oh the holidays...

i am so ready for christmas this year. i'm ready for snow so we can take our christmas picture, i want to bake cookies and pies and i'm looking forward to shopping for nick! i don't know what has come over me - i'm never this into the holidays! maybe it's being married and having my first christmas with nick, or that i love cooking now. as i write i'm listening to christmas music. about that cooking thing...i grew up with alot of "from the box" meals. but nick grew up without those because of living in italy. i am proud to say i have never made a meal from a box or can or bag of frozen stuff yet! this includes frozen pizza or mac and cheese (which were always back up meals when i lived alone). nick used to do the cooking, but now i'm really into it. i read through my cookbooks before making a grocery list and i'm constantly trying new things. and it's not hard like i thought! now that it's the season to bake i'm set! i'm ready for apple and pumpkin pie, chocolate chip cookies, and i've been checking out foodnetwork.com and martha stewart too! other than my obsession with the christmas season, my life has been alot of homework lately. or at least trying to get some done before it all come due at the end of the semester. nick also took me downtown friday night to the local for appetizers and then we headed out for the morning/afternoon to a small town about an hour from here. we walked around the mainstreet area, took a scenic drive and stopped by a pottery factory. it was great to get away for a bit and experience small town life.