Tradition

Let me start by saying Thank You to the six wonderful people (5 maybe?) who helped in my blog's very first poll! I'll be honest with you, it's a little more than I expected. And I will confess, I did vote in my own poll. I started making my Christmas cards before the poll was over, but, as suggested, seeing the trends in voting (can you say "trends in voting" with less than 10 respondents? Is there a maximum number you have to hit before you can even dare to use such a word?) did help me decide on what kind of templates to create for this festive holiday. I'm a decent way through my project but still have a lot left. My mom requested that I make 10 cards for her to send out to her friends so that took some time. And YES! you heard right! I am officially in production. Refer to my last post's title to fill in the blank here _______________.

So now Thanksgiving is behind us and Christmas is on the way. My husband and I drove to Houston to be with his parents for Thanksgiving this year. It was my first one away from home, and I must say it was a little sad! Thankfully we were able to Skype with my family back home for a little while and see their smiling blurry faces. Loved it. I knew once I got married that holidays would be different - traveling between two families in two far away places (from each other). It's time to start our own traditions as a little family. I can't help but find myself wanting to incorporate ALL of my families traditions with me and Chris. For example: decorating the Christmas tree. If I were home with my sisters and brother-in-law, we would be decorating the Christmas tree the night after Thanksgiving while having egg-nog, Keebler's almond crescent cookies, and most definitely the Christmas tunes. Since we're out of town for a few days, I'm hoping we'll be able to put our tree up on Sunday evening. But I most definitely plan on having those delicious little cookies and the nog. (Sorry Chris, some traditions might take awhile to wear out).

What holiday traditions are you looking forward to? And be honest... how many of you ran out on Black Friday? We went out at noon and found one item we wanted at Kohls. Then we got to the checkout line, decided we would not wait that long, even for $7.99 men's lounge pants, and walked out the doors. As frustrating as those big crowds can be, I'll have to admit, I kind of like it.

And for your absolute enjoyment, my additional plug for those cookies! Trust me, you'll love them:

Now Taking Orders

I have always considered myself a pretty crafty person. I like to use my creative juices to fashion pieces of artwork either on paper with sharpies (when we get our printer working I'll have a visual for this) or using paper for scrap-booking. It's fun, relaxing and I really enjoy it! Recently, I started making cards. You've heard of 'em: given on special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, just because. I've done it in the past but sporadically. I think moving to Dallas and having some down time has been the major contributor to my production increase. I decided to make all of our Christmas cards this year, too. Stay on my good side, continue reading here and you might get one yourself. I've already started and must say it's been a little more frustrating than I expected. Maybe because I'm making more than I've ever made for one purpose? I'm a bit of a perfectionist, too. Makes things like this difficult. Yes it does.

So on my last card-making venture, I did Autumn-themed cards. If you know me at all, you know my love for all things Fall run deep. I attached them below for your viewing enjoyment. They were SO fun to make! If it wasn't for actually wanting to send them to the girls I sent them too, I was going to keep them, buy matching frames, display them, and get them out again next year. Maybe I'll do that at a later date.I want to take a poll. If you will, vote for which card is your favorite. They will be numbered 1-6 in the order they appear here. It will help me create the best looks for my Christmas cards. Will you help me? Look for the poll on the right side of the page. I'll keep it open for a week and announce the winner! If you don't see it, it's because I couldn't figure out how to do it. Bummer.

Meat 'n Potatoes

It was this side of one week ago that Chris and I were sitting on this very couch eating a cheese and roast beef sandwich. Mmmmmm. What's that you say? One week ago today we were a day into our fruit (and veggie) only diet? Oh yeah, about that. . . I have a confession to make.

If I did not know it before, I know it now: I am strongly, wholeheartedly, a meat 'n potatoes kinda gal. So is my husband. Before going on the fruit diet, I read up on it a little bit and a one article said not a lot of people don't make it through the first few days because the hunger and withdrawal from sugar and salt is so strong. I thought, it's just 3 days, it can't be that hard. Besides, I love me some fruit. Well sirs and ma'am s, I am here to tell you that it is pretty tough! My stomach was grumbling most of the day, I had a funny taste in my mouth that wouldn't go away, and had a decent headache for my waking hours. I am by no means saying that fruits and veggies are the big EVIL and we should steer clear of them. We had a nearly tasty dinner of roasted vegetables (I'm not sure if that was cheating or not but surely our acts in the following hour were against the diet rules.) and it was soon after that we decided this diet was not for us. I think we were both waiting for the other one to say "I give up" so the other could follow suit. Since we had no meat in the apartment we hopped in the car and drove to the grocery store where we eagerly purchased a loaf of bread and market-fresh roast beef, sliced as thin as you can go. Diet done. Fifteen minutes later, I had never tasted anything so good.

So my lesson that I already knew but now, really know is that fruit and vegetables are a very important part of your diet and should be integrated heartily. They were integrated heartily into our diets for the rest of the week because my fridge was packed with fresh produce, I was just deciding to have it with a little meat.

I'm still trying to finish the strawberries, but those I could pop like m&m's.