December

AHHHHHHHH!!!!

It's December already!

Seriously, I can't believe how fast this year went.  Wasn't it just January like yesterday?  Seems like not too long ago my years were measured by school-Christmas vacation-school-spring break-school-SUMMER!-back to school already?  Even now mid-December and end of May rolls around and my internal clock slows down.  Bedtimes should be later and alarms should be shut off.  More importantly, responsibility should be limited to what movie are we going to and whose house are we hanging out at after?

HA.

It's December 1, and I'm already panicking that A) I don't have all my Christmas cards signed, sealed, and delivered, B) I have exactly 2 Christmas presents bought, and C) before you know it, it will be January 1st and I will be 90 days away from being married in a still not completely planned wedding.  By the way, if this were a multiple choice test, the answer is D) ALL OF THE ABOVE.

So let's look at the positives for a moment.

Today I picked up my wedding dress.  I wore my hair up today, and when I tried on the dress it looked beautiful with my hair up (I wanted to wear my hair down for the wedding, but now...).  I caved and asked to try on one more veil (I didn't want a veil).  The veil looked beautiful.  I now have a veil.  I am dying to just put the whole outfit on and stare at myself in it for hours-because God knows I probably will never put it on again after the wedding (although if any of my girlfriends are reading this and want to get together post wedding for wine in wedding dresses, I'm totally up to hosting).  Unfortunately the dress will be living at mom's house until the wedding, so I'll just have to hop over there every once in awhile to gaze and adore.

My house is unpacked and decorated for Christmas, and most of our big projects have been tackled.  Blake has turned into quite the handy man.  I think he has surprised himself at some of the projects he has taken on.  I happen to think he's Superman, so I'm not at all surprised.  My favorite renovations are the small ones.  The new backsplash in the kitchen is AWESOME, but the new toilet seats in the bathrooms that actually fit our toilets as opposed to extending four inches out from the edge of the bowl have revolutionized my bathroom experience.  Also, we have (after trial and error) finally installed a door on our bedroom.  Once upon a time we thought (okay, I thought) it would be a good idea to sand the door before we painted it.  Only the door wasn't actually wood, it was plywood with some kind of plastic veneer that should most definitely NOT be sanded.  Then Blake had the brilliant idea that maybe we could sand off the veneer which resulted in a door that looked like this: ~~~  So we bought a new door which of course didn't fit because the old door was pre-hung in the frame and they don't make doors that size.  Out came the saw-problem solved.  Until Blake tried to chisel a place for the hinges and the crappy $20 door literally split in half, showing us it's styrofoamy innards.  So ~~~ with white paint doesn't look so bad now.  Actually, you can hardly see where we tried to sand.  And now I can't hear Blake open his cereal in the morning and he can't hear me watch TV at night.  Thanksgiving never ends around here.

Speaking of Thanksgiving, we are on a tryptophan high (or is it low?) around here.  With all the turkey leftovers from two families, I've had the chance to try out some creative leftover recipes.  I'm getting pretty good at it, if I do say so myself.  I made a turkey gratin (fancy phrase for turkey/pasta/LOTS of cheese) that was super delicious.  If I can edit my notes to resemble a recipe I'll be happy to share it on the blog.  Unfortunately right now it includes phrases like "throw cheese in the pot until it looks right".  Guess I'm not winning any culinary awards any time soon.

I can hear gentle snores coming from behind my new/old bedroom door, which means it's time to wrap this up and go snuggle with the biggest positive on my list.  Happy holidays ya'll-the craziness has officially begun!