Best Couple of Weeks Ever, 1/6/12

This week has been tough. Back to work, back to alarm clocks, back to packing lunches.

I miss my holiday break. But I’m slowly getting back into the routine and I have so many fun things to share!

A few weekends ago, we had family up to help with plumbing issues in our leaky bathroom and to paint our dining room. I know the lighting isn’t great on this skillet cookie, but you have GOT to make this. I mean it. Like, tonight.

Go buy a cast iron skillet today, go home, and make this cookie. After working and painting all day that Saturday, we had huge salads for dinner followed by monster slices of this pie and cold milk. No one could even tell it was whole wheat.

The week before Christmas, I spent a morning with some friends from church making all kinds of holiday goodies. We made toffee, haystacks, and mint crinkle cookies with help from 6 cute little hands.

And then Christmas.

I can’t even tell you how much fun it was. Almost all of my family was home this year – it was the first time in a long time that the majority of our old Christmas Eve group was back together. I laughed so hard I was crying and no one told me I had mascara all over my face. I found that out when I went to the bathroom. Thanks, family.

This year was the year of mugs in our family, apparently.

My little sister made those 2 red mugs for me and Nick. One has a lyric from one of my favorite Avett Brothers song, and one is from Nick’s favorite Avett Brothers Song. Rockin!

My older sister made me a chalkboard mug – so cute! I haven’t written anything on it yet, but I can’t wait to see what it looks like.

I also got this super heavy tote bag from my little sister who did those paint stamps with a head of romaine lettuce. A foodie gift if I ever saw one.

On Christmas Eve, I went to a few antique shops with my dad and Nick and we found this scale = instant antique Christmas gift from my dad. Nick and I talked about getting one this summer but never got around to it. It’ll be nice to actually weigh all our green beans and tomatoes and figs this year to keep track of what we get from the garden.

And one of my favorite gifts – which I was not expecting, at all – a Nook!

I feel like such a traitor to the written word…but I love it. I will still buy books in print. Digital ink still can’t replace the feeling of a bound book in your hands or the smell of the paper, but it is pretty nice to have thousands of books in one place.

PS: The dining room is blue!

Next up: curtains, pictures, and getting that bathroom done. And a new light fixture at some point. Hello, gold.

PPS: I know I’m pretty biased, but I have the cutest new nephew, born on 1/2/12.

We held him when we was just 1 hour old! Already in love.

I got to spend all last weekend with his brother who is 18 months old and we taught him new, important words like “fudge”, “biscuit”, and “cool dude”. Definitely the best weekend ever.