Post #165.

Today I am thinking about...

-food
-last minute Christmas gifts I still need to buy
-last minute Christmas gifts I still need to make
-how our tree isn't sucking up as much water as it once was and now seems to be slowly dropping pine needles...will it make it to Christmas?
-how I'm almost done with my book and should have taken my ma-in-law up on the offer of taking the other books in the series too
-the meal that I ate last night at my work party...seafood etouffe. Yum. Scallops, oysters, clams, shrimp...all on top of cheesy grits. Fantastic.
-one more full week of work, followed by a half week...and then Christmas! Seriously? Time flies.
-what am I going to wear tomorrow? I really need to iron but MAN do I hate ironing. blak.
-tomorrow's trash day
-Jason is almost done with finals and then he has 5 weeks off...I'm slightly jealous of the fact that he can sleep in for 5 weeks straight. :( I like sleep.
-I don't have a title for this post yet. I really hate thinking of a title. It always ends up being some cheese ball "catchy" phrase like, "Today's Happenings." I think I am just going to title every post by the number that it is for now. So much easier. :)...you think I'm kidding...

Anyways, today I utilized puff pastry and Jason's left over steak from last night. The product was a hot flaky buttery glorified "hot pocket". I cut two sheets of defrosted puff pastry (bought at Trader Joe's...though you can get it anywhere) into 4 quarters. On one quarter I slapped some mustard on it, some thinly sliced steak, and some...ok, a lot of... cheddar cheese. Then I put one of the quarters of the puff pastry on top and pressed the edges together. Then repeated it three more times to make 4 yummy savory lunch pastries! :) After that I slit the tops, beat an egg and brushed it on top of each "sandwich", and popped it into my 420 degree oven for 25 minutes or so. Finished. Yum. Seriously, it's so easy and so yummy (healthy? ha. I laugh in the face of healthy). I've had the puff pastry in my freezer for quite a while but kept forgetting about it. I think you could substitute nearly any sandwich meat on hand and it would probably still be good. So there you go. Our Sunday lunch. Way better than a cold sandwich :)

Now it's time for bed. I prefer to be in bed around 9:30 and it's now after 10. good night.

'Tis the Season Fa La la La la"

It's Christmas time. Yay. My absolute new favorite thing is to turn out all the lights, plug in the tree, light a candle...and read on the couch. Jason took one look at me last night when I began to prepare for this and said, "You are going to fall asleep in two seconds." Yeah. I did. That's ok though. It was undeniably too cozy to keep those heavy eyelids from falling. So here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.Here is our lovely tree. Sparsely adorned but that's ok. We don't have many ornaments between the two of us and since we are on a budget I took advantage of the $1 tube of Target ornaments. Sparkly! The star? Also a $1 ornament from Target. It's actually a snowflake. It came with two and so I just tied them back to back at the top of the tree.

As you can see in the 1st picture...Jason has a lovely stocking that his ma made for him back in the day. I have had a new stocking every year. haha. Where they go, I have no clue. Stockings though are a huge deal...for both of us. Growing up there were the presents which were great but there was always the stocking full to the brim of things that you didn't really ask for but that your mom knew you'd love none the less. Things like fancy shampoo and the really good expensive razors! :) And lots of candy. Anyways, so I needed a stocking...but once again, minimal money spending was key. I saw a felt one that was a model in the store that was similar to the one I made and decided to go for something like that. It was way easy to make...and for like $3. Not too shabby.And finally...here are some pictures from Thanksgiving at my fam's house...The Thanksgiving meal. Yum.

Target shooting is a Lyons Family Tradition on Thanksgiving Day. And just in case you're thinking "Who is this guy and why does he have so many guns?" My dad is a cop and in SWAT. Ease your worried mine. :)

Pictures like the one below remind me of how much better Jason is at taking photos then me. I took the one above. He took the one below. I'm a true blue "point and shoot". He always finds a way better angle. haha

And, what's Thanksgiving with out a little go-cart driving...without brakes. haha. No really, there were no brakes. We had to grab the cart to stop each other. It makes the down hill part way more exciting! haha :)