Christmas Decorations

During my Thanksgiving break I took the opportunity to decorate for Christmas since finals were just around the corner. For the third year in a row I put up our fake white Christmas tree. It originally was a joke since I couldn't have a real tree in my DC basement apartment, I bought the tackiest one! But, since then I have grown to love it. It was really pretty this year with my gold and purple decorations with matching wrapping paper and ribbon.

My other favorite decorations are my collection of angels which I used to be display year-round. Now I only get to see them at Christmas. On the other side of the wall I have a beautiful Fontini nativity display. Dad and Deborah started my collection years ago and continue to contribute pieces as a gift each Christmas.

I even got the dogs dressed up in their new Christmas sweaters!

And then we had a Christmas Tree sushi roll.

Thanksmas

This past weekend Matt and I enjoyed a kick-off to the 2008 holiday season--Thanksmas!!

Thanksmas is a family tradition established ??? (about six? years ago)

When my grandparents started to migrate south for the winter, we started to get together the weekend before Thanksgiving to share our former Christmas traditions. This includes: #1 family gathering, #2 The original Grinch movie, #3 Roast Beast and fixin's (creamed onions, Yorkshire pudding and my favorite pumpkin chiffon pie!!) #4 our amateur photo session.

We had a great time this year and shared this special holiday with our aunt, cousins, brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew, maternal grandparents, Mom, Joe and the Hagler crew. We really missed Uncle Bob and Aunt Linda. Linda has been battling cancer and couldn't make the drive up from the Houston area--but we did get to have a nice chat with them after dinner.

The cooler weather is definitely welcome and helps me get into the holiday spirit! I even started digging out our Christmas decorations today. I know--I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving too!

We want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. Be careful in your travels and eat lots--Thanksgiving only happens once a year!!

I met Martha Stewart!!

So, guess what I did on Tuesday?? It's usually a study day, but not this time!
Sunday night I was reading through my Martha Stewart Living magazine and noticed that Martha's new book Cooking School hit the shelves on October 31, AND she was having a book signing in Dallas at Sur La Table! So, I had to go...




We arrived at the book signing an hour and a half before Martha was supposed to arrive and this is what we found. We weren't the only one's excited. As you can see, almost all women. Matt must love me...
I did bring my books to study and even sat down and opened my pharmacology for a while, but it didn't last long. I found it really interesting to listen to all of the conversations in line. One of the ladies in front of me owned a little speciality shop, another lady met Martha in the 80's and had the picture with her, many others had piles of books for her to sign to give to family and friends for Christmas. I only had one book for me, I don't think anyone else in my family admires Martha the way I do.





Our first glimpse! Martha is all smiles as she enters through the back alley (ten minutes before scheduled). I walked close after her SUV stopped so that I could get a good picture.


After a long wait in line, we finally made it inside.


I'm next in line!

While Martha was signing my book I told her that I enjoy reading her blog. She responded by saying that it is very personal and then asked me if I would like to be on it. Of course I would! So, she said, "Go stand by your friend and hold up the book," (Matt was behind the rope taking pictures) so I stood by him while Martha got out her camera and took a picture of US. I've been checking her blog daily, but haven't seen her post about the book signing yet.

Keep your eye out for us on:

http://blogs1.marthastewart.com/martha/

Overall, it was a fun experience. Martha was very nice, personable, and somehow kept smiling through the hundreds of people making small talk with her.

I have to admit, I haven't read one page of this book---but I plan to over Christmas break!

Presidential Election 2008

Yesterday was a historic presidential election where Barak Obama won by a landslide against Republican candidate John McCain.

Matt and I attended an election party at his friends house.