Saturday, December 15, 2012

What A Week

Let's begin...

Last weekend Benjamin was just getting over his cold, but then it came back even worse.  Thomas missed work on Sunday after catching it too.  It was nice to have an extra day to hang out at home, despite the continued coughing and runny noses.  I went to the embassy to pick up mail, and we finally got our new camera.  We'd pulled the trigger on it a while back, but Amazon wouldn't ship it to us, so my parents were kind enough to put it in a box and mail it to us.  Thanks, parents!

Our Christmas tree, decorated.

Monday Thomas went back to work and I had class, then ate lunch at the embassy as usual.  I did a lot of running around grocery stores because I hosted book club Tuesday night.  I went to Safeway for the first time, and I was embarrassed I hadn't gone before, after seeing how easy it was to get to.  They had a lot of Christmas stuff, specifically candy canes, which I needed for some peppermint chex mix which I made for book club.

Book club was super fun, I completely overdid it on the food.  I made a cheese ball and put almonds on it so it looked like a pinecone.  It was a huge hit.  I also made this cheesy sausage dip, which is my favorite thing ever.  I found this recipe for mini fruit cups, and I'm totally addicted now.  I also made them for church on Friday morning, and there were no leftovers.  I just used kiwis and strawberries, since it's Christmas and I wanted red and green.  But I'm sure they'd taste awesome with an assortment of different fruit.

I put the crackers on the silver platter, but didn't get a picture.

I'm so proud of myself for making this.  Even though it was stupid easy.

We talked about "Gone Girl" and random stuff, then decided to read "Sweet Tooth" by Ian McEwan for next month.  I'm excited, the only thing I've read by him is "Atonement" and I loved it.  The ending was shocking, so I'm looking forward to this next one. 

Wednesday I woke up with the awful cold, but suffered through and went to class.  I was so relieved to come home to a clean house.  Emy did the dishes from the night before, which was amazing.  I went to see Emily, from my Arabic class, and her new little girl Charlotte, and it was so nice to see a teeny baby.  I'd completely forgotten how small they are!  Too cute.  I didn't stay long, and I kept my distance to keep from spreading my germs around.  Hopefully when I'm better we can hang out some more.  Afterwards I went to the grocery store and fruit guy, and I was totally excited that he had cilantro.  Such a relief, I wanted it for chili and hadn't seen it at Spinny's, which usually has everything.

Thursday I got nails done and then cooked some food in preparation for Friday morning.  The girl who I went with and I both got glitter top layers on our ring fingers.  The nail lady said it was a thing, and I like it.  Not sure I'll get it again, but it's fun for now.  Very festive. 



Yay for long-ish nails!

Friday we hosted church and I made chicken chili and the fruit puffs.  I also served the rest of the cheese ball, which went pretty quickly.  It was fun having everyone here and I think it went pretty smoothly.  I was in the kitchen most of the time, chopping up fruit and toppings for the chili.  I had asked Emy to come help clean up at 12:30, but people were hanging out and talking, so she came in and started washing dishes while people were still here.  (I had used my Christmas plates instead of paper, so there were lots more dishes than usual.)


After everyone left, Thomas and I tried to pick up as much as possible, then rested during Ben's nap.  I woke up about 3:30, and everything was clean and she had gotten Benjamin up from his nap.  It was glorious to have a clean house after the chaos and mess of church.  After she left, we just hung out until I left to go to a cookie decorating party hosted by a friend who lives around the corner. 

That was really fun.  She had made a ton of cookie dough and we cut out cute shapes and had a blast with frosting and decorating.  I met a few new ladies and had lots of fun getting some girl time.  I finally made it home about 7pm, and Thomas was ready to let me take over putting Benjamin to bed.

Today, Saturday, was really low key and nice.  I slept until 11:15, and Thomas told me that Benjamin slept until 10:30.  That is completely unheard of, but it must be the cold.  I think we're finally getting better, I don't wake up hacking in the middle of the night anymore.  Fingers crossed it will finally go away. 

This afternoon we went to a Christmas party and saw some embassy people.  Benjamin was really clingy but eventually would wander away for a minute and then come back, mostly to eat raisins.  We stayed until 7pm, then came home to put him to bed.  I'm so glad that we've done Christmassy things, it definitely puts me in the Christmas mood.  Weirdly the weather has been a little warm, so it hasn't felt super festive.  I'm sure that will change in January, the rainy season is coming.   

Here are some tree close-ups to end this gigantic post.

My maternal grandma would make ornaments every year.  This is one.

Salt crystal snowflake.

One of my favorites that my Grandma did.  Key and house.

Benjamin loves this elephant, he'll run to the tree and when he finds it, yells "elphant!".  I love him.

I hope y'all are getting excited for Christmas!

-Rachel

2 comments:

  1. Very good pictures! Did you use the new camera?

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    Replies
    1. Hey Dad,

      Yup! Still using the automatic setting, hopefully we'll eventually be accomplished enough to do something creative.

      -Rachel

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