I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll BURN your house down

My body finally caught up to me. I caught a cold. Not a really bad one, but a cold nonetheless. Which bums me out to no end because I had to take a day off of work, and I can't ever seem to be able to breathe out of both nostrils at the same time. But last night I took some Nyquil and fell nicely into a drug induced dreamless sleep.

4:30 AM:

Beeping. Beeping. Beep. Beep. Beep. What in the world? Beep. No, not even beeping. Alarms. Alarms going off all around me. LOUD alarms! Ander gets out of bed and leaves the room. I'm still in my Nyquil haze. The hall light is on, I fall back onto my pillows. I could sleep some more if that loud wailing would stop... I hear the front door open. More alarms. "Susie?" Ander yells. I can barely answer him back. "What?"

"This is not a drill. We have to go."

We have to go? There's really a fire somewhere? Instantly my Nyquil stops working. What did I leave on? My straightener? A burner on the stove? The oven? Nothing. Our apartment was quite fire free. I grabbed my phone and my Kindle and a change of clothes. I don't really know why I grabbed my Kindle... honestly. I remember thinking to myself, "This is expensive and I don't want it to burn." Nyqil logic. Clearly. Ander grabbed a change of clothes and May-May and we were out the door.

The apartment on the second floor kitty corner to us was where the fire happened. Someone's couch caught fire. "How does someone's couch just catch fire, Ander?" I ask. "Well, either some kids were smoking pot or someone fell asleep with a cigarette in their hands. That's all I can really think of." I think he's right... why else would a couch catch fire at 4:30 in the morning?

Five fire trucks. Five. The whole apartment was drenched, they had it all under control. Everyone was standing outside just watching. There wasn't anything anyone could do but watch. Water was streaming off of the balcony and below it were the charred remains of a futon. The window frame was black and the glass on the balcony door was broken. What a mess.

5:00 AM:

We got back into our apartment, the alarms had stopped. The night wasn't over for those poor firemen and the people who had been living in the now charred apartment. I thought about how frustrated I would be if I were a fireman and I had to go put out someone's couch that they had ignited with a cigarette. That's mean though, I don't know if it was a cigarette. It could have been anything. But still, we were all dragged out of our homes at 4:30 in the morning because someone was probably just being careless. I didn't sleep at all between 5 and 7:30 when my alarm went off. And when it did finally go off I felt like I had been sat on by an elephant.

It was going to be a long day.

A week in a winter wonderland

One of my many reasons Ander and I moved here to Austin was because Austin lacked snow. I grew up with snow... so you'd think I would enjoy living in a place where snow is abundant in the winter. This is not the case...

Ander and I spent the week of Christmas in Utah with our families, and boy was it SNOWY! Deep down inside I was really hoping that we would get a white Christmas, and we totally did!!! And actually, I slipped on ice standing in this very spot a couple days later. No injuries... just injured pride.

But just look at those gorgeous mountains! I have to say, that is one thing I really do miss about Utah. The terrain is beautiful.

Poor Ander had to scrape ice off of our rental car. We haven't done that in YEARS! Although Austin still does get ice sometimes... but hardly ever.

Christmas Eve morning we had breakfast and presents with my mom and my step family on my step dad's side.

My brother and sister know exactly how to pose for a picture.

What a good looking bunch!!! This picture will be going up in my house somewhere.

I feel the need to explain: Ander doesn't really like taking pictures. So usually when a camera is facing our way he pulls something like this:

But then sometimes he really does try to smile, and it can end up looking like this:

Or this:

 

 Totally cracks me up. He is very capable of taking wonderful pictures, but most of the time he claims he's too lazy to actually hold the smile for very long. He's admitted this to me many times.

My sister Katie and my stepsister Brandi. Lovely girls.

My step-dad Michael loves Christmas shopping. Loves, loves, LOVES it! He starts Christmas shopping in January, and does it all year long until everyone can finally open all the little things he's purchased over the past year. But he buys most of these little trinkets at the dollar store... so Christmas morning there are one million presents under the tree for all of us (mostly the little grandkids). So opening presents takes hours, and most of the presents themselves are silly things. But my little step-niece Evie got some hilarious bunny glasses and a rainbow wig and I just had to take a picture. She was so stoked. (And of course my cute sister in the background.)

Ander's sister Cozette made this beard beanie for Ander and we all got the biggest kick out of it! I've seen them on Pinterest and have always wanted to get one for him, and now he has one! It's hysterical. So naturally we didn't limit the wear to only Ander...

My sister Katie got me some darling socks and a lovely scarf, and wrapped them in this box. I have to admit, the first thing I saw on the box was the word "shoes". I appreciated the fact that Katie let me know right off the bat that that was not what the present was.

More Christmas morning photo gems:

See those earrings? Those came from my sweet Mama for Christmas.

Beautiful Mama Lisa.

I had to take a picture of my dad's neighbor's Christmas lights. Apparently he doesn't unwrap them off of their plastic after he takes them out of the box, he just hangs the wrapped plastic square on his house and calls it a holiday. 

And of course what trip home to Utah would be complete without HALO? This picture is so perfect because it shows how my brother watches TV. Ever since he was very little he has watched TV out of the side of his eyes like he is in this picture. It has actually crept into his daily life when he focuses on something important. He pulls the same face. I think it's wonderful and I never get tired of seeing the famous "Joe look".

Nor would any trip be complete without some sort of photobombing.

We took some family pictures with my dad at Thanksgiving Point. It was so cold outside, so we had to do them inside. I thought they turned out pretty nice given the fact we just used a regular digital camera.

This one will go in my house somewhere too. Soon... very soon. My darling family.

 Ander and I ate at all the yummy restaurants that we had hoped to while we were there. In-n-Out Burger, Zupas, Beto's, and of course the Purple Turtle and their fantastic shakes. I didn't remember that this was considered a small. Both cups are full to the brim with cookies and cream goodness.

And only in Utah will you find a squeeze bottle full of fry sauce.

Katie and I got to go to a friend's wedding reception together, and it was so much fun! Me and my sister. Always a blast.

Our last night there we stayed up late and played games with Katie and Joe. It was an absolute blast. I don't think our trip would have been the same without that night. I love my siblings so much it hurts sometimes.

And check out the hoodie Katie is wearing! I did that!!!

Gosh I love those two.

 No words...

My beautiful, lovely sister. She is one of the coolest girls I know. Just look at her! Simply lovely.

 And my lovely, silly brother. Once again, I love this kid so much sometimes I can hardly stand it. When I think about how much I adore my brother and sister my heart feels as though it's going to burst out of my chest. I wish we all lived closer to one another so we could do this more often

Ander throwing cards at my camera.

This trip to Utah was so much fun and completely amazing. We got SO many things done with each of our families, I was amazed at our glorious efficiency. We saw the Hobbit, went bowling, went to the aquarium in Sandy, Utah, had three different Christmas mornings, saw old friends, sang Christmas songs, attended church, played games, watched family videos, ate yummy food...

But most of all we were able to spend time with the people we absolutely love, and that was really all that mattered. 

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

THAT'S ALL FOLKS!

Santa Cookies!!!

Let me do you a favor and make you the hit of your next Christmas party. I feel as though the holiday celebrations have been non-stop for me and Ander. It's been pretty insane around here this last week, but I was able to pull off some of my mom's Santa Nutter Butter cookies for my clients. They are always a hit! Allow me to share:

One of the great things about these cookies is you can make them in serious bulk. A whole package of Nutter Butters will be perfect for any gathering. We'll start by first melting your white chocolate. This is tricky because the consistency has to be right or the cookies won't dip smoothly. I add some shortening to my chocolate a little at a time until I have the right consistency. You don't want your chocolate soupy, but you also want it easily dippable. The consistency you are looking for is for the chocolate to stream off of a fork after you've dipped the fork into it. It should't be watery, and it shouldn't come off in globs.

So dip your nutter butters about a third of the way into your white chocolate and line them all up on your wax paper.

Let those dry for about 15 minutes or so, or until the chocolate is hardened. Dip the other side of the nutter butter in the chocolate as well, but this time you'll have to be quick, because you'll be adding your sugar crystals.

I've found that you get a more even line when you take the plastic shaker top off of your bottle. I just tapped the sugar gently in a horizontal line leaving a small stripe of white where the fuzz should be on a santa hat. You can tap off the excess later after the cookie has dried.

Once your cookies are dry and you've tapped off the excess sugar crystals, it's time to add his cute little Santa face. I used mini chocolate chips for his eyes and a red hot for his nose.

Spoon your excess white chocolate into a ziploc bag spread over a cup. Snip the corner off so you can pipe the chocolate for the face.

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Dab two small dots for the chocolate chips, and a small dot for the red hot.

And last but not least, put one more small dot of white chocolate on top of the sugar crystals to make his Santa hat pom pom.

You're welcome, I just made you the star of your next Christmas party.

Thank you to my mom who has been making these cute little guys every Christmas for the past year. She found the recipe somewhere years ago and I've just become her copy cat.