Merry Christmas!

...from scuba santa & her underwater elf...

A blessed Christmas to you & yours - and may we remember and thank God for the gift of His son, our Savior.

And juuuuust for good measure, and to be thoroughly cliche: "God bless us, everyone!" (make sure that's read in an appropriate Tiny Tim voice).  :)

Brownie house

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Our home has turned into a brownie factory.

Sunday morning: Kyle announces he is going to bake cookies.  My response: Really?!  For us?!  Him: ...No, for my realtors (he works with real estate agents and apparently desires their love and affection over mine).  Me: Maybe some for us??

Sunday night: I come home to find a mountain of baking goods complete with a replica of the Egyptian pyramids made out of baker's chocolate...and a crazy-eyed Kyle standing among it all.  Him: I have to make 300 brownies...in the next two days.  Me: 300...from scratch?!  Him: Yes.  Me: You've never baked anything from scratch in your entire life, and now you decide the best place to start is with 300 homemade brownies?  Him: Yes.

Sunday night through this exact moment: Our place has smelled like chocolate heaven.  Every time I walk in I have a minor emotional breakdown - it smells so delicious, but I know I can't satiate my cravings.  Darn realtors...  There are literally piles of brownies stacked all around the apartment, spreading from the kitchen, the epicenter, out towards the living room, and every single one is calling my name.  And Kyle shows no sign of stopping.  There has been a constant stream of brownies flowing from the oven for two days.  And it has been the hardest two days of my life.  The problem is, I love brownies and I have the self control of a two-month-old puppy.  I've managed to keep my feedings to scraping out the batter bowl of the first batch, sneaking a fingerful of batter here & there, and voraciously devouring a heaping plate of crumbs and scraps.  Lord have mercy. 

3,000 things

 

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Been a while, huh?

I thought I was too busy to do this, so I kinda thought I'd give it a rest for a while, but then I realized that was lazy, and a lie, so here I am!!

Now I feel like I need to cover about 3,000 topics in this one post to make up for my absence.

...let's see...

yummy pumpkin spice bread recipe, raves about oversized sweaters & fall boots, feeling really busy but not feeling allowed to feel really busy, crazy hobo(s) that pitched a tent and are now squatting in our backyard, Thanksgivings, The Pack, getting scuba certified...why, you ask?...destination wedding in St. Lucia in 3 weeks, buying a duplex, not getting a Christmas tree, making do with mini lights strung around the apartment and pretending it's a Christmas tree, shooting our last domestic wedding of the year this weekend, throwing a Lia Sophia party on Sunday and being very excited but having no idea what I'm doing!, finally listening to Christmas music with no shame, thinking about how wonderfully confusing life is.  Sometimes I think it's so simple, and then I talk to someone, maybe they're going through something huge, and I realize life is just. so. crazy.  It's so amazingly wonderful, but oh so weird and hard to navigate.  I'm learning to have hope, and hopefully how to share that hope with others.  Isaiah 40:1-5 

I'll end with a promise:  I'll keep it coming, no matter the matter!

And, thanks for sticking with me!