"Christmastime is here...

...happiness and cheer. Fun for all that children call their favorite time of year." I've had this sung stuck in my head all week but for good reason....

Christmastime is here, ya'll! It's so exciting! Sunday my family put up our Christmas lights and Christmas tree. The game of asking my brother Joel who sings what Christmas song has begun (he's a whiz at all things Christmas. Well, all things really...) The Christmas music playlist has been compiled, added to my iPod, and put on repeat and will likely stay there until December 26th. I've had a singalong with my good friend Mary to 'N Sync's Christmas album. All signs that my favorite time of year has arrived!

I've decided to have another week of a little feature I like to call "Little Things: Christmas Edition." Each day for the next week I'm going to post about the little things about Christmas that I love. They may be REALLY little, but I'm going to post every day, and that's a big deal. (Considering I posted 9 measly posts in the month of November.) Get excited, "Little Things: Christmas Edition" is coming your way beginning tomorrow.

Happy Christmastime!

Stuck in a rut.

Such a lame, lame post to follow Thanksgiving, but it's the little things that keeps this blog going, so bear with me. One of my guilty/mindless/high maintenance pleasures is painting my nails. I do it probably 2 or 3 times a week so I can avoid biting my nails. About day 3 I start picking at my fingernail polish and biting my nails, so I repaint them and the cycle starts all over again.

I have a recent obsession with OPI nail polish. Once you go OPI, you don't go back. So when I'm feeling shameless, I hop on over to Beauty Brands and buy a new shade. Well, I was looking at my collection of fingernail polish the other day and I thought that I'm getting new, original shades that I don't have... but as you can see, I come home with pretty much the same color ever time. I need to stop biting my nails. I need to stop buying expensive nail polish. And I need to stop buying the same color of that expensive nail polish.

Chances are, none of those habits will be broken, so I better go paint my nails... because I just love it.

Homemade.

I've been meaning to blog for the last week. I've had pictures and ideas in my head but just haven't made the time. Fact: I miss having the time to blog. Just because I'm not here and posting doesn't mean I don't want to be. Just saying...

In other news, Happy Thanksgiving! Today has been a wonderful day filled with: a delicious meal, a house packed full of 30 of my favorite people, lots of games, the strange Burrichter tradition of a piñata, lots of sweets, a 3-hour nap... All around great day. I'm thankful, to say the least. I hope you're having just as lovely of a day.

I had thought I would blog about how I love making things homemade. One of my favorite things about baking is taking recipes from bloggers that I respect and trying to make it look like their masterpieces. This year I volunteered to make rolls from the Thanksgiving meal so I made Annie's Eats Honey Yeast Rolls recipe. We have a tradition (my family is big on traditions) that we have herb bread every year... it's hard to compete with a tradition but these rolls were still pretty great.

I guess I just have a lot of little things to say. In summation: 1. I miss blogging and I hope to pick up the pace in the near future. 2. Happy Thanksgiving!/I'm thankful... 3. I love making things homemade. The end.

Missouri weather.

Missouri weather always keeps us guessing. The only thing that you can count on is that you can't count on it. Nothing is routine or normal, it's always all over the place. I resent it at times. Especially in the spring, when things should be warming up and getting green and we get a snow storm... But today, this whole fall season really, I've been loving how out of the ordinary it's been. It's November, and we've had multiple days in the 60s... and it's been wonderful!

Today I wore flip flops, drove with the windows down, and went on a "hike" with my friend Jessie. It was beautiful outside! I was so incredibly thankful for the weather today.

Come spring you'll probably hear my griping about how I hate how unpredictable the weather is and wish it would just get warm like it's supposed to. But today... today I am loving this sunny and 60s November weather.

Funny story...

I enjoy decorating cakes but to be honest, they kind of stress me out. I'm a perfectionist and it's just kind of hard to do amazing things with frosting as your medium and canvas. Well, tonight I decorated a cake and everything went so smoothly... Baking the cake went well. Frosting it went well. Decorating it went well. I even felt good about my writing. I kept thinking to myself, "Man, this is going so well. Maybe cake decorating isn't so bad."

I came up to blog about what a great day I've had and how a beautiful cake was the perfect way to top off a great day, week even. I was adding the pictures when I got this nagging feeling, "You need to check the name of the little girl and make sure it's right." (I don't know the family that I'm making it for. It was a connection through a friend...) So, I went to my e-mail, checked all the details that we had sent back and forth... And sure enough! I'd finished a lovely cake for a little girl named Ruth.

Their child's name is Ruby.

With the help of some leftover frosting (it's a miracle that I kept it, because I was contemplating throwing it out) and a toothpick, I, for the most part, remedied the situation and I'm still pretty happy with the end result. I keep picturing in my head this woman I don't know coming to my house, me handing her this cake that I'm really proud of and her saying, "Actually... my daugther's name is Ruby, not Ruth." How embarrassing would that have been?! Man, what a close call.

(My attempted remedy...)

Can't Sleep: Gungor Edition

For some reason I can't sleep... I just finished an episode of Friday Night Lights (you can probably expect a post on that soon, since I'm borderline hooked after 4 episodes.) I really want to watch another one but I should go to bed because I have yet another test for work tomorrow. Instead I thought I'd blog a little. (Remember the days when 11:30 was early for me?)

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how great the band Gungor is. They sing Christian music, but it's not the cheesy, predictable CCM that Christian music so often sounds like. I don't know why the moment someone opens their mouth to sing about Jesus they automatically fall into a unfortunate pattern of musical mediocrity, but it happens... a lot. This band, on the other hand, is great. They have an original sound, with a variety of instruments (not your standard electric, acoustic, bass, drums), beautifully interesting vocals, and solid lyrics. I was reminded of how great Gungor is this morning when I played them for my friend Christine on our way to work. She was an instant fan, too. And was reminded again after a long (and I mean long) day of work, when I put Gungor on and their melodic presentation of the truths of this world turned it around.

I really couldn't ask for much more in a band. You should check them out. Now. (Below is an acoustic version of one of my favorite songs of their's: "Beautiful Things.")

Bank holidays.

Sorry I've been a slacker at blogging lately. Life is different now that I'm working full time. I'm more possessive of my free time, for sure. So this week, instead of giving me free time to blogging... I gave it to other things like laying in bed watching movies, and having Chick-fil-A with friends, and watching Grey's Anatomy and Private Practice with the girls. One thing I realized this week though...

I love bank holidays! Technically, although there's no drive through window with tellers (P.S. To this day, I'm still afraid of going through the drive through at my banks, I opt for the ATM every time), J.P. Morgan, where I work, is a investment bank of sorts. So I got yesterday, Veteran's Day, a Thursday, off from work! It was great! It pays working for bank! I loved it. Granted, it did feel weird to go back to work today because yesterday felt like the weekend, but I'm not complaining.

Yesterday was a wonderful day: I went and visited my favorite coffee shop in town, Latte Land, where my friend Corrie works. I had a perfectly toasted everything bagel and a delicious caramel vanilla latte (shh, don't tell anyone, but Corrie gave it to me for free!) Then I went to lunch with my friend Shannon and had Mexican. Fact: I love chips and salsa. Then I had a surprise teeth cleaning. My lovely mom cleans my teeth so it's about as ideal of a situation as it can be. She cleans teeth like an angel. Then I went and baked some TASTY cookies with my friend Jessie. Headed home and cooked some yummy soup for my family. Sang at church in the evening... it's been too long since I've sang. And I finished the evening watching Private Practice with Jessie and Corrie. Talk about a perfect day.

Bank holidays rock! I'll take a random Thursday off any week!

Leaves.

Good news: The leaves on our trees finally changed colors and I finally got around to taking pictures of them. As you can see, the picture above is just ok... Nothing that special about it, I know. But you get that tree in contact with a little bit of sunlight and magic happens. (I've written about this before, how I love how leaves and the sun work together, but here I am again...)

Anyway... happy fall and happy Friday! Enjoy some pictures of some beautiful foliage!

Freedom!

I passed my second license test today! I now am an official holder (I don't think that's the word they use) of my Series 6 and Series 63 licenses. That means I can fake talking to you about your stocks and know how to avoid going to prison for sharing inside information (as if you need a license to figure that out.) I was feeling pretty good about my accomplishment until I just read my friend Jeff's blog where he documented the recent marathon he ran. I passed two tests... he ran 26.2 miles. I suppose we are both winners... he just deserves a bigger trophy.

Anyway, I enjoyed the challenge and the new knowledge but I'm glad for it to be over. I'm pretty stoked to be like the fortunate adults who get to leave work at work. So today, and hopefully from here on out, that's what I'm doing. Today has been a great day: I passed my test (and so did my friend and co-worker Christine!), I got paid for an extended lunch, I got let out 2 hours early, and now I'm home, lounging on my bed, drinking a Sonic Diet Coke, blogging, catching up on TV, and reading silly fashion magazines. Ahhh...