P.F. Chang's Lettuce Wraps and The Godfather.

It was a lazy weekend.  Thats the kind that I like.  We watched not just the first... not just the second... but all three Godfather movies.  I had never seen them. 

The second was my favorite and Al Pacino was quite the looker back in the day!  I'm still not quite as impressed as Caleb who has asked me at least five times, "Don't you think those are the best movies ever?!"

Source: One Frame Per Second

  Saturday evening I cooked knock off P.F. Changs lettuce wraps with my lovely friend Noteka.  You can find the recipe here.  The only thing that I changed was doubling the sauce that you mix into the chicken.  They are AMAZING.  Almost as good as the ones at the restaurant!  The recipe calls for a lot of obscure ingredients that you normally wouldn't keep in the cabinet, but once you have all the things you need it is enough to make the wraps several different times.  Its definitely worth it!

Do I really have to go back to work tomorrow?  The weekend is never long enough!

Sometimes the simple things are the best things.

Holiday Magic and Pre Spring Cleaning.

The holidays were magical.  Christmas with family.

New Years with friends in a beautiful cabin in the woods.

And then I returned home.  To a mess.  Caleb and I left home in a whirlwind.  Excited to begin the holiday festivities, see family, and spend time with friends.  So naturally, when we came back home I decided that the mess was intolerable so I proceeded to make an even bigger mess by organizing and rearranging every last piece of furniture in our small loft apartment.

Is it too early for Spring cleaning?  

Proceed with caution.  What you are about to see is utterly disturbing and entirely disgusting.  Please forgive the blurry photos... I think my camera was in shock... 

And this, my friends, is what you find when you move our couch.  A cat toy, a pony tail holder, my long lost favorite chap stick, and a pistacchio shell.  Oh wait, don't forget the bottle cap and cotton pad that I used to remove some turquoise nail polish from my toes back in July.  Gross! 

Oh don't worry... Spinter was in heaven.  My Grandma says that all cats love a good mess.  I think she's right.

Merry and Bright!

Christmas Traditions

I'm big on traditions. 

Sometimes I know that I go overboard with my attempts to make the holidays meaningful and memorable, but I can't help it.  To try to keep me from being this excited about Christmas would be like telling me that my hair isn't really brown or that I don't have freckles.  Its just part of who I am.  But it's easy for me to get caught up and out of control in that Clark Griswold Christmas Vacation kind of way.  I just think that I am at that point in my life when I really appreciate all of the traditions of my past and at that same time am eager to make my own.

One of my favorite traditions is making Christmas cookies with my grandma.  It's a family recipe for a French cookie called a Galette.  And they are yummy!  Like with any cookie the dough is equally as addicting.  

The interesting thing about these cookies is that you can only make two at a time because you make them in a cookie iron.  I like to think that it means there is extra thought and love in each cookie.  Hehe.

Every year, this is where you will find my grandpa... sitting at the end of the table.  Supervising.  He never makes the first cookie, but lets you know if you cook one too long.  He also likes to swipe the cookies when you aren't looking.  He is somewhat of a French cookie connoisseur.  :)  

Look at that golden brown goodness.  

And here's what this one did while we made cookies.  And yes.  That's a textbook.  That he is reading for fun.  Overachiever.

Ginger Bread House Catastrophe.

I LOVE my friend Allison.

She is the picture of kindness and warmth.  

I also LOVE ginger bread houses.

Ours was the picture of disaster and impatience.  :)

Okay, so definitely not like the picture on the box...

Christmas Movie Marathon List

It seems like this time of year everyone is extra busy.  Busy Christmas shopping.  Busy decorating.  Busy baking.  Busy running here and running there.  Add having four wisdom teeth extracted and a crazy amount of new clients at work and I feel like I have never been this busy.

One of my favorite things to do around the holidays involves the opposite of being busy.  Watcing Christmas movies (much to Caleb's dismay :) )

I was skimming through the TV listings the other night and I got to thinking about how many different Christmas movies are out there.  And then I got to thinking about what movies I would classify as my all time favorites... I decided to list them just for the fun of it and before long the list was ginormous so I had to cut it back.

Below are just a few of my favorites.


Prancer
I chose to list this first because it is one of my earliest memories.

Who doesn't like Prancer?  This is one of the first Christmas movies that I can ever remember watching.  If I recall correctly my mom took me to the theatre and I peed my pants on the way home.... too much soda in the theatre I guess.  Or too much excitement.  Whichever you prefer to believe.

Source: Movie Goods

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Now this is a goody.  My mom and I have watched this every year for as long as I can remember.  Now that I am a little older I think that I really identify with Clark.  In that Ialwayswanttheholidaystobepictureperfect kind of way.  I have to give him credit for trying.

Source: Wikipedia

Rudolph

A classic.  This is the only one all season so far that Caleb has been okay with watching.  Doesn't everyone have memories associated with these classics?  My mom owned all of these movies and even had some of the stuffed characters from the Island of Misfit Toys.

Source: IMockery

Elf

"We elves try to stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup." 


I would watch this year round... except my husband would hate me. 

Source: Zoogle

Home Alone 1 and 2


Okay, so I'll admit, this is where my love for the song Carol of the Bells originated, I owned a Talk Boy, and I used many a brain cells trying to design booby traps after watching this movie.  The second one fueled my desire to visit New York City and has made me long to visit Rockefeller Center at Christmas and stay in a room at The Plaza.

I love watching these movies snuggled up on the couch with a cup of cocoa and some Christmas cookies.

Source: Hollywood News

I also love How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Family Stone, The Santa Clause, Frosty the Snowman, Miracle on 34th Street, Four Christmases, Little Women, Scrooged, Meet me in St. Louis.... I could go on and on and on...

Sometimes the Simple Things are the Best Things.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas.

Decorations? Check.  

Candy Canes? Check.

Russian Santa Nesting Dolls? Check.

Pine Cones? Check.

Bright and Twinkly Christmas Tree?  Check!

It really is beginning to look a lot like Christmas.