I Celebrated Christmas By...

Seeing the Messiah at the National Cathedral with Annie & Joe

Singing with new friends at their annual Christmas Sing-a-long Party

Listening to the Christmas program at the Potomac Ward

Checking out the Festival of Lights at the Washington DC Temple

Eating delicious food at the Relief Society Christmas Dinner

Making cinnamon rolls for our Work Holiday Party

Going to The Hobbit with the Moore's (not strictly Christmas)

Making eight varieties of cookies for Christmas presents
 

Grabbing breakfast at La Madeleine with Tim

 Wearing Christmas Jammies from Aunt and Uncle in New York with Annie

A Little Christmas Cheer

I've been doing lots of Christmas related things lately that I'll be telling you about soon, but nothing has gotten me more in the Christmas spirit than this:

Somebody left this stocking full of super random stuff (this list includes socks, Santa PEZ, fart noise putty, play-doh, and stickers) on my doorknob last night. I seriously have no idea who it was, but I LOVED it. So thanks, Elves or Santa or whomever! It totally made my night! And you saved me from a trip to my pity pot (note to self: don't watch romantic comedies when you are sick and nearing the one year anniversary of a tough break-up). Because, seriously, fart noise putty.

Don't Worry, I Still Exist

So, 2012 has kind of been the Great Undocumented Year. But that's probably fine because on the whole 2012 was not the greatest year of all time. That's not to say that is didn't have its bright spots, but on the whole, not the greatest. Fingers crossed on 2013, though. And toes.

But I have been doing things. So, let me tell you about them.

Blackfriar's Theater

One thing that I did was drive down to Staunton, VA to attend a showing of Shakespeare's Cymbaline performed by the American Shakespeare Center at Blackfriar's theater. The theater is a replica of the indoor theater that Shakespeare staged his play on, and they try to stay true to the spirit of Shakespeare's plays by leaving the lights on the whole time and engaging the audience. This helps make the plays make a little more sense, since it turns out that there are a lot of audience asides in Shakespeare's plays. It was extremely well done and I enjoyed myself immensely.

After the play, we went to eat at this cute restaurant called the Depot where we had a lot of stinky cheeses and everything was amazingly delicious. While we were there we noticed a couple of the actors eating there as well. Turns out they noticed us as well, and when they were done they came over to chat with us. Which was exciting, because they had done a great job and gave us a chance to gush at them a little. But actually, they weren't there to chat with us. One of my friends had semi-accidentally taken a flash photo with her phone (she meant to take the photo; she didn't mean for it to be flash. She also speaks English as a second language and very young, so she didn't actually know that it was a bit of a faux pas). The actors had ACTUALLY come over to give us the "no flash photography" lecture. Seriously? Seriously! I mean, I understand the rule, but who made them the flash photo police? I think I would have been more okay with it if they hadn't come over all chummy like they just wanted to say hi to the fans. Unbelievable.

But anyway, it was fun and now I have an awesome story to recount which I can conclude with a derisive "thesbians!" and that's awesome.

African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew

I got asked to make a meal for one of the families in our ward who had just welcomed a new addition. Cooking for strangers is always hard, since you just never know what they are going to like, and in this case, the meal had to be gluten free. So, I decided to make one of Ed's favorite recipes: African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew. It seems like a good choice because it was novel, had a nice spice kick without being spicy, and it also freezes well. So I made it and delivered it, and discovered there had been some kind of communications break down along the line, and someone else had already delivered dinner for the night. Oh well, though, like I said, the stew keeps well, and that would just be a few extra days of food they wouldn't have to worry about.

I didn't think much of it until the next day when I was heating up the stew for my lunch (Obviously, I made extras for myself) and discovered that a coworker/friend of mine had ALSO brought African Sweet Potato and Peanut Stew for lunch. What are the odds, right? I'm sure you can tell where this is going. They were the other family who'd brought dinner that night. And they brought the same dish as I did. Seriously, what are the odds? I don't think they were exactly the same, but still, that poor family. They are going to think that's all we know how to make around here!

Game Night(s)

I've been spending a lot of time with these people:

Doing this:

Obviously, that's a picture means "playing board games." The game pictured is actually not one we play often because it's kind of dull, but it works as an abstract representation. Anyway, games are funny because these boys are funny. So even though I'm not very good at games (I invariably come in second to last), I enjoy game nights. Yay!

Thanksgiving

I totally brought my camera to take pictures of Thanksgiving and completely failed to do so. Mine was pretty low key. I ran 5 miles in the morning to prepare for the engorgement, and then spent mid morning to afternoon crafting Thanksgiving dishes like homemade dressing from scratch (starting with cutting and drying the french bread I used), pumpkin pizzas (use savory spiced pumpkin puree as the sauce), and roasted brussels sprouts. Then I took my beautiful food creations over to a friend's house where we proceeded to eat many other crafted from scratch items, plus a beautifully roasted turkey and watch football. And then we had round two the next night because there were definitely not enough of us to eat all of the yumminess that there was.

I wish there were more to tell you, but there doesn't seem to be. I think one of my resolutions for next year might have to be "document my life better" and/or "have more of a life.

Good Weather

I saw about 5x as many people as usual when I was out running this morning.

I guess they agree with me that you absolutely should take advantage of good weather in December to run outdoors.

I also think that I deserve about three gold stars for thinking 51 degrees is good weather.

Let Me Save You the Trouble

So, this morning as I was getting ready for work nothing sounded good for breakfast. Seriously, nothing. So I forced myself to eat some almonds and I decided that I would buy one of those bottled smoothie things from the cafeteria. And then I remember that I was working out of a different office today, and it turns out that they didn't have a cafeteria, but the did have a vending machine with Muscle Milk brand protein shakes in it, and I figured it was better than nothing.

I was wrong. Nothing would have almost certainly been better. It was the single most disgusting thing I have ever chugged down in my life. It was cloyingly sweet and tasted totally artificial (unsurprising, since The bottle label is like "Muscle Milk. Contains no milk"). And, even worse was the after taste which lasted for HOURS. It wasn't until well after lunch that the after taste truly went away. So, do yourself a favor and just say no.

White Wedding

I'm not really sure where the first half of November has gone, but some of it went to a quick trip to Utah for my brother's wedding, which was pretty fun and a nice break from the death by training that's been going on at work. I flew out last week Thursday. And let's talk about this for a minute. Through Thursday of last week Utah had been having absolutely gorgeous weather. And Virginia had been having really, really cold weather. This is what happened starting Friday morning:

It was snowy and cold pretty much the whole time I was in Utah. Wanna know what the weather was like in Virginia while I was in Utah? Gorgeous. Wanna know what the weather was like when I came back? Cold. Cold, cold, cold. I swear Winter is messing with me.

ANYWAY, so I went to Utah for my brother's wedding. Friday was a lot of getting ready for the wedding, but before that, I stole Loo and we went to visit one of my dear friends who I hadn't seen in years and years. She's got an adorable little family now, and a busy and awesome sounding life, and it was a delight to spend some time with her catching up.

Then Loo and I did a quick spot of shopping during which I somehow got conned into buying more sweaters than I set out too, and we bought the happy couple a sausage and cheese basket, because it seemed somehow appropriate.

On Friday night there was a pizza party for the families, because, well, none of us had ever met Bearded Brother's fiancee before. So we ate and laughed and then we played Two Truths and a Lie and laughed even more. There were a lot of people, because, big families, but it was fun, and Bearded Brother and Fiancee seemed happy.

And then it was the wedding on Saturday. Which was lovely. Here are some pictures.

 

Saturday after the wedding we put my Aunt's house back together and then pretty much just chilled for the rest of the evening, which was really nice after all the work of the wedding. When I get married, I'm going to pay someone else to do all of it. Seriously.

On Sunday I got to spend the whole day with Momma Bear and the kiddos! Their sacrament meeting (worship service) was put on by the children and it was adorable. And then we spent the rest of the day chilling at home. The kids showed off their sweet dance moves and we had yummy food, and caught up on life and stuff and it was super fun. The Bear family is pretty cute:

Getting home on Monday was kind of an ordeal. I spent a lot of time trying to find someone to pick me up from the airport, to no avail, and eventually decided that I would just take a cab, which in the end turned out to be a good choice because I landed about two hours later than anticipated. I'm usually okay with delays because, meh, they happen, but these seemed particularly ordealish, probably because I was rushing from one plane to the next, and so grabbed a really, really disappointing sandwich to eat since I was super hungry and thought I was pressed for time. And also because a good hour of the delay was spent in the airplane on the runway. Nothing worse than that "so close, and yet so far" feeling while being squished in a puddle hopper. But, I made it home and back to more training. Whee!

Anyway, welcome to the family to my brother's new wife. I'll come up with an adorable blog moniker for you eventually!

Morning Run

In The Battle of the Morning Run, sometimes I win, and sometimes the hills win.

Today, victory goes to the hills.

Today I...

...got up really early to make it into DC to run in the AIDS Walk 5K. I don't know what my official time was, nor could I even give you a best guess, but I'm betting it was a personal best because after mile two I decided that I needed to pass anyone I could see who was wearing pink, which kept me running strong through the end of the race.

...hurried back home to meet my visiting teachers at La Madeleine for lunch. That was yummy and fun!

...took my insurance payment (that FINALLY arrived) and paid off the balance on my car loan. I am once again consumer debt free.

...went to Target. It still sometimes blows my mind a little that I can just go to Target whenever I want.

...made a tutu and a witches hat for the costume I planned to wear to the ward Halloween Trunk-or-Treat/Chili Cookoff.

...checked the oil in my car, filled it up with gas, cleaned out the accumulated junk of the past two months, and vacuumed the interior.

...whipped up a batch of rice crispy treats.

...went to the ward Halloween Trunk-or-Treat/Chili Cookoff.

...wrote this blog post, and then took my exhausted self to bed.

I Rocked That

Here are some things that I've totally rocked lately:

• Ran the whole 3.6 mile loop that I've been doing. I'd gotten the first three down, but either direction I run, that last .6 is all uphill and it was killing me. On Monday, though, I totally rocked that run and could have gone further had time permitted.
  
• Two weeks of daily journal writing. Some of you are stellar journalers. I am not. But I totally rocked that journal writing these last two weeks and made an entry every day.
  
• Deep cleaned the house. I was just going to do a "presentable for guests" job on Saturday and then I rocked that cleaning job and my house is STILL sparkling.

Here are the things I'm planning to rock in the future

• The splits. I've been taking a ballet class and will probably add in some yoga, and hopefully in a few or several months, I'm totally going to rock the splits.

• The hymnbook. This week marks the start of Project Hymn Book -- I'm going to start with hymn number one and spend 20 or 30 minutes a day practicing until I know it, and then move on to hymn number two until I get through the whole book. This is obviously going to take more than a year, but I'm going to rock that hymn book.

Good Things

I don't love being cold but I do love pretty Autumn trees.

And getting cozified with piles of blankets.

Also, I found a replacement for Big John's. It's nice to have a regular place again.

I don't actually love these shoes, but I'm muchly enjoying my ballet class.

And I'm enjoying being one of those active people and having a running trail right out the back door.

Stylin'

I know that many of you look to me for all your fashion guidance, so as a service to you, I thought we could take a minute today and appreciate the awesomeness of my running outfit lately. Behold:

I think you'll agree that this is the most amazing running attire you've seen in a while. You're dazzled by the bold choice of color and delighted by how great those sweats fit. You wish that you had a sweet cloche to get your hair tufts to flare out like that. You're thinking, never in the history of all my days have I seen so fabulous a running outfit. (And/or one you're making emergency call to the fashion police right this minute.)

You're welcome.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Went to the National's game last Saturday and had a blast. I met up with Ames and Melly at their house and we metroed in. Apparently, it's tradition to stop at Five Guys before the game, so that's what we did. Five Guys is a decent $5 burger:

And then we headed in to watch the game:

The best part about everything was that it was deliciously mid 80s and the sun was shining and I was warm and happy. Even got the slightest bit of a sunburn. Oh, and the Nationals beat the Milwaukee Brewers 10-4 which is fun. Apparently they sort of got good out of nowhere.

Opening pitch.

I really wanted to capture the exact moment the bat hit the ball, but that's actually really hard to do.

First home run of the game. Yeah!

Nat's win!

The President's race was also pretty funny.

Afterward there was a Dierks Bentley concert. At which I learned that I don't love Dierks Bentley. There's a level of sophistication missing from his music generally, and 5 of the 10 songs were about drinking, and he sort of embodies the "forever young and carefree" mentality of the age, which I don't love. BUT he does have a ton of energy on stage, and we like that.

All in all a lovely way to spend a Saturday. There's not much more wholesome than a stadium of people singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the 7th Inning Stretch; and we like wholesome around here.

Soundtack for a Break Up

January and February -- Daft Punk, Something About Us

...I need you more than anything in my life/I want you more than anything in my life/I'll miss you more than anyone in my life/I love you more than anyone in my life...

March through May -- Kenny Chesney, Come Over

...I told you I wouldn’t call, I told you I wouldn’t care/But baby climbing the walls gets me nowhere/I don’t think that I can take this bed getting any colder/Come over, come over, come over, come over, come over...

June and July -- Jerrod Niemann, What Do You Want From Me?

...Now tell me, what do you want? What do you want? What do you want from me?/Are you tryin’ to bring back the tears or just the memories?/You keep takin’ me back, takin’ me back where I’ve already been./When we hang up it’s almost like I’m losing you again./Can’t you see? So what do you want, what do you want from me?...

August -- Sara Evans, A Little Bit Stronger

...And I'm done hoping that we could work it out/I'm done with how it feels, spinning my wheels/Letting you drag my heart around/And, oh, I'm done thinking that you could ever change/I know my heart will never be the same/But I'm telling myself I'll be okay/Even on my weakest days, I get a little bit stronger...

First half of September -- Jana Kramer, Why Ya Wanna

...Why you wanna/Show up in a old t-shirt that I love/Why you gotta tell me that I'm looking good/Don't know what/You were thinkin'/You were doing/Moving in for a hug/Like you don't know I'm coming undone/Why you gotta/Why you wanna/Make me keep wanting you...

Second half of September  -- Julieta Venegas, Me Voy

...No voy a llorar y decir que no merezco esto/Porque es probable que/Lo merezco pero no lo quiero/Por eso me voy/Que lastima pero adios/Me despido de ti y me voy...[I am not going to cry and say I don't deserve this/Becaue I probably do deserve it, but I don't want it/so I'm leaving/It's a shame, but goodbye/I'm bidding you farewell]

I'm in Trouble

Walked out the door today to head to work and with a shiver and a groan of dissatisfaction thought to myself "Why is it Winter already?"

This is a problem, because it's not Winter. It's barely the first breath of Fall. I will never be warm again.

Shenandoah

So I woke up yesterday and the universe spoke to me. It said "Jules, you need to go hiking today." So I did. I drove down to Shenandoah National Forest and hiked what they call the White Oak Canyon/Cedar Run Loop, and I'm going to tell you, that hike ain't no joke. About eight and a half miles, and steep. But really pretty.

I was unable to find someone to come with me on short notice, so I ended up just going alone, and honestly, I really enjoyed that (for those of you with safety concerns, don't worry; I let three people know that I was going and where I would be hiking, chose a relatively popular route, and checked in with the park ranger). It was nice to be able to just go at my own pace and be alone with my thoughts and stuff. And the biggest danger I found myself in was when I slipped on a slick rock and fell on my face. Which is the only reason I somewhat regret not having anyone along, because I'm sure that was hilarious.

Watch for slippery rocks

Anyway, it was a tough hike and I'm definitely feeling the descent in my calves today, but I think I was smiling literally the whole time. Particularly after I got to the summit.

And also when I made it back to the car. The last few miles took some grit. And it started pouring rain, which was fun for a while, but then my socks got wet, and that's no fun. Anyway, I'm glad the universe told me to go because it was awesome. Now I need to go back in a few weeks when Fall finished turning all those trees to fun shades of Autumn. More pictures from the hike can be found here.

This Is a Post About Running

New running shoes in bright red? Of course,  I can totally run faster and jump higher in them.

I took the month of August off of running. Mostly because I dropped heavy things on my feet while moving and one was starting to twinge bizarrely when I ran and the top of the other one was just sore. I thought to myself: perhaps I should take some time off running. And I did. Instead I spent a lot of excruciating on the elliptical machine.

A very distant secondary reason that I took August off of running is that I had worn through the soles of my running shoes and I used August's clothing budget to build up my work wardrobe, and I had to wait until I engaged the September clothing budget to buy new running shoes (sometimes the budget goes to September before the year does)

So anyway, all through August I'd been telling people that in September I was going to start running again, and I was all "yeah, running, whatevs" like it's just what I do to burn calories and maintain a healthy cardiovascular system. Then I engaged September clothing budget early so that I could have new running shoes available at the beginning of August. I went to a running store, but they were exceedingly not prompt in attending to me so I ended up just ordering new shoes off of Amazon.

And then something magical happened. As I completed my order, an excited feeling started to swell within my breast. And I said within myself "you're getting new shoes to run in and on Monday, you can GO RUNNING!" and my soul squee'd in delighted anticipation.

Guys, I WAS EXCITED TO GO RUNNING!

I think that this officially makes me A Runner.

And you know what, I WENT running on Monday. Sure, it was just an easy mile -- have to break in the shoes and the feet -- but it was a-MAZ-ing. 'Cause, you know, *Jules nochelantly shrugs her shoulders and makes her "it's no big deal" face* I'm A Runner now.

Sunday Evening

Went with one of my favorite people to one of my favorite places. Love.

Four Lists of Five Things

Five Things I Miss About Key West

1. The sun. I feel like I somehow managed to be outside much more often when I was in Key West, but that might just be because Reston is a super shady (as in there is a lot of trees and therefore shade) town, so even when I am outside, I'm still not getting that full Sunshine effect.
2. The people. This should probably actually be number one, but oh, I miss the sun. Facebook is nice because I still feel like I know what's going on, but also sad-making because I wish I was there. Yay! for staying clued in, Boo! for making me miss all my awesome friends.
3. Annie's. I did not realize how great of a deal Annie's Buying Club was until I starting having to buy veggies individually from stores. And I also am still not sure about this whole, plan your menu and THEN go to the store business.
4. My tiny office. I work in a huge office building now filled with strangers (and some familiar faces). I miss both the closeness of a small office and the feeling of being a big fish in a small pond. I'm now just a regular sized fish.
5. The Cafe, Matheessen's, Big Johns, Thai Life, Goldmans, etc. Sure, there are a ton of restaurants here too, but I haven't discovered my favorites yet. And none of them is a floating restaurant.

Five Things I Do NOT Miss About Key West

1.  Living on base. Ordered pizza for lunch today, and just gave the dude my address. And then he came and knocked on my door. No need for a call from the corner of Whitehead and United. Invited my friends over, same thing: just gave them the address and they knocked on my door. Genius!
2. Geckos. They aren't cute.
3. That stink that sometimes happens in the late summer. If you've ever been in Key West during the stinky times, you know what I'm talking about.
4. Mopeds. I'm sure they are great for the people who drive them, but I hated getting stuck behind them.
5. Tourists. Luckily I live far enough away from the tourist hot spots that I just don't have to deal with them anymore. And it's glorious. I love being a tourist, but I don't love living in an area that a lot of people tour to.

Five Things I'm Loving About Northern Virginia

1. Old Friends. I do miss my Key West friends, but it's been great to start integrating old friends back into my daily life. And I don't want to sound elitist or anything, but it's been awesome that so many of them are single.
2. Target. And Macy's. And specialty running stores. And specialty grocery stores. And DSW. And holy heck how did I live my life without such convenient commercialism!
3. Smart people. I'm not saying that people in Key West are not smart, just that if you've decided to live in Key West, it's for a reason, and the reason is not so that you can randomly start talking about the Napoleonic Wars and expect five people to join in the conversation.
4. Bike paths. Everywhere.
5. Cultural Events. All the time. 

Five Things I'm Not Loving About Northern Virginia

1. Traffic. And roads that make no sense. And the people who drive here.
2. Rent. I'm getting a great deal for my area, but its still substantially more than I was paying. And also, it's not just being withheld from my paycheck like it was, so I actually see that giant chunk of money disappear.
3. The lack of a horizon. Between the trees and the hills and the wonky curvy roads, you just can't ever see that far ahead of you. Sometimes it's cozy, and sometimes it's claustrophobia-inducing.
4. Having to put make-up on every day. I sort of hate feeling like I have to look good all the time.
5. Slow hymns. Our pianist at church in Key West always played the hymns at a wonderfully fast pace and I loved it. Now I feel like I'm singing dirges all the time.

Spices are the Spice of Life

I was digging around in my spice cupboard the other day looking for my ground ginger, and I thought to myself "holy dude, have I got a lot of spices" and then that thought split in two different directions, one thought train started heading down the "There's got to be a better way to organize these" track and the other thought train chugged along the "I love that I have and use all these spices" track. Which is fun, because spices are awesome. And that is why this blog post is about my favorite spices -- which, weirdly, all begin with C -- which are:

Cumin

source

I love, love, love cumin. It's such a deep, warm flavor and it is used in so many different types of cuisine, and so is really versatile for a lot of different kinds of food. I use cumin in my food probably half the time.









Cinnamon

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Traditionally, you think of cinnamon as a sweet flavor, but that's because we mix it with a lot of sugar and stuff. I'm finding more and more that cinnamon is a wonderful spice in savory dishes like enchiladas, chiles, soups, and even on red meats. How could you not love a spice that lives just as happily in an apple pie as in a quesadilla?






Cardamom

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Cardamom is another spice that easily crosses the sweet/savory border and it's one I've only recently discovered. It's a wonderful flavor that's almost as much about smell as it is about taste. It's holy cow expensive, but luckily is nice and strong so a little goes a long way. When I see a recipe calling for cardamom, I squee a little inside.





Chile, in all its variety

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I used to think that chile powder was chile powder was chile powder, but that's just not true. I now know the difference in flavor between ancho chile powder and cayenne pepper and chipotle chile powder. What I want to do next is get me a mortar and pestle and start grinding my own dried chiles for even more of a flavor punch.






There are a lot of other spices in my spice rotation that I enjoy -- basil, thyme, coriander, nutmeg -- but these are the ones that make me think "mmmm, I just love this" and do a spicey happy dance as I'm adding them to my dishes. Who else has some favorite spices? Or favorite recipes that use my favorite spices?

In Unrelated News, ...

...it's a beautiful day out today. You know how I know? Everyone and their dog was out for a walk on the trails while I was riding home for work. Every. Single. One.

... I just made enough not-quite-authentic pasta carbonara to feed all those starving children in Africa.

... I believe in brunch. I had brunch yesterday with Tim and Adopted Family, and it was both delicious and delightful. People should brunch more. And by people, I mean I should brunch more. My contribution: Watermelon Gazpacho. Yes, it was as awesome as it sounds.

... I may or may not have finally gotten around to signing up for Pinterest.

... my sister-in-law gave birth to Niece #2 yesterday-ish. Through a series of convoluted logic steps, I'm claiming the baby is named after me. Since I am the favorite Auntie after all. (I make sure this is the case by buying lots of fun presents.)

Welcome, Make Yourself at Home

Remember when I finally moved into my new house a week and a half ago and it's taken me this long to finally get everything put away and the apartment in a condition suitable for visitors? Well it's finally suitable for visitors, let me show you some of my favorite spaces.

This is the first area of my house that I see when I come through the door:

I L-O-V-E it. It's so cozy and serene and relaxing and I spend a lot of time curled up on the circle chair reading.The whole living room is actually quite nice, and I LOVE being home.

This is my kitchen:

You can't see all of it, obviously, but the kitchen was a major selling point for me -- cabinets go all the way to the ceiling, lots of good counter space, gas oven and stove, and overall, just a really good use of space.

My closet is hands down the best thing about the bedroom:

Seriously.

There's only one room in the house that I'm just not sure what to do with, and that's the dining room:

(As you can see, that's also where the bike lives.) My house in Key West was mostly windows in the dining area so I don't have any ready made dining room decor, and there is a LOT of white wall in there. I've been thinking about maybe getting one of those fancy wall decals for in there, but I don't know yet.

Anyway, if you want to see more, I have a virtual tour over at SmugMug that you can check. Or, if you're in the area, come on by because I totally want to just start showing off my awesome, cute house to everyone.