Saturday, December 31, 2011

Best of 2011

Since 2011 was one of my lowest production years in the scrapbook department, this will be easy.  Here's hoping 2012 has more free time.










Thursday, December 29, 2011

Date Night

We try and get out at least once a month.  We our crazy schedules, its hard.

But we have a standing tradition to go out on our 'date-iversay' each year.  We went on our first date on November 27th.  So every year on or around that date, we recreate our first date.

Dinner and a movie.  Exciting, I know.  I've been lucky that most of the Twilight movies have premiered in November.  Guess what we saw?



Yeah, he's a keeper.  He's sat through all of them with me with no complaints.  This one was by far the best.

And then, when it was all over, it was time to go home.  But neither of us was ready.  Our one night out - why rush home?  The kid was in bed and my mom was watching him.

So like a bunch of teenagers, we ran over to the ferris wheel and took a ride.










Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Will you have tea with me?

My aunts birthday was on 12/22 (even though we celebrated a month early) she wanted to take us all out as a thank you for planning the event.

She chose this tea house in San Juan.  Now, I'm not a tea person.  I'm not a girly girl so the thought of sitting in some stuffy house drinking tea and eating scones is, well, not my cup of tea.




I had fun.  I'm also a very picky eater.  Chicken salad?  No.  Cucumber and cream cheese?  Nope.  I'm running out of options for this tea.

Enter the Kids Tea.  Thats right, they have a 'little girls' tea.  I was all over that.  PB&J finger sandwiches.

My Moms' plate.
 My PB&J plate
 Tea cozy
 Currant scone with English cream and raspberry jam
 Pomegranate Mimosas.  All 5 of us have had a rough couple of months and we all laughed on the way down there.  We needed a stiff drink not tea!

So maybe I am a tea girl after all........

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Incredible!

And here I thought this house was awesome!

I just happened upon a blog where they linked this place up.  Totally rad and its right around the corner.

We just happened to stop by there this week and its so over the top, its not even funny.  They start decorating in August each year and open their house every day from Thanksgiving to New Years.  There is pretty much a line of cars and people waiting to see this place and the closer you get to Christmas, the more crazy it gets.

They even open it up so you can see the inside!  Hundreds of people each night walking through their house.  Insane.  (Disclaimer:  all photos courtesy of the trusty iPhone.)


So you get to see everything up close right?  The trees are solid lights.  You can't even see the branches, just the light strings.  But its impressive.  And then they're all hooked up so they're synchronized with the music.

Then you get to the entryway and its really not the entrance.  Its just the entrance to this patio they have.  An incredible patio with a BBQ Island, bar and retreat.  THEN you come to the front door of the actual house.
Right away you're treated to decorations and then you enter the foyer.



They have a village set up, the stairs are fully decorated and what house is complete without the upside down tree?

Here's a note to keep in mind.  All the white stuff you see in the village scenes?  The mountains and bases?  Thats all STYROFOAM sheets.  This woman hand carves each piece for each scene (there are 12 scenes in the house).  This is just the foyer people.

Then you move into a little living room and you're treated to a fireplace and mantel that are fully decorated.  My pictures didn't come out so I can't show you that but check these out:



You have the Grinch setup first.  And yes, all that rippled white stuff is STYROFOAM!  Amazing I tell ya!  She coated it all with a glitter glue so it looks like snow.

Then you move on around to the next display - the county faire scene.

More decorations


Thats the line to get into the dining room.  Next to them are a 3rd and 4th scenes.  One is the Taj Majal:
And the other is a Snoopy/Rudolph village.  I didn't get too many good pictures of this one because *someone* saw a train at the next display and took off.


And then you enter the dining room.  The entire table is decorated.


 Oh and you can't forget the amazing Disneyland scene.


Behind the table is a HUGE display.  A double tiered display.  This is the Michaels village set and she owns. Every. Single. Piece.









After that, you head into her den and kitchen.  There were things in every corner and I missed a lot of details trying to make sure someone wasn't touching anything.





Once you head back out of the house, there are people selling hot apple cider and roasting chestnuts.  How Norman Rockwell can you get?

We didn't stop because the tradition is hot chocolate at Starbucks.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!