december backlogs: our merry little christmas

The week before Christmas, we were fully in festive spirit.

Dusty's family was coming into town soon, and we had decked the halls for Winter Wonderland!

We were bursting at the seams with holly jolly, so we just had to do something to celebrate all the joy that is christmastime. 

What better than gingerbread houses?

Oh, the art of gingerbread house building. It's fickle, it's delicate, it's tasty!

Dusty and I were shopping at Target one night, and suddenly we found ourselves being led to the Christmas aisles like a dog on a leash. Only there was no leash, there was just pretty colors and ribbons and candies. 

We saw this big gingerbread-house-making kit, and our eyes lit up. 

Instead of buying the kit, though, we decided to just grab our own fixings! Graham crackers, frosting, candies, etc. 

(Of course, it wasn't that easy -- at first I suggested making gingerbread, which confused Dusty, because he had only made gingerbread houses with graham crackers. Why do you think they're called gingerbread houses, Schanaker? I asked, incredulously. But, I mean, what can I say. He's a jimmy jon.)

In the end we stuck with the graham crackers for convenience and easier wall-building, and with our arms full of faux-gingerbread construction materials, we texted Colinoria and basically said, we have the goods to be architectural geniuses with frosting. you're coming over.

It's no mystery that this was a ridiculously fun time. The one surprise, though, was that gingerbread house-making is hard. It's not for the impatient or the faint of heart. You have to be precise, and earnest, and really focused. And you must have ample frosting. Otherwise (like Colin found out many times) your gingerbread masterpiece will cave in on itself, causing utter heartbreak and devastation.

I spent a lot of time dipping broken graham cracker pieces into the frosting for a mid-build snack.
We also had hot coffee with plenty of cream, which always goes well with sweets!
I put on a DVD of cartoon Christmas classics to play in the background (Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman...and some super weird and creepy cartoon called Cricket on the Hearth that none of us ever want to think about again.)

My house

Victoria's house

Actually there were two surprises about this process: the boys were way more into it than us girls were.
I mean, Victoria and I were done probably a full hour before the boys were. Haha. Not that we were impatient or bored, because there was still plenty of candy and frosting on that table.

Dusty's house practically had a history to it, a storyline, with plot twists and character developments and all kinds of nonsense. His was the Father Christmas of gingerbread houses.

I mean, seriously, he made a sled for the front yard. And an ice rink. And walking stones. And Christmas lights. And a licorice log pile. And a candy cane doorway.

Colin ended up creating a rather convincing safe house for the elves, complete with "SOS" on the top.

It was the best.

Call me crazy, but I absolutely love a super messy fun table after a night of crafting or eating or whatnot. It makes me feel really happy and accomplished.


A few days later, Dusty and I decided to have our own Christmas morning tradition.
Dusty's family was coming in that Saturday, so we had to improvise and have our Christmas on a Friday! December 20th. I went into work late that day, so we could open presents together and, as always, go to IHOP.

We had a basement growing up as kids, which is where my brothers lived -- but our Christmas tree and the Christmas morning experience was always on the main floor, so we never had that tiptoeing downstairs to see Santa type of experience. The boys would occasionally sneak upstairs, but for me all I had to do was crack my door open, because my room had a full view of the living room!
I do remember one year though, when we decided to have Christmas in the basement. I don't remember why, but I remember it being so strange and fun.

Every year when we do our own little Christmas, I have gone downstairs, turned on all the lights, cleaned everything up and lit some Christmas candles, and then gone to wake up Dusty and have this kind of glowing moment at the top of the stairs.

Ah, what a lovely sight.

One of my favorites in the world. Christmas in apartment 813. 

(Speaking of 813 -- Victoria gave us a little Christmas ornament of a key, with a cardstock tag on it with our address on it, to always remember this home. Tears). 

We plop down in our pajamas, and always take turns opening presents.

We always get each other all kinds of little things, so we have lots to open and it's fun!

This year, Dusty wrote different "to"s and "from"s on every single package. Things like "To: Mac", "From: Cheese" and other pairings that are cute or romantic in some way.

Like Mary and Francis from Reign.

But then he threw in the worst one ever, because he knows how much I hate it. 

Evangeline Lily and Fili the Dwarf....or in other words, the bogus elf and dwarf love story from the new Hobbit movie. I'm sorry, but no no no no no no no. 

I think I ranted about this for a good hour after we saw that movie in theaters with Colinoria.

I still don't like to talk or think about it.

It infuriates me. 

Luckily the wrapping contained the Jurassic Park trilogy, so all was forgiven!

He also got me my favorite book, The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson, in hardcover -- and some really fun glitter OPI polishes (which inspired me to stop biting my nails).

We then got dressed up in some comfy sweaters to take goofy photos and head over to IHOP for breakfast!

Normally we'd go in our pajamas, but I had to work that day, so no pajamas for me!

I kept calling this his reindeer sweater, because I bought it for him for Christmas, and even though I know it's not a reindeer, it's still a reindeer sweater to me.

A very merry little Christmas indeed. 

october backlogs: halloweeny things

The week before Halloween, I finally did it.

I hosted a Ladies Night Out!

For those of you who don't know, LNO is a monthly law wives event that we take turns hosting. The theme is decided by the host, and we just plan a fun night for us law wives to get together for fun and fellowship. It sounds pretty cheesy and sometimes it is, but it's also so needed. 

I had always wanted to host, but as you probably know, either by photos or by personal experience, our apartment is tiny. 

But I mean, c'est la vie and stuff. I did it anyway. 

It was a crisp fall day, and the theme was fall! Naturally.

I set up our dining room table as the main hub of craftiness, and bought little frames for everyone to paint and decorate to their heart's content. I also printed out cute little Fallish sayings, like "fall into fall!" and "keep calm and pumpkin spice everything", etc. for them to put in the frames.

I set up the back porch as the pumpkin carving station. I was hoping to spread out the areas of activity, so that it wouldn't feel so crowded!

Isn't our back porch view delightful?

I was so excited and couldn't wait for everyone to get there. Messy, chatty, crafty, cidery, happy evenings are the best. 

It started getting pretty crazy right off the bat.
Paint brushes flying, ladies chatting and frantically passing jewels, buttons, ribbons, fabric and more.

My friend Emilie even brought some spray paint for her pumpkins, so she could have crisp white pumpkins with a pretty monogram design on the front!
It turned out so great, too. She has such incredible style. She has designed their home impeccably, I always love seeing her creative touches!

We ended up just kind of cramming everyone around the table, and they didn't seem to mind.
I put on Runaway Bride in the other room and we all just settled in for a girlish evening.

We had cider and hot chocolate throughout the night, as well as a few other snacks that the ladies brought.
After the initial crafting was done and the frames were drying, a few of us went out back in the cool night air for some pumpkin carving. A few girls brought their own pumpkins, so they got to work!

It was such a pleasure to host, and the whole night was aglow with girl time.

I was really glad I took the plunge and allowed our small space the potential to be a place of warmth and memories. Sharing your space can be one of the most exhilarating things, and a lot of time little excuses or doubts or insecurities creep up and stop you from doing so, but so what if it's messy? So what if it's imperfect?
I'm starting to sound like Shauna Niequist. But it's true. It's sacred and it's joyous and it's worth it.

Another October/Halloween highlight was our Gnomeo and Juliet costumes!

Our church has this incredible harvest festival that we've participated in every year. I feel like a broken record, but this year was our last one. Everything is coming around for the last time, which is really sad. I try not to dwell on it!
We actually didn't participate in the Trunk or Treat our first year here. We did the hayride station, freezing our tushes off and drinking lots of cider and hot cocoa and bidding on the baked goods for the auction inside!
But for the last two years, we got to dress up and decorate our trunks. Last year we were Carl and Ellie from UP, which was so much fun. This year we wanted to do something similar, a fun (and easy) costume that the kids might recognize and that was another great cartoon love story.

Another super-random but fabulous October highlight is that we started eMeals!
I don't know if you've heard of it, but I've been spreading around my love for it like an official spokesperson.

They basically email you a meal plan every week, based on your diet preferences, how many people are in your home, where you grocery shop, etc. It's completely hassle-free.
If you're like me, and you absolutely hate trying to maximize your shopping lists every week, and you end up wasting a lot of produce, or eating out to avoid having to cook something made of canned beans and frozen chicken because that's all you have in the house, or you end up stressing out trying to plan healthy meals for every single meal on a budget, my sweet darling this is for you. 

Dustin and I currently use Herbalife, which is a program of meal replacement shakes and vitamins and such. We drink a shake for breakfast and lunch, so dinner was always tripping us up. We wanted something healthy, filling, efficient, easy, and delicious. eMeals has been our best friend from day 1.
We use the "low-carb" option, so every Wednesday morning I get the new meal plan in my inbox, and Dusty and I go shopping together that night. The list includes 7 recipes, (entree and side dish), and a detailed shopping list for the grocery store of your choice, prices included. All you have to do is run to the store, check off each item (while chatting hand-in-hand and half-joking about buying that party size of puff cheetos), and go home and throw Friends on while you whip up some Mexican pork chops with a caesar salad.
The recipes are incredible, but are still easy enough to make quickly (and even experiment with, which I occasionally do).
Anyway. Enough about that! Moral of the story is, it's the best thing we've ever done.

dijon/white wine blueberry chicken
with roasted asparagus

spicy salsa pork filets
with steamed zucchini and squash

Our actual Halloween was one of the most subdued, and one of the best, Halloween evenings.

It was a Thursday night, so we obviously had work/school that day as well as the next.
It was a gorgeous Fall day, a little rainy. The leaves were stunning.
We had the chance to take some pictures on campus on a hillside of fallen leaves. Dusty took some of me for this blog post, and then we had a random student walk by and ask us if we'd like one of the both of us! So we let him take a few, and thanked him before trotting through the worsening wind and rain to our car!

Our creepy Halloween evening was pretty simple.

We went over to spend time with Colinoria (Colin and Victoria), who had a big bowl of candy for trick or treaters. Lucky for us, no one came! So we just got to eat a lot of candy while we carved pumpkins and watched Children of the Corn. 

One of the best and worst movies of all time, I think.

He wants you too, Malachi!

Victoria carved a super cute owl, and I carved Eva. I'd say I created a pretty fair resemblance!
I guess cat pumpkins are becoming a tradition for me.

2012

I'll soon get started on our November adventures -- maybe, eventually, I'll start blogging present-day again.