckily through all this hectic month Colin and I got to have a relaxing Saturday night, the first one in a while. It was my work Christmas party and this year it was held at The Grand America hotel. Everything was decadently decorated for the holiday, the whole place looked beautiful. We got into the ballroom and first there was a drawing for gifts. Mostly basketballs, golf balls, digital cameras wii's, ipods, you know things I would never win! Which I didn't, sadly my name was never drawn. But on the up side Colin and I helped ourselves to the delicious buffet and array of desserts. We took multiple trips to the bathroom so we could wander the hotel for a bit. Later the show got interesting and Hypnohick the Hypnotist honored us with his presence. It was exactly what it sounds like, the guy was dressed up in a cowboy outfit and hypnotized people with his country music playing. It was my first time seeing a hypnotist and I have to admit he actually put on a good show. So after the last prizes, 50'' tv's and cruises, which of course I didn't win, we wandered around some more. We went out into the grounds, took some pictures, went to the hotel lounge for some drinks, ventured over to Red Door for some martini's and then went home! We both had so much fun and it was a nice way to spend out Saturday. But now we have to focus on our studies, which I am finding very hard to do. So I must say au revoir and adieu, for I have to study for my oral french exam!
Bon Courage Emily!

And now some pictures...

Doing what we do best...looking retarded

The Outfit I Wore

Therapy Session

On Saturday, Lindsay and I got to do some much needed shopping. Honestly, it's therapy for us. So we wandered the gateway trying on clothes getting coffee and enjoying the holiday lights. We were both limited on funds but found some very good sales.

At American Eagle they offered us 20% off our entire purchase, I decided to buy some holiday underwear. Without revealing too much here are the cute Christmas patterns on the undies.
Next we found some sale stuff at Anthropologie and Banana Republic.
And finally a sweater i've been wanting from Urban Outfitters and cute bowl only $2.99
I also wanted to buy Lindsay...she wasn't for sale...

Thanksgiving Festivities

We had such a fun Thanksgiving. It was hosted by my brother Ben and his girlfriend Meggie. It was a vegan/raw Thanksgiving and it was so delicious. Colin and I brought the pecan pie, some wine and sweet potatoes, that my mom made for us. We ate, I ate and ate seconds. We drank, and I drank mostly for everyone. And we played games, and had pie. It was a very fun Thanksgiving with everyone.
To read more about the delicious dinner we had check out Meggie & Ben's Vegan Blog!

My thanksgiving day outfit: inspired by G.G.