Fizzies Taste Test!

For Christmas, Santa left my brother, sister-in-law and I some fun retro candies in our stockings. Charms. Fizzies. Zotz, which are my personal fave. On Christmas night we decided to do a little taste test of Fizzies - an "instant sparkling drink!" Here's the results.

We followed the directions VERY closely.

First we tossed - yes, TOSSED as shown in the directions - our Fizzie tablets into eight ounces of water.

Then we carefully watched the Fizzies at counter-level. Here's an extremely exciting video of me tossing my Fizzies tablet in to my cup and watching as it fizzes:

They're DONE!

Enjoying! Justin had Blue Razz, Stacey had Cherry and I had Root Beer. Justin gave them one shrug and chugged his AND Stacey's.

Stacey and I on the other hand had very similar reactions. (And Stacey asks me to remove this picture in 3...2...1...) All three tasted pretty watered down and kind of metallic-y.

Verdict: taste definitely did not measure up to the novelty...but still fun to test out together.

Elf on the Shelf

So a few days into December I came home from work, went upstairs to my bedroom to change into my PJs for the night and felt like I was being watched. I looked all around for the prying eyes burning a hole through me and spotted this little guy:

He was literally an elf on my shelf. (And thankfully not that creepy trademarked Elf on the Shelf...) Growing up we had an elf that sat on top of our grandfather clock in the entry way - but he didn't move around and have night time adventures like today's EOTS. I think it's a fun tradition to have though, and I've enjoyed the blogs I've read about that person's elf's adventures.

I expressed my amusement at having an elf on MY shelf to my mother and said I sure hope he enjoyed his stay and exploring different parts of my room. HINT. HINT.

Well...it took *ahem* Elfie a few days to get his act together and play the game correctly, but once he did I found him in some fun spots:

My favorite one? Elfie spent quite a bit of time going through ALL my earrings and various "bling," so I didn't notice at first when he moved on to meet Clay. Last weekend I was laying on my bed catching up on TV shows via Hulu, and I heard something fall between my bed and the wall - with the faintest chime of a jingle bell. It startled me and I had ZERO clue what that sound might have been. I bounced around on my bed a few times, trying to recreate the sound to no avail. I shrugged it off.

My mother informed me a few days later she had to rescue Elfie when she heard his cries from being trapped. Poor Elfie...

Proof that even at 28.7 years old, Christmas can still be a little magical.

Christmas Cookie Exchange

Saturday Amanda hosted a Christmas Cookie Exchange at her new house. I haven't been to one since we did it in Girl Scouts growing up and I don't usually attend many Christmas parties, so I was looking forward to it.

Unfortunately the weather on Saturday made me a bit Grinchy...80+ degrees with a pressure headache and frizzy hair, courtesy of lingering humidity, didn't make me feel very holly and jolly. Luckily some snacks and Amanda's Amaretto Punch changed that. It was a small group of the usual suspects in attendance, but it was nice to sit and catch up, play games and snack on everyone's baked goods.

I still haven't had a chance to sample all the goodies I took home, but Tammi's chocolate chip cookies were pretty tasty. (So was her fudge - deliciously smooth. Mmm...) I made pecan pie cookies (bottom right) that were pretty good - but if I do them again, they'll be smaller for a better cookie-to-pie-filling ratio.

I loved all Amanda's festive Christmas food - the olive penguins were my favorite. What did we do before Pinterest?

Angela, Tammi and I hung around for awhile after everyone else left and got crafty! Always the artist, Amanda had spray painted some ice cream cone holders left over from a Thanksgiving craft green to be Christmas trees.

Angela and baby Leland (Such a good party guest! Barely a peep from him until he was handed off me to - I don't know why I make babies cry, but I do...) made one, Tammi made an ocean tree and I...made three. I was a good guest and left them all on Amanda's mantel though. Hope she doesn't mind my out-of-season Halloween tree! :)

After the party and dinner, Tammi and I headed off to see "Breaking Dawn" together - finally! My four word review: well played, Melissa Rosenberg.

Now I've just got to finish the other half of my shopping this weekend and I'll be all ready for Christmas.

Christmas time is here...

A little look at my revamped holiday decor for this year:

 My own mini-Christmas tree. And I thought a
string of 100 lights was going to be too much...

  If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen my Scrappy Christmas garland
I found on Pinterest. I used LED lights instead of incandescent since they're cool
to the touch. Since I didn't have ribbon scraps lying around, I used a bunch of red
and green fabric scraps my mom gave me and mixed in some hot pink and 

lime green tulle to match the color scheme of my pennants I found online. I took
about four hours to tie everything on (and that was with my mom cutting fabric
strips for me), but well worth the time investment. I love it - and want to make
another one for Halloween! (Shocker, right?) I think next time I'll use all fabric.

Scrappy Garland close-up.

I posted this last week. Pinterest has made me fall in love with pennants.
Here's where I found these (for free!). The file includes some additional
printables too - like a party invite and place cards.

Here's the one I made with the Christmas trees. I like
throwing in the less conventional shapes to mix it up! 

Even made my bathroom festive. (I really just
like any excuse to decorate with lights...) 

Cause we need a little Christmas...

Trying to get in the holiday spirit, but it's a little difficult when it's 80+ degrees outside. Also difficult when you get Mariah Carey-bombed just three days in to the holiday season. Nov. 26 at 12:02 p.m. - that's how long it took this year before I heard that damn song...

Now I'm sitting here, trying to convince myself if I put up my three-foot Christmas tree (read: get it out of the corner of my bedroom because it's driving me crazy there) I will feel a little more festive. If nothing else, I do love spending the month of December basking in the glow of Christmas lights indoors. I'm thinking these white lights might get left up after the month is over.

More pictures to come, including a fun holiday Pinterest project I did over the weekend and a fun printable I'm using to decorate. Being crafty seems to help me leave the Grinchy-ness behind...

Thanksgiving 2012

It's fair to say I get a little bah humbug once Halloween has ended and it's on to the rest of the holiday season. I let all the marketing get to me: I hate that Christmas starts before October is even over. But more than that, I hate that Thanksgiving seems to have turned into the red-headed step child of the holidays.

But 2012, you just might be the year to turn things around. I have some fun Christmas-y things to look forward to and this year's Thanksgiving was the best I've had in awhile.

This is where I started my day - the Houston Holiday Parade. I'd never been to this parade, much less been IN one. But that's exactly where I ended up. (I love my job and that it gives me the chance to do things most people won't ever get to do.)

Our float was just around the corner from where the balloons were being staged. 

Getting up close to them was fun. You can't read them well in this photo (check out above), but I loved the Chronicle's headlines on their paper. As you can tell, this guy has a "ruff" job.

The view from our float.

View of downtown from our float.

Golden Dragon. This balloon was just in front of us in the parade. One day, I want to be a balloon handler.

On the parade route. Later in the day when my brother and sister-in-law came over for Thanksgiving dinner, I was informed my smiling and waving skills were not quite up to par...

My dad tagged along since I had a wristband for the fancy schmancy grand stands and he's always wanted to go to the parade. This was his and Jack's view of the parade route, right in front of Minute Maid Park.

Even though I need to work on my smile/wave, being in the parade was a really fun (and different) way to start the day - and an item to cross off the bucket list.

Sir Clayton welcomed us home after the parade with this festive message.

Then it was time for a favorite Thanksgiving tradition in our household: Bloody Mary's. I'm not a big fan of tomato so I usually opt for mimosas, but Katie's post-wedding brunch that included a Bloody Mary bar inspired me to give them a try. I like mine with a dash of garlic salt, large splash of olive juice and as many olives as I can jam into the glass. The homemade pickled okra, courtesy of Stacey's dad, was pretty delicious too. But just one - that's all the tomato my stomach can handle.

Mmm...turkey. I was very glad ours was stuffed with stuffing...not spaghetti like I dreamed earlier in the week. (Still not sure where that one came from...)

I was trying to get a shot to display my dad's expert carving skills along with my Great Hall candles (yes, still up from Halloween...) which we've decided to leave up through the rest of the holiday season. But SOMEONE was in photobombing mode. Jokes on you, little brother. Bet you didn't think I'd post this, did you? ;)

Carving shot.

While dad carves the turkey, mom makes the gravy from pan drippings. I'm not much for gravy, but this one I splash on my stuffing, potatoes and turkey.

I added the green bean casserole and sweet potatoes to the oven. When we opened the over to take everything out, this is what the garlic mashed potatoes looked like. Potato souffle!

Before & after. Yum. 

Then I took a nap.

After dinner, Justin and Stacey bailed to take naps as well and returned later for pumpkin pasties, pumpkin cheesecake and buttermilk pie. I was feeling adventurous and has a little of all three. My stomach regretted the decision shortly after.

Then everyone ditched me to go Black Friday shopping at 8 p.m. I stayed home, watched a little more football and went to bed for real. All in all, lovely Thanksgiving.

Bonus points: fridge stuffed with leftovers.