O Tannenbaum

It must be a tradition of sorts. We always seem to fight on Christmas Tree Day :) It's always about silly stuff.....I believe last year it was over tea.
Anyways, this past Saturday was Christmas Tree Day. And we are creatures of habit. And I'm not going to disclose the contents of this year's argument. Maybe I'll divulge next year. The important thing is it was silly and we kissed and made up :)
We usually do this the day (or weekend) after Thanksgiving. But this year I went shopping on Black Friday and was not feeling well on Saturday. So we waited a week.
It had started to sneet (snow/sleet), but we braved Old Man Winter and headed out to Wiggins anyways.
Here is Mr. Lumberjack himself.


And here is only a portion of the forest from which we had to choose our tree. This is always the most difficult part. You have to understand - I had a disastrous Christmas tree experience the year we lived in Maryland. If you'd like a dramatic reenactment of how that story went down, you may consult my mother.
Anyways, when it comes to picking trees, Mike is very practical (thank goodness), and me, well.....let's just say that if I had no supervision I'd pick a tree the size of The Nutcracker tree every year. No doubt. Never mind the fact that I don't have a 25 ft ceiling.


So we embarked on a mission. To find a happy medium.


This one (apparently) had eaten too many Christmas cookies and was too fat for our living room. Boo hoo.


This one, on the other hand, had lost its midsection somewhere along the way.


After much looking, we headed over to the other side of the tree farm to see what we could see. It was quite a trek.


And of course ours was the furthest away. Here is Mike with the saw.


And here is Michael and his lovely face when he realized how wet the ground was going to be. He got over it ;)


And while I went to Wawa to get cash (for some reason we thought a tree farm in a field would have a credit card machine) Michael dragged our tree back down the hill all by himself (no cart even!) and got it baled. I met him back there in time for him to tie it to the top of the van. Which, we almost lost it on the way home and pulled over on Rt 3 to save it from certain destruction.


And then Mike had the brilliant idea to put it in the tree stand outside before bringing it in and cutting the strings. I can't tell you how much easier that made it!


And here it is. It is still not decorated because I've been feeling sick this week. But soon!


And to make this Christmas Tree Day even better, it snowed :)

Merry Christmas!!
p.s. It's a Christmas tree....not a holiday tree.....I mean c'mon! Please let's not rewrite history....

Thing 1 and Thing 2 - neither related to the other

Thing 1:

I was in Target yesterday doing my non-trader-joe-shop (essentially what's left on my list after Trader Joe's...) trying to plan a dessert for tonight (the lovely Alf and Ruth Lohmann are coming for dinner.)
Apple Cake.....Ooey Gooey Cake.....Fruit Parfaits....WHAT TO DO?!
And then I remembered I was tired. So so tired.
Clearly my culinary motivations have run off with every ounce of energy I once owned.
And then I walked down the baking aisle.
And saw these.
And it gave me pause for thought.
Could it really be as easy as brownie mix + egg + water + oil?
Is this what smart people do? Can it really be this easy?!
And I answered myself. I said, "Self, YES! Grab the brownie mix and go!"
And so I did. And I can't even tell you how excited I am to dump, mix and pour. It is going to make my life so much easier.

And here is Thing 2:

I told you it was unrelated.
But it has transformed my dining room table.
The table is only a few months old, but already it had water marks, heat stains, scratches, etc. It was dry!! Dying and screaming for orange oil love!
And I heard its cries.
And now, it looks even better than when we first bought it!!! Can't you see that SHINE?!
It is only $3.49. As such, I insist you go buy it if you have any wood furniture worth loving. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Thanksgiving Morning

Well here I am on Thanksgiving morning, sitting on my couch in front of a cozy fire waiting for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade to start.
I've always loved holiday mornings, particularly Thanksgiving and Christmas. When we were younger we would always celebrate with the Sharp side, rotating houses each year, and those are some of my favorite Thanksgiving memories. Aunt Betty's cream cheese bars. Aunt Donna's famous banana bread. Uncle Johnny's white hots (I don't know exactly what they were....some sort of sausage sandwich....but they were GOOD!). All of us kids wrestling with dad and Uncle Dean and Uncle Steve. (For the record, we kicked their butts ;) Definitely some good memories. And now we're all grown up. And soon Mike and I will have our own little one running around on Thanksgiving morning, and we'll get to start our own traditions. I hope they're just as fun and exciting as my childhood memories!
Ok, so following in Ange's footsteps, here is a list of things I am grateful for this Thanksgiving (In no particular order):

-my Savior and my God, Jesus Christ
-my incredible husband who takes such great care of me, especially in these early weeks of pregnancy
-my church and their commitment to preach the Gospel
-our new house!
-a baby on the way
-both of our amazing families (Sharps and Smiths!)
-our Community Group
-Friends
-Cheesecake Factory :)
-a Fireplace (i love this one)
-stable jobs
-two working vehicles
-Fruit
-camera
-the YMCA (we need this place to stay in shape ;)
-History (it's fascinating!)
-J Crew coats :)
-bagels (which comprise most of my diet these days)
-new laptop
-Christmas trees
-parents. I'm convinced we have some of the best around!
-water
-snow!
-Change of seasons
-the beach
-doctors and medicine
-health
-good magazines and books
-Music and art
-a country that allows us to worship freely

I think what I was most aware of as I made this list is how many of these things are not necessities. God has been so good to bless us with not only our needs, but also wants. What a gracious God we serve!!! I hope to celebrate Thanksgiving every day, not just once a year. Gratitude certainly is a powerful weapon against anxiety!
"Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. but seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." - Matthew 6:31-33

SURPRISE!

Soooooo.....lately (in spite of recent blog posts) most of my food intake has consisted of these:


And I've been drinking this stuff like medicine:


Because, a few weeks ago when I found out I had swine flu:


We also found out something else:

We are having a baby :) SURPRISE!
However, because I had swine flu when we told our families, I have yet to receive many congratulatory hugs from many beloved family members. Being pregnant didn't change the opinion that I deserved to be quarantined ;)
Rosie did have the best one-liner though. When we told my family, Rosie was relatively quiet until she felt compelled to voice an epiphany she had. She said, "Huh, so I guess this is the first time you've ever really been surprised, Sarah." That kid knows me and my snooping tendencies all too well!
Now here's another funny part to the story. We found out on a Tuesday that I was pregnant. That Sunday before was Sean's birthday and, keeping with traditional Smith gift-giving techniques, we informed Sean his gift was still forthcoming. He joked "is it a baby niece/nephew?!"
We told him yeah right - go jump in a lake.
So, when we told the Smiths a few days later, Sean's first response was "you guys DID get me a baby for my birthday!"
Sorry to burst your bubble, Sean, but our plans for a birthday gift probably looked something like a book. But since this clearly counts as far as you're concerned, we'll just say we got you a niece/nephew for your birthday and call it even ;)

Simple, Perfect Enchiladas

These beauties....


Came from this beauty....

It's a wonderful cookbook. Buy it ASAP :)

But I must warn you: they are rather messy to assemble.

At least....I got messy....i wonder if Pioneer Woman gets messy in the process as well. She didn't say anything about it in her instructions.
Anywho, this is what they look like if you like fun, smothered with sour cream:

And this is what they look like if you don't like to have fun, and don't like sour cream:

I'll leave you to figure out who is fun and who is not so fun ;)

I do Exist

Sorry....I know it's been a while....there've been several events going on :)
Today I had off and I cleaned my house. I can now breathe. I can also now see the floor in my bedroom, which is a major plus.
Anyways, tonight I made Pioneer Woman's Chicken Parmigiana. It was sooooooooo good. Please make it sometime soon.


The side was this amazing Garlic Parmesan Monkey Bread. It was to die for. Mike and I ate half of it. And half of pretty big = still pretty big. Which means we will be going to the gym tomorrow. You have got to try it - it's super easy and super tasty. The melted parmesan makes it super cheesy too! (Wow...that's a lot of supers. Sorry.)



And a side note: this is what my kitchen looked when I was done. Clean, right??? That's because I tried the novel of idea of "cleaning as you go." I liked it. But because I am slow to learn, I will probably not adopt this as a regular habit until I'm 100% desperate and banging my head up against the wall every day for 5 weeks straight. I wish I wasn't like that. Anways, I thought it was an accomplishment so I included this picture as proof that I can cook and be clean. They are not mutually exclusive.


Coming up:
Saturday - Mich and Alex's wedding!!!! Woohoo!!!!! Can't wait!
December 7 - this is an important date for many reasons ;) but among them will be going to Pioneer Woman's booksigning with Alex and Michelle!!! Yes, that's right, the boys are coming with us :) For my birthday Mich gave me PW's cookbook and included a date to the book signing and dinner after. I'm so excited!!!!

Dust Bunnies

Currently, the dust bunnies in my house bear a strong resemblance to this:


And they're staring at me just like that.
Now see, it's both freeing and unnerving to not be able to clean when one is sick. Freeing, because I don't feel guilty. Unnerving because, well, for some reason I can't relax if the room I'm in isn't clean/in order.

I can hear the Swiffer calling my name......