Merry Christmas!!!!!

This is a picture of a Douglas Fir. This is what my tree is every year at home. It is the smell of Christmas, along with fires and crisp cool air. This year Christmas break was short at home. I guess that's what happens when you grow up and move away but it made me sad. It came and went so fast. Luckily I got to spend the second half of my break from work with dear friends on and after New Year's Eve.

snOMG, Snowpocalypse, blizzard of 2009

I wish I had more exciting news to report regarding this "winter wallop" (thanks weather channel) that occurred this past weekend. By the way, I (unfortunately) did not come up with the clever snOMG and snowpocalypse terms. Those were circulating on the web, twitter to be exact. The winter wonderland weekend started out really well. I saw some friends, watched the snow start to fall and cozied up in my layers and layers of blankets. By Saturday morning the snow had been falling for hours and was piling up quickly. Capitol Hill looked magical. Houses that are already beautiful were transformed in this Christmas village in the making. Tyler and I wandered to Safeway to see if it was open and also to explore the neighborhood in the snow. The journey was long and treacherous with intermittent snowball fights, snow angels and surprise snow attacks.Pants, beards, arms and legs were frozen upon our arrival at safeway and home. Shortly after defrosting at home, I clumsily jammed my poor pinkie toe into the coffee table's metal leg. from this point onwards, my snow-days have been spent inside as a mere spectator of the twinkly snow outside. Tyler enjoyed it by sledding down the hill at the Capitol building. Our friend Amanda's picture even made it on a local news station website. While inside these past few days, I certainly have perfected the art of burying myself in my down comforters while watching movies. I think I'm ready for Christmas break. Too bad I have to work the next 2 days, though I can't complain...I DID get a federal snow day today. It felt like I was skipping school, and I kept checking the website to make sure I really didn't have to go to work today. Don't worry, I didn't have to work. Today, I somewhat ambitiously attempted some Christmas shopping with my blue foot at the mall of all places. I had some minor success, so at least I got some of the terrible ordeal out of the way. I'm really pushing it getting things in time for Christmas. In my defense. I HAD planned on hitting up the flea market this past weekend, but we know how that turned out. So here I am , December 21st, just trying to make it through the next few days until I get to snuggle up at home with my sisters and sit by the fire with the parents.

Early to bed, Vintage Christmas, cooking

The title above is essentially a wrap up of my weekend. It started out with getting into pj's at about 6:30 pm Friday. This allowed me to get up early and venture to Target at around 8am.... Crazy? nope, Genius, yes! Target is up north and post work during the week, or later in the day on weekends are horrible terrible times to go. crowded metros, long lines, general chaos. Obviously after a full day of work, those are the last things I want to deal with. It was really nice to be up and about on a Saturday morning. I usually get up at a reasonable hour, however I rarely venture out of my neighborhood very early. The rest of the day I went to the Smithsonian Museum gift shops in search of the perfect present for each family member. I was only semi-successful but it was fun to survey everything at all the museums. Saturday night was a Vintage themed Christmas party hosted by a friend. It was my dream. I went all out, inspired by madmen and dressed the part. curve hugging black, 3/4 sleeve dress that hit below the knee. Vintage green jacket, peep toe heels, teased hair ( that turned into a massive bun since I own no hair products to keep a bouffant in place) and of course, RED lipstick. it was fun to play dress up. Today (Sunday) was pretty typical in the Kopp/Brown household. cleaning, grocery shopping lounging, laundry. the usual Sunday tasks, particularly on the drizzly cold winter day. I made delicious baked tomatoes stuffed with a couscous/pea/feta mixture spiced with oregano, salt, pepper and garlic and olive oil. YUM. I can't wait to have the rest of my 1.5lb tomato for lunch tomorrow. Happy week before Christmas

One month ago.....

......our luck ran out. No more free internet. One month later (and many phone calls) we have it back. Most of this past month, it was really nice not to immediately sit down and get sucked into the internet. One article or blog leads to clicking through to another and so on and so on and before you know it you are reading blogs written by 20something cool Mormon girls. Yeah, random I know. Just one example of the media tailspin that so easily happens online. Aside from the obvious Thanksgiving event, the month of November(from what I can recall) was relaxed.I took advantage of the movie selection at the public library during my internet-less days, went out with friends, probably danced the night away a time or to. Honestly, nothing out of the ordinary.I feel like I am in a nice work/social/relationship groove right now, as well as throughout the month of November. I am enjoying cooking more, starting to watch some Carolina bball, enjoying the holiday decorations popping up around town (even though I probably won't get a tree here...) and generally waiting patiently for Christmas break with the family. In the meantime, I have a holiday party or 2 to look forward to, cookie exchange AND secret santa at work, and Christmas lights in the apartment. At work, my babies are growing every week! It is so exciting to see them achieve new milestones in their development. Big things like rolling over and pulling up are as special to see as a new noise or smile. I'm lucky to see them grow and change and I am learning a lot along the way.