Getting in the spirit!

I bought a gingerbread house kit thinking Finley could help with the decorating, but she had absolutely no interest in it until it was done and then all she wanted to do was eat the candy off of it. Oh well, it got me in the Christmas spirit!

Here she is with my, I mean her, masterpiece :)

Christmas with the Blakes.

Saturday we went to Birmingham to have Christmas with my cousins and their families. We had a great time as always! We all exchanged gifts, ate and watched Marmaduke. Of course I didn't get any pictures of all the kids together. Dang it! Here's the best I can do...Finley eating a grilled cheese.

The Naughty Spot

Time-out is a pretty toasty spot at our house because Finley has been spending a lot of time there lately. She will swing her arm right near my face like she's going to hit me, but she gets just close enough to miss me. She knows EXACTLY what she is doing. At this point, I'm fighting the urge to smile and Joey is covering his face with his hands and laughing. I usually let it go until she hits me and then she goes in time out. She stays there for a couple minutes and then I get her out and tell her why she was in time-out. (No hit Mommy). Then we hug and move on. Today, Finley pulled out her hair clip. I asked her to hand it to Mommy and she throws it on the floor instead. I tell her to pick it up and bring it to me. She smiles and refuses to do so. I ask her 3 times, she's still smiling, but refuses to bring me the clip. I take her to time out for 2 minutes. I go back and stand at the door to the bathroom. I tell her to come to Mommy. She, smiling, starts scooting across the floor on her bottom very slowly. I say Finley stand up and come to Mommy. She scoots towards me even more slowly. I walk over to her and put her back in time out for 2 more minutes. I come back in the room and say Finley stand up and come to mommy. She does, I take her back to the scene of the crime and tell her to pick up her clip and hand it to Mommy and she does. I say thank you and we hug. Moving on.

"Ho, Ho, Ho...Pimp!"- Michael Scott

Looky what I found at fye yesterday. All of The Office Christmas episodes on one DVD (for $6.99). Christmas is complete.

Coolest stocking stuffer ever!

Joey and I wandered into Urban Outfitters in Asheville while we were waiting for a table at a restaurant. We were lucky enough to stumble upon the "Books" section. They have great stuff! I found the "coolest stocking stuffer ever".

Parking Tickets: For Those Who've Crossed The Line



It's a little booklet with perforated "parking tickets" that you can tear out and put on people's cars who have pulled in crooked or, my biggest parking pet peeve ever, purposely taken up two spaces because they think their car is special or something.

Now, instead of getting angry, I can be passive aggressive instead and give them a piece of my mind. Here are some of my favorites...

"Your car isn't nice enough to park in two spots."
"Is your name Katrina? Because this parking job's a disaster."
"Did you park this or land this?"
"Couldn't decide which space to park in, huh?"
"Did you park like this or was there an Earthquake?"
"Double parking hints at something deeper."

I promise you I'll use these and I'll take pics to prove it :)

Asheville trip!

Joey and I went to Asheville for a few days and had a great time!!! We definitely plan to go back this summer. Asheville is such an awesome place! Lots to do, friendly people, good food and beautiful scenery. What more could you ask for? I decided to break our trip down by activity so here goes...

Where we ate...
Bistro 1896-I had the fried green tomato BLT with sweet potato fries and Joey had the "Southern Comfort" plate which was shrimp, Andouille sausage, roasted red peppers, & spinach tossed in Cajun cream sauce served over polenta cakes. It was DELICIOUS!

Brixx- I had the BBQ chicken pizza and Joey had the Bronx Bomber which was meat, meat and more meat. It was really good. It may be a chain restaurant. It happened to be near the Biltmore Estate.

Tupelo Honey Cafe- I had the fried green tomatoes over goat cheese grits and Joey had the fried chicken BLT with roasted potatoes. I guess you could say I really love fried green tomatoes ;) It was really good. I wish I had gotten something else though. They are famous for their sweet potato pancake so I wish I had tried it. They also brought out the best biscuits I have ever had with blackberry jam and honey. Yum!!!

Zambra- This place was tapas so Joey and I got the pork spring rolls, pacific shrimp, lamb and chargrilled calamari. It was all amazing and the restaurant was really cool. It was below street level so you could look out the windows and see people's feet as they walked on the sidewalk. It was dark and all the tables had candles. Very cool.

French Broad Chocolate Lounge- Keep in mind we had just eaten at Zambra...We had a milk chocolate turtle, a piece of chocolate cake, a cup of hot chocolate and a chocolate, dark chocolate and caramel mousse. So.Good. This place had couches and tables for you to sit at and just relax and have your chocolate.

What we did:
Hiked- We tried to hike some spots along the Blue Ridge Parkway, but almost the entire stretch was closed either for weather conditions or construction. We went to Dupont National Forest to Hooker Falls and Triple Falls and we also went to Looking Glass Falls in Pisgah National Forest. When I say hiked, I meant walked through the woods and up some steep hills. We are not experienced hikers.

Visited the Biltmore Estate-We both really enjoyed the Biltmore Estate. I got tickets to visit the Winery and the Gardens during the day and then tickets to tour the house at night when it was lit by candlelight. It was amazing! The Christmas lights were up and it was beautiful. I loved the history behind the house and the Vanderbilt family. Definitely worth the money.

Got massages- Best massage ever!!! We went to Spa Theology in downtown Asheville. I made the appointments weeks ago and the staff was awesome! We got into robes and had our massages. We got to pick our own oils and my massage was heavenly, just heavenly. Afterwards we took showers there and got ready to go to dinner. They had Bumble & Bumble products for us to use and the shower and locker rooms were so nice. I didn't want to leave. I could absolutely spend an entire day at a spa.

Shopped- We went in a ton of shops, I'll never remember all of them, but I know we went to Mast General Store in downtown Asheville, O.P. Taylor toy store near the Biltmore Estate, Just Ducky, William and Grace (both children's shops)in Historic Biltmore Village, Urban Outfitters where Joey and I laughed until we cried looking at the books they have.

Hot tubbed- Our cabin had a hot tub and every night we got in it and stared up at the stars. It was on the back porch and looked out over the side of a mountain. I am so glad I went with the cabin instead of a B&B or a hotel.

Drove around- We got lost a few times, but with such beautiful scenery, we didn't mind it. The mountains, pastures, hillsides, old farms, fruits stands on the side of the road were all beautiful and I am so jealous of the people who live there and get to look at it all the time.

Where we stayed:
We stayed at Rooster Ridge cabin in Hendersonville, NC. It was about 25-30 minutes SE of Asheville. It got old driving into town, but I'm glad we stayed where we did. It was private, quiet, gorgeous, less expensive and I pictured us staying in a log cabin in the mountains so it was worth it.

Notes:

The last day of our trip (today) it SNOWED!!!! It was so beautiful!!! Picture it...a hilly pasture with mountains in the distance, a few horses, a small wooden stable surrounded by a wood fence, all of it covered in snow. It was so gorgeous! I wish I had made Joey stop the car so I could take pictures, but I was too busy dreaming about one day owning a cabin in the North Carolina mountains. (Sigh)

Every restaurant we went to had a regular menu and a vegetarian menu. They all also claimed to use organic ingredients from local suppliers. The chocolate lounge even bought mint from a local elementary school garden to make their mint chocolate truffles. Those hippies are pretty cool ;)

The people in Asheville were really friendly and we felt safe in even at night in downtown Asheville.

I want to go back when its warmer and do all the fun outdoor stuff like white-water rafting, ziplining through the forest, horseback riding, Chimney Rock, etc. A lot of the outdoor attractions were closed. The Blue Ridge Parkway, Mount Mitchell and Chimney Rock all had closures at their most popular stops :(

Overall, we loved Asheville and definitely plan to return!!!

All the pics are on Facebook...I'm too lazy to put them all up here too, so here are a couple of my favs.

Santa' s Village.

We took Finley to Santa's Village in downtown Huntsville tonight. They set up an area called Constitution Village as Santa' Village. It was really cute. They had real reindeer, a stage with dancing penguins and snowmen. They had Santa's Workshop, a place to decorate Christmas cookies, Christmas music piped in, an icicle maze, fake snow blowing over the village every 20 minutes, I could go on and on. They had it all! We got in line to let Finley sit on Santa's lap and she started fussing because she just wanted to walk around. So we left and went back later armed with a cookie and she did great. She sat on Santa's lap and told him (in Jibberish of course) what she wanted for Christmas. He just nodded and smiled. Who knows? Maybe he understood what she said. He is Santa Claus after all ;)