easy holiday treat

I came across this holiday pretzels recipe on Pinterest and they are the perfect combination of salty and sweet. We like them so much that I've already made them for both of our work Christmas parties... and with any luck I'll find some festive containers and give them out as gifts. 

Here is everything you need to know to make them yourself, enjoy!

what you need:
-bag of M&Ms
-bag of square pretzels
-hershey kisses (2 bags)
-parchment paper

instructions:
-Heat oven to 170°
-line cookie sheet with parchment paper
-line pretzels along cookie sheet and center a hershey kiss on each
-bake for approximately 6 minutes
-remove from oven and press down each kiss with a M&M
-let cool then place in fridge

lessons learned:
-the white chocolate kisses melt faster (6 min is plenty) so if you're going to mix them with the regular hershey kisses then try putting them on separate cookie sheets and add another 1-2 minutes for the milk chocolate kisses
-once out of the oven test if they are ready by pressing one down with an M&M to make sure they flatten; you do not want them to look like Rolos (they'll break off too easily)
-keep them refrigerated until serving (they just take better)

snowed in

Virginia Beach saw around 14" of snow over the holiday weekend, which is crazy if your familiar with the area.  I've lived here my whole life and can honestly say I've never seen it snow that much.  The best part was how it stayed white.  Most of the time when it snows in VB it quickly gets dirty from traffic, etc. but this time since it fell on the Sunday following Christmas no one was working to clear the roads and no one was really driving... people were just outside enjoying the snow!

We (more like Jake) tried to play with Tank in the snow, but he wasn't interested at all.  As a matter of fact, he took the initiative to walk himself back to our front door and when I let him in ran right upstairs, jumped on our bed, and nestled himself under the covers.  Usually he has to be wherever Jake or I am and he especially loves to be outside, but snow and rain are his exceptions, so we've learned.

On another note, while we enjoyed the blizzard outside, we weathered the wintery season inside our apartment as well.  Yes, thats right, we had NO heat.  About a week ago we noticed our old school heater wasn't working very well, which isn't surprising really.   After I heard some interesting and new whistling sounds come from it multiple times I decided to actually call our complex to have it checked.  On the 22nd I called and that day they came out to take a look.  The guy told Jake everything looked fine, but when he went to show Jake how to properly use the thermostat he couldn't get the heat to turn on at all.  I think Jake got a bit of satisfaction out of this, seeing as how the guy was basically suggesting we didn't know how to work the thermostat.  Anyway, he said there was in fact something wrong with it so he'd have to tell the complex.  The next day we got a call that they'd be replacing our heater entirely and would install it on the 24th.  We hung around the apartment all day only to have no one show up and received word that this was in fact the case at 7pm; they rescheduled for Monday.  Keep in mind that this was an exceptionally cold weekend... the same weekend we got 14" of snow!  Monday comes around and there is no word from the installer, our complex calls to say that they won't be doing any jobs because of the weather.  At this point I'm pretty mad and so is Jake.  We've spent our entire vacation dressed in layers, wearing socks at all times, and with multiple blankets on the couches and our bed.  The complex sends over their main maintenance guy who after a few minutes reports that our heater isn't broken it just need to be cleaned so it can run smoothly.  No joke, thats what he said.  As happy as I was to hear it wasn't going to be another day without heat, I was mad about needlessly going without heat for days.  Time that wouldn't have been wasted if the first service guy knew a thing about heaters.  And that isn't an assumption I'm making, its a fact!  This guy told us that the other maintenance guy who answered our initial call wasn't good with these issues, more specifically saying, "Eddie doesn't know anything about heaters, it just isn't his thing."  Isn't his thing?  Then why did they send him to answer the call about our heater?   I don't think I'll ever be able to answer that seeing how sending him defies logic.

Nevertheless, we had a lovely Christmas and even enjoyed an extra day off because of the snow!  I watched some movies I got for Christmas, baked and ate cookies, and cuddled on the couch with Tank.   Vacation days don't get much better than that.

I've been cheating

Don’t worry it’s a loveless affair, but I have to admit… I’ve been spending time writing on another blog.  I’m awful.  I meant what I said in my last post about trying to get back into the groove, but with having to write for my company’s blog a lot lately, I’m drained.  By the time I get home, the creativity is gone and I definitely don’t want to sit in front of a computer.

Do you forgive me?  I hope so.

A few things have happened since Thanksgiving.  There was of course the whole Black Friday experience, Tech won the ACC Championship, I made cookies and an apple crisp from scratch, we decorated our apartment for Christmas, and Jake started wearing his “Believe” t-shirt every day since December 1st.

In other news, I’m almost finished Christmas shopping & bought the most recent Twilight movie, Eclipse, but haven’t found time to watch it.  Life’s tough.

Jake declared that he officially finished all of his shopping today, which has me intrigued.  I sent him some ideas for gifts, but they were all niceties and not necessities, and if you know Jake then you know that if it isn’t practical he isn’t buying it.  So I’m not sure what Santa is bringing this year.  Here are some things from my wish list (of course, I don’t expect to get a single thing, let alone multiple things from it):

1.    a new raincoat
2.    the first Harry Potter book (I’m behind)
3.    a scarf- I can’t get enough of them
4.    one of those tervis tumblers with a lid for my sweet tea
5.    bananagrams (fingers crossed Alison and Will pull through)
6.    a framed picture of Tank for my desk (Jake has 3 pictures of Tank up at his work)
7.    a shelf with hooks and baskets for our entryway, although I hate asking for house things for xmas
8.    a few seasons of my newest obsession, Bones, on DVD (that actually wasn’t on a list before this one)
9.    the Twilight ornament (of course!)
10.    a Starbucks gift card to feed my chai tea addiction, with 2 pumps of Pumpkin Spice (I’m sort of hoping my mom gets a bunch of these from her students though, because she doesn’t go there and probably would share them with me instead)

Is it weird that I just shared things from my list?  I thought it could make for a nice post Christmas blog.  This way if I posted a picture from Christmas day holding my new Twilight ornament and tumbler up close with a huge smile you’d really appreciate it.  Can you picture it?  I can.

always love a giveaway

If you know me, you know I L O V E giveaways!  Today I was stalking my friend Meredith on her blog and came across this giveaway from Shutterfly for 50 free photo Christmas cards!  It seems simple enough to enter and I'm pretty pumped to finish the steps to get my gift.  Being the planner that I am, I went ahead and started getting ideas from their website.  I figured if we do get to make a card it'd be nice to narrow down the 700+ options quickly.  It all depends on what photos we use, but I liked the following styles at first glance.

credit

Christmas in July

First I want to start off by saying that I've always wanted to have a Christmas in July party, but that isn't what this blog is about.

I came home today to a box from Bed, Bath, & Beyond with a wedding gift in it!!! How awesome is that? It was totally unexpected and that made it that much better. I know people have up to a year to send a gift but we've been married nearly 10 months, which is pretty close to that, so I never saw it coming! Regardless it was a nice surprise!

Speaking of wedding gifts, we've been having to buy a lot of them lately and I love it! I just really enjoy checking out people's registries to see their plate choices, color schemes, etc. and then putting together a themed gift from it! I would much rather run through searching for items on a wedding registry than a baby registry- that's for sure!

Monopoly

For Christmas I bought Jake Monopoly. I know it seems odd but constantly for the past few months Jake would suggest that we play (despite not owning the game)- so I took the frequent and subtle hints to heart this holiday and bought it for him. I was a little nervous he may not really want to keep it, but to my surprise he LOVED it and wanted to play right away. As a matter of fact, I think we've played almost every day since Christmas and I still have yet to win! It's so sad, but I really don't mind. I just feel bad for the people who come over to our apartment, as soon as Jake hears they are coming he immediately thinks they'll want to stay and play a game...it's a bit odd. For example, when Meredith and Marty came over on Saturday night Jake suggested more than once that we should all play after dinner- we ended up watching The Hangover instead which was equally fun...mainly because of how innocent Meredith is but I am pretty certain Jake was a smidge dissapointed.

Virgin Blogger

In case you didn't get it from the title, this is my first blog and officially my first post. I'd been going back and forth for a few months about starting a blog and to be honest, coming up with a title was the only hold up. So after some encouraging words and a little extra time on my hands I finally committed!

I promise that my future posts will have purpose and a point (hopefully shorter as well), but for now I just want to get something on the board. Let's start with a holiday recap...

This year, Jake and I celebrated our first Christmas as newlyweds! I was excited about the holidays but like every year, the closer we got to the 25th stress ensued! I'm not going to try and claim to be a stress-free, Type B, relaxed sort of person...that just isn't me. I have however, tried to embrace a more laid back lifestyle (i.e. Jake is rubbing off on me). Regardless, there was some stress that may have resulted in random tears this holiday season like when...

1. We put our tree up and realized I had only bought enough lights to cover 1/3 of it. This may not seem like a big deal to some people, but to me after an 8 hour drive home from a 2 day trip, it was HUGE! No worries, Jake spent the next afternoon searching for more matching lights (without any luck) and had the whole tree covered in lights of some sort by the time I got home from work! Really sweet, I know!

2. I realized that there wasn't really anything I could buy for Jake based on his hints that fit within our spending limit. Just as a disclaimer, I go through this with Jake EVERY year. I like spoiling people on Christmas with something they want but don't necessarily "need"; however, Jake only appreciates practical gifts. So, each year on Dec. 26th we end up going to a lot of different stores returning the majority of what he received! It is just upsetting and gets to me at least once a year as I struggle to find something satisfactory other than a Cervelo!

3. I came home to see Jake had helped himself to one of the 3 gifts I bought him for Christmas...on Dec. 21st! Yes, he knew it was coming but that still isn't right! One night, I came home and was looking around for the package so that I could open it up, check things over, and get it wrapped (I knew it had been delivered because I'd been tracking it all day). Well low and behold, when I couldn't find the box I asked Jake if we had received any packages- I even said one of his gifts was supposed to be arriving that morning so not to get into anything. He preceded to open up his bag, pulled out the new, wet swimsuit (that's right he not only opened them, but went for a swim) and actually said..."These?"- I could have died!!! Of course, I went into this whole ordeal (while tearing up) about how that was a gift and I would never do anything like that to him. I ended up finishing my soap box with something along the lines of he "takes the joy out of Christmas"!

Other than that, we had a really nice Christmas surrounded by family and friends! It was nice to start our traditions as our own family and we both feel so blessed for what we have and for what is in store for the upcoming year!