I Love Christmas: Christmas Music

I thought I'd do a few posts in December about what I love about Christmas. Technically I know it's not quite December, but I decided to overlook that fact.



Today's I Love Christmas post is about Christmas music. I actually made 3 Cd's yesterday of Christmas music. Some I already had on other cd's and some I just now downloaded on ITunes.

One of my favorite finds was a CD called Christmas Cocktails.


It's mostly traditional Christmas songs presented in a jazzy sort of hipster way. It's AWESOME! So....if you're looking for something new to listen to you should check it out. ITunes has the whole CD for $9.99.

As far as traditional songs I have my favorites of course. I'm going to share my Top 5 list with you.

1. It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year-Andy Williams
2. O' Holy Night- Celine Dion
3. Sleigh Ride- I love all versions of this, Boston Pops, Ronettes and Johnny Mathis
4. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree- Brenda Lee
5. I'll Be Home for Christmas- Michael Buble

What are your favorites?

All I Want For Christmas

I've been thinking lately about what I want for Christmas. Of course at the top of the list would be able to spend Christmas with Sean...but that's not going to happen.

So...Here are a few items on my list.

1. Photoshop Actions and Textures from Florabella. As seen here. I'm really getting into using Photoshop and so this would be perfect for me. I'm actually thinking of buying this for myself after I return from the States after Christmas.

2. A dutch oven. Ideally I'd take one from Le Crueset, but that's a bit out of my price range. So, I'm sure I'll settle for a perfectly good one from somewhere else.


3. An original Ansel Adams print. Ok..so that's never going to happen, but a girl can dream right?

4. Remember this pink coat?



I asked my Mom for it. I hope she got it for me!

5. I asked Sean for the complete Twilight Zone collection. I'm a huge fan of the series and I always watch the marathons on the Sci-Fi channel. That is...when I actually got the Sci-Fi channel. This is one item I can actually check off my list, because I know he got it for me. Woo hoo!

What's on your list?

Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

So how was your Thanksgiving?

Mine was good minus a couple of things.

A. My Pioneer Woman rolls did not rise as beautifully as those pictured in her blog. They still tasted good though and that's all that mattered.
B. People who RSVP'd that they were coming to our dinner did not come. HUGE pet peeve of mine. Really people...it's manners. Get some.

I even went to the gym today and did cardio...although I'm sure that was negated once I got home and grazed on leftovers. Pumpkin pie/stuffing/potato casserole...how I love thee.

Currently I'm uploading my pictures to the Army MWR site for the photography contest and watching Survivor. I'm actually into Survivor this season.

Tomorrow is the big game for Sean and I. BEDLAM! Of couse I'm rooting for my Oklahoma State Cowboys...we're having a good season and I don't want the Sooners ruining it for us.

Thankful....

As Thanksgiving is tomorrow and I'm sure I won't be around the laptop to blog..I've decided to do my "I'm Thankful" blog today.

I'm Thankful For:

-My husband. Although at times I want to smother him, he also keeps me laughing on a daily basis and I know that he loves me very much.
-Soldiers in general. I've gotten teary a few times thinking about my husband and this upcoming deployment, but also I get sad at the possiblity of anything happening to our soldiers in general. I'm thankful they do the job that I'm too scared to do.
-My family. I'm the woman I am today because of them and I love them to pieces.
-My friends. So many good moments in my life have come from times with friends. Blogging friends are included in that statement!
-My dog Boomer. I've never had such a funny dog in my life. He's really the most awesome dog in the world.
-Pioneer Woman's recipes. Without them I'd have missed out on the infamous Marlboro Man sandwich and her freakin' delicious no-knead rolls.
-The Internet. Without it I would not have this blog or be able to keep in touch with so many people in the world or even have met them. So thank you inventors of the Internet.




Hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving! Stuff yourselves silly!

Gym Weirdos

I've been at the gym a lot in the last week. Mainly because I've gained a couple pounds back and I cannot be having that.

Anywho....this weekend I had the pleasure of experiencing this:

-One gentlemen who seemed to have bathed in cologne. It was so strong I could.not. breathe. Dude....it's the gym..you get sweaty. No need to douse yourself in cologne pre-workout. Geeze...

-Another gentlemen tried to impress everyone in the gym by putting a ridiculous amount of weight on any machine he did.

Back squats? About 3 45lb weights on each side. How many squats did he do at a time? One. And then rested for five minutes until he did another one. Leg press machine. He had 12 45lb weights on it. He couldn't even move the pedals more than an inch! Um...perhaps you should take weight off so you can do more? Just a thought.

I can hardly wait to see what other weirdos I encounter in my fitness quest.

Holiday Gift Idea

Just a gift idea for my readers.

Try a Snapfish photo book. Shutterfly has basically the same set-up. I've used both and I prefer Snapfish. Photo books are super easy to make, just a little time-consuming. There are also tons of books to choose from and lots of backgrounds to choose from as well. It's yours to personalize!

It's one of my favorite gifts to give, mainly because it's so personal.

What's Cooking?

As Thanksgiving approaches, Sean and I have been searching for recipes and narrowing down our list of what we want to make for Thanksgiving.




So far this is our list:

Turkey
Potato Casserole
Green Bean Casserole
Gravy
Mashed Potatoes
Stuffing (courtsey of Pioneer Woman)
Cranberry Sauces(another Pioneer Woman recipe)
Rolls (yet another PW recipe)
Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
Spinach Dip
Mozzarella Dip

Whew! That's a lot of food. I'll be making approximately 3/4 of the items on there. Luckily the pies, dips and casseroles can be made ahead of time.

So...what's on your list for Thanksgiving this year?

Wrap-Up of Lake Bled

I must confess I laughed yesterday when you guys thought I'd had some sort of crazy misspelling. Ljubljana isn't that hard to pronounce. It's basically Leeyoob Leeyawna, easier to say than it looks.



This was a sausage platter that we ordered in Lake Bled. I honestly think it might be one of the best things we had. There were about 6 different kinds of sausage with cheese and fresh horseradish to dip it in. Ah-mazing.



Fall foliage around the lake.



This is Boomer trying to catch a duck.



Me with one of the mannequins in the museum in the castle.



Bird through the window in the castle.



The church in Bled.



This is our afternoon treat from the "Brown Bear" in Bled. I got Bled Cake, Sean got pudding and a cappucino. All that for 6 euro! It was amazing too. Seriously...if you're ever in Bled, you must go to the Brown Bear.



The infamous Brown Bear.

In summary...I highly recommend going to Slovenia. The people are friendly and it's very English friendly as well. It's very beautiful, not too expensive like some of the other European countries and has a plethora of things to do. I'm planning on going back to take advantage of some of their many spas throughout Slovenia.

Hope you enjoyed seeing Slovenia through my eyes!

Ljubljana

The second day we were in Slovenia we decided to head to the capital, Ljubljana. In all honesty I wasn't impressed with Ljubljana. I didn't feel as if there was a lot to see or do there and overall I didn't find the city to be particularly pretty. That being said, I did enjoy the large market that the held in one of the main squares and I also enjoyed the cheap, yet delicious wine. Average price for a glass was about 1.20 euro.



We found a Mexican restaurant in Ljubljana. The most surprising thing? It was actually quite tasty. I enjoyed the flautas the most, but my enchiladas weren't bad either.



A view of the Triple Bridge and the river that runs through Ljubljana.



Some tables at an outdoor cafe



This chef statue was EVERYWHERE. I've not seen it anywhere else in our travels, yet it was a staple in Slovenia.



This was a door of a church, from what I understand these were bishops of the past. Slightly creepy no?



The Dragon Bridge. The dragon is the "mascot" of Ljubljana.



At the top of the castle in Ljubljana, looking down the staircase.



Look closely at the sign...does anything seem slightly odd to you?



Inside the chapel of the castle


I know I promised I'd finish up with the trip today, but honestly there are just too many pictures...so I'll finish up tomorrow.

Slovenia: Day 1

As promised, here are some pictures from our trip. We stayed in Lake Bled in a wonderful little apartment. It was spacious, with a full kitchen, two bedrooms and only cost us 56 Euro a night. It also had free wireless and cable TV. After nearly a year of watching AFN, it was pure heaven to actually watch some cable TV. I may or may not have been as excited about the cable TV as I was about being in Slovenia.

I'm pretty sure Sean and I were one of maybe 5 tourists in the town. While that was good in some respects, in others it kind of sucked, because some attractions were closed during the season. However, the awesome views and delish food made up for that.



All around the lake there were geese, ducks and a few swans. Boomer was obsessed with the ducks and wanted to get in the lake to catch one. Needless to say that didn't happen.



Sean and I walked around the lake our first full day there. It was a beautiful 3.5 mile walk. This is a smaller part of the town we encountered on our walk.



This was one of the boats that takes tourists over to the island. We considered doing it, but I'm cheap and didn't want to spend 13 Euro a person just to get to the island. Maybe next time.



This was the castle above the town. We hiked up there on our last day in Bled. Now THAT was a hike. The castle was fairly interesting. It had a wine shop, a small museum and some great views.



Ok, this picture isn't anything special, but I loved how the trees looked, so naturally I had to take several pictures.



A view of the church and the island. If I ever go back in the summer, I'm so swimming to the island!



Lake Bled is home of a ton of rowing races/training for the Olympics. We got to see a few guys training when we were doing our walk. There is even a grandstand set up so when they have races people can watch.



They had these cute little frog trash cans all around the lake path.



Probably one of my favorite pictures I took of the lake. I like the wide-angle look.

Tomorrow I'll be combining our trip to Ljubljana and our remaining days in Bled together. I'll try not to make it too boring. :)

Photography Contest

Whew! I've been gone for quite a few days! We actually got back from Slovenia on Monday afternoon, but it was a lazy kind of day and I never got around to blogging. I do plan on doing a post or two on Slovenia, as I have a TON of pictures, but today I'm just going to tell you Army wives out there about the photography contest that is being sponsored by MWR.
As some of you know I entered it last year and I plan on doing it again. Deadline to enter the contest is November 30th, so start going through your photographs and find something to submit!

Complete contest rules and more info can be found at: www.armymwr.com.

Now for a preview of Slovenia pictures to come...

Veterans Day

Yesterday Sean and I took a trip to the war memorial outside of Florence. Since it was Veteran's Day, a couple of junior ROTC groups from Italy did a ceremony. I have to admit I choked up a bit during a few of the songs. The cemetery was very moving and just incredible in my opinion. It's one of the smaller cemeteries holding soldiers from WWII, but that doesn't make it any less moving.



This is the group from Naples High School



One of three wreaths they placed on the memorial.



More flowers left at the memorial.



Headstone marking the grave of an unknown soldier



Row of crosses. Probably my favorite shot of the day.

Sean and I are off to Slovenia today so I'm not sure if I'll be around much until Monday. We have wireless in our room (supposedly) but we shall see if we even take the laptop.

Have a good (early) weekend!