I’ve been absent from bloggerland because Frank and I are in Michigan visiting our family and friends! I just wanted to take a minute to say Happy New Years and I hope you all had a great Christmas!!

Wrapping paper of gift bags? I am very anal about having nicely matching wrapping paper with bows. I’m even particular about the tags matching.

Real tree or artificial? We had artificial growing up. I hope someday we’ll have one of each. One tree is just not enough

When do you put up your tree? Usually the weekend after Thanksgiving.

When do you take the tree down? Weekend after New Year’s.

Favorite gift received as a child? Probably my first American Girl doll. (Okay is everyone thinking how young I am, now? lol. I swear I had one like the first year they came out…)

Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. My Grandma gave us one the first Christmas we were married.

Hardest person to buy for? Frank… he always says he doesn’t need anything.

Easiest person to buy for? My little sisters. So much fun picking out toys and pre-teen girlie stuff!

Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Probably rose scented bath products. The smell gives me an instant headache.

Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail with a handwritten note in each one, for sure. It’s classic.

Favorite Christmas movie? Hard to choose. Of course, It’s a wonderful life is a tradition. I’d say more modern ones would be The Christmas Story (you’ll shoot your eye out) or Love Actually.

When do you start shopping for Christmas? Depends. This year we did a lot of shopping in August in Europe. Usually about Octoberish.

Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Nope.

Favorite things to eat at Christmas? My Mom always makes a huge Christmas brunch with this really, really sinful homemade cinnamon rolls.

Clear lights or colored lights on the tree? I like clear lights with added colors from ornaments, beads and such.

Favorite Christmas song? Tough call. I’d say Oh Holy Night or I’ll be home for Christmas.

Travel at Christmas or stay home? All of our parents and grandparents are divorced and remarried or dating, so we have a million and a half people to visit. Once we have kids, that will change. We will be home on Christmas morning every year.

Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Of course! Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixon, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen and Rudolph

Angel on the tree top or a star? We always had a star.

Open the presents on Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas eve at Nana’s house. Christmas morning with immediate family and Santa presents! Christmas morning from Frank and I to each other.

Most annoying thing about this time of year? I know this is going to sound horrible…. but, I get so tired of being guilted into making donations. Frank and I donate to the charities that mean something to us… I get tired of being asked every other day to give to a bunch of charities.

What is the “corniest” family tradition you do, or miss doing? Charlie Brown Christmas Tree night. We all go to the Christmas tree lot the Friday before Christmas. They’re picked over and the bad trees are left with very cheap prices. This tree becomes our second tree and it’s always terribly ugly. We have so much fun decorating it, though!

Ugliest Christmas decoration ever invented? Hmm. I don’t like the running, blinking, colored lights on houses that never seem to coordinate. One strand will be running, one will be flashing, another will be flashing at a different time. Yuck! Sorry for those who love them.

Which looks the best, theme trees or homey trees? We always had both. One that was coordinated and themed. One that was homey. Ideally, I’d love to have at least 2 - 3 trees in our home someday. One homey and the rest themed.

What does Christmas mean to you? I LOVE IT!! My favorite holiday. Everyone makes time for family and I love watching people open gifts we’ve hand picked for them. I love the cocoa and Christmas carols and twinkling lights. I love the snow! It’s the best time of year, when the world slows down and goes back to the good old days of traditional things like caroling, fires in the fireplace and advent calendars, snowmen and snow angels. I can’t say enough about how much I love this time of year!

Now I tag Rachael….

They couldn’t just let us get off this rock without some sort of added dramatics! No worries, though. It’s not like this is a hurricane…

We’re headed back to good ole Michigan this weekend and I can hardly wait! 3 weeks with family and friends and snow and hot cocoa and presents and our cat and I could go on and on!!!

Sometimes we get so caught up in the negatives and stress in our lives, that we forget to take pleasure in life’s little treasures. Here are a few things that made me smile lately:

Scented candles, especially pumpkin and apple-cinnamon
Going barefoot in the rain
Fresh fruit salad
Happy, healthy tiredness after a good workout
Chocolate chip cookies, still warm from the oven
Cats purring
Finding money in my coat pocket
The sound of waves crashing
Making funny faces through the webcam to my little sisters
Taking a long, hot shower, then crawling under clean sheets
Doodling with gel pens
Sitting in a hot tub while it’s snowing
A drizzle that becomes a hard rain (and then a thunderstorm!)
Bear hugs from Frank
Palm trees wrapped in twinkling lights
An old couple still deeply in love

Here’s hoping you take a moment to enjoy the little treasures in your world.

This month has been busy with two sets of exams, but we have managed to have some fun along the way. Because I’ve been less than stellar in my punctual blog posting, here are some pictures of recent highlights:

Frank has been playing lots of basketball on KPMG’s team. (Future post to come…)

Flowers - part of my Birthday gift from Frank

We had a visit from a small lizard that went translucent and could change colors to match it’s surroundings. I think it was a baby chameleon or something. It was pretty cool looking, but not in my house. He affectionately became known as “stubby” when Frank tried to pick him up by the tail and it fell off. Here is Frank on the hunt for “Stubby,” the second time he got in our house. We knew it was him by the tail. haha.

Re: Thanksgiving Photos

The loads of supplies used to make our dinner.

This year’s new addition - Curried Pumpkin Soup as the first course.

Before and After

Cooking was a lot of fun, but boy is it work when you’re doing it by yourself. I refused to miss any of my family’s tradition dishes, so we had WAY too much food! It was all so yummy. I was really proud of the way it turned out, but bummed that I forgot to get a picture of the turkey before it was cut. Pathetic as it may be, I had some fun dissecting the turkey’s heart. I know it’s weird, but I was able to identify the atriums and ventricles, as well as, the aortic arch, brachialcephalic, left subclavian artery and left common carotid. Well, they might be called something different in a turkey, but in human terms that’s what they would have been.