Thursday, December 19, 2013

Weekend+ Recap - Back to Midwest and New Clothes!

Oh Hey Hi! Good news, I didn't die from my cold. Yay!


Not only am I not dead, but I'm actually starting to feel pretty good. That cold really did a number on me.

Here's what's happened since my day in bed:

We Went to Michigan!!!

It was my extended family's holiday party AND Mike was able to set-up a residency interview at the UM hospital. Besides all the time spent catching up with family and eating delicious food (shout-out to my aunt who seriously hooked me up with vegan deliciousness!), my favorite moment happened on the flight in:



Just as we got through the clouds on our descent I saw it. My first real snow of the season. Eeeeee! It's good to know that I'll always me a Midwest girl at heart.

The cold weather has also added a new item to my ever growing gratitude list:



Husbands for window scraping. What a great thing.

New Clothes!

Monday was a big day in the Socie household. Mike's Black Friday purchase was finally ready for him. Let me tell you guys, it was worth the wait.

"I'm sexy and I know it"


That dude looks goooood. Who wouldn't want to hire a nice looking guy like that?

After all the sitting and moping and feeling sorry for my sick state of being, I started to get a little restless Monday afternoon. I had some chunky yarn and the perfect set a circular needles to whip up a new hat.

...and hubster with the photobomb win.


Guys, I don't want to brag, but I FREE-HANDED that bad boy! No patterns. No tutorials. Just a picture in my head of what I was going for. 

My new hat arrived just in time for our return to the North. Our trek begins tomorrow. Friday night we have a pit-stop and Bethy's house. Then Saturday we drive the rest of the way to my parents' place. Home Sweet Home.

Tonight is Mike and my Christmas celebration. We've got our gifts to each other and our stockings, Coco-nog and holiday spirits, Christmas movies flagged on Netflix, and a vegan holiday roast ready to go. I can't wait to get the vacation started!

Speaking of vacation, I'm not 100% decided on what will be happening on here over the next week. I'm hopping to at least pop in with some pictures here and there and MAYBE a video if you're lucky :) 

Less than one week til Christmas! GAAAAAAHHHHHHH!


Friday, December 13, 2013

Help me. I'm sick.

Ok, I'm only a little sick at the moment. And I really think I'm on the up swing.


Mike and I will be in MI this weekend for my extended family's holiday party. Mike is actually already there visiting a residency program in Ann Arbor. I fly out first thing tomorrow morning.

With all the travel in mind and with the non-existance night of sleep I got last night, I decided it was best to stay home and not contaminate the office further. So instead of work, my day looked like this:

Netflix marathons in bed...

Oooooo, so coooozy.


With provisions of a different sort close at hand. (hahaha, accounting joke)

Ooooooo, so sooothing.


In much more exciting news I want to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to Kayla and Kyler who went off and got MARRIED today. Blessings too you both for many happy years together! 

Back to the Midwest for us! See you Monday.

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Ornament Tag!

2 weeks til Christmas!!!


So I'm not sure if tags really exist outside of the YouTube universe, but I wanted to do this one blog style so that's what I'm doing. Below I'm going to tag some of my bloggin' buddies for them to do the same thing on their blogs. Really though anyone is welcome to share their responses either in the comments below or by linking to your blog in the comments below. Also feel free to change/add to the tag as you'd like!

Tagging: Bee, Hilary, Sue,  Bethy (vlog it!), and anyone else who wants to join in!




1.) Favorite New Addition Ornament:



We actually have a whole bunch of new ornaments on our tree this year because last year my mom gave us a whole box of ornaments from our family tree, but the champagne glasses are brand new to any tree this year. We found them in a small boutique near Candler Park in, get this, JULY. Yeah we've been waiting a long time to put these guys on our tree. They are hand crafted by a local artisan, and are actually two separate ornaments. The hubby had the idea to hang them in clinking fashion. Very festive :) 

2.) Oldest Ornament:



This Santa is made from plastic, but not cheap-o dallar bin plastic. Early 1900's plastic. That's back when plastic was brand new and very very fancy. This ornament would have been a very big deal to have back then and luckily my family has managed to keep him safe as he's made his way down the family trees so that he can continue to be a big deal now. With him comes a paper written up by my grandma listing all the trees it has hung on beginning with my great great grandparents in 1904 all the way to my parents in 2004. And now we have him. Yay!

3.) Favorite DIY Ornament:



While sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to our honeymoon in Belize, Mike and I had the brilliant idea to hit up the duty-free for a nice bottle of liquor. We picked a bottle of patron and enjoyed tequila sunrises all week long. Being the sentimental type, I kept the cork and tag ribbon and made us a nice ornament to remember our time in Belize. Maybe the travel bottle will become a tradition and we'll have a whole tree of corks and caps someday.

4.) Most Nostalgic Ornament:



This set is awesome for a few reasons. One, the little book actually has the story of the Wizard of Oz in it. And two, it has been hung in the exact same spot my family Christmas for as long as I can remember. I'm not even sure if these are really meant to be ornaments, or what connection you can really make between Dorthy and Jesus, but these guys made our new tree feel like home.

5.) Favorited Gifted Ornament:

"Oh no, we only got one pinecone..." Cue Mike's uncomfortable face :S


Ok, I might have saved the best for last, at least in my mind. A few weeks ago a MASSIVE box arrived with none other than the beloved Milaeger's name on it. I braced myself for the winter awesomeness I knew awaited us on the inside and was still blown away. Inside was a beautifully boxed ornament set with all 12 of the German Bride's Tree ornaments. Each ornament is a symbol of a characteristic for a long and happy marriage. Some of my favorites are the House (protection and shelter), the Bird (joy and happiness), the Fish (Christ's blessing), and of course the Pinecone (fertility). 


Merry Wednesday to you!

Monday, December 9, 2013

Christmas Trees!

Hi hello! It's Monday again. Cray cray.


I was feeling pretty blah today, but I think I'm on the mend now.

More good news: I've got another vlog for you! Watch it to the end for a secret bonus. As always comments and thumbs up's are much appreciated :)


Friday, December 6, 2013

The Hills are Alive

Raise your hand if you watched Sound of Music Live last night!


One of Mike's classmates hosted a watching party. It rocked.




There were twinkle lights, bubbly, and even traditional Austrian cookies.



Pretty awesome hosting. Virtual high-five to Lauren!

Here's a mini-review:

First Impression: Maybe it was the lighting and camera angles. Maybe it was the nun outfits. Either way I couldn't shake the feeling that I was watching SNL for the first 10 minutes. Which reminds me, 1D is the musical guest this Saturday and Paul Rudd is the host...might need to stay up for that one.

Favorite vanTrapp: Now there was a lot of oooooo-ing and aawwwwwe-ing over Gretl in our watching group, but for me Brigita (played by ) was the real standout. Loved her singing. Loved her acting. And it didn't hurt that I wanted a my-sized version of all her outfits. 

Favorite Non-van Trapp: Again I'm going to stray from our group's popular opinion and say that  as Frau Schrader kicked serious butt. Obviously  and   were amazing too. 

Favorite Commercial Break Entertainment: I really hope those of you with Twitter accounts saw the #SoundofMusicPickupLines. Soo funny. But seriously, why didn't they have a live tweet box up in the bottom of the screen Dancing with the Starts style? 

Overall: Loved the experience. Is it fair to equate it to a girly Super Bowl? To me the coolest thing about a special, nation-wide Live broadcast is the feeling of watching it in your house with your group of friends and knowing that across the country there are other people watching and enjoying the same thing. 


Happy Friday! Let's all try to fit in some scenic twirling this weekend.





Thursday, December 5, 2013

OMG....IT'S A VLOG!

Hello readers! Ready to become viewers??


Eeeeee I'm so excited to be bringing you this little clip today. I think most of you are well aware of my personal love of vlogs and YouTubers. Well, it was only a matter of time before I stepped out of the stands and onto the playing field. If you like it please comment (on here or on the actual video on YouTube!), and if you are feeling especially generous you can give me one of those spiffy little YouTube thumbs up. It will warm my heart :)

Special shout-out to my sis-in-law Bethy who requested some random vids from me. I hope you stop feeling sick and start feeling awesome soon! #AmericanChummys

Ladies and Gentlemen here it is....


Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Dinner Duggar Style: Tomato Soup-erole

Hello party people! Raise your hand if you love the Duggars!!


Have you noticed that these pots are going up later in the day? I'm busy busy at work since my boss had her baby!!! Fun times. Anyway...

One of the things I didn't mention in my recap post was that we've been watching A LOT of Duggar's at our place. I started the marathon before Mike's fam arrived, and lucky for me both Mike's mom and sis are fans of the show.  Now that they are gone I've lost possession of the big screen, and our living room is looking a lot like this:

Dang. He caught me.


The recipe I'm bring you today was very, VERY loosely inspired by Anna Duggar's Chicken-etti Recipe.  Basically her thrown together chicken/spaghetti mash-up inspired me to make a mash-up of my own. Tomato Soup + Pasta Casserole = Tomato Soup-erole!



What You'll Need:
1/2 box a pasta
1 can tomato soup
1 1/2 cans water
1 Tbs corn starch
1 Tbs nutritional yeast
12 saltine crackers
Salt & pepper to taste

First, pre-heat your oven to 400 and get your pasta cooking on the stove to al dente. Now start working on the soup.



Add the soup and water to a small sauce pan and heat to a low boil. Add the corn starch and stir continually while soup thickens. Add the nutritional yeast and salt and pepper to taste. The saltine crust will add a lot of salt to the over all taste, so keep that in mind.



Once the pasta is al dente, pour it into an oven-safe casserole dish then cover with the soup.



Crumble the saltines over the top of the casserole. Pop it into the oven and bake for 15 minutes or until the saltines start to look toasted.



Let it cool for 5-10 minutes then dish it up and enjoy!



Happy munching!


Monday, December 2, 2013

I'M BACK! And so is December.

Hi Hello! I hope you had a lovely week. Did you miss me?


Here's what happened in our house...

First, look at this face. I woke him up on Tuesday. He was pretty ambivalent to my start of the holiday excitement.

Sleepy Doodle


Day 1: Flights and travel all worked out fine despite the horrible, horrible weather we had here all week. It was the coldest Atlanta Thanksgiving in over 100 years. I told the fam to leave the cold weather back home next time.

Bethany was hungry and I'm always on board for food so our first stop fresh from the airport was to Ormsby's

Sister, sister!


Mike and his mom got their shuffleboard on. Bethy and I cheered and heckled.

Day 2: was all about being tourists...and hiding from the cold and rain.

World of Coke! I love the 4D movie sooo much.


Day 3: THANKSGIVING!!!

Surprisingly our little place did a great job accomodating more than just Mike and myself. Apartment win!

Oooo yeah, fancy table time.


If you were wondering, the tiramisu was divine...and has been completely gone for a few days now.

Om nom nom.


After dinner we all cozied into our food comas and enjoyed a couple Peanuts' Thanksgiving specials. Lovely.


Cue Peanuts theme song. Doo do dodo doo doo...


Day 4: We dropped the fam off at the airport :(   Mike and I hit up some Black Friday sales.

Retail Therapy: real person, adult style


New suit ordered! Positive interview ju-ju acquired!

And of course we did some decorating.



Looking good, Marv!

Let me know how your holiday week went in the comment's below!