Christmas Love

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! I hope that everyone had as great a holiday as I did! It was so nice to get some downtime. I apologize to any faithful followers, cause I haven't been updating like I should be! I've been on a bit of a hiatus with all of the Christmas festivities, but I'm back. Mr. A (although I may have to change this name now cause it's getting to his head!) and I decided to open our stockings and presents on Christmas Eve. We came home back to my place after the Christmas Eve service and made some nice Tassimo coffees (thanks Alyssa!) and opened gifts! It was nice cause we weren't rushed on Christmas morning.

In the morning I got to Skype my family back home :) My brothers don't seem to care very much about seeing me, but I was definitely glad to see all of them. It's just nice to hear the typical Van Strien banter. Makes me feel like Christmas is a little more normal. Then we spent Christmas day with Mr. A's family and some family friends. It was a very full house, with very good food, and very good company. I had a lot of fun. Oh - and I forgot to mention... we took the quads out for a Christmas afternoon spin! Truly an Albertan Christmas now!

It was great and it flew by, and now I'm gearing up for the New Years celebrations tonight :)

Here are all the presents and stockings! Mr. A got a board games and some coffee mugs and a really nice travel coffee mug! And Santa brought us framed pictures of us together too :)

Joopers was not forgotten! He got a yummy bone (in his mouth!), and nice new jacket (for the cold Albertan winters), and a penguin squicky toy (which is now half demolished).

And that's what I got!! Isn't it beautiful!! It's an eco drive watch so I never have to change the batteries! And its got diamonds all along the sides of the face of the watch. AND he engraved the back to say "Christmas 2011" - I think that implies that he wants more Christmases with me....

Just relaxing before we opened the Christmas presents :)

I am very grateful this year to have such a wonderful man in my life. I missed my family dearly, but I had a great holiday. See you in the New Year everyone!!

Special Delivery

Yay! Christmas time is here!! I'm so excited for Christmas. I thought at 25 maybe I'd be less excited, but I think that having Mr. A around has made this year even more exciting! I've been spending time with his family (from here and visiting) so much that they're really starting to feel like my family. It's been a great vacation. If I can't be home with my mama and papa in Ontario, I don't think I could ask for anything better than this!

Also, this wonderful package arrived from home :) with stockings for me and Mr. A!

The last few days have been great (I'll. give more details soon). I can't wait to see what the next few days hold!

Ps - sorry for all the exclamation marks! I'm just really happy!!

New Layout

I'm experimenting with a new background. I'm also contemplating changing the name, but I may just change the URL... So many decisions. I know some of you like my blog name. It'll stay as long as I can't think of another name! Thoughts?! Ideas?!? I'll take anything you've got!

One Word

If you could use one word to describe me, what word would it be? Just ONE word.

....

5 Reasons

Here are 5 reasons that I'm thrilled that my bestest friend of life is here!

In no particular order....

1. It feels like home has come to GP!

2. We got to exchange awesome Christmas gifts

3. She'll now understand all my random references over skype or the phone

4. She could give her "A-OK" to my Mr. A :)

5. It had been a while since I laughed so hard I couldn't breathe

I love her and I'm super happy that she took the time to come and see me! Hopefully there will be some pics from her visit to follow... Thanks friend!

Apartment Christmas

Christmas has invaded my life and apartment. Here's a sneak peak of what I've done with the small amount of free stuff that I've collected this year.

Stockings that mom and dad sent me last year :)

The mini-Christmas tree that we made, free lights (on the balcony), and the blanket I (or rather Mr. A) won at a Christmas party. Joop is clearly enjoying the Christmas fun.

Presents!!! (these just magically showed up!)

I know I've been posting a lot of Christmas things lately, but I just love Christmas time! It's been such a great time of year. I feel like I'm at home this year and it's been wonderful to fill up my life with Christmas joy. My bestie visiting from Ontario also makes it feel a bit more like home :) I'm enjoying the holidays so much already and they haven't even started!

Hope you're pre-holidays are going fantastically as well!

More Treats

I was inspired by my friend who is a soon-to-be-baby-mama to make some Christmas bonbons!

They are basically little balls of sugar. So good! But you can only eat one at a time. Unless you are me and my brother, circa ages 6 and 8, sneaking them from the garage fridge five at a time.

If you really wanna make them...

1. Get a brick of cream cheese

2. Add a tsp of vanilla

3. Add icing sugar until it gets to the consistency that when you scoop some on a spoon and turn the spoon upside-down it doesn't fall off

4. Split in two and add food colouring as desired

5. Scoop up with a spoon and drop on parchment paper

(6. roll bon bon in coconut if you want)

Super easy. Aaaand delicious! (one at a time). Yumm :)

ps - I also made nuts & bolts!

Tasty Treats

I've been on a bit of a crazy baking kick lately. I think it's due to a combination of five main factors:

1. I miss my mommy (who I did all the Christmas baking with!)

2. I no longer have homework or exams at Christmas time

3. I have a real job to afford all of the ingredients

4. I have a manfriend and his family that I like baking for

5. They're delicious!

They're just rice krispie squares but they look prettier :) You can find the link to the recipe for the treats I made here. Enjoy!

Christmas Cards!

I tried to make all of my Christmas cards this year. If you're lucky, you just may end up with one of these lovely creations :)

ps - none of the cards have money in them... just so you know.

pps - I made duplicates of most of them so there are lots to go around!

Epic Baby Prediction

Ok folks... just remember that you heard it here first. These are my epic baby predictions. Above is my beautiful pregnant friend (that hopefully doesn't mind me stealing her photo...) who is expecting a little baby this month (probably... or next month).

These are my predictions:

Birthday: Dec. 28th

Sex: Female

Weight: 7lbs, 4 oz.

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Blonde (but it'll turn red-orange when she's like two)

Cuteness: 10 (out of a possible 10)

Let's see how close I get! Feel free to make your own predictions...

5 Reasons I Am Happy It's December 1st!

1. Gonna put up the Christmas Tree (someone.... made me wait 'til December....)

2. Holiday Baking :)

3. Joop's Christmas bandanas

4. Presents are bought

5. MY BEST FRIEND IS VISITING GP THIS MONTH!!!

....ok so this list is gonna be a bit longer...

6. I'm making a fresh batch of Nuts and Bolts on Saturday

7. I'm gonna send out home-made Christmas cards

8. I get to celebrate with a family again this year!

9. Christmas music starts on the radio

10. I get presents too :)

So, 10 reasons I'm happy!