Christmas at Biltmore White Wine

Wine: Christmas at Biltmore
Store: World Market
Cost: $4.99 (?) at a 50% off after Christmas Sale

I bought this wine on a whim. It was on sale and the label was pretty. Since we were having an after Christmas dinner the other night with a dear friend, I decided we would take it over and give it a try. When said friend pulled it out of the fridge, he said he was excited to try it as he had previously enjoyed their Riesling. Unfortunately, this white wine blend was so good. I didn't save the bottle or label and cannot find information from the winery about the wine, but I do remember it was listed as "semi-sweet." It was like drinking perfume. I absolutely did not like this wine. It tasted like a syrupy sweet moscato, and while I can appreciate a good sweet wine, this one was just too much. I'm thankful that I got this on clearance, and that I was not planning on giving it to anyone as a gift.

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

January Goals

I'm not into resolutions. I know this probably looks like a New Year's resolution post, but I promise, it isn't. What I am a big fan of, though, are to do lists. And I am in big need of a project right now; I just don't know where to start. So here's a few things I'd like to get done during the month of January. Notice that organizing has a lot do with them.

• Sort, File, and Throw Out Magazines
• Organize Hutch of the Desk
• Organize Linen Closet
• Organize Guest Bedroom closet
• Organize File Cabinet

I 'm sure I can get all this done by the end of the month...And I may just start by tackling some smaller ones tonight.

***I'm so awesome, I already did the first two (and the easiest ones) tonight!

Christmas Gifts

I was quite blessed with Christmas....
My wonderful Husband got me...

Vera Bradley Betsy Bag in Baroque

Apollo's Angels, a cultural history of the development of ballet.

Toaster Oven...we have been through several in the almost 5 years we've been married. This is the first we've really invest in, so I'm super excited.

Ceramic Take Out Coffee Cups (These are from World Market, but H got me 2 from Old Navy.)

Run, Toto, Run! Hallmark Ornament...The Wizard of Oz is my favorite movie, so it meant a lot that the hubs got this for me.








From My Parents...

Initial House Flag, Garden Flag, and a new flag pole.

Now I have to admit I knew about these boots, but I was so excited to get them. They are all I've worn in the past two days.








Vera Bradley Twirly Bird Pink Ornament-so excited to put this on my tree next year!

Gold Canyon Pod Warmer with 5 different pods.












TomTom GPS-I have to share this with the hubs....

Victoria's Secret Dreamer Flannel PJ's...I love that they come in tall! I unfortunately do not quite look like this model.









Flip Ultra. As the hubs and I are both in the performing arts, we wanted a convienent video camera that could capture our performances. This will work nicely.

Technically this was for Sassy, our hound mix, but I was the one that wanted it: LLBean Embroidered Dog Collar She has had a habit of losing her tags, so this makes me feel better. And no, that's not her name or our phone number listed.







From the In Laws...

Express Rouched Front Sweater in Turquoise (not pictured). This is from H's entire family, but SIL works for Express, so we know who really picked it out.

Yankee Candle Buttercream Candle. This is a staple, and I love it!

Subscription to Real Simple Magazine. I'm so excited...I haven't had a subscription in a while!

Gift Card to Applebee's










We had a wonderful Christmas, and I'm not ready to let it go yet!

An Unexpected Christmas Surprise!

We live on the east coast...an area that rarely sees snow. This is an area that when an inch or two is forcasted, it's quite likely we'll be out of school for a day or two. The hubs and I were headed to my sister's house (local) for Christmas morning, and then off to his parents house (approximately 2 hours away) for the remainder of Christmas Day. From there, we were scheduled to head to his grandparents house in Pennsylvania (6 hours from his parents house, 8 from ours) through Thursday, Dec. 30. We were hoping to stop in Pittsburgh to go ice skating in Heinz Field, on the rink set up for the Winter Classic and stop off at Ikea as well. Unfortunately, our plans had to change  a little. Christmas Day brought a snow storm of epic proportions to our area.

Currently, we have two dogs. Sassy is our hound mix that we rescued 4 years ago, and we are currently keeping Willow, a Siberian Husky, that belongs to a friend of the hubs in the military. We are keeping him until he can take her to where he is (anticipated to be February or March). Sassy is staying with my parents, by Willow has some aggression issues and is quite active. We thought it would be better to keep the dogs separate in this strange situation, so we asked a friend to pet sit. We were already safely up at his parents when our pet sitter called with horrible news. She couldn't make it to our house. That was 8:30AM December 26. I told her to just try to get over there as soon as she could-she had last been over there at 8PM the previous night, thinking she'd be able to make it later that afternoon. Not ideal, but doable. Well, as of 6PM, she said there was no way she would be able to make it there and it was quite possible she could not make it out the next day.

I hated to do it, but I told the hubs we needed to head home. The interstate roads we traveled were not bad at all, but as soon as we got off of them, we entered treacherous territory. We were looking at a foot of snow on the ground in an area that shuts down after an inch of snow. It was frightening trying to drive home, and I was afraid our little Toyota Corolla wasn't going to make it. Gladly, we are safely home now. Willow was quite thirsty, and had made a minor a mess in her kennel, but was otherwise OK. I feel horrible about how stressed out she must have been while trapped, so she has been napping under the pool table all afternoon. After getting home, though, I understand why our pet sitter had difficulty getting from her house (10 minutes away) to our house.

Rene Barbier Mediterrean White

Wine: Rene Barbier Mediterrean White
Store:  Trader Joe's
Price: $4.99 (???)

"...is crisp , dry, and lightly refreshing. Serve chilled as an apertifi or as a wonderful complement to seafood, summer salads, pasta, poultry, or shellfish."

First of all, I know I promised I would back after marching season was over, but alas, I lied-inadvertently. I haven't done a lot of drinking lately and I've been sticking to a lot of wine that I already know. I thought I had previously blogged about this wine, but alas, I have not, so here we go...getting this thing started up again for the new year.

My memories of this wine are nicer than what I am actually experiencing. First of all, it is definitely more of a spring wine, and we are in the midst of a snow storm. What can I say. At first taste, this has a very fruity, citrus-y taste. The after taste, however, has quite an acidic bite. This wine would probably be best enjoyed with a light chicken, pork, or fish dish, but alas, I'm attempting to enjoy this as an evening prior to dinner drink. It's okay, but there are certainly other wines that would suffice better.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars...I'll reassess in the summer to see if I like it better with foods from the grill.

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack

Marching Season is finally over!!!! Well, kind of. Our last competition was on Nov. 6, which was supposed to end our season. The football team, however, has had a great year, which means we had a (home) playoff game last night. And we won. So next weekend we'll be playing away, but thankfully, I don't have to go. So it really is over for me, just not for the rest of the staff. And I'm getting full swing into our ballet production right now, so I need some reprieve from marching band. At any rate, I'll be around much more from now on!

In preparation for the Holidays...

So it's been a while. I'm sorry for neglecting you, my lonely little blog, but it's my busy season. Today is the first Saturday I've had free since August, never mind all the Fridays and weeknights I've been busy as well. And unfortunately, there's no wine in this entry either, but rather a little bit of anticipation for the holidays.

Mom and I went stopped by a little local Christmas shop today, which happens to be run by an old high school friend of hers. Our intention was to look for a piece to go with my Fontanini Christmas Nativity set. (Ironically, the couple that runs this shop sent us a "starter" set that included the Holy Family, a stable, and an angel when we got married.) These pieces are not cheap, but they are beautiful, and I'm quite content to accrue pieces slowly over time. We went in and found Jeremiah, a piece I actually referenced last year on my Christmas list.

Then we found David, the innkeeper's nephew. My 14 month old nephew's name is David as well, and he is currently in the hospital, recovering from a difficult surgery. We decided that David needed to be a part of my set as well.

Of course, you can't go into a shop like that and not browse around a bit. That also meant that we ended up picking some ornaments for the tree, too. I'm an M&Ms fiend, so we couldn't help but pick up this ornament.

Being a dancer, I have plenty of ballerina ornaments that I absolutely love. My passion, though, is jazz dance. Rarely do you see jazz dancer ornaments, and usually they are ugly or skanky looking. We found this cute "jazzerina" ornament.

 But I couldn't resist getting one more ballerina ornament, especially seeing as I'm doing two trees this year-one in gold with white lights and one with colorful lights and our "fun" ornaments. I can't wait to see it lit up with the lights. 

 So now I'm ready for the Christmas season...or at least Thanksgiving so I can start decorating. And the hubs is currently watching Home Alone, so I guess he's feeling it, too.

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