A Thankful Thanksgiving!

I had SO much fun for the past five days. So much fun that I had 70 emails to return to because I was on the computer so little. True story.

My big bro, sis-in-law, and 14 yr old niece were here to visit from Michigan and it is always a fun, funny, and over-indulgent time when they are here. I ate too much, drank too much, and slept too little.... I wish I had a few days off to recover from my five days off! It was worth it though ; )

Thanksgiving was eventful and tasty, as usual. My family ate at my uncle and aunt's house... and there was TWENTY-SEVEN OF US! I have a big fam. It was loud, extremely loud, but fun filled for sure.

Here are some of my fave pics:

delicious desserts and the millions of plates we needed!

if our thanksgiving dinner gets any bigger they might have to build an addition to the house!
(oh and please note the lovely handmade hand cutout turkey place settings my nieces craftily slaved over on Thanksgiving morn!)

some of my fave cousins!

the fam getting ready to stuff our faces!

cousin and i had matching leggings and shoes!

my pretty nieces and sis in law!

a very full auntie, mom, and cousins!!

I am thankful for:
mom and dad
and sis and bro
and boyfriend
and sis in laws and bro in laws
and my 12 first cousins and
nieces/nephews and aunties and uncles
and grandparents... in heaven, rip.
and whoever I forgot

I WOULDN'T SURVIVE WITHOUT ALL OF THEM!

really.

For the few days after Thanksgiving my immediate fam was all together to spend all the time we could with my bro and we did A LOT. The best part though was a day trip we took to Boston on Saturday. I can't wait to tell you about it, but it needs its own post, so I will tell you tomorrow!!

25 Days till Christmas!!!! Are you all excited as I am??

Thanksgiving Thanks!

I had an AMAZING weekend.
I can't wait to tell you all about it.


I hope your holiday was amazing too. But first I have to go back to work. *blah*


But I'll be back this afternoon!

A Winner and some Bullets.

Finally, I am going to post the winner of my christmas giveaway. Sorry it took me so long, you can read more about the reason below. Thanks for entering my first giveaway everyone (and for the Christmas song ideas which are all going on my Ipod if they aren't there already!

I chose the winner for this giveaway the good ole fashioned way by writing down all your names and each entry and putting them in a hat. I made boyfriend pick a winner!

The winner is:
Angela at Sweet Tea Diaries

Congrats, Angela! I hope you enjoy your prize!
Please email me at SeashellsandSunshine1@gmail.com with your mailing address!

*This week I haven't really been around because I have had a weird ear infection in my earlobe. It was kind of behind my earring hole (? is that what you'd call it?) and was all red and swollen, which is weird because I have had pierced ears for probably 20 years with no problems. It was painful though, so I am glad the antibiotics have finally kicked in!

*I am pretty excited for Thanksgiving this week. My brother, sis and law, and niece are coming in from Michigan and I always cherish the time I get to spend with them, especially holiday time because unfortunately, it's not enough!

*I saw the movie "Precious" last weekend and although it was sad and hard to watch, I highly recommend it. All the actors in it were AMAZING. For the actor who played Precious, Gabour*ey Sibide, it was the first thing she has ever done and if you see an interview with her about the movie and then see the movie, you'll see how different the part was from her normal persona and realize how amazing she is! So go see it. Oh, Maria*h Carey is in it as well and they made her look so plain that I didn't even realize it was her!

*I hope to put some stuff into my etsy shop this week, so look for that announcement!

*I hope you are all enjoying your (*most likely*) short work weeks, like I am!

Announcement!

I am extending my Yankee Candle Giveaway until Saturday.
There is still time to enter!
Tell your friends!

(I'll be back later today with an actual post)
Until then, Happy Wednesday!!

My First Giveaway!!! Be excited!

As you can probably tell, I am getting pretty excited for the holidays.
Secret Christmas Day was a relaxing and fun success (in case you were wondering)!

To celebrate my extreme excited-ness, I am giving to host my very first giveaway for a medium sized jar Yankee Candle in the Christmas Eve scent. It is really amazing. Out of the million and a half Christmas scents they have, it is my favorite. Okay, in the top three. But still, you need to smell it! It would even put the Grinch in a good mood! ; ) Maybe.

(the actual one you will receive is a medium size, this is a large, but you get the idea)

To enter the giveaway you must:

1. Become a follower of this blog and leave a comment saying so :)
For extra entries you can:
2. Tell me your favorite Christmas song!
3. Post about this giveaway on your blog!
4. Twitter about this giveaway!

FOUR CHANCES TO WIN! (Those are pretty good chances if I do say so myself! :)
For each entry please leave a separate comment!

The giveaway will end at midnight on Wednesday 11/18

GOOD LUCK!

Secret Christmas Day Explained

Tomorrow I have a day off.

It is Veteran's Day....which to me is aka Secret Christmas Day

*I wake up early (but not too early)
*Eat some breakfast
*Get in my car where I listen and sing along to Christmas music on my IPOD
*Head to the mall (the biggest of the three malls in my area... the one that has an Anthropologie and a Crate & Barrel... and is also further away so I don't get to go there all the time)
*And then I shop till I drop.....either starting my Christmas shopping or coming up with my Christmas wanting ;)

I end the day with a Starbucks Gingerbread latte. Yum.

I also go all by myself. Sometimes it is nice to just go alone and spend however long you want wherever you want. Dontcha think?

That's why it is "secret" Christmas day, I don't tell anyone where I am going, so Sssshhh!!

PS: A giveaway announcement tomorrow! Stay tuned!

Spooky Sugar Swap Goodies!

Before I bid adieu to Halloween and Fall (it's supposed to snow around here tomorrow, ugggh) I just had to share with you the Spooky Sugar Swap goodies I got in the mail from Lexlilooo. She sent me such fun, cute, and yummy things! I loved them all.

yummy pumpkin flavored kisses.

delish lindt chocolate!
PEZ. Isn't that witch cute?

halloweeny stickers.
cookie cutters which i love having for every holiday

recipes!

a pumpkin dish towel

and these comfy cozy little slippers!

THANKS, LEXILOO!!
And THANKS BEANTOWN PREPSTER for hosting!

This was my first swap and I had such a great time picking stuff out and waiting for my package to come that I want to find a Christmas Swap to participate in.... does anyone know of anyone who is hosting one?? Or, would you participate if I hosted one myself???

Yummy recipe!

Oops, I already missed a day, so today you get two posts.

I don't know if I've told you this before but I am a mostly vegetarian. Boyfriend has been a life long vegetarian and since I eat with him for the majority of the time, I just eat little to no meat on a regular basis. Recently I found a blog called the VegCookingBlog and they have super good recipes. Last night we had messy fajita tacos. They were delish!

Messy Fajita Tacos

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 medium onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 portobello mushroom caps, sliced
1/2 green bell pepper, sliced
2 tsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. chipotle powder (I didn't have this, so I used hot sauce)
8 crunchy taco shells or soft corn tortillas

Heat the olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook an additional 30 seconds.
Add the mushrooms and bell pepper and sauté until just soft, about 5 minutes.
Add the soy sauce and stir the vegetables.
Add the cumin, chili powder, and chipotle, then cook for an additional minute.
Distribute the vegetables evenly among 8 warm taco shells or corn tortillas and garnish with diced tomatoes or other toppings.
Makes 8 tacos
(I added tomato, lettuce, and cheese for a garnish, too!)

Talk to you later today after I deal with the germy little ones! :)

Au Revoir, October.

Au Revoir, October. (Wasn't it still summer like yesterday?!)

My October went out with a bang on Halloween night. Such a bang in fact that it took me until today to blog about it. On Sunday I was out of commission for the entire day... big time. I basically slept and slept some more. Very unlike me... but that means I had a good time. Right?
: /

Boyfriend and I hosted our second annual Halloween party on Halloween night. It was A LOT of fun. I was Mrs. Claus (somehow i got no pictures of myself, booo, maybe one of my friends has one!) and boyfriend was the ultimate warrior (he likes to go a little crazy on halloween, don't judge, haha). Here are some of our friends in their pretty great costumes:

(sorry for the smoky look... it isn't actually smoke, we had a fog machine!)

A pencil, wonderwoman, the ultimate warrior, superman, and Micha*el Phelps
apparently the boys decided to go skimpy this year... haha

Micha*el Phelps won the costume contest and here he is with his firefly girlfriend!

I also really like how this came out. We stuck lollipops all over a pumpkin and whoever pulled one out that had a red marks on the bottom won a scratch ticket!

At one point a scary uninvited masked man came and chased me around the party. It was really frightening. I had no idea who it could be. I tried to get boyfriend to save me but most people just laughed.

The scary man looked like this! EEK!

It ended up to be one of my uncles trying to scare us all. It worked. I should have known because he used to do that to my cousins and I every year when we were little!

The party was a good time had by all though. I love being a host. It is so much fun to see your friends enjoy things that you decorated, made, and planned.... and of course, the benefit of having a party at your own house, you don't have to drive home! ; ) So fun!

Hello, November.

November is one of my favorite months... other than the extremely cold days and fading daylight. I just love love love the Thanksgiving/Christmas season. I am SO excited. In honor of this wonderful time I am going to particpate in National Blogging Month and blog every single day. Be ready. I am going host a giveaway soon too. And open up an Etsy store. And more! I just have lots to say! Stay tuned!