A Busy Baking Weekend!

Hi! It's me again! :)
        Matt is one week closer to being done his first seminary semester and we are both one week closer to coming home for Christmas! And I can't even tell you how excited we are about both of these matters. :P The countdown is totally on!
        Matt has spent the weekend busy studying for his two finals coming up this week. He writes his History of Christianity exam Monday morning and then his Greek exam Tuesday morning, and then he's DONE! He's heading out Tuesday night to celebrate with some of the guys from his bible study and then he won't have to think about school again until the New Year. I'm really excited for him... he really needs the break! 
        We have a pretty busy week coming up before Matt leaves for home next Sunday. Wednesday night we are having our landlord and her 2 kids over for dinner since her husband is out of town for the week... Should be kind of interesting! Some of the first people I'll cook for that aren't family. Yikes! :P Thursday night Matthew and I are going to do our own lil "family Christmas". We just decided to do some small gifts and spend some time together before he leaves. Unfortunately, he is already wearing and enjoying his slippers so I have to think quick about what else to get him! Friday we are heading over to some friends place for dinner and games. Looking forward to that! Saturday we're gonna be busy packing food for the guys trip to Alberta and packing all the gifts and clothes too. And then Saturday night we are going to a Christmas party for the Toyota dealerships here in the city. The body shop I work for is affiliated with and owned by the same family as the Toyota dealerships so we were invited to go represent the body shop with my manager and her husband. It's a pretty fancy deal so I had to head out and get a shirt and tie for my hubby and make sure i have something to wear that suits the weather. I'll try to remember to take/post pictures next week! And then Sunday morning Matt, Eric and Tim are climbing in the car to begin the trek home to Alberta. Crazy!!!!
        This weekend I was busy baking some Christmas treats. Eric's girlfriend Joy came over Friday night and we baked up a storm. Eric loves banana chocolate chip muffins so I showed Joy how to make those... and we made a ton of them! While she was busy with those, I was making Matt's favorite Christmas treat "Eggnog Cookie Cups". Here's the link if you're interested in trying them: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Eggnog-Filled-Cookie-Cups . Soooooo good! Kind of finicky to make but so worth it! Then yesterday, I made some Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles. Basically, you just make some safe to eat cookie dough (like this one for example: http://www.food.com/recipe/heathers-safe-to-eat-raw-chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-108925), then roll it into little balls and place on cookie sheets in the freezer. Let them harden for an hour or two and then melt some chocolate chips in the microwave. Then, toss the balls of cookie dough into the melted chocolate and coat it. Then put them back on the cookie sheet (with wax paper on it to make it easier) and back in the freezer so the chocolate can harden. And then eat and ENJOY! :) Yum, yum! 
Here's a couple pictures of the treats: 

        The banana chocolate chip muffin recipe is one I got from my mom that she's been making for years. I have a mini-muffin tin that I use to make some bite size muffins. 

        Well, that's about all for this week! Less than two weeks and we will both be home to spend time with family and friends celebrating the Christmas season! YAY!!

Much Love,

M & J

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

Hello! And welcome to December!
        Is it just me or has 2010 FLOWN by? I can't believe that Matt is already wrapping up his first semester of seminary and that we will both hopefully be back home visiting in less than 3 weeks! We are both getting very excited for Matt to write that last exam and then to get ready for our trips. I hope to pack most of my stuff in the car with Matt and Eric (and maybe Tim!) and then just have a carry-on or two when I fly out the next week. We'll see how that goes!
        This week has been a pretty busy one. Not as much for me as for Matt! He had an entirely exhausting week and got by on very little sleep! Two nights he was up past three or four and then Thursday he pulled an all nighter to get his paper done and handed in on Friday. He was EXHAUSTED by the time Friday night rolled around, but he's catching up on sleep this weekend. He is done all of his papers now, has his last class on Wednesday and then his last exam is Dec. 14 so we're just looking forward to then. :) 
We had a really great day yesterday. We both slept in nice and late before heading out for a date day! We left equipped with Christmas shopping lists, grocery shopping lists and plans to not head back home until we were entirely successful. And we did great! We hit up the mall here in Hamilton which has a huge selection of stores and crossed item after item off of our lists. Success! Then we headed to the grocery store for the bi-weekly shopping trip. The majority of grocery shopping trips I tackle on my own... and now I know why! Men are just not efficient grocery shoppers!!! Matt gets sucked in by every sale sign, new product and food display. Throughout the trip I heard things like "Hey hon, they have Depends on sale. We should get some!" to which I replied "Dude, neither of us wear Depends! We don't need Depends! Just because somethings on sale, doesn't mean we need to buy it!" (Note: this might be a slight exaggeration... :P) We headed to the soap/body wash aisle because he was out of his body wash. I thought we would just walk down the aisle, pick out the one he's been using, and then continue on. But once he saw the great selection of men's body wash, as well as prices varying from $3.99-$5.49, we had to stop and smell them ALL! And then compare the sizes verses the prices. Finally a selection was made! :) Later on, in a different aisle, he was slowing us down again and I said "Jeepers, I should've left you at home. This would go much quicker!" An older lady overheard and laughed and then said "I just sent my husband to go sit down and have a coffee so I can get shopping done!" Turns out this isn't a new problem. :P Matthew and I actually have a great time shopping together but it was amusing to me how it took me almost twice as long! :)
        We got home in time to make some finger food for dinner and then began setting up our Christmas tree. We played Christmas music, ate some yummy food and set about making our apart ready for the season. Then I began wrapping the gifts we bought while he watched the Oilers game. It was a really nice "date day"!
        Here's some pictures from our tree decorating. Definitely doesn't look like anything from a magazine, but when you're working with a budget and dollar store decorations, you do what you can! :P

Before Photo!

Hubby stringing the lights!

Enjoying some yummy eats.

Taking turns with the decorations.

Some of our favourite decorations. Got this one from Matthew last year.

Reminder of our 2 favourite kids.

New ornament for this year! :)

:

Sure love me some Tim Hortons! 

Us with our first Christmas tree!

Later on with some of the gifts waiting to be brought to Alberta. :)

Every year for as long as I can remember my mom has bought us chocolate advent calendars  and this year was no different! Here they are displayed on our wall for my ma to see. :)

        Well, that's all folks! We're still waiting for the first official snow fall of the year. We've had a couple flakes fall here and there, but nothing that sticks around! We'll see what the next couple weeks have in store for us!

        Hope you are all enjoying the start to the Christmas season. 

Much Love,

M & J