If she had the proper words to say,

It's been such a nice, long, lazy Thanksgiving break. :-)

By sheer luck, Philip had off from Wednesday-Friday, and having him home all the way until Saturday night (he works midnight shifts) almost felt strange. I bet he's only been off on Thursdays for actual Thanksgiving Day maybe three times in the past almost 13 years of our military life. We celebrated with our friends and neighbors - Tanya, Adam, and Emma - as well as one of Philip's troops, Puckett, and old friends of ours Jan and Payton (while J.R. is temporarily stationed at NCO Academy).

We made enough food for an army, though. Even though there was only 10 of us, I asked everyone to bring food for 30 (explaining the reasons beforehand, of course). You see, the best part about the Thanksgiving feast is having easy-peasy leftovers afterward. We had 30 pounds of turkey, almost ten pounds of ham, two sweet potato casseroles, stuffing, cornbread dressing, candied yams, rolls, green bean casserole, corn, peas, jellied cranberry sauce, 15 pounds of mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry salad. Just like last year, it worked out beautifully: we were able to make three full meals of leftovers before we ran out of sides. I still have about 2 pounds of dark meat turkey I'm going to chop and freeze for tacos or chili later on, as well as three recipes' worth of cubed ham.

I also made two pumpkin pies, a Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake, two Chocolate French Silk Pies, a new cake (which I haven't named yet), and about 100 mini decorated cookies in my brand-new dough creation. I made tiny pumpkins with our names on them, and I made sure everyone took a few home as well.

Emma stole the show for most of the get-together. She's now 19 months old, and she's just too adorable for words. She really cuddled up to Puckett (who's a single airman living in the dorms!), and he was so sweet with her. She climbed up on the chair next to me when I was eating, and she ended up stealing away almost all of my cranberry salad - she loved it! And when Jan was scouring the Black Friday ads and writing out her shopping plan-of-attack, she sidled up next to her and pointed out the toys she was interested in. We were all in love!

Jack's friend Payton spent the night with us so that Jan could do all the midnight Black Friday shopping, and we had a large breakfast late the next morning. (They both fell asleep between 3-4am!) Philip pulled all the bins and boxes out of the storage shed in the garage for me to begin the holiday decorating, and we pretty much did that the rest of the day. Jan came to pick up Payton before dinnertime, and then we went back to decorating. The boys finished their tree entirely, and then they constructed the main tree. A.J. and I took a break and watched The Good Son together (a movie I had seen many years ago), too. After that, I felt too distracted to get back to serious decorating. ;-) I did hang the lights on our main tree while watching both Die Hard and Reindeer Games, and then Philip had to run into the squadron around 4am to clean his weapon.

On Saturday, we did more lazing about, and I finished up some more decorating. We all watched Liar Liar together, and the boys loved the class Jim Carry funnies. I made an easy pantry dinner of tuna casserole and green beans, and we finished off a few pies. Philip took a TON of desserts with him to work, and I was glad to have all the space back in my fridge!

It was 45° today (it's been warm all week), and the boys enjoyed hours of playtime outside. They probably have a few more days they can get away with it, so I encourage it! We've had a bit of snow, but it's all melted, and I'm happy for every warm day we get as a treat. Usually, it snows here in October, and we made it all the way to November 15th before our first snow, and it melted anyway. A blessing!

Last week was crazy-busy, but it was so fun! I threw a last-minute get-together with a bunch of gals for the midnight premiere of Twilight: Breaking Dawn, and I made cookies for the event. We all met at Applebee's for dinner, and then we headed to the theatre around 10:30pm to get in line. We had a great time, even despite one part of the movie that made us all snicker in our seats. ;-)

The next night, Friday, my friend Tifany hosted a Girls' Game Night while her husband was gone, and it was a blast. We played Taboo for hours, and we laughed SO HARD. She had great snacks, and I took a quick chocolate chip cheese idp and graham crackers (I had everything on hand already, and my friend Mary had suggested it while we were waiting for the movie to start the night before).

And then on Saturday night, I hosted Enchilada Night at our house! Tanya, Janelle, and I had been talking about our different enchiladas for weeks, and we decided to have them all together one night to share. Tanya made red enchiladas, Janelle made green, and I made white (the colors of the sauces, I should say). Tanya brought a big pot of Spanish rice, and we all ate together. It was a tasty night, and Jack loved it so much that he's already planning out our next "community suppers," as Tanya calls them. Samantha came over around bedtime and had some leftover enchiladas, and then we girls all watched Friends With Benefits together.

On Sunday, I was beat! Seriously, I think I napped and dozed all day to make up for three parties with three different groups of friends in three consecutive nights!

This coming week should be busy, too. I've got a bunch of cookies to make, as well as HUNDREDS I should be putting online. I need to make two "foodie" posts, and I'm hosting a huge giveaway on my website tomorrow (well, today!) to celebrate both Cyber Monday and my 1000th 'like' on Facebook. I've got two cookie swaps to mail out, and I want to make a bunch of cookies for the Airman's Cookie Drive again this year.

Oh, oh, oh! Aaaaaaand, my cookies made the Top 10 in the L.A. Times 2nd Annual Cookie Bake-Off! (Gosh, I can't believe it took me so long in this post to remember this!) I figured the "crowd favorites" as far as vote-getters would make the Top 10 even when the staff baked the Top 50, so I had been confident in my cookie so long as I remained high in votes. When the voting stopped, I had a 70+ vote lead on my closest competitor (the last time I saw it before the contest was pulled down), but then I waited for days on pins and needles for the baking and judging to take place. Finally, last Monday, the winners were announced! I was SHOCKED to find that the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th place vote-earners did NOT make the Top 10 at all. It was crazy, and I'm SO glad my cookie held up in the judging! I still can't believe all my friends that voted so much for me - thank you ALL!

I've been invited to Los Angeles by the L.A. Times for a publicity photoshoot and a day tour of the facilities in their test kitchens on Dec. 7th. The recipes will be published in the huge holiday edition of the paper on December 15th. There's also another article on the judging HERE. I do wish so badly that I could go, but I absolutely can't afford the travel *to* L.A., so these articles are the end of the line for me. It was still SO EXCITING, and I was calling friends and *squeeeing* when I found out!

Oh, and we received a Christmas card yesterday from ashen_butterfly! She's the first, as usual. I've still only got my cards addressed, but not written, nor an accompanying newsletter even started!

I'm so happy to see so many of my friends returning to LJ lately. I have been reading, and I'm trying to be better at commenting myself. I don't know how much I'll be able to post in December, but I'm glad to have checked in at least a little bit. :-)

Philip took the boys downtown to the arena last night for the Monster Truck Rally. I think they had a good time - they came home talking about mud, spinning tires, people getting stuck, rollbars crashing off, etc. Not only that, but next year, the boys want to ride in Philip's truck as he races through the mud at the event!

I'm glad they had a good ol' time, but that is sooooo not my kind of thing. I had a quiet girls' evening with my friend Tanya, and we watched Letters to Juliet and snuggled with kitties. It was my second time seeing it, but it was still just as cute.

Still, we didn't take pics of our night, but Philip did snap a few at the arena in downtown Minot:


A.J. and Jack at the Minot Monster Truck Rally.

( Two more pictures. )

I had spent the afternoon baking chocolate chip cookies per Philip's request, and then we delivered them to neighbors and friends. I have a full week of sugar cookies ahead of me this week, but I wanted to pop in. I did so well posting at the beginning of the year, but I've been too quiet the last two weeks... so much so that gardenmama even had to LJ "nudge" me! Thank you for that, C! :-)

It's been a relatively lazy day around here. I went to bed at almost 7:30 this morning, when Philip came home from work. (Yes, I was awake all night. It's the new routine I'd gotten into over Christmas break, I think.) We both slept until 2pm, about the time A.J. was to be home. I showered and Philip shoveled snow. By the time we were finished, Jack was also home from school!

We headed to the commissary for a short list to round out the rest of this meal plan, and I also grabbed all the things for a craving: Italian noodle salad. I had it over the summer at a party, and I fell in love! I don't really remember exactly what was in it, so I did my best tonight trying to make it. I boiled pasta, chopped up a small jar of black olives and a tomato, diced 1/4 of a white onion, then bathed it all in Italian dressing. I put it in the fridge to marinade overnight, and I can't wait to dig in tomorrow for lunch.

Tonight's dinner was an easy one: BBQ Chicken Pitas, mixed vegetables, and pears. I sprinkled a tiny bit of mozzarella cheese over the succotash (sufferin'!) before serving, and it was a neat change. I already have tomorrow's main entree ready, too - a smaller lasagna that I made on Christmas Day with the larger one that I took to our dinner hosts. I had frozen the small one (unbaked), and I'll make a loaf of fresh garlic french bread to go with it tomorrow. It should be an easy dinner for Philip to handle on his own.

I put out the word last night for an impromptu girls' night to several friends. I'd been wanting to catch Burlesque, and it will be showing at the base theatre. I invited some gal pals to watch the movie with me, then head to J.R. Rockers for appetizers and drinks afterward. It should be fun, and there's a few of us lined up now, plus two more that will be joining just for the food later. I'm excited for a night of chit-chat!

I've been watching tons of chick flicks lately on Philip's nights of work. Last night, I watched Sweet November and The Truth About Love. He's home tonight, and we're about to finish up Repo Men (we watched half of it a few weeks ago, but the movie was messed up and we received a replacement disc today). Here's to the last bits of Friday night!

Well, I've finally seen Elf. Seriously, I think it was almost non-stop chatter about this movie this whole month, and none of us had seen it. Philip recorded it about two weeks ago, and we sat down last night to watch it. Halfway through, the boys fizzled and wanted to continue playing with new Christmas toys, so Philip and I stopped it as well. (Truth be told, I didn't mind the break either!)

Tonight, the boys and I finished it at their request. We saved it in the DVR for Philip to finish on his next night off, too. My thoughts? It was okay. Nothing great, nothing terrible. Just a movie to have watched for the sake of watching, I suppose. I don't think I expected a whole lot more, despite the hype. I'm just not a great Will Ferrell fan.

In other movie news, Philip introduced the boys to A Christmas Story last night while I cleaned house. I think they enjoyed it, but I enjoyed cleaning more. I've just got NO interest in watching that one, thank you!

Isn't it funny how you see a person in a movie, and you've never heard of them before... but then in quick order, you see them in something else? Last night, while Philip headed to the gym, I watched a "girl movie" I've had for years but never seen: Martha, Meet Frank, Daniel and Lawrence. I'm sure I originally snagged it for my boy Joe Fiennes (*points to icon*), but it was really a neat, cute movie! Monica Potter was adorable and sweet, but the man I'd never seen before was Ray Winstone.

And then today I noticed him in Sweeney Todd. Coincidence!

I remember having that feeling when I was younger, learning vocabulary words and such. It always seemed that, as soon as I learned a new, unheard-of-to-me word, then I heard the word in regularity after. Education results in recognition - neat!

I had all these plans and errands for what we were going to accomplish today, but then Philip told me last night about an appointment he had this morning. It was smack in the middle of all the things I had planned, so there went the blueprints for the day.

Instead, I slept in until 10, got up, took a long shower, and he arrived back home. Then we scratched the entire day's errands for the one fun thing: a movie. We grabbed some lunch on the way, then plopped ourselves down to an early matinee of Date Night.

Liz Lemon & Michael Scott? It had to be good, and it definitely was! We both really enjoyed the movie, and it was a nice, easy afternoon. We strolled out of the theatre/mall by 2:30, and we made it back to the base and home almost half an hour before the boys arrived from school.

When we pulled in the driveway, Philip noticed a big ol' box on the front step - all my Pampered Chef® goodies had arrived from Heather's show! He brought it in, and I pounced into the box, showing him all my new lovelies. He appropriately nodded, oooh'd and ahhh'd over egg separators, decorating bottles, cake towers, and microfiber towels with me. Seriously, it was Christmas in my kitchen! (I'd been waiting forever to order these certain items, just waiting on someone to have a show.)

Tomorrow we'll run as many errands as possible to make up for today, and then Jack has another birthday party to attend at the base pool (he was just there last Saturday for another classmate's party). Sunday night and Monday night both have plans, so I don't think we'll slow down any time soon!

I truly could get lost all day long in cookbooks and cooking blogs. Watching Julie & Julia for the second time last night has done nothing to help with this; rather, I could only do it longer now.

I love that movie.

I'm currently reading a book on chocolate. I say 'reading' because it is less recipes, but more tips and tricks for working with chocolates. I've gotten lots of great ideas, but there are still so many techniques that are just either too tedious or too time-consuming I know I won't be likely to try myself anytime soon.

Two nights ago, I puttered around in the office, knocking out a couple of chick flicks while Philip was at work. I watched The Women and The Prince & Me 3: The Royal Honeymoon (I *know*. It went direct to DVD, I think, if that's any indication. Still, I'm a sucker for that movie series, and it was total fluff.)

The next night, Tuesday, the boys and I worked non-stop for HOURS on their valentine boxes for school. When they arrived off the bus, I took them straight to the BX to pick out supplies. From there, we rushed to Jack's soccer practice, and then back to the BX for the actual valentines (how did we forget those the first time? Honestly!) We came home, and got down to business. Between coats of paint, they wrote out all their valentines, then bagged them up with candy. We'd not been able to find treat bags of any sort, so they used sandwich baggies that they decorated with valentine stickers. Seriously, they went to bed sooooo late that night, and even then, the boxes were only 1/3 finished, but no more could be done until the paint dried more. Later, I felt more tired, and I headed to bed at the early time of 1am, taking with me my new book. Hang on - I haven't written about that here...

Marissa and I first saw the trailer for Dear John several months back, while at the midnight premiere of New Moon. We saw it before subsequent viewings too, and each time, we remarked on how good it looked. She read the book a while back. The weekend before last, we were talking about it again over the phone, and she asked me if I read the book. I told her I still hadn't, and she asked me if I'd like her to mail me her copy. "Sure!" I replied. The next afternoon, she called to let me know that the book would be here Saturday or Monday.

On Monday, I received a package from Amazon.com. I'd been expecting one myself for some things I'd ordered, so I didn't open it until much, much later in the evening. When I finally did, I was thinking, "I don't think this is a big enough mailer..." But it was! It was because it was my own brand-new copy of Dear John, and Marissa had ordered it and had Amazon send it straight to me! Such a sneaky gal, she was!

So... since I was felt more tired, I decided to curl up in bed and read just a chapter or two to "wet my whistle" for reading it the next day. Wrong-O! At 5:30am, I closed the book, having finished it in its entirety instead. It was a good read, and I've got some thoughts swirling on it. I think I'll probably put those down in my paper journal, though.

So I slept for a bit, then got the boys off to school, and then I went back to bed. I got up for the day around 12:45, intending to head to the commissary for our bi-weekly grocery shopping (Philip had gotten home after PT around 9am, crawling straight into bed). While I was in the bathroom, the doorbell rang. (I didn't hear it, as the bathroom heater runs too loudly.) Philip did, and he threw on clothes and answered the door. It was a neighbor woman that I'd not met when delivering treats to the block a few weeks back, as only her husband had answered the door (he'd told me they were all down with the flu, and after I handed him the baked goodies, I came home and scrubbed LAYERS of skin off my hands, just to be safe!). I had told her husband to have her come by sometime when she felt better to chat, and that's exactly what she was doing. Philip ran upstairs to let me know, and I hurriedly dressed in the bathroom and came down.

It was an awkward start, and she saw my house in a state of disarray. There were painted objects all across the table, wire bits littering around them, and the entire "craft bin" was open and picked through on the bench in the dining room (we'd used markers, pens, wire cutters, paper, paintbrushes, tape, staples, etc). In the living room, both of the fluffy blankets we use for cuddling on the couches to stay warm were still out, having not been folded and put in the end table at the close of the evening. I had dishes in the sink - oh, it was just awful! Despite that, she and her 14-month-old were very, very kind, and we chatted for about three hours in the living room - even a little past the time that the boys arrived home on the school bus! Her little one conked out for a nap on the couch for a few hours of that, just so sweet. I was SO glad she stopped by, too. I mean, you tell people to drop by anytime, but it seems like they hardly ever do, you know? Especially when you've not yet met them!

I love how great the response has been since the boys and I delivered all those goodies. I baked for four days straight (I called it my "delayed holiday baking," since it was in January), and then the boys and I spent an entire afternoon delivering big trays of goodies to every single inhabited house on our block (eleven total). It was very, very cold and windy, and we had to come back after every third house to grab more trays, but it was so fun. Included with each tray, I had written our names, address, and telephone numbers on a card, and I let each family know to call if they ever needed anything. Everyone was so welcoming, and we were invited into so many homes for a bit of chatting. The boys took off their shoes in each house and immediately disappeared with the kids of that family. I'd been nervous about it being a Saturday afternoon, but since it was so very cold, every single family was home - amazing! I also learned that our entire block is new, as the earliest family here only just moved in at the end of October. We're all newbies, so we ALL needed welcoming. :-)

Once the boys were settled from school, we dug straight back into our crafting. We finished more "steps" yesterday, as there wasn't so much painting to do. Still, it's not a crafting afternoon until I have to clean wet, red paint (A.J.) off my wooden dining room floors, right? We worked for hours, stopping only to head into town to try a new Chinese restaurant for dinner (we were missing fresh lettuce and tomato for the planned meal, and the commissary had already closed). The food was great, and we were all stuffed when we returned home, going back to work.

I took pictures of the finished boxes this morning, and then I drove the boys to school. We didn't want to risk anything being crushed on the bus, and now they're good for tomorrow's valentine parties. :-)

Meanwhile, I ended up not grocery-shopping yesterday, so I'm headed to the commissary in a little bit. Philip is testing today, and then he may have weapons firing later this afternoon. Jack's got another game tonight, and it's his day to bring refreshments. I'm going to be so ready to curl up for a movie tonight with Philip - I need to relax! We watched The Taking of Pelham 123 (the newer one) a few nights ago, but tonight, I'm feeling more like a rom-com. :-)

I made these cupcakes back in November as one of the treats I took to a friend's house for the New Moon midnight premiere party. They were received very well, and I was glad - I put a lot of work into them!



Even having Philip help me for an hour or so, as well as my friend Liz for a few hours too, the "popcorn" still took FOREVER to make. I estimated that, over five days, I spent eleven hours making enough "popcorn" to decorate 22 regular-sized cupcakes. Holy!

The cupcakes were a dark chocolate mix, and I made them a week before the party, then froze them. I thawed them the night before the event, and I iced them with cream cheese frosting in the afternoon hours before the party. Immediately, I decorated them with the "popcorn," making sure it was still very sticky. I let them dry a few hours while I got ready for the party.

I made the "popcorn" using mini marshmallows. I ripped each one in half, then smushed the pieces together tightly in groups of two or three to make the popcorn shapes. I then used a knitting needle to indent holes on each marshmallow end to make them look like real kernels. I used a tiny paintbrush to "paint" bronze pearl sugar dust into each kernel. Once all the popcorn pieces were finished, I spread them over two large cookie sheets and "buttered" them, using a small paintbrush to apply yellow pearl sugar dust.

They turned out PERFECT!

In fact, they were even a little too perfect. I took a plate of four cupcakes into work to share, and the next morning when I arrived, three were still leftover. I was disappointed, and when my coworkers arrived for the day, I asked them why they hadn't eaten a cupcake. Ryan, my boss, gently explained, "Well Nicole, you know I don't really like popcorn." (And I do know that he doesn't.) "Besides that, we talked about it last night, and we all decided that salty popcorn sounded really disgusting on a cupcake. No offense, though. It just didn't sound good enough to try." He looked really apologetic, and then I burst out laughing, explaining to him that it wasn't real popcorn. I showed him up-close on one of the cupcakes, and he was amazed! Then he gladly ate one. :-)



( More pictures. )

Let me be the millionth person to wish you happiness as we sashay into this new decade!

I was VERY excited for the New Year's Eve blue moon last night, but alas... the clouds were much too thick, and we couldn't really make it out. You could see where it was, to be sure, but there was definitely no photographing the bugger. Shucks.

I spent NYE with my family. If you'd asked me before I left Nebraska, I would have told you I'd loved to have a big party with oodles and oodles of friends (and I'd have flown Heather and her family in for the occasion). But I have a small frame that hangs in my bedroom, and it reads: "I have learned that being with those I love is enough."

And it is so true.

We spent the evening eating together, and then we saw our "reward movie" for unpacking the house - Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. We came home and spent the last half-hour or so waiting on that big ol' ball to drop, and then we headed to bed. We kissed, and Jack noticed that everyone was kissing on TV. "Why are y'all kissing?"

"Because it's what you do on New Year's Eve. It's fun!" Philip said.

And now it's 2010. Or 'Twenty-Ten.' Or just '10. Whatever you want to call it, it's the beginning of a brand-new year, a brand-new decade, and a chance at a clean slate. For us, it's still the beginning of a brand-new life in a brand-new place...

My friend 1grl_revolution likes to adopt a word for the year, and I think it's a neat-o idea. I'm taking a cue from my angel-friend Isaac and his family, and I'm going to keep "HOPE" as my word this year.

But I'm happy to share HOPE, too. *wink*