Homegoods

I love decorating our house and my new favorite store is Homegoods. I went there twice this week and I plan on going back next week after pay day! I got this spice cabinet and the color is perfect for my kitchen.

Matching dish rags.

A clock to go in the den.

Matt found this airplane model for the den. He plans on staining the desk black and this will look good on it.

Our new babies aka Kitty Cats

For Christmas Matt promised me two new kitties. We have always wanted cats were not able to because of our living arrangements. On Wednesday night we headed over to Petsmart and fell in love with Sprite and Lovee (names will be changed). We thought we would get kittens but Petsmart was fresh out and we loved these little gals. On our way home we had to put them in those cardboard cat carries and they were not happy. It was like out of a movie where the box rattles and it seems like there is a beast inside. Well its true life folks. When we were almost home one of the cats really started freaking and she ripped the top right off and out she came. We were laughing so hard!

The first night was a sleepless night because both cats were exploring and meowing and sneezing all night long. Because of this sneezing and coughing (yes cats cough) we took them to the vet Friday night. They have what is called, The kitty cold. Apparently every single cat that comes from the shelter has it. We didn't know that. Next time I'm thinking we will go thru craigslist. So now our little kitties are on antibiotics and vitamins.

Lovee, little kitty, is so snuggly and sweet. She is one year old and is very small for her age. She sleeps at our heads all night and loves to lay on us. She is laying on me right now.

Sprite, big kitty, loves to sleep under the bed. She did sleep on the bed last night but she likes dark places? I guess. she is a lap kitty when she comes out from under the bed.

And here is the best part. I am barely allergic! I get horrible allergies when I go home. I have to wash my hands immediately after petting my parents cats. With these cats I can pet them, let them lay on me and I barely sneeze! It's a miracle.

We don't have names for them yet. Any suggestions???

Trip Highlights

Matt and I headed up to Connecticut for two days to see friends, eat at our favorite places, and visit our old places of employment. We stayed with Jared and Lindsey and had so much fun visiting with them. We ate at Lucky's and Johny Cakes and they were both SO good. I stopped by Greenwich Woods and saw co-workers and some of the residents. Matt went into NYC and saw his old co-workers and had dinner with some of them. I also got to go to the Stamford Mall with Lindsey and it felt like old times. We saw our old landlord and Mike even made a guest appearance! We were sad we missed so many people but the holiday season is probably not the best time to stop by. I didn't get any pictures so on the drive home I took some just to prove we were there!

Look closely and you can see the NYC skyline.

Some other fun things that happened on our trip was when the oven completely fell out of the wall. We had to cook most things in the microwave.

One night we were eating vanilla tootsie rolls and Matt had the genius idea to make fake teeth out of them. This man has many talents.

We had so much fun and it was really hard to come back but we are officially moved into our house and we should have carpet in the next 3 weeks! The house will keep us very busy for the next few months and it doesn't hurt that it is 70 degrees outside!

Oh and I almost forgot our much needed trip to Jim's Buffet. It was delish and we were all sick afterwards!

Philly

An old tradition of ours is to take the train into Philly around Christmastime to see the Lord and Taylors light show and the Strawbridges Christmas Village. Since Lord and Taylors was bought by Macy's and Strawbridges went out of business we had since lost that tradition. One day my mom saw an ad for the village and light show put together in Macy's so we were very happy to start up our tradition again.

Waiting for the train and freezing. We were so happy to find that the new station waiting area has heat warmers.

The Christmas Village is a self guided exhibit of "A Christmas Carol".

Tiny Tim (or Tiny Tina as my sisters like to call him).

After the shows we headed over to Reading Terminal Market to look around.

For lunch we went to Maggianos which was really really good.

and you can see I gained about 5 lbs on this trip and am in dire need of The biggest loser!

Christmas Day

Thankfully my sisters didn't make us wake up until 8am so I wasn't to cranky. Here is Matt showing off his Santa gifts. Socks, Seasons 1&2 of 30 Rock and of course a flash light.

Can we just say precious? Garfield is a very interesting cat. He always had to be wherever we were and he loves boxes!

Here is the before picture for the Christmas Breakfast.

Matt once again in charge of pancakes. This year we were down two people as Crystal and Lauren were both in Utah. It was basically just me, Matt, mom and dad since the other girls disappeared 30 minutes into the breakfast.

Craziness ensued this year as you can see. After 12 years of doing this we had the largest turnout ever. 107 people came! We ran out of food and had to get creative.

After everyone left around 3:30pm we finally were able to open our gifts. Yes people I received a leopard print snuggie and I love it! I also got two kitty collars and a scratch pad which in essence means I am getting two cats. yay :)

The night ended with a turkey dinner and a call from Lauren. Lauren is serving in the SLC South Mission and is able to call home on Christmas Day and Mothers Day. We talked for about an hour and she sounded really good. The SLC mission sounds like a party! But she is working hard and loves her mission.

Christmas Eve

We had our traditional Christmas Eve dinner comprising of eggrolls, shrimp cocktail, fresh salsa, taquitos and sushi. Matt learned to make the sushi this year which will come in handy! After dinner Matt read "Silent Night, Holy Night" (which by the way is worth like $60 since Walter Cronkite passed away). Then we each opened a present and settled in to watch "Scrooge". That movie really never gets old. I love traditions and especially Christmas Eve.

Banshee

This is for Uncle Whitney.

Christmas Eve 2009

*This is from a post I blogged two years ago and might give anyone who watches this a better idea as to why we scream!

"We all settled in to watch "Scrooge". This year was especially special to us because there is a scene in the movie where a hideous looking child sings about Scrooge saying, "He's a Banshee". Well not so....Uncle Whitney ruined our fun by telling us that the kid really says, 'he's a bandit' and told us our dad had been lying to us all these years. We put the closed captions on during the song and all cried when we read the sad truth. We still screamed out that he was a banshee and will continue to do so....so there."