College Girls

My senior year of high school, when it came time to choose a college, I decided I wanted to go somewhere where I didn't know anyone. I didn't want to follow all of my classmates to the state schools. I didn't want to room with someone I'd known all my life. While I enjoyed my time in high school and the friends that I had, I was ready to go somewhere on my own and make new friends. It was the best decision I ever made. My college years were some of the best of my life because of the friends I made there. I lived in a teeny apartment with five best friends, next door to another apartment with four more of our best friends. There was always someone around to hang out with, and many times we were ALL around, squeezed into one apartment watching Sex and the City, gossiping about boys, reading about celebrities, and making a list of names we'd never name our children. It was very common to see our pack walking across campus to the cafeteria together or cramming into two cars to go out on a Friday night.

Who knew the friends I made in college would be forever friends? Although, after four years together, I can't imagine them not being in my life. While we've all moved to different towns and have different lives, we still remain just as close as ever. We email about everything - wedding plans, birth announcements, rants from work, gossip from facebook, interesting articles we read online, good stories from NPR. In addition to all of that, we make a point to get together at least once a year.

This year's get together was last weekend and it was at Jenny's house. Not everyone was able to make it, but we still had a pretty good crowd. It was a great weekend - no boys, no makeup, and no real clothes (pj's only!).

We trickled in at different times on Friday night. Jenny made a big batch of spaghetti for us.

Catherine was the last to arrive and even though she wasn't thrilled to have my camera in her face, we were all glad she was there!

Poor Lydia was battling a nasty cold so she sipped on hotty toddys all night. I think this is the first time Mr. Daniels has come to any of our get-togethers.

We spent Friday getting caught up since the last time we'd all seen each other (Jenny's wedding). We crashed way earlier than we used to in college, but in college we didn't have full-time jobs!

Saturday morning started out right...with mimosas!

Poor Susan couldn't join in our toast since she brought a bun in her oven.

Did I say it was a boy-free weekend? Well, it mostly was. After we finished our late breakfast, this cute little guy showed up.

Roxy and Rowan couldn't spend the entire weekend with us but we sure are glad they stopped by! It didn't take long before baby Rowan got bored with the girl talk and fell asleep.

One thing we always do at our get-togethers is have a gift exchange. We don't exchange Christmas gifts or do birthday presents in our group, so it's fun to do it this one time of the year. We each bring one gift and play "Dirty Santa" to choose our gifts.

I was dirty and stole the present that I brought from someone. What can I say - I brought a gift that I really wanted myself. I'll show you a full picture of it soon, but here's a sneak peek:

Rowan thought opening gifts was way more fun that girl talk. Well, maybe not exactly fun, but at least he was awake for it.

This little boy has stolen his momma's heart.

You know, in college I remember us texting a lot on our phones (I'm sure my dad really remembers...) but we weren't glued to our phones like we are now. Gotta love smart phones!

After our afternoon nap (we did that in college too - somethings never change), we decided it was time for cupcakes and pizza.

See? No makeup. Ew. (Hopefully since I'm posting this awful picture of myself, my friends won't hate me as much for posting makeup free pictures of them.)

Sunday morning came and we all went our separate ways. I'm sad we don't get to see each other more often, but it was great to have a full weekend with nothing to do but catch up. Thanks for hosting us, Jenny!

Bunco Night

Last Monday night I hosted my bunco group at our house.  We try to play on the last Monday of every month, and oh do I look forward to this girls' night every month! Even though I had the month of January, I decided it was close enough to Valentine's Day to go with a heart theme.  I used my red and white dishes.

The dining table was decorated with a new table runner I made, heart-shaped bowls of candy, and the felted flowers I made.

The kitchen table held the money pot.

As my guests arrived, I had heart-shaped chips and dip for them to munch on.

For the main course, we had soup, salad, and breadsticks a la Olive Garden.  I cheated and purchased the salad and breadsticks from the restaurant, but I found the recipe for their Pasta e Fagioli online and Doc helped me make it (ok, really he did it).  The recipe is pretty comparable to theirs in the restaurant, the only difference is that mine had heart-shaped noodles.

Throughout the evening, anyone that rolled a "big bunco" (three sixes) got the honor of wearing the heart headband.

Laura got it first:

She passed it on to Megan...

...but then Kendra stole it from her.

I'm pretty sure there were a lot more "big buncos" because I heard lots of hoopin' and hollarin' but I was busy in the kitchen getting dessert ready.

Dessert = chocolate croissants on top of a chocolate syrup heart, with a strawberry and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.  Yummy!

I sent the girls home with (hopefully) full bellies and a lucky few also had full pocketbooks.  The countdown's on til next Month's bunco night!

Fondue Night

Last week we sent an email to invite some of our friends over for dinner this past Friday.  Given the week's events, I thought it would be a healthy distraction so we went ahead with the dinner.  I'm glad we did, too, because it was a lot of fun! We decided to make fondue.  I got our fondue pot for my birthday last March and we used it once then but it hadn't come out of the cabinets since.  It was long overdue! I had emailed my friend Sarah for her cheese fondue recipe months ago and luckily she was at dinner to supervise the process.

First to go in the pot was garlic and white wine.

Then came the milk and flour.

After that heated up, Doc added the good stuff....the cheese!  We used sharp cheddar and smoked gouda.

Sarah watched carefully to make sure the cheese sauce made it to the right consistency.

It was starting to smell gooooood!  We were all standing around the table just waiting for the stirring to be done.

Speaking of "we" that would be Chris and Allison,

Charlie and Sarah,

and me and Doc.  Finally, it was ready!  (This picture was taken after bread had already been dipped in a left crumbs behind.)

For dipping, we had pumpernickel bread cubes, green apples, carrots, and tortilla chips. I think the apples were my favorite.

I said it that night and I'll say it again, the cheese fondue was "real gouda!"

Since we started with a big appetizer, Doc and I decided we'd just do a small dish for the main course.  He made bacon-wrapped barbecue shrimp over a bed of rice.  Delicious!

We saved the best course for last...the chocolate fondue.  Here, Doc is stirring the sauce (milk, vanilla extract, milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate) so fast the camera can't even keep up.

For dipping, we had pretzel sticks, marshmallows, pound cake, biscoff cookies, bananas, and strawberries.  Charlie got to be the first taste-tester.

After he gave his approval, it was game on.  That stuff was good. Oh man, was it good!

We ended the meal with a toast.  I realize that usually happens at the beginning, but better late than never, right?

(I got to use my new tripod to take this and it is totally awesome.  Just thought you should know.)

It was so much fun and I'm glad I got to see my friends.  I don't think we'll wait so long to make fondue again since it was so yummy!  Who wants to come over for the next round?

Christmas Eve Breakfast

Is anyone still out there reading this?  Did everyone survive the holidays?  I bet most of you are still sleeping in, lounging around, and enjoying your Christmas break.  Unfortunately, Doc and I had to return to the real world today. So much has happened since the last time I wrote!  It's hard to know where to start.  But, I guess it's best to start at the beginning, right?

For the first time in my career life, I didn't have to work on Christmas Eve this year.  Doc didn't have to, either.  To celebrate, we decided to have some of our friends over for breakfast before all going our separate ways for the holiday.

First to arrive?  The newlywed Earls!

Right behind them were the Cooks.

Earlier in the week, Jenny, Allison, and I visited the Nail Bar to have our nails shellacked.  We were all festive for the holidays!

The Washburns brought their sweet little elf, Wesley.

Like a good elf, she got right to work.

She concentrated hard on getting those corks arranged just the right way.

This good little elf only stopped working for bites of muffins...

...and the occasional chit-chat with Minnie.

While Wesley the elf worked, the rest of us enjoyed a nice breakfast.  Here are the Weatherfords in between bites.

I think Kendra and Antonio win the award for being the most festive.  Antonio even had a green hat to go with his red shirt.

Allison and I ate our breakfast in the living room.

It wasn't long before the little elf joined us for some peekaboo.

Everyone else got jealous and started fighting for her attention.  Jenny tried to wrap her up in her scarf.

Chris got on the ground and lured her in with toy cars.

Minnie tried to win her over with wet, sloppy kisses.

But in the end, it's her momma and daddy that she loves the most.

Probably because she feels right at home with them.

Doc and I are so lucky to have such great friends.  We loved having them over; it was a great morning and the best start to the Christmas holiday!

Even if hosting did wear us all out.

I Have Awesome Friends

One morning last week - I can't remember exactly which day - I arrived to work to find a fun little surprise on my desk.  I looked around in my neighbors' cubes but they didn't have a surprise sitting on their desks.  Weird, I thought, wonder who this is from? Which colleague of ours is giving gifts to just me?  It was like a little fairy had visited during the night.  I finally looked under the surprise and found a card.  Inside the card read "Enjoy this little winter wonderland for your office! - Allison"  Aha! A surprise from my bestest neighbor friend!  (I'm pretty sure I know who was sneakin' around in my cubicle...)  And it's a super cute surprise, too; one that she made herself.  Just check out my little winter wonderland:

A gumdrop scene in some sugary snow! Clever and cute, right? And look at all the details!  It looks like she used sprinkles for the faces and other details.  I'm pretty sure she cut the star on top of the Christmas tree out of a yellow gumdrop.  Now that's talent!  She even used an orange sprinkle for the snowman's nose and made him a hat out of a purple gumdrop.  She's a crafty one, that Allison. 

Now let me tell you about another awesome friend.  Last night was our bunco group's Christmas party.  We drew names last month and all brought a gift for whomever we drew.  I got to be the first person to open a gift and HOLY COW I CANNOT EVEN TELL YOU HOW EXCITED I WAS WHEN I SAW MY GIFT!  Seriously, all caps doesn't even come close to showing my true excitement.  I have been saying for two years now how I think it would be SO FUN to have Christmas bedding.  Who wouldn't love getting to change their bedroom up for one month during the year? Plus, it would provide a great time to take your real bedding (comforter) to the dry cleaners to get cleaned. (Ours desperately needs a cleaning.)  So I've been talking about it for a while, but I've never pulled the trigger.  My awesome friend Mary Elizabeth drew my name for the gift exchange and she actually remembered me talking about Christmas bedding and so she bought me the cutest holiday sheets I've ever seen!!! Can you feel my excitement?!?!

Don't you love them?? I do.  I was so excited when I got home that I didn't even bother washing them, I just put them straight on the bed.  They look fine with the comforter we have but I think this might just be the jumpstart I needed to get the ball rolling on complete holiday bedding.  Should I get a red or green comforter?? (You're right, whatever's on sale will be great.)  I rushed to get the bed made up with the new linens before Doc got home.  I had the Miss Winfrey tree lit up, the balcony lights were shining through the window, and the iPod was playing my Christmas playlist.  I just stood and basked in my bedroom's magical Christmas glory until he got home. 

I love it! Isn't this just the most wonderful time of year??

Disclaimer: All of my friends are awesome for reasons that don't involve them giving me gifts.  They're sweet and funny and thoughtful and good listeners and blah, blah, blah, but today I really wanted to talk about these awesome gifts and it's my blog, so there.