Yay, Presents!

Tonight was a bitter sweet moment. I had dinner with my good friend Dani at Andales (yum!), where we feasted on flautas and tacos. We also exchanged Christmas presents (the sweet part!) and she gave me some AWESOME things, such as all of the colors that I need to create galaxy nails that I saw on Cup of Jo (photos from her page!):
















She also got me some Avon glitter eyeliner. She knows me too well: I love all things sparkly and all things eyeliner! I think this will be perfect for New Year's Eve! :o)



She ALSO got me a beautiful purple necklace/bracelet made from Kenyan women from woven grass. It's beautiful and I love it. PLUS, she got me a great candle. :o)

The bitter part of this whole thing is that she is moving to Chicago to spread her wings in one week and one day. I'll miss her; throughout everything, I can always count on Danielle to be there to talk to me or hang out with me when I need someone. She and I have been friends since before I can remember: we went to elementary, middle, high school, college together. We lived together at the dorms. She's a great friend and I'm proud of her for taking this step and being so brave, but hey, at least it gives me an opportunity to visit her in Chicago!

Ah, the first presents of the holiday season. Exciting!

Merry Christmas, Shadow!

I posted a few days about about wanting to find the perfect present. The next day, I found him tightly curled up on my body pillow and a light bulb went off.

Ding!

He likes his bed, but he can't get comfortable because it's too thin and no soft and fluffy enough anymore! Duh! So we should get him a new bed!

Today, Boyfriend and I wrestled him into his leash and strolled to Petco...

On the one day of the week they do pet adoptions outside. Which meant PANDEMONIUM outside Petco! Kennels of dogs all lined up and people everywhere. And as soon we we approached, a few dogs started barking at Shadow, who looked up at us with wild eyes like, "Mom... Dad... I'm going to go crazy soon and start barking and howling...!"

We scurried inside, tugging along a whining Shadow (he was whining as he precursor to howling, not because he was sad) and made it safely inside. Whew. However, he was still all riled up, which made picking out a bed pretty difficult.

When we picked out his first bed, we lined up a few on the floor. He sniffed them all, then laid down on one and licked it. He's a smart dog, so we knew that was his choice. This time, he was so hyped up that it was impossible to get him to even glance at the beds. We lined up a few on the floor and called his name about 300 times to get his attention, but he would barely look at us before getting distracted by another dog or another person or howling outside.

"Shadow," I said seriously. "You have to pick out a bed."

I know I sounded ridiculous, but he's super smart and sometimes, if we tell him what we want from him, he will respond in ways that always amaze us. I figured it was worth a shot.

"Shadow!" I said again. "How about this one?"

He sniffed it and then... to our amazement...

He laid down on the bed and wagged his tail.

Relief! We escaped from the store as soon as possible, with a $75 memory foam bed for our genius dog. Merry Christmas, Shadow! You're the best dog ever and we looooove you!

Friday Favorites!

It's time for the one, the only (yeah right, the most popular scheduled type of post...)...

FRIDAY FAVORITES! Woop!

Today, I'm going to post a Friday Favorites on my favorite Holiday Traditions. I figure this is appropriate with the holiday season swirling around us, so here goes!

One of my favorite holiday traditions is making Christmas cookies with my mom on December 23rd. We always have a Christmas Eve party for our close friends at my parents', so Christmas Eve is filled with cooking for that night. But on the 23rd, we spend the day making my favorite type of cookies:


via

They look weird and a little ugly, but they are SO SO good... they're cinnamony and chocolately and fluffy pumpkiny. So great.

I also love eating red chile and eggs on Christmas morning. Last year, my parents' went out of town on Christmas Day to visit my sister in Oregon, so I took on the responsibility of making them for myself and Boyfriend. It was different than eating them in the house where I grew up, but familiar and still SO YUMMY.


via


And for the past two years, Boyfriend and I spent Christmas Day watching a double movie feature with a big Diet Coke (for me), a bottle of water (for him), some Red Vines, some Sour Patch Kids, and some awesome movie popcorn.

This year, I think my choice will be



Or...


via

What are your favorite traditions?

Weekend Starts for Me!

Since we have the every other Friday off schedule, my weekend starts TONIGHT and I couldn't be happier.

Today was a busy day at work, especially since I was given an assignment with about thirty minutes left in my day. Outside, I was like, "Oh, sure, no problem!" but inside I was like, "F&@*!" I just wanted to go home!

BUT I got it done and then rushed home to eat with Boyfriend. He's back at work, so I'm here watching old episodes of America's Next Top Model and enjoying my evening next to my beautiful Christmas tree!

With only a week until Christmas, it's about time that I start making time to dole out the wonderful gifts to my friends. I love this part! It's my favorite part of Christmas shopping and gift giving in general. Boyfriend's grandfather's birthday is this weekend, too, so we'll be spending Sunday evening with him at a great local steakhouse. Yum!

I'm excited about Christmas, but I'm a little sad to see this season going so quickly. It's been a crazy month, with Boyfriend being hurt and everything, so December is speeding by. But my cousin Steph is coming in and I'm excited to see her, so that's definitely something to look forward to!

I don't know why I'm messing around on the internet when I have a thousand gifts to wrap. I should go do that. Have a good night!


***Edit: also, if anyone cares, this is the ANTM that has Tyra FREAKING OUT on that girl Tiffany! I love Tyra freakouts!

True Love

You know it's true love when my handsome, manly, Martin-Scorscese-loving, Oscar-award-watching, movie reviewer/critic, never-watched-a-reality-show-before, masculine Boyfriend walks into the room and goes,

"Oh, it's almost 11, did you want to watch Teen Mom 2? That girl Jenelle is such a trainwreck."


<3

Beautiful Sundays

Today, I got up and made eggs for myself, Boyfriend and our roommate Thomas. Then we watched NFL Countdown and a little bit of Chopped, because I'm obsessed.


(tv.com)

It's been a nice, relaxing day after a busy day yesterday! Yesterday, Boyfriend and I got up and had lunch with his mom at Red Lobster. We LOVE Red Lobster... it's hard to find good fish in New Mexico, so Red Lobster is our main option here.

After, we went to get Boyfriend the new iPhone as a present from his mom for Christmas! His old phone was a POS, so he's so happy to have a phone that charges... and receives calls consistently... and registers missed calls. You know, normal demands of a cell phone.

While he was getting his new phone, I headed over to Marshall's for some Christmas shopping and I got some GREAT things!

I can't show them here, because some of the gifts I got are for people that probably read this blog. But I knocked out most of my shopping in one fell swoop, then came home and finished the rest online. Online shopping is the best, especially from Amazon!

So except for one small errand, I'm totally done with my shopping... only about 500 bucks later. But it's so nice to have money to spend on people for Christmas! Last year, we were super broke after months of Shadow treatments after our beautiful puppy hurt his back and was on crate rest, plus months of weekly vet visits and all kinds of medicine, which meant a loooot of money our of our pockets. THEN we also went to Boston, so that was expensive, too. Basically, last year, we were kind of broke.

The year before, we were both just poor students with no money, so we didn't have the option. This is the first year that I could really buy the presents I wanted to buy for my friends and family and I couldn't be happier with my purchases!

Are you done with your Christmas shopping?

FRIDAY FAVORITES!

It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday...

for FRIDAY FAVORITES!

Yes, it's the end of the week, so it's time for more Friday Favorites. I worked today, so by the time you read this, I'll probably be driving home, excited to start the weekend. Ah, weekend.

Anyway, back to the point. Today, I'm going to post about my favorite scents. I love perfumes, but I have a few go-to favorites that I'll talk about today.



My absolute favorite is Lola from Marc Jacobs. It's feminine and perfect for daily wear. It smells like rose, grapefruit and vanilla to me. Plus, I adore the bottle. Isn't it precious? My best friend Val bought this for me last year for my birthday and it came with a scented body cream and a tiny little bottle to carry with you in your purse. I just love it.



I also love Daisy, again by Marc Jacobs. I wore this all summer and even had a little stick with a roller ball, so I could carry it with me in my purse and reapply as necessary. It's super fresh and clean and it's another beautiful floral scent. And, again, I love the bottle design.



Boyfriend's favorite scent on me is Very Sexy, by Victoria's Secret. I keep this for a night scent since although it's a light spray, it's very rich and sexy. It's a great, sensual smell.

Don't make fun of me for this last one...



(photos via sephora)

Very Sexy... for Him! I used to wear just a tiny bit of cologne to work when I was a server, and men would always tell me how great I smelled. Plus, I kept smelling my wrists because good boy smell is the best. It's not too strong, like some colognes can be, it's very light and clean.

What are your favorite scents?