New Year.

Hello, 2012!

You will bring me many things this year. Among them: my very own iphone, a Master's Degree in Educational Technology, and a real grown up job. Let's do it.

January the first

Real.

Real is my word for 2012.


(To be expounded on later.)

Christmas once again in Yucaipa

Happy Christmas, everyone! We're up at the Trementozzi's house to celebrate for a few days, but don't get any ideas of sneaking into our house- my sister's standing guard for us with a couple of ferocious(ly cute) kittens.

If you're new around here, Trementozzi Christmas is an all-day event. We're gearing up to have some breakfast and start the present unveiling soon here. Then some lunch, and more Christmas presents. Then some dinner, and more presents. There's a system here. For Chris' take on it, here's last year's blog entry, and here's the awesome video he made from setting his camera up on the china cabinet and using the remote to click throughout the day.

Fingers crossed I get an iphone!

(Just kidding. I have to wait till Jan 27 for that thing. Silly upgrade policy.)

Christmas (with Kittens)

The kittens love the new Christmas tree. You'll notice that there are no actual ornaments anywhere near the parts of the tree they can get to. Our tree is very top heavy with ornaments.

Sawyer has developed a thing for my socks. He loves pulling open my sock drawer and grabbing the closest sock. Then the next closest sock. And the next. Until he has a pile of socks outside of the sock drawer. But his favorite socks are these Christmas funky colored ones I got from my roommate Jen two Christmases ago. When he gets a hold of one of those, he tugs it around the house with him, and we end up finding it in the strangest places. As you can see, he also likes pulling it up to the bed and cuddling up for a good nap with it.

The kitchen pictures... really have nothing to do with Christmas. I just thought it was funny that I set myself up in the dining room to get pictures of Jack being bad by getting up on the counters. And other places. Have fun playing where's Jack with those pictures!

You'll also notice you're seeing a lot of Green Mouse in these photos. Green Mouse (as Chris calls him, not the green mouse), is the current favorite toy. This is actually the second green mouse. We got a two pack when we first got the kittens, and they liked them enough, but both were supposed to have little bells on their tails that were missing. Green Mouse 2.0 has a full functioning bell, and Sawyer especially carried that thing around with him everywhere he went the first day we brought it home. (Sawyer might be a hoarder, now that I think about it.)

Merry Christmas, from Jack and Sawyer!

What I did on my Christmas Break (Week 1)

Made green smoothies. (This one's got blueberries, which masks the green.)

 Got artsy with some paints

Had steaming hot bowls of chili that were oh so satisfying in our cold, cold house.

Made my awesome spicy chicken soup and added way more spinach than normal, just to get rid of it in my fridge. (You could tell there was way more, especially with the cilantro, and the additional fresh parsley, which I was also trying to get rid of. It looked like green soup until I added 8 more cups of water to balance it back out.)

 Was amused every time Jack sat in front of the kitchen sink and gave me this look. This is his, "please, sir, can I have another?" plead for more treats. Did I mention I taught my delightfully smart kittens to sit on command for treats? Now Jack just goes to the kitchen and sits, staring at us with that look, until we're so enamored with him that we cave in.

 Updated the audio books on my ipod. I've been going through the Harry Potter series while in my car. It's fantastic, because I love multi-tasking and I certainly have no time to sit and read lately. Next up: Order of the Phoenix.

This is Jack's "What is going on up there?" face, as I was chopping the spinach and carrots, and little pieces of carrot kept flying off the counter and on to the floor.

 Same sentiment as before, just trying to get a better view.

 This is what Sawyer does while I'm cooking. Sits on my feet in the corner. Sometimes he brings Green Mouse with him and flings himself and his toy around my ankles.

 This was a real, true green smoothie in every sense of the word. But we left it in the fridge for three days, and they're not even really good after one day, so cleaning all the stuff we'd left to sit in the fridge that we'd "eat later" was another one of my tasks this week.

 Chris has been in "come home from work, play video games" mode lately. It's his de-stresser. 

 Finished product. This was the first time I'd crock potted it, instead of cooking it over the stove. And it was a good thing I'd made a huge crock pot batch, because we had surprise visitors that night!

 Chris' new laptop/monitor setup. Dual screens. And there's our Christmas picture photo up on the laptop!

 Why is Chris smiling here?

 Because of our surprise guests!

 What I love about my old roommate Mandy is that she's totally willing to come over spontaneously at 10pm to make sure she gets in hang out time on her short trip out here. She'd been hanging with my sister Britt and their reunion small group party, heard Britt was stopping by to exchange gifts, and decided she'd come too! My phone was on silent when she called to inform me of this, but when we finally spoke she said, "I figured I'd just come over anyway!" That's what I love about favorite friends. They totally know they can stop by at any hour, because seeing them trumps sleep any day! 

Mandy came with baby Judah and husband David. And I had plenty of warm soup ready for them, just as a good hostess should.

Also of note: hearing someone will be arriving at your house in five minutes sets you in a whirlwind streak to clean up the house. Before I'd even gotten off the phone, Chris had made the bed and hidden the laundry. We got all the dishes done and took the recycling to the garage, and even had time to light warm pumpkin spice candles (as a good hostess should always have lit when guests are coming). 

Next time on the blog: The kittens meet a baby for the first time.

Thanks, Mandy, for giving me something to post about!

This look here? This is the, "Chris, don't you just totally want one of these adorable little guys?" look.

Just when I was lamenting that nothing exciting was happening around here, bam! Impromptu old roommate + husband + recent baby addition stopped by for a late night Christmas visit!

(And only about half the pictures we took of the visit consist of the kittens staring in awe at baby Judah.)