Pilley Family Christmas

My family came out to see us this Christmas, which was truly a Christmas miracle for us.  If they didn't, we would have had to drive 14 hours to San Diego and then come home and move the next day, which would have been highly unpleasant, No Bueno! We didn't have the gas money anyway. Instead, we partook in lots of Christmas shenanigans, like; making gingerbread men, snowboarding and skiing, going to temple square to looking at the pretty lights, and of course, eating lots and lots of wonderful fatty foods.  Unfortunately, I was sick pretty much the whole time my parents were down, so I wasn't able to eat too many goodies.  Mostly I just ate soup and sipped on mint tea.  Mint tea is glorious by the way, I highly recommend you run out and get yourself some! All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas, except that we didn't get to spend it with Gabe's family and all of our San Diego friends. Hopefully next holiday season will be with both of our families. 

All the Colors of the Wind

Painting.  The most fun you can have when it's 20 degrees. 

Peanut

Sweet freedom! Winter semester is finally over, thank freaking goodness! I think I can honestly say that this was my least favorite semester of my whole college career.  Not because my classes were hard, I don't mind hard classes if I enjoy the material, boring classes on the other hand are really brutal for me to get through.     Enough of that, school is over, time to kick off Christmas vacation. I thought I would start my break off with a little holiday baking.  This year is a little different than passed years, usually I spend a whole day baking with friends and family but this season I was all on my lonesome, besides little Jim.  I wanted to bake something I had never tried before, so I chose peanut brittle.  Honestly, one of the easiest things in the world to make, I had no idea.   I needed some entertainment while baking because I had no one to converse with.  Jim and I decided on Jane Eyre.  I had originally planned on reading Jane Eyre before watching the movie but I'm so glad I didn't, because to be completely honest, I was not very impressed.  ha What I was impressed with was my peanut brittle, it's pretty delectable if I do say so myself. 

If you feel inclined to bake this holiday season, here's the recipe.  

Ingredients

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup peanuts
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions

1. Grease a large cookie sheet. Set aside.
2. In a heavy 2 quart saucepan, over medium heat, bring to a boil sugar, corn syrup, salt, and water. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Stir in peanuts. Set candy thermometer in place, and continue cooking. Stir frequently until temperature reaches 300 degrees F (150 degrees C), or until a small amount of mixture dropped into very cold water separates into hard and brittle threads.
3. Remove from heat; immediately stir in butter and baking soda; pour at once onto cookie sheet. With 2 forks, lift and pull peanut mixture into rectangle about 14x12 inches; cool. Snap candy into pieces.

Halfway frozen

 One hour in the Library.

Quite a few hours later...............I think my brain stopped working at this point. ha.

I'm a firm believer that finals are a way for professors to get back at the students who never showed up to class.  I will admit that this semester is an exception, but usually I am a really good student and never miss a lecture.  I think comprehensive finals are pure unnecessary torture.  I absolutely loath them, but really, who doesn't? Anyways, this week is finals week. Oh hooray! I'm not too stressed about them this semester for two reasons: 1. My classes this semester are Cake but super boring. 2. I'm not taking very many classes.  Still, I felt like I needed to take part in the semiannual ritual of camping out in the library and consuming very unhealthy amounts of caffeine, while trying to cram as much information into my brain as possible. Oh, how I love this time of the........semester.  

Carpet Picnic

Super random right? 

To Gabriel's pleasure, he is no longer a CNA.  He now has a new job in marketing, but before he left his last job, one of Gabe's favorite patients gave him a gift card to GoodWood Barbecue.  He was so excited when he came home with the card and the gift card inside. We decided to go eat there that very same night.  This was a new experience for the both of us, because neither of us had ever been to GoodWood, but it was delectable. After dinner, we came home and I made some gingersnapish tea, while Gabe spread out a blanket and got his awesome Marvel playing cards. We played about 10 games of speed, where I totally kicked Gabe's booty on 9 out of 10 of those games.  Gabe decided to quit once he won the last one, I think he wanted to quit while he was still ahead. ha. The rest of the night was spent debating which Marvel superhero was the best.  I say its all of the X-men, Gambit being at the top, and Gabe argues Spiderman, but we finally decided they both have mad skills. ha.