Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Yes, I know that Christmas was a week ago, but we have been traveling, making blogging a tad tricky. Before we left, we got ourselves stockings (no, we never had any before) and fixed our fireplace, which has added coziness!

Our first stop on our multi-leg tour was in Indiana, where we hung out with Jesse's side of the family.

We baked delicious gluten-free pumpkin muffins

and fiery chocolate mini muffins with chocolate icing and strawberries.


We had to use ridiculously high proof alcohol to get them to light right, but we got it!

We also played pool

and Jesse played so well that when he scratched Lorna was so surprised she spilled her wine all over the floor.

All of us went out to eat together as well.

We also had fun and craziness with my side of the family.

We enjoyed our presents,

read,

got crafty,

and went to the Mystic Seaport.

We had fun looking at old boats.


All in all it was a good Christmas!

The Hen's Den Design Team

Guess what? I am one of the Hens' Den's new design team members! You can find the announcement here: http://thehensdenteam.blogspot.com/ You will have to wait until January to see my first project as part of the Hens' Den design team, but until then here is a new layout I just completed using MSC's sketch #1:

I also had a blast playing with sketch #2

and sketch #3!

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

I was in the kitchen the other day, examining some questionable spinach, when it occurred to me: much of the food we throw out is perfectly safe for consumption. Many of us pitch the sour cream when the clock chimes midnight the day of its expiration stamp, but I'm thinking more broadly. A lot of food is safe well past any reasonable level of edibleness. Take my spinach for instance. It was in a bag, and at the bottom was a mass of green mush and liquid. Would you pull out your Oneida spoon and dig in? Nonetheless, I'm sure I could dump it in a pan with a little oil for a stir-fry and never know the difference. Popeye ate mushy spinach, and look where it got him.

On the other hand, no one ever ate blue-green chicken, cooked or otherwise, and was happy with the result.

This epiphany led me to the following, very important, list of foods you can eat when they're rotten:

• Spinach
• Carrots
• Cheese (just cut off the fuzz)
• Olives (Testing this now! 2 hours and counting!)
• Bread
• Potatoes (like a Chia pet, just trim the sprouts)
• Rice
• Flour (worms = protein)
• Twinkies (these don't actually go bad)
• Apples
• McD's french fries

Surely you've found others...

(PS: I don't really know if you can eat this stuff. When faced with the omnivore's dilemma, I recommend, as always, taking the conservative position.)

Sunshine

Now that I finally have a (short) break from traveling, I have had a chance to do some scrapbooking. I used MME's Sunshine line for this layout, which is based on MME's December sketch. These pictures are from my favorite breakfast ever -- at the Princeville St. Regis in Kauai. The food was delectable and the scenery was awe-inspiring!

While we were in Kauai, we explored the island in this jeep and got out and explored some beautiful beaches. This layout is based on sketch 3 from My Creative Sketches.


Here's the two-page layout perspective.


Finally, I made this card using scraps from MME's Union Square line and card sketch.

Marathons are Painful

Running for 26.2 miles is painful. Being out in the freezing rain for four hours is painful. Running a marathon in freezing rain is madness! Jesse, Sarah, and Tyche braved the horrible conditions to run the Dallas marathon. Congratulations!