I don't have a good title

Tis a busy time of year. We went to the firm holiday party on Saturday. Bill pulled out the crushed velvet jacket for this special occasion. Where is the cravat, you ask? How can you wear crushed velvet without a cravat? Well my friends, he went without this year, but next year, we will conquer the cravat. I, on the other hand, went with the classic cocktail dress. It worked out. Who doesn't like the excuse to get dressed up once in a while?
We've been decorating for Christmas. Asher and the cat have slowly dismantled the bottom 2 1/2 feet of the tree. So we are very festive on the top 3 feet of the tree and scrooges on bottom. I've even decided to be crafty and made a wreath. Dang that pintrest, it gets me every time. That website is revolutionizing our Christmas this year. First making a wreath, now I feel the need to make all the tags for the presents. I have the unhealthy desire to be Martha Stewart. "It's a good thing".
We've decided not to buy any presents for Asher this year. Since he loves playing in left over costco boxes, that is what he is getting. Just kidding, none of the above is true. I'm sure he will be spoiled rotten, but boxes are the cheapest toys on earth. I like them, and so does he.
The cat has been spending his days hiding from Asher in either the bathtub or one of the bathroom sinks. I never knew watching me put on mascara would be so exciting for a cat, but he is right there with me every morning. And the tip of his tongue is always sticking out (see picture below) thus causing major halitosis.
Last but not least, an elephant has joined the family. Asher loves this stuffed animal. It likes us too. It has been into photo bombing, or just taking over pictures lately, which ever is easiest. Naughty elephant.
Oh yeah, and I'm 28. I feel like this is a big number. 27 was fine, 28 feels frighteningly close to 30. This month is extra busy because this is the one month that Bill and I are the same age. Must take advantage of our 28ness and be crazy before the old age of 29 rolls in with hearing loss and incontinence. Maybe a black tie new years party is in order?

Happy Easter

Happy belated Easter. I'm not even going to apologize for posting this a week late. Sometimes, that is just the way it is. Easter was kind of a bust for Asher this year. I thought we would have a fun little egg hunt...it was a failure. See picture below. I put Asher in the grass with eggs right by him, visible even. He started to get up then he realized how much he hates grass.

See, he hates grass. He is trying to hold his legs up so that he doesn't touch anything. So we had a modified hunt. I held eggs up to him, and he found them.

Then we took a break in the swing and happiness ensued.

Asher enjoyed the bounty of the egg hunt from the safety of a park bench.And then got to ride on my shoulders back to the apartment. Maybe the traditional Easter egg hunt will go better next year. Hope you all had an awesome Easter, egg hunt aside, we did.

Happy Mardi Gras

Happy Fat Tuesday! When I was working at the University, one of the Doctor's wife was from New Orleans and she always had a couple of King Cakes shipped to their home. They were gracious enough to share this delicious tradition with all those in our department. So this morning, I sat dreaming about a King Cake and decided to do something about it. I googled King Cakes in the DC area and found a bakery selling them. So when Asher woke up from his morning nap, we trooped over there to partake in the Fat Tuesday tradition. We headed from the bakery to my sister's work to surprise her with our find. Twas a joyous occasion.

Bill found the baby Jesus. Tradition states that whoever find the baby Jesus baked into the cake has to buy the King Cake next year. I will have to help him remember.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Since we are back from the holidays, I figured I should probably update. So I'll grace you with one of our activities while visiting family.
You know L!ttle People B!g World? Well they are located just outside of Portland. I convinced Bill (which took a lot of convincing) that we should go check out their farm, despite being closed for the season. What a good husband, he appeased me and we drove down and snapped this picture at the road leading to their farm. I was mildly embarrassed of our touristy actions and rushed everyone back into the car after the picture was taken. However, just as we were driving away, another family unabashedly stopped in front to the sign to snap a picture. I wasn't quite so embarrassed after that. Can we say awesome! We should have hit up "The L!ttle Chocolatiers" store while we were in SLC (as that is another TLC show, also about dwarfs, (and no, our tourist destinations are not based on the locations of little people reality shows))

Martha Stewart

Last night as I was getting ready for bed, I was watching Martha Stewart's Holiday Special. It was disturbing. She made eggnog, which I really like, until I saw what goes into eggnog. Here is the recipe

Ingredients

• 12 eggs, separated
• 1 1/2 cups superfine sugar
• 1 quart whole milk
• 1 1/2 quarts heavy cream
• 3 cups bourbon
• 1/2 cup dark rum
• 2 cups cognac
• freshly grated nutmeg

So what I realized was eggnog is really bad for you. Whole milk, heavy cream, loads of sugar. Yowza.
I also realized that Martha is a drunkard. Why else would you add all this hard liquor to something so good and pure.

Halloween

Well this year for Halloween, we decided to go to the ward party. I went as a Doctor (a mighty fine one, I might add) and Bill decided to be lame and refused to dress up, but for the sake of this post, he dressed up as a law student (this picture was taken on the first day of school last year).

The ward party was pretty good. There were lots of lions, tigers, and bears, a skunk, princesses and witches. But there were a few costumes that deserve mentioning, such as Pac Man, who is one of our Primary kids that we teach, and the Joker, who is our Bishop.
It's too bad we didn't get a better shot of him, because he really was disgusting. And the only reason I knew it was the bishop was because he walked in with his kids. He even had the disgusting scars - he was always smiling. It really was gross.