Christmastime in la Casa

Hello! 
I know, I know, I said I would get back on track with the blogging, but getting back home has been quite the ordeal! Finals week was insane, but at times fun. I mean we had to take study breaks! Favorite study break - going to see the lights at our local park with Hannah, Alyse, Tadd and Landon. Who knew you could get lost in a circle drive...L did! 
Not much has happened in my life recently worth blogging about, so I thought I would share some traditional Christmas happenings for our family!
Now I don't know if I've shared but my mother's side of the family is Mexican, and over there Christmas Eve is a bigger deal than Christmas day. Well, that means now, we have a huge Christmas Eve Feast, AND a Christmas Day get together! 

Buñuelos

Now, Mexican tradition includes tamales, buñuelos, Mexican spaghetti and a ham leg among other things. Well, my mom and I have the buñuelos and tamales done, but this year we are adding a little something new, with a creamy potato gratin and a sweet roasted vegetable side.

Tamales

 
















You may be wondering what Mexican spaghetti is, well its one of my favorite dishes ever, and all it really is is spaghetti with a special cheese sauce on it then baked so the top is gooey and all melted together, soooo good!  On Christmas Eve my mom finally lets us use the Christmas china that she's had set out on the dining table since after Thanksgiving, but hasn't let us use. (I'll post a picture in a few days, my camera is MIA at the moment) 




Anyway, we have a feast, literally, and then we all get to open one present.
My mom got smart a few years ago, and realized that opening one present gives us a little taste of the morning without giving away everything and it calms the younger ones down a little bit so we don't get woken up at like 5 in the morning because they can't wait to open presents! So she stole a tradition from our good friends the B's and now, every Christmas Eve we all get to open 1 present and its always the same thing, a pair of pajamas that we get to wear to bed and wake up wearing. That has to be one of my favorite traditions ever, and I know I'm going to continue it whenever I have a family. My dad then read the Night Before Christmas and we all get sent off to bed. 


So that's pretty much our Christmas Eve. Christmas Day, we wake up at whatever hour the kids can no longer wait to open presents and then we all go to the living room, sit under the tree, and my dad reads us the Christmas story from the Bible, then we pray, and only then can we open presents. After the wrapping paper massacre of the century, I have the wonderful job of making Christmas breakfast. And in case I haven't mentioned it, I love cooking! So the traditional menu has been, waffles, bacon, eggs, muffins, frittatas, potato hashes and biscuits and gravy, not all on one morning...usually. This year however, I can't seem to decide what to make, though I better soon, since my mom said I had to give her the grocery list today!
After breakfast, we all just spend time hanging out, and maybe napping, at least I definitely nap. In the afternoon, we usually get ready for our Christmas party up at the B's house, we all go up there, and much like Thanksgiving, spend the day exchanging presents between families, eating lots of good food and playing lots of games. No one has a greater love for board games, than this crew! 


That's pretty much the overview of our Christmas traditions! I'll post more afterward, with lots of pictures of our activities if I get a chance!  

Finals Week...

I apologize for being lacking in blogging for the past TWO weeks, really I need to get back on track. However my excuses have been many and well worth staying away from here. The excuses being 

1. Microeconomics

2.Finanacial Accounting 

3. Business Calculus 

...4. Ben Rector! 

Now first three, there is not much explanation for, I mean those are my hardest classes right now, and they are basically just incredibly time consuming. My word, I realize some may be wondering why in the world I'm taking classes that sound utterly boring and time consuming. I have a double major in International Business and Public Relations. Imagine having to say that whenever people ask you what your major is! Haha I always seem to blow them away when really its not as hard as it sounds, only because it takes like 5 minutes to say. I will however share that for Financial Accounting we've had a project for the greater part of the semester that is based on Monopoly, yes, the board game. We basically played the game for 2 days and after spending most of the semester balancing every single financial transaction that happened in those two days, we finally finished and you've got to admit it has a little something extra...no?

Well, now the truly important thing to talk about is Ben Rector!! :) Many haven't even heard about him, let alone heard him sing! Now, I love music. A. Lot. And Ben Rector is one of my favorite artists. Welll SBU (my school) made my entire semester amazing by bringing him to do a concert. I about died! I went so far as leaving our first playoff game for intramural volleyball early beacause to be honest, we had a chance to lose the game, but there is no losing with Ben Rector! And if you haven't heard him, have a listen!

 Dance With Me Baby, is my all time favorite song he does, but Hank, Loving You is Easy, She Is, The Beat and Then you Love Someone, are easily tied with it! 

He is quite amazing, I know, and guess what...?! >>>

That's right, I got a picture with him! Forgive my sheen, I had just played a very intensse volleyball game and my mouth is open because let's be honest, you had a guy a camera and there's no telling what will happen, and i had no other choice. But I think Ben Rector makes up for my looks in this! 

In other news, the most exciting fun thing we've done which is a typical college student prank is.... >>>

That's right four of us girls bought saran wrap, tampons, pads, window chalk, window crayons, oreos and confetti and went to town on the baseball teams' cars. Now before you say that we're terrible people, you should know that the baseball team took it pretty well, and we made them cupcakes this week to make up for it. Unfortunately this truck got the majority of the saran wrap, since we got caught while doing the rest of them, fortunately for this guy at this point all we had left was saran wrap and window chalk, and T (the owner of this masterpiece) thought it was quite funny! 

Nothing much more has been going on, except studying studying studying! Which really means...

but in all reality I really have been studying non stop! 

Krazy!

Hello all you wonderful people, i apologize for not sharing my Thanksgiving happenings, but there really wasn' tall that much to share. My Thanksgiving day was wonderful, and Black Friday shopping was nuts! We stood in line at Target for about an hour and it was freezing!! I honestly don't remember it being cold in Texas.

However this past weekend a few things did make my blog worthy list.

1.) La Madeline's Restaurant and Bakery in Fort Worth, Texas.

This place is ah-mazing!! I have not gone to France....yet, but I will be there this summer. And I have had a lot of quite amazing French food, but nothing like this. I had the quiche florentine, a fresh baked madeline cookie, and their strawberries Rovmananov! Of course i took a picture of these marvelous concoctions! 

oh and their French roast coffee, delicious! Their display of baked goodies is gorgeous and their bread is delicious like everything else there!                             I look a bit rough in the picture below, but i had to document the outing! 

  )

2.) Collin Street Bakery, Corsicana, Texas

This entire town is adorable, add an old fashioned bakery and its just plain marvelous!

this place has the best macaroons i have ever tasted as well as to die for cheesecake and chocolate chip cookies! 

3.) Amish Restaurant, Fudge Factory and Bakery, Somewher in Oklahoma! 

I saw this place on our way down to Texas and I knew we would have to stop there on our way back, and look at that we did. Even though we didn't get to see any real amish people, it was quite a fun stop, and it gave us chance to stretch our legs, go to the bathroom and get some more yummy goodies, (as if we didnt have a car full of delicious treats my uncle got for us in the last two bakeries!) 

I bought some fresh bread, amish apple butter, trail mix and two pieces of fudge! We've already tried everything and its quite good, the fudge did not meet our high standards, but who are we to judge. I mean its chocolate! I also love the festive air and the Christmas decorations! 

4.) Our long 8 hr trip was rewarded with being reunited with all my girls and a normal midnight wal mart run for Christmas decorations, as well as late night of studying already! I'm not a super good student, I've just procrastinated a few papers and finals are 2 weeks away!! Crazy indeed. I'm already on my 4th cup of coffee , but contrary to what some may say, I do NOT have a problem. It was simply extremely hard to get out of bed at 7:30 this morning!

5.)Our wonderful speaker at chapel this morning! Kenny Luck
He spoke about the lack of Alpha men in our culture today, and made some great points about the need for good Christian Men leading us in the community, churches, and relationships. But also the role of us women in this process, to be respectfully submissive and loving toward our brothers. This doesn't mean submitting blindly, but working together with them in the world. Giving them the respect and support they need.

Well that's all for now I will try to keep up this week, but I will be living in the Library for the next 3 weeks so I make no promises, Though that might be when I blog the most since I will be on my laptop 24/7, maybe I should say no promises about studying the whole time!

Happy Start of the Countdown to Christmas! :)

I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.
~Philippians 4:13

Thanksgiving Memories

Hello lovelies! Thanksgiving is upon us, and I am taking the time tonight to write about what our family Thanksgiving looks like back home.

Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays ever in my opinion. Right behind, Christmas,and 4th of July. I mean who doesn't like waking up on a beautiful November morning to the smells of fresh baked goods and know that you are going to spend a day with family and friends eating wonderful food and having great fellowship. My family consists of very close family friends, as well as my immediate back home (Idaho), and when I was growing up, tradition entailed getting up at the blissful hour of 10 and cooking until 1, at which time we went up to the B's home for Thanksgiving dinner which begins at 3.

After an afternoon/evening of stuffing our faces, and very rowdy games, (farkle, apples to apples, card games, and inch me pinch me are among the favorites), we would straggle home at 1 in the morning, where my mom, sister and I would grab a quick 3 hour nap and then head over to our mall to meet the B and W girls for a morning of Christmas shopping. After which we would ran up to the B's house for brunch, (leftover turkey breakfast wraps, leftover cinnamon rolls, pumpkin bread, monkey bread, and basically anything from the day before that you could possibly still crave) and then up to the mountain to cut down our Christmas tree. We are quite the outdoorsy folks...well at least the men in the families are, we women try our best. Now, this part of the day is the most crucial, for you see, the Christmas tree is the centerpiece of the living rooms in the family for the next month and we have to have the perfect tree. My mother and I are a bit picky where my dad just sees the first one that strikes his fancy and has it cut down and ready to go before my mom and i even get a chance to disagree. It's taken him a while to realize that is not how it is done, but we've trained him well and he now know not to even raise the ax till we have 100% approved it. Well, after another day spent in each other's company we each depart to our own respective homes to set up the trees and decorate them for this most wonderful season of all.

Now some of you may know what it is like to be far from home...hard! For the past year and a half I have been living as a college student in Missouri, while home is in Idaho. And for the past two Thanksgivings,  I have not been able to go home.  :,( yes I am sad about that small misfortune, but don't worry, I have remembered that it IS called THANKSgiving Day. And I have been thankful for even having a place to go to for this wonderful day. Last year i went with friends in Oklahoma, and spent Black Friday raiding Joplin for all it had to offer in sales.

This year however I came down to visit old friends of the family in good 'ole For Worth, Texas. They have been marvelous and  I have been able to just chill and be a bum without feeling guilty because they have known me since I was a tyke. I have however been able to contribute to Thanksgiving dinner by making rolls, and cinnamon rolls. Recipe courtesy of Mrs. B and my momma. They came out alright for me never having had made them, though i will say that the cinnamon rolls came out a lot better. I will post pictures hopefully by saturday of the coming days festivities. But for now I think I may try to sleep a bit before tomorrow's crazy events! Happy Thanksgiving and I hope you all have a blessed day!

Let us come into His presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to Him with songs of praise.
~Psalm 95:2

A nip and fall

Hello blogging world! After a long time of loving blogs I finally thought I would give blogging a try myself. Now be forewarned, this blog is not dedicated to one thing specifically, such as food, clothes, DIY arts and crafts, or traveling, no this blog is dedicated to a little bit of each of those things, in other words LIFE. The life of a broke college girl far from home. I hope ya'll enjoy my thoughts, opinions, interests and adventures!

Fall is quite possibly my all time favorite season. Waking up on a crisp autumn morning to a warm cup of coffee, walking outside in a great outfit and smelling the crisp scent of a cool morning. Leaves falling everywhere and the wind caressing your cheek. Not warm enough for a tank or tee, but just perfect for a simple cardigan or light jacket to keep you at the ideal temperature. Boots, scarves, hats, cardigans and layers come out of hiding in the closet and transform everybody's ensembles. And the smells, pumpkin, cinnamon, apples who doesn't love fall foods. Pumpkin spice latte, and Cinnamon Streusel Cake and you have an ideal afternoon.

Now don't get me wrong, I adore summer, love spring, and tolerate winter, but there is something about fall that is soothing. Being able to bundle up and have a warm drink without melting, but not out of need to warm up for risk of freezing to death. And yes, when summer is here I enjoy a cool glass of iced sweet tea, and some chocolate icebox cookies, wearing super cute jean shorts and a bright colorful tank top or sundress. But come time for fall and my boots are calling my name from the depths of my closet.

Fall has everything you could want great food, great clothes, great weather.  Winter has basketball, but fall, but  fall has baseball's crowning glory the World Series, (the one with the cutest boys) the end of the pro baseball season. And this year both teams that made it to the world series made me proud! Don't be fooled, I like sports, but I'm not a die hard fan or super sporty girl, I just like watching. And if I may not understand what is going on the field/court at all times, who doesn't like watching a great athletic feat being accomplished? And baseball just wins by default for being the All American sport, and having the most attractive men play it, though you must remember this is simply my opinion. But it also has football! And who doesn't like watching football on an awesome day?! Just another thing to give thanks for on Thanksgiving.

And let's not forget the shopping...ah glorious hours of walking around your local historic downtown, window shopping in those great antique, vintage, home decor, consignment and thrift store every town has. Getting all dressed up to go consignment store shopping, and then meeting a friend a local tea room for lunch or afternoon tea, is one of the most enjoyable things in my life. And the clothes you can buy/wear in the fall! Oh, the glorious clothes. If you love leggings, boots, leg warmers and all sorts of sweaters and cardigans, there is no way you can't adore fall. This is the time of year, when you can wear those great simple dresses you have in the closet in so many different ways, people will think you have an endless supply of fabulous dresses!

Yes, fall has many things to offer. I already love fall and hopefully you love my reasons why. :)