meatball

this child gets bigger every time i see her. which is the case with most kids but seriously. this one is starting to look older not just in height but all over the place. it's weirding me out. she had hair going all the way down her back and she cut it off for locks of love- eleven inches total. and now she has this cute little bob thing going. and she's losing teeth! my little baby cousin! we played american idol and the princess game and i spy all weekend. she's adorable. and it's so funny to see her interact with her brothers all of whom are older than her by at least ten years. they're equal parts annoyed by and protective of her. awwww family dynamics!

weigel christmas

i'll be in pittsburgh until monday celebrating with my mom's side of the family. this is just a small sampling of the ridiculously wonderful christmas i had with my weigel side. it was full of absurdly good food and cozy winterwear. i got two new cameras! that big ol' sucker is a nikon d5000 and the cute little blue and black one is a diana mini. the nikon has a food setting so expect even more food pictures than usual. i won't be able to blog until i get back so until then, have a very merry christmas, eat a lot, and take a bunch of naps.

suburban christmas

sorry for the lack-o-bloggin'. i've been hanging out with these nerds far too much. it majorly snowed on saturday so we took advantage of the weather and got some pictures for our annual christmas newsletter. we then proceeded to write the newsletter in a matter of two hours (which is incredible because it normally is dragged out over several weeks). the result was a yearbook-style christmas update complete with yearbookyourself.com pictures, family superlatives, and highlights of the year at 'weigel high'. at the time it was hilarious. thinking about it now, i think a lot of the people we sent it to will think there's a gas leak in our house. the product of much cabin fever. we still had an excellent time putting it together. so whatever haters.

all the rave

so temple had a 'rave' last sunday night on top of one of the academic buildings. over 2,000 people rsvp'd on facebook but only about 300 or so showed up. and of that 300, only about 60 were dancing. awwkkwarrddddd. but still fun. we only stayed for about fifteen minutes because it's very weird to dance with so many people watching you and not dancing. but i think it is pretty sweet that the whole thing was organized via facebook and people actually showed up. sign of the times yo.

dorm christmas oh nine!

last sunday we had our magical secret santa dorm gift swap. mercahdaize made turkey chilli and liz brought mashed potato casserole (sooooo goooooood!). we found out who our secret santas were and exchanged gifts. it was so perfect- everyone got such personal gifts. mary was my secret santa and she got me a spatula, santa shot glass, the terrible christmas bear sweater pictured above (it says 'rudi' and looks like there's a centipede crawling all over the outside of the bear), and four incredible plastic harry potter watches from hong kong. perfect. i love that we know each other well enough to know what everyone loves. perrrffecctooooo.

things stoners love

1. telling you that famous person x is/was also a stoner.
2. recounting hilarious stoner tales
3. weed
4. seven11/wawa/sheetz
5. making you listen to 'this new band i found'
6. doing their project on 'why marijuana should be legalized'

hard c's (+ miss gibson) take on the big apple!

went to nyc last friday with corrie, christine, keiran, and (k)alex. keiran acted as our tour guide and took us through the tourist-y christmas highlights we were all craving. it was negative one thousand degrees outside so we stopped at h&m to buy gloves and tights for under our jeans. we saw some glorious window displays, tried on ridiculously expensive dresses at saks, oo'ed&ahh'ed over the tree at rockafeller center, drooled over the ceiling at the new york public library, checked out the tim burton exhibit at moma, ate too much candy at fao shwartz, and finished it all off with greasy food at tick tock diner. even the bus ride there and back was an adventure. i love those homies- everyone is so go-with-the-flow and have-a-good-time. it was just a fun trip that really got me in the mood for christmas. sooooo close! let the countdown commence!

COOKIE DAYYYY

(sorry about the lack of blogging. there has been far too much living going on.)

THURSDAY WAS COOKIE DAYYY! and what a glorious day it was. we went to cousins ghetto grocery store and stocked up on all the cookie baking necessities including four packs of butter and three cartons of eggs. i made chocolate crinkles (recipe below) and the sugar cookies before i went into a cookie-dough-induced coma and plopped on the couch. spent the rest of cookie day knitting and watching christmas movies. i went to see an education with brad later in the night. while the movie itself was alright, the costumes completely made it. they were incredible. absolutely beautiful. this one is my favorite. i might try to make it over winter break though i've had less than positive experiences with chiffon in the past. . .

in case you're in a baking mood, here's the recipe for my favorite christmas cookies (or anytime cookies i suppose):

Chocolate Crinkles
(aka Choco Macaroons)
(my family calls them macaroons despite the fact that they really aren't macaroons at all.)

1/2 cup shortening

4 1oz squares unsweetened chocolate

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

Melt shortening and choc together in saucepan over medium low heat. Add sugar to choc stirring until sugar is no longer grainy. Remove from heat and add eggs one at a time. Blending well after each egg. Stir in vanilla. Blend all dry ingredients together and add to choc mixture. Blend thoroughly. Chill dough 2-3 hours. Form rounded teaspoon of dough into ball and roll in powdered sugar. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. (cookies should be soft from the oven)

enjoy! substitue cookies for your normal diet like i've been doing! it puts you in a wonderful christmasy mood! and gives you a slight stomach ache and the feeling of regret. but it's still worth doing.

every day feels like sunday

oh what a weekend. december, you continue to prove yourself a far superior month than the other eleven. highlights and recaps:

insane dance parties at the hipster house. i'm pretty sure someone put crisco all over the kitchen floor. because it was treacherous.

saw some folk-y bands play at a friends house. there was a whole harp there! a huge friggin old time-y legit harp! and the girl played it so well!

danced a lot at the folk party too. and took a lot of pictures with this copy of the duchess?

probably the best dancers. ever.

this girl is my favorite- her name is katie thomas and she does an awesome cover of kanye's 'gold digger' so good. she's also ridiculously nice. hipster house was mustauche themed! so we threw together some quick cheater mustauches. because my regular mustauche takes at least two days to cultivate. and i just simply didn't have time.

made pineapple-upside-down cake for matt's christmas party!
i love going to parties with food and themes. feels like grown-up parties.
b.cozz and lindsay were in attendance as well.
this is my failed plate of jigglers. still good.

other highlights not capturesd on film:

• keiran and i made ugly christmas sweatshirts
• salty bob bit my finger (i was trying to fish hook him because he gave me a wet willy) and now i have a pinched nerve
• i went to the improv team audition. i think it went well- not sure if i'll make the team but it was worth it just to get back into improv. i forgot how much i enjoy doing it. plus a mutual friend of mine and the theatre kids from home was there who i didn't even know went to temple and she's hilarious and super nice. score all around.
• it snowed!
• i watched four christmas movies yesterday including muppet christmas carol and a year without a santa clause!
  
• hung out with brad after eight-five bajillion years
• almost done with all my school work (half a paper and a debate to do then i'm home free!)
• i bought a new pez dispenser today. it's rex from toy story. yes? yes. success.
• new friends!
• old friends!
• in love with everything!
• especially this bullet thing! i love this format! that's all!
  

december kick-off

ahh december. you certainly have started off on the right foot. day one and already you were full of irish bread made from grandma mary's old recipe, english toffee bars, sleepy best friends, and santa clause viewing parties. day two was a whirlwind of activities and i got to check check check things off my list which is probably the best feeling in the world. then we saw ted leo and it was an absolutely swoon worthy performance. we danced despite the fact that we were in a crowd of standers. (how do you go to a concert and NOT dance? i don't understand it. more on this later.)

conclusion: i like you december.