Best Comic Ever!

This set of comics is hilarious and very true! As many of you know, my undergraduate degree is in English. My biggest pet peeves all involve the misuse of this language I love so much. I'm definitely buying the poster. You can buy one here.











One of the other mistakes that I wish this comic included is when people incorrectly write the plural of their family name. Using my maiden name as an example, "The Wilson Family" becomes "The Wilsons" NOT "The Wilson's." That just doesn't make any sense. The only time an apostrophe "s" is appropriate after a name is for ownership by a single person, i.e. "Sarah Wilson's car." Note that if the item is owned by a group of people (like a family), it would be "The Wilsons' car." And using my married name, "The Box Family" becomes "The Boxes," just like the cardboard kind. I always get a good chuckle around Christmas because so many people make this mistake on their cards.

Cute Giveaway!

For all my crafty buddies, there is a great giveaway on Sew Much Ado's blog. She's giving away her adorable Ruby Lou Doll Pattern, and I totally want one. Head over there to enter!

Our Awesome Christmas

December is always a hectic time for us. It's that special time of year when finals, gift-giving and family events all converge into one big red and green colored mess. This year I had final exams and papers due all the way up to the 23rd of December, so I was a little MIA during some of the festivities this year. Fortunately, Garrett was able to make it to a fun dinner with his family on his mother's side. He had a great time hanging out with all his aunts, uncles, cousins, parents, brothers and sisters, and nieces and nephews. Here are just a few of them:



Garrett and I got some great gifts this Christmas. Earlier this year, I gave Garrett his birthday/Christmas present: an awesome classical guitar.


Garrett also got this great coat from Kohl's (Thanks, Dad!). I have never seen Garrett get so excited about a piece of clothing before, though I have also never felt a coat that was so soft before either.


Some of Garrett's other favorite gifts included Season 4 of Batman: The Animated Series from my mom, a cool book from Heather, Scattergories from my dad and Christmas money from his parents and grandparents. He used some of his Christmas money to buy Season 3 of Batman, so I guess we'll be watching a lot of Batman for a while. But I think my Christmas present was hands-down the very best. As my Christmas/birthday present, I got a Bosch mixer! I love it. I've never had my own mixer before. My mom has a similar one that she got for Christmas the day my sister, Heather, was born (which totally explains why they waited to open presents before driving to the hospital). I'd used that awesome mixer my entire life, so when I got married and had only a hand mixer, I had no idea how to use it. I flipped flour everywhere, had a terrible time controlling the speed, and basically gave up on baking fun things. I was just too used to the fancy schmancy one. So now I have this one:


And check out some of the yummy stuff I made! Garrett says the streusel blueberry buckle I made is now his new favorite dessert.


Some of my other favorite Christmas gifts included a beautiful vintage Pyrex bowl from Lanna, some awesome 70s cookbooks from Heather, new boots and cookie sheets from Dad, and Garrett and I are both really excited for the Lion King tickets Mom bought for all of us.

My favorite part of Christmas has always been the gift-giving. I try to buy presents really early, so I don't have to do much shopping after finals. I basically only had one day, Christmas eve, to get everything ready. Garrett and I spent a lot of the day wrapping like crazy, but I also had to put together Mom and Lanna's presents. I had already bought the fabric, but I ended up sewing them both on Christmas eve. Thank goodness all my last minute work turned out so great. When my mom opened her present, Lanna said "You look like Betty Crocker!" It was so cute.


Lanna loved hers so much, she wore it all day. Even playing the Wii. You can see some of her gifts in the background. But the present Lanna loved the very most was a boy Polly Pocket with brushable hair. Lanna told Mom on Christmas eve that she really wanted Santa to bring her a boy Polly Pocket with real hair. Mom told her that sometimes Santa has to shop at stores, and he might not be able to find a boy Polly Pocket. Lanna said that Santa has about 10,000 elves who make the toys, and they could make her a boy Polly Pocket. Sure enough, Santa and his elves pulled through.

After Christmas eve, Christmas morning and Heather's birthday, we were all pooped. Even the animals. Thank goodness I have two more weeks to relax before school starts.