Cookie decorating

One of the things Shawn and I have done for the past few years in preparation for Christmas is to have people over to decorate Christmas cookies. As we have moved and people have graduated, the people who have come to decorate have changed, but I love the tradition itself. It is a fun activity that allows for a bit of creativity and gives us a chance to hang out with some great people.

This year, my office-mate Laura and her girlfriend Alex came over to decorate cookies with us a few weeks before the actual holiday. First, we went out to dinner at Red Robin (gotta love those towering onion rings!) and then it was time to decorate.

As I mentioned, this is something Shawn and I have done for awhile. One of the first cookie decorating parties was back in our apartment in Pullman with good friends Arianna and Tim.

 Here's a few pics from back then.

Then for the last two years we had our friends Hollie and Cassie decorate with us.

The only downside to cookie decorating? The large number of cookies left in the house after we are done. It's dangerous!

Christmas in North Carolina

Shawn and I spent Christmas in North Carolina, and although that means we didn't have many family and friends to spend it with, we still had a wonderful holiday. Here is a brief overview of our first Christmas, married, and in North Carolina.

Shawn was fortunate enough to have Christmas Eve day off from work. He actually got to work from home on the Thursday evening leading up to it, which was really nice. On Christmas Eve day we luckily had finished all our shopping, except for shopping for food and other necessities. We headed to SuperTarget to get some staples, and to try and figure out what to eat for Christmas dinner. We decided we would do something simple and chose chicken alfredo as the dish we would make. After we headed out of Target (which was quite busy) we headed home to hang out for a bit.

Our next stop was church. We went to a 7 p.m. Christmas Eve service that was nice but a little long, and also very packed. We left there around 8:30 and called in some Chinese food. When I was younger, my family would order Chinese food for Christmas Eve dinner. This was especially fun when we were visiting my grandparents in California for Christmas because there was an amazing Chinese restaurant there.

Shawn had found a Chinese place he liked in Raleigh, and they had a Durham location, so we put our order in and picked it up. We headed home to eat Chinese in our pjs. After the Chinese (which was good, but not quite my favorite) we built a gingerbread house while watching Elf.  I guess we didn't really BUILD the gingerbread house, it was really a decorating kit we had purchased. While decorating, I realized I am not a fan of decorating gingerbread houses, so that is one new tradition we will probably scrap. I just don't see the point. You can't really eat it. And in our house, you can't really leave it out. Jack would try to lick all the icing off and eat the candies, so we created it and then hid it in the microwave--kind of pointless.

After the gingerbread house, it was time for 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. As per Fitts family tradition, my dad read us the book. You may be wondering how this is possible since we were in North Carolina and my family was back in Washington.

My parents sent our gifts to us, and one gift's tag said to open Christmas Eve. It was one of those wonderful Hallmark books that lets someone record the story. I think I listened to the book three times all the way through and played the first and last pages an additional few times. In the beginning of the book, my dad recorded a message to get us ready for the reading, and at the end my family all wished us a Merry Christmas in unison (I only cried the first two times I heard that one). That book is one of my favorite Christmas presents ever.

Then it was off to bed to dream of sugar plum fairies and wait for Santa.

I woke early, like I always do on Christmas, but I had agreed with Shawn the night before that we wouldn't get up until 8:30. I waited...then it was time to head downstairs. Our stockings were out on the couch, and Bella was anxious to check hers out.

We went through and opened our stocking presents. Santa had a few helpers this year. My parents sent over stocking stuffers that were all wrapped, so I got up before Shawn and loaded them up, and we had fun opening some traditional stocking stuffers (candy, such as the Sour Patch Kids I get every year) and some unexpected ones (a great Under Armour headband for running).

After that we moved on to the presents, and just as every year, Santa, my parents, my brother, and Shawn all provided wonderful gifts. (Above is a picture of Shawn opening a gift from my parents that included items to help him detail his car).

Bella also enjoyed all of her gifts, and she only got a few things. Both Bella and Jack each got some treats and toys.

After all the gifts had been opened, I made a turkey bacon and cheese quiche while Shawn and I talked about what to do that day. I don't know what we decided on, but I think it must have been nothing, because that is what we did Christmas day, and it was wonderful.

We spent some time talking to family and enjoying our new gifts, or working on them (Shawn got me a Nook, one of those Barnes and Noble eReaders, so we spent some time trying to get the internet hooked up and books on there).


We watched our new movies (Jeff got Shawn Inception on Blue Ray and me Eclipse). Then, in the evening, still in our pjs, we made Christmas dinner. We had chicken alfredo, garlic bread and salad. It was wonderful.

Overall, I really enjoyed Christmas in North Carolina, but I am excited to hopefully spend next Christmas with some more family as well.

Merry Christmas!

Somehow we managed to get a pic of us and the pets all looking toward the camera. This was actually taken about a week before Christmas, but I am not sure we can ever get such a picture again, so I decided to use this one. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Getting ready for Christmas

This post is about a week late--so my apologies. Finals hit, and I just couldn't get it from draft form to publish. I will have a few over the coming days though to make up for lost time. :-)

Shawn and I will be spending our Christmas in North Carolina, so we wanted to get a start on decorating. I like to decorate early so that I can enjoy the decorations for awhile. This habit started when we lived in Pullman because as soon as the semester would end we would head back to the west side, leaving behind our decorated tree and our window lights. Since we aren't leaving this year though, we waited a little longer (first week of December) to get our Christmas decorations up.

We started the process on Saturday when we planned to get a Christmas tree. We first went and got some ornaments and lights, but as the snow started to pile up, we decided getting a tree would wait until Sunday.

Getting a tree in NC is a very different experience from some of our tree trips in Washington. I have gone with my family to choose a tree to be cut at a farm, and we have even gone to farms where you cut your own. That isn't the case here. If we wanted to cut our own tree we would have had to go about 4 hours out toward the mountains. We chose to go to a lot where the money we spent went to charity (of course this meant the tree was significantly overpriced) but the people were helpful with getting it on the car and into the stand (even if it was a little crooked).

We got the tree home Sunday afternoon, but we still had grocery shopping to do, so it wasn't until Sunday evening we brought it inside to start decorating. We didn't get very far, though. We had bought two strings of white lights for the tree. When we bought the lights, we didn't realize how big a tree we would be getting, but since the tree is about 7 feet, the two strands are far from enough to cover it.

It wasn't until the next weekend we were able to go look for lights. Two different Targets and a Lowe's trip later, we finally found white light at Michaels. We spent the evening decorating the tree and enjoying it. It has a mix of new ornaments (teal and silver) with some older ones (like Jack's cat ornament--we need to get one for Bella).

 
More posts to come about our decorating and experiences with Christmas here in NC.

It's snowing in Durham!

Today Shawn and I were going to get a Christmas tree. He told me this morning that we should go early because it was supposed to rain today. He was wrong. Of course we didn't get out early enough, and it was afternoon before we got ready to leave. It wasn't raining though. It was snowing!

At first it was just a sprinkling--wouldn't even count as snow in Ocean Shores, and we know that even a little snow counts there. It kept coming though, and by the time we were leaving Target with ornaments in hand, the real snow had begun. We decided to skip picking out the tree today, and instead headed to Petco. We really just needed some standard pet care supplies, but I felt it was time for Bella to get a coat.

I chose a red and white snowflake fleece. (The crazy part--she is a large! It's a tiny bit too big for her, but not by much. I can't believe how big she has gotten.) We headed home, put the Christmas decor down, and suited up for a bit of play time. I got to pull out my wonderful North Face boots and my snowboarding jacket, and we got Bella all dressed up.

Shawn and I thought for sure she would not like the snow. She hates going outside in the evening because it's cold. But the excitement of the snow beat out the dread of the cold. She had a great time running around, eating snow and just playing. After that it was time to head inside, have some cider and now do homework. Jack enjoyed the snow from the window. Although he would have loved to go out, he is strictly an indoor cat. Overall, it was a wonderful Saturday, and a great first snow day in Durham.