The gist of the scarf swap is that you are assigned a swap partner, and you buy each other something you think the other person would like. My swap partner was Kristabella. I’ve never met her in real life, but we’ve gotten to know each other online over the past few years. If 2012 isn’t the year we meet up, I guess it’s not meant to be.

She and I discussed our scarf preferences and went our separate directions to buy. Here’s what I chose for her. Something she could wear in cold-ish winters, but also fashionably.

And a few days after I sent that scarf off to her, I found a package at my door. I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be so crazy if we bought each other the same scarf!” Then I thought realistically, “Overstock.com has lots of scarves, so just because the package looks similar, doesn’t mean it’s the same.”

But y’all! Look what I got!

We picked the SAME SCARF! I got her the one that’s more purple, and she got me the one that’s more red! And we both love them!

I’m really excited about this because I really liked the scarf I picked for her, and strongly considered buying one for myself. Now I don’t have to!

How crazy is that!!!

(If you like the scarf enough to get one for yourself, it’s called the Cotton Bina Scarf in the Worldstock section of Overstock.com. Kristin and I even helped support education in Nepal with our scarf swap purchases.)

We’ll skip all the details of mixing the dough and get down to the kneading,  which you have to do a precise way. And a precise number of times. See how confused we look?

After you let the dough sit for a few minutes, you cut it into strips, and then pinch off enough to roll into a long worm. Then you wrap the dough worm around a thin little stick (as thin as spaghetti almost) in a spiral, and then you roll that on the counter to flatten it into the shape (which is like a flat spiral I guess). Our teacher made it look SO easy.

Here’s the finished product, pre-cooking. We made at least 5 pans of these, which is no easy feat.

Here’s a video of the process. I’m really happy one of the guys at the place picked up the camera and filmed us doing this. You can also hear Cherrye translating for us in the background. And by the end, despite our limited Italian skills, we knew if we were in trouble by the teacher.

Another of our lovely cooking lesson teachers helped us make eggplant parmesan and stuffed zucchini.

Baby Max even got in on the fun.

After a little appetizer of cedro soda and chicory on toasted bread, it was time to eat.

And we ate lunch for about 3 hours. The pasta was delicious (even though I wasn’t adventurous enough to eat more than a few bites of the sauce cooked with goat meat.)

Fresh made fusilli.

Peppers.

Stuffed zucchini.

Eggplant Parmesan.

There was plenty of wine and after dinner, homemade limoncello. And after everything, we even tried homemade bay leaf liquor. And yes, bay leaf liquor tastes as strange as it sounds.

After we were thoroughly stuffed, we got back on the train for a few hours headed toward Cherrye and Peppe’s house!

So for probably two hours, my mom, sister and I got a kick out of looking at all my mom’s stuff. From the fancy to the ridiculous. It was so fun! Want to see how much fun it was?

My mom had spectacular taste in HUGE costume jewelry back in the early 90s. This is just a small sampling.

Swirly AND clip on! Also comes in a darker purple version.

My sister is much better at posing than I am. Hand painted baby!

Hello rainbow!

Her modeling style is more ambivalent. “What, I didn’t even know you were there taking a picture of me and these awesome earrings.”

Mine on the other hand is more aware/awkward.”Oh hi, let me tilt my head just so. I want you to be able to see the earrings, not my double chin.”

Look, these are so huge they actually have their own shadow.

Mom was such a good sport about it all and even got in on some of the modeling.

After all the fun, and being the good daughter I am, I brought home some of her old silver stuff and polished it up for her. Here’s just a sample. (The pictures are kinda crappy, but you can definitely see a big difference!)

We also went through some of my memaw’s old costume jewelry. When she was alive, people would always ask her if her rings were real. She’s always tell them yes. And of course, they are real rings!

After she died, I brought some things to a jeweler to be sized for my mom, and when I went to pick the things up, the jeweler very quietly brought me aside. “You know this big stone in the middle isn’t real, right?” I laughed a little bit, and said, “Yes, I know. Thank you though.”

Anyway, I’d really recommend getting together with your mom (or grandma or aunts or any other family members) and having her go through her jewelry box. She’ll have plenty of stories to tell about everything, and you’ll probably recognize some of the pieces from when you were growing up. Even Taylor saw how much fun we were having and asked his mom to go through her jewelry box with me sometime.

And in case you are dying to own any of those earrings, let me know. I currently have them (and many more) in my possession. We could strike a deal.

I have been lucky that there haven’t been many crappy days since I got my very own crappy day package. But then again, I was off work for almost two weeks for Christmas and the New Year.

Right before I had to go back to work, I opened this one with chocolate! And hot chocolate! And an awesome handmade coaster/pot holder.

Today was just a rough day. Not the worst by any means, but I woke up with the same headache I went to bed with, and I didn’t sleep particularly well overall. I had a few issues to deal with at work, nothing so major, but just a little annoying.

So, after Taylor offered to stop at the store to get wine and ice cream, (wine for me, ice cream for him…he had a busy day too) I came home and opened another present. This one was really awesome. MORE hot chocolate!! And two really neat, tiny, framed silk paintings. I can’t decide where I want to put them just yet, but I really love them.

That Carmen really knows how to put together an awesome gift package.

Not that I want crappy days to happen, but I could definitely get used to this present thing when I’m feeling down.

This year Taylor and I :

Moved into a new apartment, and survived.
Celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary.

Visited

• New Orleans (March)
• New York (May)

And I:

Completed a 2nd Warrior Dash, without barfing

Celebrated

• New Year’s Day in New York City
• My 30th birthday

Cooked – Not as much as I would have liked. Learned how to cook risotto.

Visited

• Italy (July)
• Austin (October)

Read

• Room

Harry Potter Series

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow

Started but couldn’t finish

• The Pioneer Woman, Black Heels to Tractor Wheels
• Chelsea Handler, Chelsea, Chelsea Bang Bang

Watched

• True Blood (Seasons 3)
• Lots of How I Met Your Mother &  Big Bang Theory
• Tosh.0
• The New Girl
• Lots of Intervention, Addicted and Obsessed

Listened to/Discovered Music – Again, not all new stuff, but I love all the same.

• Matt & Kim – Cameras
• Eric Hutchinson – Sounds Like This
• Freelance Whales – Weathervanes
• Discovery – Discovery LP
• Ke$ha – Animal
• Grouplove – Never Trust a Happy Song
• Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
• O.A.R. – King

And talking about 2011 wouldn’t be complete with a special new category.

Developed Friendships

• I became closer to friends I already had while planning our trip and traveling to Italy together.
• I also met new friends at the Blathering. Some of them I think will be friends for a very long time.

Can’t wait to see what 2012 has in store!

Having both halves could mean I didn’t have anyone to give the other half to, but judging on the state of the “Friends” half, maybe I had two best friends!

I also have half a “FRIENDS FOREVER” necklace. When I was in high school, my German pen pal and her family had a layover in Houston when they were on vacation, so we met up at the airport. This was back before the mega security, so we could go to one of the restaurants in their terminal. We exchanged a few gifts with each other, and so maybe wherever she is now, she’s still got the other half.

I also exchanged my fair share of friendship bracelets, but I couldn’t find any in  my jewelry box.

Anyone else still have some of these childhood artifacts? Were you more a bracelet or necklace best friend?

I was lucky enough to get to meet him when he was only about 6 weeks old. And then again when I was in Italy during the summer – he was an awesome 6 month old. Cherrye came to town around August, so I got to see him at 8 months too.

And most recently, baby Max celebrated his 1 year birthday in the USA! I was lucky enough to be able to attend his party (and take almost 200 pictures…oops!).

Here is the proud mama, papa and baby boy!

This Dr. Seuss party was so cool. Cherrye planned everything down to the last detail. (Including that balloon wreath on the door!)

Guests enjoyed Roast Beast and Ham I Am sandwiches, Green Eggs, and many other Seussical dishes.

Everyone in attendance wrote happy wishes for the birthday boy inside the book. Party favors were travel chalkboards that all the kids loved!

Of course, the birthday boy had his very own birthday hat. Doesn’t he look so handsome?! (We’ll take bets on both how long it took to put the hat on AND how long it stayed on. Ready, go!)

The birthday boy really loved opening presents.

And attempting to eat the paper.

And at the end asking for more.

He had his own cake.

But, he’s very good at sharing.

And he’s very good at looking cute, even with frosting and cake all over his face.

He’s also VERY good at finishing everything on his plate. Almost.

I am very lucky to be friends with Cherrye and Peppe. And of course the birthday boy.

Happy 1st birthday Max!

I also once had a dream about an evil snowman that I thought was in my room, at the foot of my bed and wanted to get my sister. I remember sleeping with my head under the covers all night, because I was afraid he was still out there.

Taylor never really dreams, or at least they aren’t anything he remembers when we wakes up. But I almost always have something to tell him about my dreams.

A couple of nights ago it was a good dream. There was a big party, with a bunch of family and friends. Even people I haven’t seen in forever. I thought the party was a going away party for my friends Cherrye and Peppe. But it turned out that the party was for me too, and that all the family and friends had pooled their money for me to be able to go to visit Italy too! They all knew how much I wanted to go. (Side note 1: In real life, they had just left to go back home to Italy that same day, so I had been thinking about them a good bit. Side note 2: Friends, family, now you know what to get me if you are ever stumped for a gift idea!)

Then last night I had a weird dream. In my dream, someone was making bacon out of strips of human skin. Only, in the dream it wasn’t gruesome, it was normal. And people walked around without their skin. That was normal, and kind of cool. But then, they also made clothes out of the human skin bacon. Like, skin bacon shirts and skirts. Flowy skirts of raw human bacon. Sorry, I’ll stop now. It’s all very strange indeed.

When I told Taylor, he threatened that I wouldn’t be allowed to read anymore before bed if I keep having strange dreams.  It’s only the Hunger Games. (He might have also been creeped out a little bit.)

So, now it is your turn to tell me about your dreams!

We have an automatic ice maker in our freezer. It has a little arm that sticks out so if it fills up, it stops making ice. Simple enough.

My argument is that we never use all the ice in there anyway, so I never let it fill up. I will physically pull up the little arm to make it stop when the bucket is about half full. If it gets particularly low, I’ll lower the arm so it will make more ice.

His argument is that it is automatic for a reason. Just let it fill up and let the arm do its job.

I guess I could let it go, and it wouldn’t really matter but, I don’t like to let it fill up is that since we don’t use it all. The ice on the bottom will get all gross, there is greater potential for all the cubes to fuse together into a huge ice block and we’d just have to dump it all out.

So we continue to play this cat and mouse game of putting the arm up and down.

What’s your take?

Do you and your spouse have any friendly disagreements?

Today is my first day back from the Christmas break.

Hope y’all have a beautiful day!

(For those checking in through a reader, sorry I published too early!)