Is there anything better than butter and sugar?

That may not exactly jive with the healthy living plan, but just go back in time a little bit, mere days ago, to the festive holiday season and your favorite things about it.  What's that you say?  Snow or time with family or giving and receiving or the general joy of Christmas?  NO.  These are NOT your favorite things.  Your favorite things are fudge and sugar cookies and toffee and cornflake cookies and homemade chocolate covered cherries.  You're welcome.

Sugar cookies are obviously WAY better with festive holiday colored sugar.  Although these sugar cookies don't really help at all because they are ridiculously delicious and I could eat twenty at a time.

The Cookie Whisperer's face of joy as she pulls out a perfectly baked batch.

Yes, I'm aware that I look somewhat ridiculous.  Ridiculous-LY ADORABLE!!  Ok, anyway, it's my grandmother's apron and a crazy elf hat from who knows where, but I can't help but get into the holiday spirit when cookies are around.

There's really my sister to thank for most of this deliciousness.  She's pretty awesome when it comes to baking/candy-making adventures.

Partyin' and chillaxin' in the NYC

Time to catch up on blog-worthy events!  And I definitely consider a weekend in NYC a blog-worthy event, especially when it includes time with my favorite (and likely only - it's a pretty unique name) Gajderoroberts clan AND celebrating upcoming wedded bliss with Dana and her stellar family and friends.  Although there wasn't really much that was all NEW YORK CITY about this weekend, which was a nice change.  I kinda like going to New York with some degree of familiarity and navigating Penn Station with minimal confusion and knowing how to get to various places in the city without appearing totally lost and just spending time with some good friends.  Works for me.

Setting:  approximately three weeks ago.  Not bad considering I've been in a blurry haze for the last month or so.  I blame Craig (not just "the boy" anymore - that's right, he gets a name!).  New York City - multiple boroughs and many train/subway adventures.

Reason:  Dana's bridal shower prompted the trip, and it's also impossible for me to go to that city and miss a chance to spend time with two dear friends and my adorable pseudo-nephew.

Friday evening arrival.  Greeted by friends, cheese, crackers, fruit, and wine.  Living room picnic ensues while cute little one snoozes the night away.  I love our living room picnics filled with tastiness and wonderful conversation.  A lot of life to catch up on in those couple of hours.  Delightful.

In tackling the weekend's events, one must always consider what Mother Nature has in store.  Unlike last year's horizontal rain and crazy random wind tunnels during this time of year, this year we just had...normal rain!  I know, I know, you were hoping for perfect skies and stories of "dreary winter?  what dreary winter?" - but alas, it was not to be.  At least Saturday was relatively weather-free, and I had a fantastic time catching up with Dana and spending some time with my surrogate East Coast family.  Love the Duffins!!  

Doesn't the bride-to-be look festive in her bedazzled sombrero?  I LOVE the sombrero flair!

Most of Saturday was consumed by the epic awesomeness that was the bridal shower and what I'll refer to as the after-party at the Duffin home, and then that blasted rain confined us to the indoors for a better part of Sunday.  Not that I'm really complaining.  I mean, we indulged in Eggs Benedict (homemade!!  way to knock it out of the park, Jason) and oodles of coffee and and spent quality time with a certain cute kiddo and just chilled.  Which was awesome.

So curious.  And adorable.



Ummm...Alan...you're not quite hiding all the way...



I see you!

Did you know you can have the Wii entertain and educate your small child?  How awesome is that?!?  Good work, Alan!

You can get the full spin from the weekend here on Picasa.

Sometimes twelve-ish days away from work aren't enough...

...and I'm wishing I had another week of vacation just waiting for me, but it looks like it's time to start 2011 with a bang!  If "bang" includes back-to-back hour-long meetings in the morning.  Shablammy.  But I do have a lot of things to look forward to this year that don't include morning meetings.  There's a whole bushel of life events coming up (you know, minor events like moving halfway across the country AGAIN and starting a new-ish yet kinda old-ish job and GETTING MARRIED and suddenly being WAY outnumbered by males in my household and all kinds of other silly things), and along with those life events, I'm going to go ahead and throw a few resolutions into the mix just to keep things interesting:

• Lose 25 pounds in the next ten months by actually kicking the healthy living plan into gear.  This isn't for vanity's sake, it's to be healthy.  And to actually fit into jeans that fit a year and a half ago.
• Hit 100 blog posts in 2011.  I did it in 2009, but not 2010.  And while I won't exactly have interesting DC things to blog about, I love writing and photography and find that this is great outlet for both.
• Read at least 30 books for pleasure.  I really enjoy reading, and with the insanity of life going on, I don't want to feel like I don't have time for one of my favorite escape mechanisms.
• Start volunteering on at least a monthly basis.  I signed up to be a leader for Habitat for Humanity about two and a half years ago and politely excused myself from actually doing anything since I was moving.  Oh, like the same organization doesn't exist here.  No excuses this time around.
• Maintain sanity during wedding planning and remember what's actually important about that day - you know, the whole getting married and committing to each other part.  Although I think good food is pretty important, too.  And I'm sure Craig would agree.

There you have it, kids.  Keep me honest throughout the year.

The angriest Santa Claus in the world and I hope you enjoyed your holidays and wish you and yours the best in 2011!

Early AM life lessons

1.  Do not, under any circumstances, start reading The Hunger Games anywhere near a time where a reasonable person should go to bed.  Good thing I ordered the trilogy from Amazon and have two more books to get me through holiday vacation time.  Yes, it's approximately 3:58 AM EST.  Oops.

2.  Holiday vacation time doesn't really start until 2:30 PM EST tomorrow.  Double oops on the whole "starting The Hunger Games at 11:30 EST" business.  Work tomorrow is most definitely not going to be awesome.

3.  When it's really, really cold outside, make sure you wear some kind of shoe that actually requires use of socks.  Your feet will be much warmer and toastier this way.  Basically, don't wear ballet flats in DC in late December.

4.  Consider shipping all gifts directly to their final destination when you live a looooooooooooong way from home.  Packing can get a little iffy when you're trying to figure out where to fit certain things in a giant suitcase.  Triple oops.

5.  If you're getting engaged but don't know it, try to magically summon the willpower to not look exhausted by 9:00 PM so that pictures from that night actually make you look human.

6.  If you're traveling to three different cities over the course of ten days during the Christmas holidays, consider starting the packing adventure before 7:30 PM the day before you're supposed to leave.  Also, don't get caught up in The Hunger Games.

7.  Kitty cats are very sweet when they snuggle up next to you for hours while you read young adult fiction.

That's one way to kick off the holiday season

So...I got engaged on Saturday night to a wonderful man who loves me more than I ever thought possible.  If only I had recorded myself telling the amazing story of how this happened so I could post an audio clip and just let it play on the blog.  Can you even do that??  That would be awesome.  I'll tell you about it soon, though, if you haven't already heard me crying and babbling on the phone.  SO EXCITED!!!!

And yes, I'm still moving back to Texas.  Just bringing someone with me, that's all.  Yes, Zach the dog!  And Craig, too.