2012 - my year in review

Since I started this blog, I've spent either New Year's Eve or New Year's Day reflecting on what I did or did not accomplish the prior 365 days. So on this New Year's Eve afternoon -- now that I've finished watching two seasons of Homeland in eight days, and OMG! SO GOOD! -- I'm sitting down to reflect on 2012.

Again this year, I set six goals for myself... the same six I had in 2011, with minor adjustments. Let's see how I did:

1. Stay Healthy: After losing +/-25 pounds in 2011, the goal for 2012 was to keep it off, but also figure out how to balance moderate exercise (2-3 times per week vs. the 5 times per week during my weight loss campaign) with eating the foods I love and had deprived myself of in 2011 (ie: bread, pasta, cheese, cocktails) in moderation. 
• Check! I have kept the weight off, and even lost about 5 more pounds every now and then as a buffer prior to events where I knew I'd want to pig out so I wouldn't slip above my goal weight. I have kept up almost weekly pilates, dusted off my bike and finally started riding around Lake Balboa's great bike paths (a 7 mile roundtrip ride from my house), and started going to Pop Physique more regularly... the workout that kicks your butt, but makes it look great in the process :) Haven't been hiking much since June when I took the 'rents cocker spaniel Sophie and almost killed her. (Note: cocker spaniels are not hiking dogs; they are dogs who like to lazily trot around sniffing everything in sight on flat surfaces.) But doesn't matter. I feel like I've got a handle on maintaining my weight and enjoying food... especially since I made it through goal #2 and came back two pounds lighter than I left (note I said "I," not my suitcase ;) 
2. Finally Go to Italy: This has been a failed goal for many years. To quote a text from my friend Erika back in early September, "I have known you nearly five years and you have been planning to go to Italy for nearly five years. GO TO ITALY!" 
• Check! Thanks to a fortuitous lack of having to go to work this fall, and a few friends who hounded my ass and helped me plan (aka the aforementioned Erika, plus Diana, Mari, Shawn, Barrett, Jason and Lisa :), I booked a bunch of planes, trains and automobiles, plus four great rentals via AirBnB for an October trek through Rome, Florence, Lamporecchio and Venice that my mom joined me on. It was a great trip, if you don't count the part involving the automobile in Tuscany. It will not be another five years before I go back.
• Travel Bonus: I also took a summer vacation to the Big Island of Hawaii to celebrate my friend Katharine's "Hawaii Four-O" birthday extravaganza. It was super fun and relaxing. Now, after three trips to the Big Island, I think I need to venture out to another island next time.
3. Write More: This used to mean opening up my journal and brain-dumping thoughts and ideas to keep my head clear and hopefully get creativity flowing. But there's no real accountability there. So this year I decided that it would mean writing privately in the journal or publicly here.
• Check! While I don't think I opened my journal more than once (as I tend to only write in that the last few years when I'm in the middle of an emotional breakdown), I did blog a LOT more in 2012 than I did in 2011 -- 440% more to be exact! I've even started to notice trends in what I write about, thus the new nav bar above linking to posts about travel, fun things I do in LA, food, products I love, hockey and my home improvement projects. 
4. Read The Classics: I used to read a ton of books when I was a kid, and I still love to read. But I now treat curling up with a book as a reward... something I only allow myself to do when the magazine pile (which is replenished weekly) is gone and I have no other pressing projects. The goal the last few years has been to read one book per quarter, so I would get through at least four a year. In 2012, I wanted to attack the classic novels that have been sitting on my bookshelf since high school and college... unread. 
• Fail (if you're going to be technical about the goal): I didn't read a single classic novel, although I did take Pride and Prejudice with me all the way to Italy, and had The Hobbit sitting out on my coffee table taunting me for about four months. And I DID read five books this year... even more if you count repeat readings of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy as additional books (Hey, at least I'm honest :P) Keeping up my smutty book theme, I also read Rick Springfield's autobiography Late, Late at Night, and Judy Blume's controversial (back in the '70s) first adult novel Wifey, both when I was in Hawaii. I'm sad to say, as much as Judy Blume is a hero of mine, I hated Wifey... probably because it was very '70s, and I'd just finished my first read of the FSOG trilogy, so it was very tame/lame in comparison. But I did enjoy Rick's book... I was just shocked to read what a man-whore the first rock star I ever loved was (is?). Although I guess I really shouldn't be. God help me when Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora write their books. 
5. Volunteer More: Operation Gratitude takes place four minutes from my house. I can give up three hours of my life every few weekends to bring some happiness to the lives of people sacrificing theirs for our freedom. I also plan to participate in the "Walk MS" in April to raise funds for the National MS Society.
• Half Check/Half Fail: I did great this year in raising funds for the MS Society! (For those that don't know, my mom has had MS for two years.) I created a team page and recruited six of my awesome friends (Christina, Keira, Cwennen, Diana, Daryl and James) to walk a 5k around the Rose Bowl in April. We raised more than $2000, and I was the #169th top individual fundraiser for our walk, thanks to very generous donations from my friends and my and my dad's co-workers. I also asked my friends to make donations to the MS Society in honor of my big 4-0 back in February (and raised another $1k+. Yay!) But that's all I did this year. Didn't make it to Operation Gratitude or any other volunteer events. Bad me. 
6. Host More:  I love my house, I have a great kitchen and I just spent a lot of money on an awesome patio. I need to invite people over to enjoy it with me more. I also need to practice cooking more, minus eating more.
• Fail: No big events this year outside of the annual 4th of July BBQ + Bounce House Extravaganza, a Labor Day BBQ and Christmas Cocktails. I think I only used the grill two, maybe three times. Sad. And while I have been eating at home more, I wouldn't say I've expanded my cooking skills. Maybe I should start having dinner parties where I'm forced to open cookbooks. Hmm...

I am going to think about this stuff tonight as I eat finger foods and drink vodka and champagne. My 2013 goals (don't call them resolutions!) will be posted at some point tomorrow. I may actually incorporate more detailed things, like from my list of places I want to go in LA :) Until then, here's a look at my month-by-month memorable moments of 2012:

January:

• Started going to Pop Physique again regularly -- four times in January. Hurts so good.
• Two Kings games. Remember hockey in winter? I don't...
• My mom and dad celebrated their 42nd Anniversary
• Had a great dinner with a great friend at Perch in Downtown LA

February:

• Burke Williams trip #1
• I turned 40, and rented a suite at Staples Center to celebrate! The Kings wished me a happy birthday by losing 0-1 to the Calgary Flames in the third period. Snooze. But I had great cupcakes and champagne surrounded by great friends anyway :)

March:

• Lots of fun this month at PaleyFest with the casts of Once Upon a Time, New Girl, Castle and Modern Family
• Saw my friend Jeff star in Noel Coward's play "Private Lives" in Burbank. Great show!
• Liked the movie version of Hunger Games almost as much as the book. Almost. 

April:

• Walk MS at the Rose Bowl. My team raised more than $2000 for MS research and care!
• I met my writing hero, Judy Blume, at the LA Times Festival of Books
• The Los Angeles Kings make the playoffs at the last minute for the 3rd time since 2002! And keep playing through the end of the month...
• Jonathan Quick is named a finalist (one of three) for the Vezina Trophy.

May:

• The 2012 Summer Movie Blockbuster Club kicks off its season with The Avengers, which will end the year as one of my top 2 favorite movies of 2012.  
• I went to the opera. Yes, the opera. La Boheme at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion. I don't think I'm an opera person. 
• Got invited to a lovely afternoon garden party at the residence of Dame Barbara Hay, the British Consul-General. It was filmed for an episode of Cupcake Wars that aired in August.
• The LA Kings are still playing hockey. Really well. They make it to the Stanley Cup Finals, for the first time since 1993. Only the second time in their existence. I start to get really nauseous whenever they play.  

June:

• The LA Kings WIN THE STANLEY CUP!! That's all I can really remember about June. Sorry. But that was enough for me :)

July:

• Hosted my 3rd 4th of July BBQ (actually on July 4th this year)
• Enjoyed summer

August:

• Went to a LOT of shows!
• Pixar in Concert @ The Hollywood Bowl
• Aerosmith @ The Hollywood Bowl
• Jonny Lang @ The Greek Theater
• Memphis @ The Pantages Theatre 
• Cirque du Soleil's Micheal Jackson The Immortal World @ Staples Center
  
• John Williams @ the Hollywood Bowl, with narrator James Taylor
• Trip #1: Hawaii! 

September:

• Held a BBQ for Labor Day
• Found out I was going to have a lot of free time on my hands...
• Saw The Book of Mormon @ The Pantages Theatre
• Met The Stanley Cup, up close and personal
• Saw Pat Benatar @ The Canyon Club
• Went to the Getty Villa, and saw the final flight of the Space Shuttle Endeavour over LA.
• Started and completed  Project Kill Crabgrass & Clover in my front yard
• Had a fancy, cultured day in Pasadena at the Norton Simon Museum and The Langham for afternoon tea.

October:

• Painted my hallway, guest bathroom and guest bedroom. And finally got new blinds for the guest bedroom, admitting to myself it will be a while before I get new front windows and shutters to go over them.
• The Kings season does NOT begin... thanks NHL for locking the players out and preventing the Kings from raising their Stanley Cup banner because that means I was free for...
• Trip #2: ITALY!!!

November:

• Did a lot of blogging about Italy :) (see link above)
• Saw Richie Sambora @ The Ford Theater. Great small, intimate show, with all proceeds going to Hurricane Sandy relief.
• A super-fancy VIP Day at Disneyland, thanks to our friend and new Club 33 member Shawn.
• Thanksgiving Dinner #4 at my house for Mom, Dad, little bro Ryan and me
• After Thanksgiving, Afternoon Tea in Pasadena with Jenny and Ruthie Z.
• Super-successful garage sale with Diana, Daryl and James

December:

• Baking-palooza 2012
• Christmas Cocktails 2012
• Afternoon Tea on the 3rd Day of Christmas at Daryl and James' house
• New Year's Eve Finger Lickin' Game Night at my place for those who hate NYE :)

on the third day of christmas...

... my dear friends gave to me, a lovely afternoon tea!

I think anyone who has read this blog lately knows I love afternoon tea. So when my friends Daryl & James invited me over for tea on the Friday after Christmas -- using Daryl's fancy silver and gold trimmed china -- my only response was, "What time should I arrive?" :) It was a super fancy way to celebrate the third day of Christmas!

We had two rounds of tea -- a yummy "house" blend and a citrusy Christmas blend. They even had sugar cubes, which apparently you can get at the supermarket. I need to pay more attention to my sugar purchasing options. Sugar cubes are a quick and easy way to fancy-up a cup of tea if you're not drinking out of china teacups and saucers ;)

The first course consisted of really good, homemade egg salad and chicken curry finger sandwiches.

The second course was a delish scone with a choice of yummy apple cinnamon jelly or mixed berry preserves. (However, if you're smart, you cut the scone in half so you can have both -- one per half :). And then the final course was a mini mincemeat pie with brandy butter. 

It was a lovely, lovely afternoon! And I even got a lovely parting gift -- since Daryl had just been to London for work again, he brought my favorite cookies ever back for me! A tin of Marks & Spencer Scottish Shortbread Petticoat Tails. Yay! And just in time... my previous stash I've been rationing was down to two triangles. Now I should have enough to last me through March (I hope!)

PS: I would just like to note that my blog now comes up as the #4 Google search result when you search for "marks and spencer scottish shortbread petticoat tails." Woot!

my favorite things

It's the weekend before Christmas and all through the land, frantic shoppers are fighting their way through malls, last-minute shopping lists in hand.... 

I, however -- being one with a lot of free time on her hands these days -- finished that cray-cray (wrapping included) weeks ago and have instead spent the last week sitting on my sofa, watching PGA movie screeners and recovering from what I hope is my only cold of the 2012-13 season. 

While taking a break between Beasts of the Southern Wild and Hyde Park on Hudson on Wednesday, I turned on ABC and caught Katie Couric's "Katie Gives Back" show... or what I realized within five seconds was Katie's version of Oprah's infamous Favorite Things disguised as helping Hurricane Sandy Victims get ready for the holidays. 

The show made me think of some of my favorite things to give and get at the holidays (other than home improvement store and Starbucks gift cards of course ;). They all elicit a feel-good, warm-fuzzy feeling in different ways, and are great for last minute gifts.

Slatkin & Co "Winter" candle

I've written about this before. This is my favorite candle ever. It screams Christmas to me, even though it's called "winter." It should actually be called "warm & cozy" because that's how it makes you feel... just add a cup of tea and a warm blanket to cuddle up under on the sofa and you're all set for a warm, relaxing, cozy night at home in front of the tree. 

Owls

Okay, owls are not warm and fuzzy. And I don't really love them. But I love that they are now an awesome in-joke that keeps on giving for me and three of my friends.                                        

A year ago on a day trip to Solvang, in a store selling something with an owl on it that I don't remember, my pal James commented that owls were going to be the next big thing. Was he ever right. This year, they are everywhere on everything! (I even found a ceramic one with "Venezia" painted on its chest while wandering through Venice, Italy... which I promptly purchased for James!) And now, everywhere our group of friends goes, if we happen to see an owl, we must stop and comment: "Owls -- ya know, they're very trendy this year."



We all bought owl Christmas ornaments this year to commemorate the "trend." (That's mine on my already-dead Christmas tree above.) And while shopping this year, I've seen them on mugs, tees, phone cases and journals, which are another one of my fave things to give and receive. I have a stockpile of them, waiting to be written in. There's one I take when I travel and another one I write in when something monumentally depressing happens. I need to start just jotting happier ideas down in another one of them... maybe one day it will turn into that book I want to write but never get around to.

Scarves

I freely admit I'm a little bit obsessed with scarves. They are soft, keep your neck warm and are great for jazzing up a solid shirt or sweater, so who wouldn't love them? Certainly not any of my gal pals (which is a good thing since there are four scarves straight from the stalls of the Florence, Italy Central Market sitting wrapped under my tree right now ;) 

In fact, a year or so ago, I remember a male co-worker commenting that, "Apparently, you have to love scarves" to be on my team ... and therefore he would never be on my team. (Boring boys!) Erika, Sarah, Lisa, Molly, Malinda and I LOVE scarves. As does my crafty friend Diana, who crocheted this beautiful, soft, sparkly, purple scarf for me this Christmas. I wore it to a party last weekend and every female there complimented me on it!

I love homemade, crocheted scarves. I love long, light, cotton scarves (I find some great ones, surprisingly, at Coldwater Creek when shopping for sweaters for my mom). And I love super-soft pashmina wraps -- my black one is my go-to neck warmer.

BTW, did you know there are more than 50 ways you can tie a scarf? I've gotten into a rut with the slip knot and loose wrap. Maybe in 2013 I'll make a resolution to try a different knotting technique with one of the 20+ scarves and wraps I own ;)

Fun Dining Experiences

Who says a gift has to be a thing you wrap? Some of the best gifts I've had recently have been time spent enjoying good food and great conversations with friends. For years (three to be exact), some of my friends kept promising to take me to Ford's Filling Station for my birthday. I'd never been, and when we finally coordinated the big dinner, one might fear it wouldn't live up to three years of expectations. But it did. It was great to be out somewhere nice and new with friends, enjoying amazing food and great service.

And just last week, I had afternoon tea at Scarlet Tea Room with a long-time friend I hadn't been able to spend much time with recently. We spent two hours talking about our families, the holidays, job hunting and my trip to Italy, while eating scones and finger sandwiches. It was a lovely, lovely afternoon. And a great holiday treat!

enjoy every moment

Today I went to my goddaughter's 6th birthday party at Scooter's Jungle. She is the sweetest, most polite little kid with the prettiest smile and the perfect princess wave -- hey, it's her birthday, which makes her the princess, and she can wave if she wants to ;)

We went down the giant slide over and over and over together, laughing all the way down. Then she'd say, "Let's go again!" and start back up the stairs. So we would. When the party was over and I left, she got the biggest hug ever.

Then I came home and checked Facebook for the first time today. Everywhere there were lists of the names of the 6-and-7-year-olds and their teachers who that stupid, selfish fuckhead gunned down yesterday in Newtown, Connecticut. None of them will get to go down the giant slide or bounce off the walls of a bounce house again. And that makes me SO angry.

I could go on a tirade about guns, but I'm sick to my stomach of hearing about them over the last 24 hours.

Instead, I will say enjoy every moment you have with the people you love. Life is too short.

May those 26 new angels in heaven rest in peace. And may their families, whose hearts are irreparably broken, somehow find the strength to go on.

random thoughts on 121212

I'm watching the 121212 concert for Hurricane Sandy relief tonight and having a lot of random thoughts I'm going to document here because there is no one in my living room at the moment to share them with. I apologize in advance. I'm in a snarky mood. But to make up for my snarkiness, let me remind you that you can buy music from the concert here on iTunes, with all proceeds going to the Robin Hood Foundation. (Hopefully that will keep me from going to hell for what's about to occur ;)

First, one non-snarky comment: This is the first time I've heard Springsteen and The E Street Band play live since Clarence Clemons passed away. "Born to Run" just isn't the same without The Big Man on sax :(

Now, let the snark begin:

Kristen Stewart needs to fire her stylist right now.

Jon Bon Jovi and Bruce Springsteen should not duet together anymore. They don't sing in the same key. Jon messed up "Born to Run." Bruce messed up "Who Says You Can't Go Home."
-- Sincerely, a huge fan of both Jersey Boys... separately.

Why were the only musicians who played this benefit OLD? The Who, Clapton, Springsteen, McCartney, The Stones, Billy Joel. Even Bon Jovi is now all officially 50+. Do the organizers think fans of people under 25 have no cash to donate? Or did Taylor Swift and One Direction have a hot date tonight? (Not that I actually want to hear Taylor Swift and One Direction, mind you. But maybe the concert could've been on network TV if they had an act or two that wasn't a member of the AARP. Just a thought considering the goal of this whole thing was to raise money.)

Also interesting that they were all either from the tri-state area (not surprising since that's where the hurricane hit) or Great Britain.

Alicia Keys looks to have hired Victoria Beckham's hair stylist. OOOH! Alicia's under 40. There's one! She's also from NYC.

Did Roger Daltry really think unbuttoning his shirt to show off his waxed, fake-n-baked 70-year-old chest was a good idea?

Okay, Kayne West is now rapping. The "one of these things is not like the others" song is playing in my head.

So this Nirvana reunion thing with Sir Paul McCartney singing... ummmm. Let's just say I never really liked Nirvana. And that fact has not changed tonight.

This was, I am fairly certain, the longest concert ever.

baking-palooza 2012 - day 3

Today's "Baking-palooza 2012" session was a short one... just one item on the agenda: adding frosting to the cupcakes I baked last night. (And thank goodness.... I'm kinda baked out ;) 

My friend Diana came over with her cake decorating gadgets, specifically her coupler and decorating tips, and made me realize I've been really stupid frosting cupcakes with a knife or spatula all these years. Stuffing frosting into a decorating bag and squeezing it out into pretty, fluffy designs not only looks better as a finished product, but it's faster, easier and more fun that spreading frosting the old-school way. 

During today's decorating lesson, we used one decorating tip for all the cupcakes and I made two different designs -- the swirl (left below) and what I shall call stars (or from the angle of the photo below on the right, Hershey's kisses ;)

"The Swirl" 

Stars (or Hershey's kisses)

Decorating two dozen cupcakes with frosting and then holiday spinkles took a grand total of about nine minutes. I shall never frost with a spatula again... and I can't wait until Christmas Eve when I make my big Christmas cake! Gotta buy my own coupler before then ;)

Cupcakes - After Photo, with sprinkles

baking-palooza 2012 - day 2

Day 2 Group Shot

"Baking-palooza 2012" continued today with day 2 of cookies. 

The Sugar Cookie and Chocolate Crinkle dough I prepped last night for overnight chillin' was joined on the agenda by Snickerdoodles.

Today's common theme: "Cookies that are messy to make." (Powdered sugar, cinnamon sugar and sprinkles... oh my :)

Read on for my cookie commentary and stay tuned for "Baking-palooza 2012 - Day 3" tomorrow... I'm getting a lesson in fancy cupcake decorating!

*Again, Please Note: Recipes linked to are not necessarily the friends & family recipes I used, but are close enough :)

Sugar Cookies

For something that seems oh-so-simple, these cookies are the biggest pain. Maybe that's because they involve a rolling pin. And artistic talent, which I don't have when cookie icing and decorating pens are involved. That said, I do think my snowmen cookies came out cute. The frosting pen and my star-shaped cookies did not like each other though. And by the time I got to the Christmas tree-shaped cookies, I was sick of the pen and just dyed the icing green and dumped sugar sprinkles on top.

Chocolate Crinkles

I make these from my Aunt Trudi's recipe every year. They are soft, chewy, chocolate, powdered-sugary-deliciousness. They are also chocolate, powdered-sugary-messiness to prepare. :) But having to scrape layers of chocolate and powdered sugar off my palms is worth it. 

This year, I actually read how many cookies the recipe is supposed to produce, and realized I've been making these too large for a long time. So for those of you who eat these each year, don't be shocked when you see what I shall lovingly refer to as 2012's Mini-Crinkles ;) 

Snickerdoodles

These are the cookies that gave me my upper body workout today, which consisted of quickly waving dish towels in front of the smoke detector near my kitchen (which legally has to be there next to the door to the master bedroom) in order to stop it from going off over and over and over again as the parchment paper these bake on got a little crispy around the edges.

Other than the noise, these are pretty simple to make. ;)  I usually double the recipe (I have a whole jar of cream of tartar taking up space on my spice shelf and these are all I use it on... I'd like to get rid of it before 2022 ;)

baking-palooza 2012 - day 1

Day 1 Group Photo on the Cooling Rack

Today marked the start of "Baking-Palooza 2012." Yay! 

This year, "Baking-Palooza" is being split into a three-day event because :

a) baking dozens and dozens of at least four types of cookies and baking cupcakes in one day (as I've done in previous years) is exhausting and... 

b) let's admit it, I've got the time this year ;) 

That said, I'm raising the stakes and making six different cookies this year. 

Today, I completed three of the six, totaling about 9.5 dozen cookies. The common thread was peanut butter and/or chocolate :)

I also prepped the dough for the Chocolate Crinkles and Sugar Cookies I will shape and bake tomorrow after the dough has chilled overnight. 

Here's the scoop + yummy food photos for today's batches:

Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies*

These are super easy, as long as you remember to unwrap your Hershey's Kisses before you take the cookies out of the oven. Because once the cookies come out, you have a very limited amount of time to stick the kisses in them before they harden. I am proud to say that this year, I remembered to do this ;)


*Note: Recipes linked to are not necessarily the friends & family recipes I used, but are close enough :)

 

Peanut Butter Truffle Cookies

Also super-easy! And a great, quick way to get rid of the peanut butter in your pantry that you bought back in June because you wanted to make yourself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich... and then never did. 

Entertainment Bonus: These look a LOT like chocolate chip cookies (since have chocolate chips in them). So it can be very entertaining to watch people react to the bite of peanut butter they thought was something else. (Of course, some people have peanut allergies, so to purposely feed these to random strangers for your own amusement would be evil and irresponsible.)

Celiacs Take Note: These cookies have no wheat and are therefore gluten-free. That means my friend Susie, who was also at one time allergic to lettuce, can eat these. 

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Not really a Christmas cookie, but a classic. Also something that comes in tubes of refrigerated dough that someone might have had sitting in the bottom drawer of her fridge and decided to throw in the oven while it was conveniently already heated to 350 degrees. (I'm making five other cookies. Gimme a break on this one cheat :)

"oh christmas tree, oh christmas tree..."

"... I really should've gotten a bigger version of you." Oh well.....

I get a live tree each year and it's always a gamble trying to find the perfect noble fir that is full enough to not look like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, yet has enough space between branches for my long, dangly ornaments plus enough strong branches for my heavy glass-blown ornaments. This year I went to three places looking for a tree. I found the almost-perfect tree at Home Depot for at least $20 less than the private tree lots charge. But alas, its needles were yellowing and I knew it would be dead at least a week before Christmas. The tree guy looked at me like I was nuts and then sold the tree to a couple who didn't even check for the freshness of the needles. They will be regretting that purchase by December 20th, mark my words. 

Anyhoo, my tree came from the "Oliver Holt Sons and Daughters" private lot I've gone to for at least the last five years that keeps moving farther and farther away from my house. (They used to be in a lot across the street from my grocery store/vet/Starbucks, which is now a gas station. This year they are located near the Northridge mall.) They had a good selection and I picked out a really full, green 5.5 footer and was really happy with my purchase till yesterday when I was decorating it and was running out of space for long, dangly ornaments. Thus, the very bottom of my tree is SO decorated! I'm sure if my cats weren't old and lazy, they'd be having a field day with those ornaments. Instead, they are spending their time figuring out paths through the presents to get under the tree stand and sleep/hide. I thought I'd done a good job blocking them out until five minutes ago when I saw Lily's tail sticking out from under the tree skirt. Oh well... that seems to be a theme with this tree. ;)

Bare tree, pre-lights

Step 1: My least fave part - stringing the lights 

Step 2: Unpacking & hanging ALL of my ornaments (and I have a LOT!)
I think I have enough snowman ornaments now though ;)
(Note: this isn't even all the snowmen!)

Step 3: Add all the presents I wrapped last week.
(Yes, I know you hate me :P)

"raindrops on roses..."

I love the fact that it's December 1st and my ginormous rose bush is still blooming. I cut this beauty and brought it inside so I can enjoy its lovely smell just after I finished putting up my outdoor Christmas decorations this morning. Gotta love Southern California, even on a rainy weekend :)