NYE

Well it's NYE. The end to another year. This year isn't ending as great as I'd wished. I'm really hoping next year will be great. I'm going to sit down tonight and plan out what I want to accomplish next year. I decided to stay in tonight. I've never been big on celebrating NYE. So I've been lounging around in my pj's drinking wine and eating yummy cheese and sandwiches.

To end my last post of 2010 I will show you what I've been up to this past week in pictures.

Mini tiramisu

Snuggles with Riley

Downtown

Pretty sunset

Dallas at night

Have a Happy New Year!

100 Monkeys

Last night I went to the 100 Monkeys concert. Now before we begin, I have no shame in saying that I think Jackson Rathbone is beyond yummy. Yes I like Twilight and have read all the books. BUT I'm not a Twilight freak. And yes, the reason I went to this concert is because I have the hots for Jackson. With that being said, lets move on :)

So I figured it would be packed at this concert, and I wanted to get a good spot to drool over Jackson. That's why I decided to show up at 5:30, even though doors didn't open until 7:30. There were already about 10-15 people there when I showed up. Unfortunately my friend who was kind enough to not make me go to this concert alone didn't get off until 7, so I was by myself for a while. I came prepared with my ipod, phone, and a book. And let me tell you, I needed that ipod to drown out all the crazies. I witnessed the strangest group of people. Apparently they were following the band all over the country. They had stuffed monkeys and Twilight bags. I felt so out of place to say the least.

After 2 hours of waiting outside we got to go in, and I was able to steak out my place. It's a super small venue and I was only 4 people back from the stage. After waiting outside for 2 hours, my feet were tired and I just wanted to sit down. But we had to wait another 2 hours for the opening act to come on. Luckily Amber got there around 9 so I had someone to talk to.

When Jackson came on stage all you could hear were the screams from all the middle aged women in the venue. (I was surprised too!) That's probably the closest I've been to a movie star. They put on a really good show, and they are worth checking out. I didn't take my camera since it's a piece of crap. I thought about sneaking in my Nikon, but decided I didn't want to have to lug it around all night. So I decided to use the camera on my phone. I ended up with some pretty good pictures and video. I took an unbelievable amount of pictures, but here are my favorite.

Christmas

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! I had a great Christmas and this holiday season was full of a lot of firsts for me.

I've never been to a holiday party (sad, I know), and this year I went to 2! The first was hosted by my bestie Amber. I made this white, sparkly Christmas tree cake and mini snowflake cupcakes.

The second party was a white elephant party (which I've never been to). The gift I took was a box full of balloons. Each balloon had something in it, but you couldn't find out until the present was yours. I put $10 in the balloons. It was a lot of fun because everyone wanted the balloons! I ended up with 3 bottles of liquor.

This year I also went caroling. I didn't even think people did that anymore, but some friends of mine invited me. There were 6 of us and I took Riley. We walked down one of the more wealthy streets of Dallas and sang to people. It was so much fun! Some of the people gave us something for singing. We ended up with brownies, candy, and beer. Not too bad!

The week before Christmas I was busy making yummy goodies. For years my great aunt has made peanut brittle and sent it to our family in Texas. A couple of years ago she burned herself real bad making it and decided to stop making peanut brittle. I only eat my aunt's peanut brittle and my family loves that stuff. So this year I decided to make it. I'm not going to lie, it was very intimidating. I burned the first batch, but the 2nd and 3rd batches were perfect. I was so proud of myself. I set aside some to send to my great aunt so she can be the judge :)

My mom went crazy licking the spoon :)

I also made chocolate chip cookies, lemon raspberry cake pops, and a mini cake.

On Christmas Eve we went over to my uncle's to eat and open presents. My mom made these sandwiches that were to die for. I might have to post the recipe because they were that good. She used Hawaiian rolls and filled them with chicken and ham and swiss cheese. Then she poured a marinade over them that made them sweet and baked them. So delicious! We took the doggies with us so they got to play with their cousin Zoe. Riley had a lot of fun, but she was super tired at the end of the night.

I got a lot of great presents including a sewing machine, TOMS shoes, lots of clothes, and Just Dance 2. Christmas morning I slept in and then got up to open stockings. Riley went crazy over all the toys she got. Then my mom and I spent the rest of the day laying around in our pj's watching movies.

It was a great Christmas, but I'm sad it's over. Oh! I also contributed to I-zilla the Terrible's Tis the Season. You can check it out here.

Christmas cards

I finally received my free Christmas cards from Shutterfly, and I couldn't be more excited! I think they turned out super cute. Mom wasn't too thrilled about having her picture on the card, so I went with the doggies instead.

Santa pictures

We took the dogs to get their pictures taken with Santa. Surprisingly they were terrified of this big man in a red suite. Go figure. But that's one thing I can cross off my December list!

December List

I decided to make a December to-do list. It always gets crazy around the holidays and afterwards I always think "I should have done this" or "I wish I had time for that." So this year I'm planning ahead. Here is what I have so far:

* Bake a pie

* See 100 Monkeys in concert

* Make a Christmas playlist and listen to it

* Take Riley for Santa pictures

* Watch Christmas movies

* Bake cookies

* Send out Christmas cards

* Finish my mom's blanket

* Make mini gingerbread houses

* Finish reading The Hunger Games

Birthday Girls

Last weekend we celebrated my nieces' birthdays. Since they were born just 4 days apart, they had a joint birthday party. Willa turned 1 and Elora turned 6. I can't believe how old they are!

Happy family

Sweet Audrey

Elora and her Wizard of Oz cake

What I've been up to

Had way too much fun with Mom in the photobooth

Had a yummy Thanksgiving

Made a birthday cake

Had a girls night with Amber

Spent time with my nieces

Used a sewing machine for the first time