It's All Good

This Christmas, my mother got me a copy of a cookbook I've had my eye on since I saw it at a bookstore in London: It's All Good by Gwyneth Paltrow.

Now, I know some people are skeptical about any cookbook by an actress. What do they know about eating healthy, right? Well, this one is a good one. It's chalk full of healthy recipes and gorgeous pictures of her *gasp* without make-up on. There's one thing I know: if you don't eat well, you cannot look that good. If you fill your body with crap, you skin and hair will look accordingly. 

I've been scrambling to try as many of the recipes as possible since I go back to work on Monday and won't have as much free time. Last night, we had a belated Christmas with my brother-in-law and his girlfriend ~ they were unable to make the Christmas in Phoenix ~ and I made the Grilled Salmon with Grilled Lemon Vinaigrette and the Grilled Asparagus + Portobellos with Shallot + Soy Dressing (I substituted an extra pinch of salt instead of the soy sauce). Holy cow, you guys, those were both ridiculously good. For lunch today, I made the Lentil Salad with Mustard + Tomatoes, which was very tasty,  and I currently have a big pot of the Chicken Soup with Kale + Carrots bubbling on my stove.

This cookbook has been a great way to get back to eating lighter after being with family because, let's be honest, stereotypical families eat nothing but rich food during the holidays. My in-laws are no exception: lots of heavy meals and snacks in between. Her recipes are light but comforting at the same time, and it's helping our stomachs lighten up a little and not feel so sluggish.  

New Years

My husband and I had a ca-ra-zy New Year's Eve, let me tell you. We went and saw Catching Fire. Yup. That's it. However, I did not mind in the least. I wasn't really in the mood to put up with the crazy crowds, and I wanted something more mellow and low-key. Plus, I heard great things about the movie, and I had read the book, so I was more than happy to check it out with my husband instead of freezing outside waiting for fireworks or feeling claustrophobic in a bar. Best. Idea. Ever.

Plus, we had to wake up nice and early to check out UNT take on UNLV New Year's Day at the Heart of Texas Bowl! Our friend was able to get a group of us tickets at student price, and we jumped on it. It was the first time my alma mater had been to a bowl game in almost 10 years, and they did not disappoint. Not only did we get to enjoy being with our friends and watching a great game, but we won!

Go Mean Green!

The crowd surged onto the field after they won. 

I have so many great memories from being in the Green Brigade. They did an amazing job!

After the game, we went out to eat with some of our friends before heading home for an early night. It wasn't until we got to the restaurant that I noticed how burned my husband got at the game.

His sunburn progressively got worse as the night went on. I'm diggin' the sunglasses tan line. 

There's Texas in the winter for you. One minute we're freezing, the next we're warm and sunny. Now we're back to freezing but still sunny...whatever.

Christmas

Christmas was absolutely insane ~ in a good way.

My husband and I alternate which family we have Christmas with every year, and, this year, it was my husband's family's turn. He's from San Diego, but his family has Christmas at his aunt's place in Phoenix every year. So, we had a little road trip on our hands.

My poor husband had just been on a bus trip across the US with some of his students from school, and had been back only 1 day when we left for our trip. We didn't leave until 9:30pm on the 23rd, so we decided to drive through the night so we could spend most of Christmas Eve with them. I drove from 9:30pm - 3:00am, my husband took over until about 10:00am, I drove again until about 1:00, and then he finished it out until we got to his aunt's house around 2:30pm. If you do the math, that's 17 hours worth of driving. It was a gorgeous trip once the sun came up, and coffee definitely helped.

We were able to spend a relaxing day with family on Christmas Eve, went to bed early, and then were completely refreshed in time for Christmas. It was so much fun watching everyone open their presents. In total, we had 8 adults and 2 kids at the house, so it was quite the eventful morning with wrapping paper and tissue paper flying. Our dogs did pretty well ~ they were 2 of the 5 dogs and 2 cats in that house.

We spend the next three days just hanging out with family and relaxing. On the 28th, we headed up the mountain to Flagstaff, and then we started our drive back on the 29th. We were a little kinder to ourselves this time though. We took 2 days. On the 29th, we drove from Flagstaff to Amarillo. On the 30th, I was so excited to wake up in Texas, but not very excited to drive more. We finally got home around 5:30pm that night.

It was an amazing trip. We wish family were closer, so we could spend more time with them. Eventually, we'd love to host Christmas at our place. One of these years, we'll hopefully be able to make that a reality.

Icepocolypse

Unlike the wrongly predicted winter weather in November, December's winter storm lived up to the hype. The ice started to come down Thursday, and I didn't return to work until Tuesday (my poor husband had to go back Monday, driving on the ice). The ice didn't melt until later the next week. It was pretty crazy. I had an interesting drive home Thursday night. 

I awoke Wednesday morning to a winter wonderland outside my window. 

View out our front door.

Looking down our street.

Our poor, confused tree. Fall or winter?

See all that white stuff? Looks like snow, right? Nope! All ice. At the peak of accumulation ~ it was still icing when I took the above pictures ~ we had roughly 3 - 4 inches of solid ice on the ground. Needless to say, we stayed home for a few days. Our animals were completely okay with that. 

Mulligan may not realize he is a 60 pound dog. Big baby. 

So, what do you do when you're iced in for 4 days? We caught up with housework, spent some quality time with our animals, caught up on all of our recorded shows, watched Christmas movies, and I cooked. A lot. 

Welsh cakes, banana bread, and beef stew. My husband was living large. 

By Sunday, we decided to be brave and venture out. We went sightseeing around town to check out our cute square and gorgeous Victorian houses in the ice. We then went home and took a walk/slide around the neighborhood with our stir-crazy dogs. We then cleared our driveway and walkway. I assumed I was going back to work the next day, but only my husband and his school district had to do that. I got to stay home one more time to finish catching up on sleep and finish deep cleaning the house. 

Even though the next couple of weeks of school were a little crazy while we tried to play catch-up, it was totally worth it. It was like we got a mini fall break 2 weeks before our winter break. Even though we have to make up those days in the spring, I'm still so glad it happened. We needed those days off to recoup. Thank you Texas and your crazy weather. 

Thanksmas

A lot of people bemoan the fact that people start the Christmas season before Thanksgiving happens. In my family, however, we purposely do this every 2 years. We have a tradition called Thansmas.

Some of my family live near each other, but some are nowhere close to us. I have family in the UK and Australia as well as other states within the US. Usually, we get to see each other every 2 years ~ if we're lucky. Every other year, as many of us as possible descend upon San Antonio, catch up, and celebrate the season together. This year, the family that made it were: Mum, Dad, Nana, Grampy, my brother and sister-in-law, my sister and her 2 kids, and my husband and myself with our two dogs. Quite the full house. We wished our other out of country relatives could be there, but I'm sure we'll get to see them again in the near future.

We went down Tuesday night after work. That in itself was quite the feat. We had to take a power nap in the car because we were so exhausted. It is roughly a 5 hour drive from our house to my parents on a good day. It was not a good day.

On the Wednesday, we were exited to be in San Antonio. After we got our dentist appointments over with that morning (I'm a wimp when it comes to dentists, and I have so far refused to change to someone up north. Don't judge), we enjoyed hanging out with family, taking walks with our dogs, and just relaxing in general.

My nephew and niece adored our dogs, and I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual. 

My husband doing jazz duets and improvising with my nephew. 

On Thanksgiving, we exchanged presents before Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner, we hung out, played games, and just generally let loose like you only can around family. 

Crowns courtesy of our Christmas crackers.

Can't have Thanksmas without a Christmas pudding!

We Jenga-ed Jenga, built Stonehenge, and then found the true reason it fell down: giant pug attack!

The next night, after a day of being in a food-induced coma, we went out to eat to celebrate my brother and sister-in-laws' 10 year anniversary. We were joined with a few more family members who live in San Antonio. We went to the restaurant where they had their rehearsal dinner, and, coincidently, my husband and my rehearsal dinner was at the same restaurant. 

Waiting for some ridiculously good Mexican food. 

On Saturday, we headed up to Austin to see my other siblings (technically step-siblings, but I think that sort of labeling is unneccessary. They're family. Period.) and their families. That's when things started to get really ridiculous. In total, there were 6 siblings, 5 sibling-in-laws, 6 nephews and nieces, 2 parents, 2 grandparents, and 3 dogs (ours were left at my parents' house, so this does not include them). It was a lot of fun hanging out with everyone and seeing how much my nephews and nieces have grown. It's a rarity that all 6 of us, plus families, get together. We really should try to make it happen more often. It's so much fun! 

The siblings, plus their families.

Our last day there was Sunday. My Mum made an amazing Sunday roast, and then we were the first ones to leave, since we had the longest to drive. It was sad to go, but I look forward to doing it all again in the near future. Chalk this one up to one of the highlights of my year. To me, family is everything. 

A Family Weekend

The weekend before Thanksgiving, my Mum, Nana, and Grampy came to visit our little family (my husband, myself, and our fur babies). This was a huge deal to me because my Nana and Grampy had never before seen any of my houses/townhouses/apartments, and this was my Mum's first time seeing our new house. I looked forward to it for months before it actually happened.

They drove up on the Thursday, and I took the next day off from work, so I could hang out with them. Unfortunately, my husband still had to work, but we had a great time on Friday. It happened to be the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination, so, since everyone but myself remembered the event, we braved the cold and the crowds and checked out the memorial.

The street in downtown Dallas where he was assassinated. 

Memorial on the Grassy Knoll. 

They unveiled a plaque on the Grassy Knoll with a portion of JFK's speech he wrote but never got say on that fateful day.

Since we were on a presidential kick, and we were in Dallas, we also hit up the Bush Library. It was very well done, and the portion of the museum dedicated to September 11th was very moving. 

They have beams from one of the World Trade Center buildings in the museum.

The next day, Saturday, we once again braved the cold weather (am I not supposed to be in Texas? Our weather has been crazy so far this winter) and headed over to Denton for the UNT vs UTSA game. We may have lost, but it was fun showing my family around my college town. 

After getting coffee on the Denton square to warm off after a FREEZING football game. Sorry for the grainy picture. 

They originally planned to stay with us until Monday morning, but, according to the weatherman, we were going to get some crazy, icy weather. Instead, they decided to have lunch with us Sunday morning and then go ahead and head back down south, so their drive would be safe. Even though the winter weather didn't come that time (I'll post about when it did in a future post), I'm glad they decided to stay safe. Plus, I got to see them later that week in San Antonio. 

Mulligan

I can't believe I haven't posted about our newest member to our family: Mulligan!

Poor dog didn't know what he was getting himself into. 

We adopted him on October 13th, and he is a really sweet. They told us he is roughly 3 years old, but we're not so sure about that. Now, I know we're used to a pug ~ the most crazy breed ever ~ but he's so mellow! I've seen some bursts of energy here and there, but he mostly likes to chill out with us. Him being naughty is trying to kick a person off the couch, so he can sit there instead. Seriously. 

I think it's safe to say he has made himself at home. 

Now, there has been an adjustment period with him and Sadie. Sadie is an alpha, and I don't think he was socialized with any of his past owners (we're guessing he had at least two before us). They started out a little bit frosty. Most of the time, he ignored her which was sad because she wanted to play. Every now and then, they would get into a fight over something stupid like the water bowl. Dude has a thing about his water. Maybe he used to be an outside dog, and they didn't keep his bowl full?  The funny thing about the fights were that I could get him away from Sadie, no problem. However, when Sadie gets mad, she's fearless. She would keep lunging at him!

Don't let the cuteness fool you. She's a killer. 

Luckily, they haven't fought for over a month ~ knock on wood. Another crazy thing we're getting used to is that he doesn't like toys or bones, and Sadie loves all of the above. There was also the issue of crate training him. We may be on our second crate ~ he has some strong jaws ~ but he has adjusted and is now fully crate trained. Any new family member, furry or otherwise, is an adjustment, and I think he's been doing great. 

Next up on the agenda is getting him more socialized. He does not do well with other dogs. Especially big dogs...even when he's bigger than half the dogs he's growling at. I mean, I'm pretty sure he has a lot of German Shepherd in him, and I think he may also have some husky. Dude's big and muscular. 

Check him out taking up most of our entryway, asking for a belly rub. 

Luckily I have some awesome friends coming over tomorrow, and they're bringing at least one of their big dogs ~ one is a puppy ~ to help with his socialization. We'll also be spending Christmas with my husband's family, and his aunt has a small and a midsized dog. We'll get there sooner or later. 

I'm so glad we made the plunge and adopted this sweet boy. All he wants is affection and walks. If anyone's ever worried about adopting an older dog, as opposed to a puppy, do it! They need love, just like any other animal, and, yes, there may be a little bit of baggage. However, if you rescue them, they will be such loyal companions, they will never leave your side, and they will always enrich your lives with their love. You just need to give them a chance. They'll fit into your family perfectly. 

The day we took him home.