Birthday Celebrations

We began the celebration at noon on Thursday when Jarrod came home for lunch to watch March Madness games. We had cupcakes & he opened his gifts. That night we went out to dinner at Eddie V's which we both gave a 5-star rating! Everything was excellent including the amazing Bananas Foster dessert! Then Friday night we went out to dinner at Kona Grill in the Domain with our Realife Group from Church since Aaron shared the same bday as Jarrod. After dinner, we hung out at this little Chocolate Coffee bar place in the Domain.

Happy Birthday Jarrod!

Celebration of the Younger Years...

He had a lot of hair when he was 35 years younger! And looks like he could jump a lot higher too!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!

I think you are just as cute now as you were back then!! :)

Gaither Garden Gnomes

A gnome is a mythical creature characterized by its extremely small size and subterranean lifestyle.

Our Aunt Anne recently sent us 2 Garden Gnomes for our birthdays, but not just any Garden Gnomes, an A&M Aggie & LSU Tiger Gnome! We thought they were cute and got some giggles out of it. I told Jarrod "mine had less wrinkles and was younger and more vibrant looking" and his response was, "well mine has more national championships". LOL

So I've seen Gnomes before in random places & obviously on Travelocity ads on TV, but I have never really understood what they were for or why the Gnome is Travelocity's symbol. So I did some research on Wikopedia & found that the "gnome" is similar to what we speak of as "fairies". They are thought to guard wildlife, but became an ornamental figure which people like to place in gardens. The garden gnome originated in Germany in the mid-1800s as decorations based on local myths as a way for people to enjoy the stories of the gnomes' willingness to help in the garden at night. Stealing gnomes to "take back to the wild" ("gnoming") also became popular so it is said that they "travel the world"....hence the reason Travelocity uses it as a symbol -- "The Roaming Gnome". For more detail (I didn't know there was so much history!), go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome

We haven't decided on a home for them just yet, but I'm thinking that instead of guarding the wildlife outdoors, we may need them to guard wild outbursts by human creatures in the TV room during the NCAA tournament this next week...especially if the Aggies come up against the LSU Tigers! Not that we have a history in this or anything...lol...we watched them play against each other in the tourney almost exactly 3 years ago in my old Sunnybrook house (awww...memories...gotta give a shout out to Laura ;) while celebrating Jarrod's bday. Let's just say, it wasn't the best way to celebrate as there was lots of tension in the room. It would be some miracle for the 2 to come up against each other this year though considering they are in different brackets & different sides of the draw so I think it's a good bet that we will be safe this year! I doubt that anyone predicts an A&M vs LSU championship game! ;)

Cooking School

Last Wednesday, I went to my 2nd cooking class at Faraday's Kitchen Store in Lakeway. Jarrod had given me two classes for my birthday & went with me to the first one a few weeks ago where we learned to make Cream of Mushroom Soup, Chicken Cacciatore with white corn polenta, & Poached Pears with Zabaglione (pronounced za-ba-yon) ;). Faraday's brings in chefs from area restaurants & such to lead the classes. It is really fun. There are about 15 seats around a horseshoe shaped bar that faces the kitchen where you sit and watch the chefs do their magic. The second class I went to this past Wednesday taught me how to make all different kinds of sauces like hollandaise, beurre blanc and caramel. I think my favorite was the beurre blanc sauce, although we did make a caramel using red wine which was quite interesting. We made about 9 or so different sauces and I'm sure my husband is hoping that I will put all I have learned from these classes to use!! LOL

Christmas Tree Decorating...

After we returned from Thanksgiving, we went out on our Christmas tree hunt. After an attempt at one of those Christmas tree farm places, we quickly proceeded to Wal-Mart & Home Depot to find some more affordable trees. I had no idea how expensive a decent size tree had gotten. Last year was our first Christmas together and we were not going to be home much so we bought a tiny tree that could not have been taller than maybe 5 foot. We only needed 2 strands of lights so that gives you a good idea how small it was! Anyhow, we found our 9 foot Noble Fir that we were looking for at Home Depot. Their prices are extremely reasonable and had some nice looking trees. It was a REALLY big 9 footer too! Jarrod suggested that the guy cut the trunk shorter b/c of its thickness, but the Home Depot dude insisted that where he was cutting it was fine. Well, when we got home, the trunk wouldn't fit in the tree stand as Jarrod had suspected so being the great husband that he is, he got out his hand saw and began sawing away. After some minor setbacks, we finally had it standing straight up, but no time for decorating this weekend. Here is the before:

After I returned from Dallas the following weekend, Jarrod helped me string the lights, and I had fun finding just the right spot for all our ornaments the rest of the evening. One night later that week, Jarrod began hanging candy canes on the tree & I was like "what are you doing?" He was appalled that my family did not put candy canes on the tree every year. We laughed, he only put 2 of the boxes on instead of 4 he had bought and he took the other 2 boxes to work. His co-workers were very thankful that our family didn't put candy canes on our tree. LOL The tree was not finished off until my mom and grandmother came in town for my birthday this passed weekend and I climbed to the top & added the gold star. Here is the after picture of our decorated tree: As I mentioned, mom and Patsy were here for my birthday. We drove up to Salado to their Christmas Stroll on Saturday and did some shopping at the cute antique stores there. It was a fun day. We returned back home to some great smelling steaks being prepared by my wonderful husband. He grilled up some steak, pork, vegetables & baked some potatoes for us. It was all yummy! I opened up my gifts and then on to dessert! My mom baked my favorite chocolate cake (which has become a running joke amongst us, but not room to go into the details about that now). It was delicious!

Guess, that gives it away -- this is my last year in my twenties! Better make it a good one!