two posts in one

theres a fly terrorizing me. i dont know if im going to be able to sleep with this asshole buzzing around. and its almost 2am.
well, ive got a lot of pictures to put up! lets start.
first off, here's the finished product from all of our hard work on saturday night...













Personalized gingerbread men!! my faves were valerie, because of her purple glasses and kobe bryant jersey, and my brother with his beard and bowtie, and my dad with his white goatee and hawaiin shirt. They were very delicious also. In addition to these we made pumpkin spice bars with chocolate chips. Heres a pic from the martha stewart magazine...


I tried to post the link to the recipe but its way too long and it looked all crazy. i just copied and pasted instead.....

Ingredients

Makes 24

• 2 cups (spooned and leveled) all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 large egg
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
• 1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang on all sides. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pie spice, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar on medium-high speed until smooth; beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in pumpkin puree (mixture may appear curdled). Reduce speed to low, and mix in dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips.
3. Spread batter evenly in prepared pan. Bake until edges begin to pull away from sides of pan and a toothpick inserted in center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely in pan.
4. Lift cake from pan (using foil as an aid). Peel off foil, and use a serrated knife to cut into 24 squares.

The desserts were a success. I could eat some right now, and i probably will.

So after some minor emergencies on sunday, we were able to leave for st.catharines. all week i prayed for a cooler day so i could wear my new knit dress from h&m, and i was in luck!!

we picked up some lattes and alex and proceeded to be stuck in traffic for a while. i think it was a two hour car ride home.
Everyone started to show up, Valerie my mother in law, aunt kay, lisa, al...it was a fun group and a really fun day.




The food was great - turkey, mashed and scalloped potatoes, maple glazed carrots, green beans almandine, stuffing and homemade gravy. And of course the deelish desserts. I even had a little bit of champagne that valerie brought over. i have some comparison shots of everyone holding their gingerbread men and the resemblances are uncanny.
























after dinner we all hung out in the living room, al was very very very drunk. it was so cute, he never sets out to drink and he seemed to be having a really good time. alex and lisa enjoyed teasing him because hes so afraid of the abyss. i bet you could write some psychoanalysis paper on that. i passed out on the couch for a little bit while al taught irene some guitar. I think lisa and alex continued to drink and i just bagged out on the couch. my two moms were hanging out and having fun, i enjoyed it.





















i had a really strong craving for chocolate, apparently my mom bought me a crispy crunch but someone decided that its ok to eat food that mysteriously appears even though it might belong to someone else........so i went without :(
thats ok im turning into the fly (jeff goldblum), im eating so much sugar its a really bad addiction ive got to kick it! First step, not eating peanut butter puffs for breakfast. My breakfast used to be organic yogurt and a banana. Its like ive spiralled out of control, like im slumming it or something. One of my projects for this week is to re evaluate the way al and i have been eating and making dinner plans for every night.

Today was a lazy day, and i slept more that night than i have in weeks it was so great. i wont havae that luck tonight as its 230 and im aiming to get up at 8am. Anyways, we started the day off with breakfast sandwiches from tim hortons - awesome - then al left and alex, mom and i had some coffee and hung out. we eventually went outside - its ridiculously hot eh? like 28 degrees or something? so we hung out by the pool, it was nice except for the effing bee that wanted to get down with alex's drink. he was eventually trapped.

the day continued to be funny because the girls were allowed out of the bedroom and they really took advantage of the freedom. fonzie hissed a lot and furly, well she kind of just hung out on the stairs but it was adorable regardless.
im glad to be home again. the car ride was a little rough on my body, so laying down and reading the new nylon was nice. oh and i also got my crispy crunch. whoot!
im out for the night, hopefully. be back tommorrow!