Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Christmas travels

Alright everyone, I'm signing off of here for awhile...we're leaving to go to Washington DC tomorrow to hang out for a couple of days. Then we're off to North Carolina (come on and raise up)!!!! I cannot wait to see family and friends wahooooooo!! I'll try to post a couple of times but if I don't, I'm sorry. Alright, see ya soon!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Oh Christmas tree

Last night after we witnessed the Christmas miracle we wanted to go see this huge tree downtown. I didn't think about it until we were there that it was past midnight, a dark spooky park in the middle of downtown and we're walking by ourselves (in 33 degree weather and its raining)...not such a great idea. Rest assured, we were not assaulted and nothing happened to us...there was no one around (smart people, because it was so freaking cold!). Some of you may not know this but I worry...a lot and I am a very anxious person so it was probably my 9200 prayers that I sent up in the short while that we were out there that kept us safe. Mom, you'll appreciate this...between prayers I kept thinking "my mom would kill me if she knew this...she would just kill me". Kathy, not so much...she's used to JK putting himself in dangerous situations, so I'm sure she doesn't even worry anymore. Anyway like I said, we were fine, and JK took some great pictures! Here they are:

Us and the Christmas tree:


Me...aww look how tiny I look:


Us,a little more close up:


I thought this one was cool with the city in the background:

Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus...

I have witnessed a Christmas miracle!

Until last night I thought that 90% of Pittsburgh was filled with Scrooges...no one here seems to like Christmas, in fact a lot of them have hard feelings towards the holiday and hate it. Of course being a Christmas Crazy and coming from a family full of CCs and then living with developing CCs, I was not used to these types of feelings. Well, all of that aside...JK and I went to this incredible home last night. He read about it on cnn.com and my cuzzie Emily even told me about it. To say the least...it is absolutely amazing! Its just your average middle class suburbia type of house...decorated with 210,000 Christmas lights that are synced with a computer so that they go on and off with the music that is being played!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We parked infront of their house and turned the radio on the designated station and just watched in awe for about 30-45 minutes. It was wonderful, during the first song I teared up (as I seem to be doing with anything Christmas-like this year). And then I told John that I wanted to go up and ring the door bell and hug the owners and tell them thank you, he wouldn't let me though. Anyway, they have a website: http://steelcitychristmas.com/index.htm

Make sure that you click "videos" and then "2008 videos" and you'll see the display we saw last night with some of the songs we listened to. Please go see this, I was amazed! There were so many people that I wish I could have just blinked and they would be there because I know how much they would've loved it! Ok, its incredible...and now I'll stop endorsing them...just watch it! :) Merry merry!

Sunday, December 14, 2008

I have no life, as you can see

Ok, I need to update you all on some of my latest 'reads'...

1. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd--like I said in an earlier post, it may be because it took me forever to get through the book but I give it a 2.5. It was entertaining, I think if I hadn't taken forever to get through it, it would have gotten more stars. I'm gonna say that The Secret Life of Bees was Ms. Kidd's masterpiece.

2. Skinny Bitch by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin--very informative. The authors are vegans and they basically trash the food industry and its crummy regulations. It was very interesting to read and slightly disturbing knowing what the food that you eat goes through before you actually eat it. I have not completely finished the book, partially because I almost threw up when I read the beef section and partially because I don't have the money to eat completely organic and vegan and I also don't have the willpower. I give it a 4 for the quality of the information and a 1.5 for how I'll actually follow through with any of their ways to change my diet. It has helped give me that extra boost for wanting to cut out diet sodas and fake sugar. Although, there are some harsh words, so if you get offended easily don't read the book.

3. The Purpose of Christmas by Rick Warren--this was a Christmas present from JK's parents. I am enjoying it thus far...I have not completed the book but its on my list of things to do today, so I'll update you later.

These are a few of my favorite things

First of all, I hope you picked up on the Juile Andrews reference. Second of all, here is a list of my fave things right now:

1. My Uggs-I believe I'm obsessed. I wear them everywhere, they're just so warm and wonderful!

2. A clean house decorated for Christmas. I love when our house is clean, it just gives me a peaceful feeling and seeing it decorated for Christmas just makes me so happy every time I walk downstairs.

3. Listening to Christmas music ALL the time (except when Delilah takes over...I have to switch the station while she talks...sorry Delilah).

4. Receiving Christmas cards! They are a sweet surprise amongst bills and junk mail.

5. Going Christmas shopping when its actually cold and snowy (as long as the roads are clear) outside! It feels sooo Christmasy!

6. Going on a date with my husband...yes, we went on our first date since we've moved here, on Wednesday (he's a busy bee).

7. Cheesy Lifetime Christmas movies...yes, they have bad actors and actresses but can a movie really be that bad when its set during Christmas time? I didn't think so.

8. Marie Claire magazine...love it! I've never received a magazine subscription until last year my mil (mother in law, come on people...keep up!), Kathy got a free subscription to MC and offered it to me. Well that's where the addiction began, because not only is it filled with fashion but it actually has articles that are very interesting to me--they're about things going on in the world, new trends in our society, etc. Well, for Christmas I asked for a renewal of the subscription and the wish was granted! My first issue came on Friday and I peeked at it when I first came home and I'm about to go through the whole issue now, yay!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

Christmas surprise

JK just went to return a movie and found a package on our front door! Yay! It was from his Grandma Moon and inside were our Christmas gifts. Mine was a pair of beautiful handmade earrings and his was a gift card to Amazon.com, and our together gift was a contribution to the "the JKs go out for a night on the town" fund. What great gifts! Man, you people sure do know how to treat a young married couple around the holiday season and we definitely appreciate it! Thanks so much Grandma Moon :) By the way, I...I mean we looove Christmas surprises!

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Newsflash people: Its Christmastime!!!

Alright, alright...I know its been quite awhile since I've posted last. Sorry for the delay blog lovers...its been a busy week, it just seems like every night gets away from me before I can blog...sad, I know. Anywho...it is sooo Christmastime! I've been doing Christmas baking, shopping, drinking Christmas tea, wearing Christmas colors every day this week to work and decorating our lovely new Christmas tree! That's right, I said OUR Christmas tree!! Thanks to my sweet aunt Cissy we have a beautiful Christmas tree in our living room. I thought that I would be ok and just be able to make it until we got to my parents' house and see their Christmas trees. But once Cis made a donation to the Kelly Christmas fund we were able to go and get a tree! Oh by the way, Lowe's and Michael's have all of their Christmas stuff 50% off! So go get some stuff now! Once we set up the tree I was just entranced with its beauty. A Christmas tree is just so magical and I'm so thankful and happy that we have one! It was really fun decorating it and making it our own tree, its so pretty!

I've posted some pics of the tree and of some delicious gingerbread cookies that I made on Saturday. Hope you like them!








Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Its Christmas time in the city

I've had a few requests for pics of our Christmas decorations. So now our house is clean (mostly) and decorated! Wahoo!!! So here are a lot of pics...sorry for the abundance but I wanted you all to get the gist of the deco. I tried to go with the traditional look and use mostly the basic red and green (it doesn't get much better than that). We don't have a Christmas tree this year since we'll be spending the holidays at my parents, but we do have a mini tree (thanks to the other JK's parents). However, the up-side of not having a big tree is that I was able to use my ornaments for centerpieces...well you'll see:

Here's the tree, are you happy Katie? :)


Garland:


Garland again:


Living room:


Living room coffee table:


My Christopher Radko vinatage ornaments up close:


Dining room:


Side table in dining room:


Side table up close:--check out the cool vase filled with white lights and mini ornaments


Nativity set up in our "china" cabinet:


Dining room centerpiece up close:



I'm not the best photographer, please forgive me. I hope you all enjoyed them! Oh by the way, I saw today that the Halloween hooch took down her decorations!!! Maybe she reads my blog or maybe she could just feel the judgment coming from my evil eyes (only kidding).

Monday, December 1, 2008

ratings

Ok I'm going to do you all a favor and rate some of the things that have just come into my life so that you don't have to waste your time on the bad ones and you can spend all your precious time with the good ones.

First up:



John Legend--Live from Philadelphia CD--3.5 out of 5 stars
Let's face it, the man is talented and has a smoooooth voice. He almost makes me want to fall in love with R&B all over again. And hello ladies he's handsome. However the downfall was that I do not like live music on cds. Its always been a pet peeve of mine, so I'm sure you're asking "Jessi, why did you buy a live cd if you don't like them?" and my answer is simply "it was half off after Thanksgiving, I've been jonesin for a John Legend cd so I was sucked in". I couldn't concentrate as much on his music as if it were a studio recorded cd. But I did like what I heard (besides the live part). I'm looking forward to listening to his new cd Evolver (hint hint Ginny).

Next:



Smitten by Janet Evanovich--2 out of 5 stars
I decided to buy a book on cd for the long ride home yesterday. I chose this book (used) because I've read Evanovich's stuff before and liked it and it was cheaper than other options (yes, they are still expensive used)...so why not? Well usually she writes about a lot of mystery and a little love this one was just the opposite (just my luck since I was with my cynical husband for 9.5 hours) and was a lot of love and little mystery. It was a cute story line but I wouldn't read it again. However, it passed the time and made the ride a lot easier. And the other JK had very little comments on the book suprisingly (especially since I gave him a death warning at the beginning of the ride "don't make fun of anything on this cd book").

Next:



Jack Johnson--Sleep Through The Static cd--6 out of 5 stars (yes, you read correctly)
Ok so what, I love Jack Johnson. I don't dislike any of his songs, they are all wonderful and for all of you rolling your eyes because you don't care for him...stop it...he's awesome. This is his latest cd released on my birthday...so what if that was in Feb. and I just got it now (I'm a procrastinator...duh). Well I asked for it for Christmas and my lovely in-laws gave it to me, yes! We listened to it and its just as soothing and wonderful as the ones before...love him! This man is really incredible he's probably one of my fave artists of all time, just because I can always go back and listen to him no matter what day, time of year, or what mood I'm in. Others may come and go but Jack stays forever. Seriously, its great...download some songs or just go old school (as my techie hubby likes to say) and buy the whole cd.

And last:



Sue Monk Kidd--The Mermaid Chair--2.5 out of 5 stars
I'm not finished with the book yet but its taking forever...I think its because I keep putting it down, starting a new project or a new trip and forgetting about it then picking it back up. It's got a good story line and it has potential, plus I'm reading it because my cuzzie Em sent it to me (us bookworms have got to stick together). For what its worth, my interest is still peaked. I'll let you know what I think when I'm done.

new year's resolution

Yes, people I know I'm getting a little ahead of myself (and my parents thought I couldn't plan ahead) but I just chose my New Year's resolution and decided to post it before I made up my mind that it was too hard. So here it is (drum roll please): I'm not going to drink soda. Ahh! I know, I know, it is crazy and how in the world can I do this since I drink a Diet Mt. Dew almost everyday?! I'm not sure and I definitely don't have all of the answers. I was thrown into this decision by reading yet another article on how great it is to drink water (mind you it was on the side of a generic Frosted Mini Wheats box...but still an article all the same). And I do love water. I can tell when my body has not had any because when I take the first sip after a drought I can't stop drinking it! And let's face it Pittsburgh weather hadn't been too good to my skin, I'm dry all over and it ain't pretty. I'm going to try to get in my regimented 64 oz. a day from here until New Years but I will sneak in a soda every now and then until D-Day. And I'm not promising big things here people, I have little self control especially when it comes to something that I love as much as DMD. The resolution may only last a month (hey, whose doesn't?)...but I'm going to try and stay on the water train for as long as possible.

Side note: Some hooch down the street has still not taken down her elaborate Halloween decorations. They did look extra spooky and great during Halloween, then Thanksgiving rolled around and John asked if they were Halloween or "fall" decorations and I gave the woman a little credit and said fall but now its getting ridiculous! Maybe she doesn't know that she lives less than a block away from a Christmas Crazy...well she's about to find out because I am THIS CLOSE to taking them down myself. Who am I kidding, I'm just going to give the evil eye and scowl at her everytime I drive past her house. Oh and Emily, the Jews around here aren't up to par with their blue lights...a dissapointment to say the least.