At 4am last Monday, my alarm ushered me into this new, wage-earning responsibility.   We were needed for the store’s nationwide Inventory Day.  Did you celebrate?

After a seven hour shift with a 5 minute break thrown in there somewhere (the company’s break policy leaves much to be desired), I still made it to all of my classes.  Classes which, incidentally, run until 9 at night.  This was some accomplishment for me, and I’m still the smallest bit proud of myself for it.  I worked a few more hours this weekend, and I am now waiting for this coming week’s schedule.  Secretly (well, not so secretly if I’m posting this on the internet), I’m hoping not to work tomorrow.  My first substantial paper is due that afternoon, and I had planned to use Monday morning to edit the heck out of it.  Ah, well.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

This week, I also made scones.  There are still some left, and I’ve been eating them dutifully for breakfast each morning.  They are a variation of these blueberry beauties, which are frankly incredible without any type of variation (although I do sprinkle a bit of sugar on top before baking).  There is still some tweaking to be done to the Orange Blackberry version I made, and as soon as I figure out how to improve them, I’ll post the recipe.  It’s been pretty fun trying, though.

There is soon to be a marathon of baking going on in our sad little kitchen, too.  Another reason I hope not to be called in Monday morning; I want to get an early start on everything.  But I’ll post more about that after the fact.  For now, I prefer to remain cryptic and tight-lipped. 

On another note, my favorite singer is playing in my hometown tonight.  I’m really bummed I can’t make it.  He only comes around about once a year, and I seem to have found several reasons not to go.  I’d be going by myself, it costs money I shouldn’t be spending, I’d be by myself, it costs time I shouldn’t be spending, literally all of his songs remind me of Cutie and I’d be there alone.  The last two reasons are pretty closely linked; as silly as it sounds, we kind of bonded over a specific few of his songs.  They always make me think back to when we were both living on campus, in the same building, and could see each other whenever we wanted.

Ah, well (the running theme of this post, it seems).  I am going home next weekend.  We’re celebrating my mom’s birthday, and if anybody could use a day devoted to herself, it’s my mom.  I hope things start looking better in her life soon.  I love you, mom!!

That’s about all I’ve got for now, unless you’d like to hear about the multiple life crises I’ve had lately.  You wouldn’t?  That’s all right.  I’d rather not go through them again, anyway.  Suppression, it is!

Also the snow.  Did you see the snow?!

We had so much fun, especially after we discovered that the hill in front of his house made for the greatest sledding run.  Zooming down was fun; we made it to the fence (barbed wire!) several times.  Climbing back up, however, was beyond tiring.  Combine uphill leg-lifts with ice-climbing and I think you’ve got the general idea.  My pant legs and fingers were frozen stiff afterward, but it was SO MUCH FUN!  Around 4:30 or 5:00, it was usually too dark and cold to keep going, so this became the time of day when we would start dinner and curl up in front of the fire.  Ah, vacation.  How I love thee.  It really was a marvelous little pretend life to have for a while.  Élan and I seem to fall comfortably back into each others company so quickly.  Give us about two hours, and it’s as though we’ve not been apart at all.  Unfortunately, the opposite is just as true.  When either of us leave, we may as well have been apart forever.  Saying goodbye never gets easier.  But he has his portfolio to develop (you can do it!!), and I have a degree to finish.  The real world calls, much to our mutual dismay, but these are important things to finish, and we both understand this (begrudgingly).

I can stil relive parts of it through the pictures we took, right?  Sure, that’s what I’m going with.  For our trip to the hot springs (so much fun), we have these few photos:

The snow’s piled up higher than the car!

No, that’s not smoke.  The steam looked incredible.  We weren’t brave enough to take our cameras/phones into the actual hot springs area; they would have gotten wet for sure.  It’s a shame, too, because there could have been some amazing silhouette shots (I’m such a sucker for them).  A few photos of our frozen hair would have been hilarious as well, I think.

It was just a wonderful experience overall.  And the people who worked there were so nice, as well.

The time we spent goofing around the house was wonderful, too:

Snow coming through the valley.  Can you believe this is the view from the front porch?

Moose in his booties.

Yup, that’s my Élan.  Look how cute!  There were a lot of these falls, but Moose was always there to sort of save him.

“Okay, I found him…Time for burgers?”

Frolicking with the Moose

Aw…  Um, am I allowed to say that about a picture I’m in?

He’s just too cute.  I can’t wait to see him again!

This is the time to focus on things like family, food, and giving.  To save the poor cat from the six-inch tall, think-they’re-tougher-than-they-really-are dogs as they chase her away from the kitchen.   To sit near the fire and chat about that Christmas in the Valley a few years ago when it snowed on Christmas Eve for the first time in 109 years, when we wore oven mitts because nobody owned gloves.  The time to bake sweet things and wrap presents and bundle up and decorate and catch up with family.  And it’s glorious.  It’s my absolute favorite time of the year, and it never fails to put me in a good mood.

Usually, we all head down to the Valley to spend Christmas with my dad’s extended (read:  enormous) side of the family.  When I say all of us, I really mean all of us.  It’s uncles and aunts and great-uncles and great-aunts and great-great aunts (and uncles) and cousins and second-cousins and third-cousins and heck-I-don’t-know-how-they’re-related-to-me-but-I’ve-known-them-since-I-was-born.  It’s crazy, hectic and way too much fun.

This year, however, we’re staying at home.  My grandmother’s here with us, and we’re all decompressing from a rough year.  It’s different, but it’s nice.  We’ve been baking cookies (delicious!) and wrapping presents (hurray!).  The weather has been all over the place, as it seems to have been throughout the country.  Three days ago, it was in the 70′s F.  The next day, the high was 38F.  It’s supposed to shoot back up into the 70′s tomorrow and Christmas Day.  Just keeping things exciting.

I’m anxiously waiting for our current stockpile of leftovers to run out, though.  I’m just itching to attempt some of the recipes from this cookbook I checked out from my local library:  The Simple Table’s How to Eat Supper.  It is quite possibly the coolest cookbook I have yet perused.  Now only is it filled with beautiful pictures (a cookbook must, in my opinion) and delicious-looking recipes, but the authors take the time to offer variations on most dishes and interesting facts about preparation in general.  I am in love.  I’ve been almost seriously contemplating keeping it.  Maybe I could return just the dust jacket.  Oh well, I can always check it out again.

On a related note, I found an awesome cookie  recipe lately.  I’m just about to finish baking the rest of the dough.  Once they’re done, I’ll be sure to post the recipe (and print out a copy for you guys, mom and Emaw…).

I hope everyone’s enjoying their own period of repose.  Remember, calories don’t count during the holidays.  That’s what my grandmother always says, anyway…

Do some freaking dishes already!  It’s really not that difficult.  You see me do it every day.  There’s the sponge.  There’s the dish soap.  There’s the sink.  And I’m sure you can see the mountain of dirty dishes, none of which are mine.

I’ve decided to stop doing their gosh darn dishes for them.  Now I’m just cleaning my own.  Right after I’m done with them.  Just like we’d decided we would all do at our “chore meeting” the beginning of the year.  I mean, really, they’re about to graduate from college.  College!  Surely they’ve learned that:

Leaving out dirty dishes (for several days!!)=Pests and nothing to eat off of

Really, it’s a simple equation.  And I’m not just being my normal “I…I don’t like confrontation” self.  I’ve mentioned it.  Me!  And was subsequently scoffed at and muttered about in German. *Cumin*  Arg!  Perhaps I should have listened to everyone cautioning me about living with friends.

And another thing, housemates.  Wait, let me wag my finger a bit.  Haven’t you ever heard of keeping it down to a dull roar when others are sleeping?  Another thing I’ve mentioned before.  Élan had to leave at 5 in the morning yesterday.  That is early.  Hence, the early bedtime.  Enter the housemates, especially Cumin, who decide it would be a good idea to have some sort of shouting/unearthly-loud-laughing contest until 1 or 2 in the morning.  I brought it up the next day.  I was assured it wouldn’t happen again.  However, I must have misunderstood the time-frame because it happened again last night.

And Cumin eats everything in sight!  The woman’s a walking vacuum-cleaner for food!  I wanted some of that dinner I made for myself, thank you!

Sorry.  That last one just sort of slipped out.  It’s been bugging me for quite some time now.

Phew.  I do feel a bit better, though.  But I may just go hole myself up in the library for a while.  You know, um, for the change of scenery.

Besides, how could anyone possibly leave this precious Moose-y face for too long a time?

So we’re back (yet again) to what we call our “phone relationship.”  Looking on the bright side, however (like I promised him I would):

1. I will see him again soon.  That awesome boy’s Christmas present to me was a plane ticket to visit him in January.  When there will be snow!  Honest-to-goodness snow!  I’m very excited.  I’m also quite worried about finding an appropriately awesome gift for him.  I would ask for suggestions, but he’s one of my two readers.
2. This semester is almost over.  After December 18th, I will no longer have to care about Jean-Paul Marat’s opinion of the French populace during the French Revolution.  I can leave behind both Bougainville and Diderot–and their comments on Tahitian culture.  I may only occasionally reflect upon Rousseau’s contradictory comments about women and their “natural” place in society.  And I will leave behind a semester’s worth of classes, cramming, and essay-writing for which I’m sure I will be nostalgic after I graduate.
3. I have a babysitting job lined up for New Year’s Eve.  I realize this doesn’t sound like the best way to ring in the New Year, but it pays.  Well.  Very well.  And this family has the cutest little boy ever.  Well, almost ever.  I don’t know that anyone will be able to top Liam, the buddy I made this past summer.  But, I’m telling you, this kid is still pretty freaking cute.  Last year, his favorite game was “Superheros,” in which he donned a blanket-cape and ran from room to room shouting, as a three-year-old does, “Let’s go duper-eeros!”  It was all I could do to keep up and catch my breath, I was laughing so hard.  It was just that cute.
4. Did I mention I get to see Élan again soon?  We’re talking less than a month here, people!  *Yay!*

Thanksgiving was incredible as well.  Food as far as the eye could see, and I actually got to help with a good portion of it.  I love cooking, especially with my mom.  She’s a great teacher.  We ended up making turkey (of course); cranberry sauce (check out the pictures below); cornbread, sausage and chestnut stuffing (yum!); spinach au gratin (my favorite thing on the table this year); mashed potatoes; sweet potatoes; sauerkraut (although my mom’s really the only one who eats it); green beans; broccoli; and gravy.  Needless to say, we were all pleasantly satiated Thursday night.  Way to go mom!

From this...

...to this!

We digested with a bit of Extreme-Croquet (developed by the boys).  This quickly evolved from normal croquet to some sort of croquet-horseshoes-golf hybrid.  The goal was to hit the ball downhill as hard as you could.  Depending on which wicket(s) you went through, you were given a certain number of points.  I think we ended up breaking three mallets…

My brother concentrating. Afterwards, he promtly beat the pants off us.

Dad's always such a good sport. (ha!)

Élan perfecting his one-handed approach.

Mom wouldn’t let me take any pictures of her.  Something about not having on any make-up.  I’ll get you next time, mom.  Don’t you worry about that.

Our old-man Lab, Jaxon. He's a sweetie.

Sometimes he's just too cute to stand. Really.

All-in-all, it was a wonderful day.  And that was just Thanksgiving.  The break wasn’t over yet…

CUTIE’S HERE CUTIE’S HERE CUTIE’S HERE CUTIE’S HERE!

It’s a wonderful thing.  He arrived late Friday evening, exhausted from his 18 hour drive and adorable as ever.  Even in his delirious state, the wonderful guy put up with the enthusiasm of my housemates (and myself) as we dragged him out to Canyon Café not 30 minutes after his arrival.  Needless to say, he impressed them all (did anyone have any doubts?).

Am I gushing enough?  I can’t help it.  I’m just so gosh darn excited to be able to pal around with him for such a long period of time.  You’d be happy to see your best friend, too (I assume).

So far, we’ve made dinner as a house, watched Ironman, tried to purchase a replacement computer cable, found said cable to be ridiculously too expensive, seen Madagascar 2 (we’re a movie-intensive couple), and worked on our respective to-do lists (unbelievable, I know).  And he’s only been here for two and a half days!  Tonight, after I finish up my Marketing project (23 pages long, thank you very much), the house is going to a mutual friend’s surprise birthday party.  Élan’s going to get to see people with whom he graduated.  I’m not sure if he’s excited about this or not, but he’s being a trooper and coming along.

Tuesday we’re driving to my parents’ for the Thanksgiving festivities.  My mom makes great food, and leftovers are an especially big deal chez nous, if I may be so pretentious.  For lunch on “Black Friday,” we have my mom’s patented Thanksgiving Paninis.  They.  Are.  Awesome.  I will be sure to post pictures/recipes/overly-detailed descriptions/love sonnets pertaining to said mind-blowing sandwiches.

And I get to help!  I get to cook with my mom in a beautiful kitchen, complete with up-to-date appliances, granite countertops, and an island.  An island!  Coming from our microkitchen, this is the promise land.  Am I gushing again?  I’ve got to work on that.

Right.  Well, it’s back to work for me now.  In the meantime, I am embarassed at the quality of food photographs I have posted here.  In order for me to re-inflate my ego, as it were, allow me to post a few photos of which I am relatively proud.  Please excuse me if this seems ludicrous.

Enjoy!