Holiday Movies!

So it's the time of year when I start watching a plethora of holiday movies.  Most are obvious; others, for whatever reason, I've associated with the holidays.  I can't possibly put them in order of favorites, they all make my heart happy in lots of ways!

1.  The Muppet Family Christmas -- I bought this bad boy on VHS from eBay I was so desperate for it!  (The above video is this movie...in full length!  You're so lucky!)

2.  Home Alone 1 & 2--duh.

3.  The Santa Clause--The scenes in the North Pole are just too good.

4.  Little Women--The one from the 90s with Winona Ryder.  It was only in the last couple of years that I got over Jo not marrying Teddy.  Mostly because I read the book, but now I love Friedrich.  Really, the origin of Team Edward vs. Team Jacob comes from this story: Team Laurie vs. Team Friedrich. 

5.  Holiday Inn-- good ole fashioned fun.   

6.  Home for the Holidays--This is actually based around Thanksgiving and a dysfunctional family.  

7.  Santa Claus--Quite possibly the real Santa.  

8.  The Family Stone--Now this feels like a real family.  

9.  The Muppet Christmas Carol--Okay this is my favorite.  I actually think this take on the classic tale is better than any live theater performance I've ever seen...yeah, I said it. 

So it looks like most are distinctively holiday based and I could go on, but long posts tend to bore me.  haha.  

Happy Almost Friday!

Girls Season Deux

Completely addicted to this series.  I've already watched the trailer for season two...more than a couple times.  What?  Yes.

The Friend Wall

This is probably my favorite wall of our entire apartment.  I like to call it our friend wall.  I've just tacked up a load of pictures, mostly of...friends!  I used to want to have all our pictures in frames and just load up the wall...but then I ran short of money and just started pinning them up there.  I like lying on the couch and scanning one picture then the next thinking or feeling about a particular event or adventure.  An adjacent wall hangs all of our family pictures.  It just feels good to see and think about so many people who we love and have shaped our lives.

There are some crazy changes happening this month and it's good to lie back and soak in all the people and places that have gotten us to this apartment.  The one bedroom apartment with a yellow kitchen in an orange house. 

Gobla! Gobla!

What a busy time last week was!  This happens every year, Thanksgiving comes and bam!  Holiday season is upon us! This year I gave people the chance to buy home baked bread for their holiday meals.  The picture above is the completed orders!  It was a busy busy couple of days, but I loved it.  

The note people received in their bread orders

Lefse making

In addition to familiar breads I bake weekly, I also offered Finnish pulla bread and lefse.  Pulla bread is a sweet bread that tends to be a bit denser because of the butter, milk and eggs used.  I baked a couple extra for me because of their tastiness.  Lefse is a Norwegian soft flat bread that you spread with butter and then sprinkle with sugar, brown sugar, or simply jam.  These babies are addicting.  Ross helped me with the production line of that.  My parents borrowed me the lefse making tools and Ross helped me with the production line.  They are pretty labor intensive, so having a partner was key!

Graffiti-ed sign by Ross

Once baking and delivery was done, we prepared for hosting Friendsgiving 2012.  It's exactly what it sounds like and so much fun!  Our little one bedroom apartment hosted 13 people and one cat.  A highlight to the party was our pumpkin keg!  We carved out a hole and slipped a bag of wine right inside.  I probably drank out of that guy more frequently just because it was too cute.

Phil relaxing during the party

The bar...note the pumpkin keg

Any one?

 So after playing host and eating too much food at our family Thanksgiving, I'm back to getting life together.  We have a lot of changes happening in the next month and I have lots of lists to make and things to check off!  I'll be telling of those changes soon:) 

Happy Early Winter!

I hope everyone is enjoying the beginning to a festive season and the start of winter!  It's cold and a bit snowy here.  We are spending time with family this weekend and had a busy busy week preparing.  So, forgive me for the absence.  Be back next week!

Phil!

Seriously Philipe, I can't get enough of you.

Ode to George

I'm back from the mini road trip!  It's amazing how fast a week can fly by.  I spent some serious time looking out the window seeing the southwest.  Such a distinctly beautiful environment.  I had lots of time to ponder, daydream and write out ideas.  Now that I'm back, life is in full swing!  With Thanksgiving next week (holy smokes!), I'm hopefully going to sell some of the lovely breads that I make in our little apartment.

On a separate side note, one of our three chickens has died.  George.  I got back Thursday night and Ross had said that she was acting weird.  I then spent all of yesterday feeding her water every half hour.  However, when we woke in the morning, she had passed.  As we're heading towards a life on a farm and goals of homesteading full time, it was good to cross this avenue.  How do we see animals?  I always feel emotional towards things passing in this world.  And even if we have animals solely as sources of nourishment, I will always feel when they leave our lives.  I spoke with my parents who grew up on farms and they said animals just die sometimes.  Seemingly, it's that simple.  We have some ideas on why she got sick and died, but I won't go into that here.  So, we gave George our thanks for being a great chicken and helping us in our goals of homesteading.

Here's our lovely George on the fence!  Such a beautiful bird!

 Now, tonight we're off to see this show at Heart of the Beast Puppet Theatre.  We've never been, so we're excited to see what the place and show hold!

I hope your weekends are going well and everyone is excited for Thanksgiving!