Merry Humason Christmas!

I woke up this morning to the sound of a hair dryer. I live in a house with four other girls, so that's not terribly unusual. I stretched and rolled over... and then realized I had no idea where I was sleeping. Backtrack, backtrack, backtrack... Ah! I'm in Cincinnati. That's right. Sleeping on the futon in what used to be my bedroom. Ok. I closed my eyes again. OH WAIT! It's CHRISTMAS!!! I lay there for a while longer, listening. Mom and Dad were up. No noise from my siblings. Humason Family Tradition Law states that no person may go downstairs on Christmas morning until all parties are showered, dressed, and ready for the day. So instead of going downstairs, I ran into Lisa's room and jumped on her bed. "It'sChristmasIt'sChristmasIt'sChristmasIt'sChristmas!!!!!!" She woke up.

Humason Family Tradition Law has become a little lax in recent years, so Lisa and I came downstairs in our PJs. Other than that, though, our Christmas morning proceeded pretty much like every other Christmas morning I can remember:

Part 1: Stockings

My grandma knitted each of us one of these stockings with our names and birth years on them. Mom's making one for Andrew next year, so he'll officially be part of the family! Once upon a time our stockings were filled with candy and fun little knick knacks, but more recently we've all become practical.

I love that I will use everything in this stocking! No silly stuff that will take up space on a shelf somewhere. 

Part II: Breakfast

After stockings, we light a candle on the Christmas coffee cake (which we ONLY eat on Christmas) and sing happy birthday to Jesus.

Mom never let us eat just the coffee cake, though. We always had to have fruit or yogurt or something with it. Once upon a time I hated that, but now I'll happily take my fruit/Greek yogurt/homemade cinnamon granola parfait.

Part III: Presents

And finally, we open Christmas presents. Lisa and I passed out gifts this year, and then we take turns opening them one by one, from youngest to oldest. It usually takes a couple of hours, and I love every minute of it. (I would post a picture, but the only one I have is sideways and I don't feel like taking the time to figure out how to rotate it. On a different note, I apologize for the terrible photo quality today. I was using my .0000000312 megapixel cell phone camera.) I am blessed to have an incredibly wonderful family, and I love the way we have celebrated Christ's birth by being together every Christmas, not just in physical location, but with quality time together.

I'm taking my stocking with me this year, because in 5 days I'm becoming Mrs. Crisologo! Knowing that next Christmas will probably be completely different than the past 24 makes me a bit nostalgic, but I'm so excited to start new traditions with Andrew next year. Stay tuned for a Merry Crisologo Christmas post in 2012!

We're Together!

Together! Aren't we adorable?

T-minus nine days to the wedding! My last day at Asbury was on Friday, and I will cover nearly 3000 miles by air and car before finally landing in my new life in Des Moines.

 Wedding roadmap. Whew!

I'm writing currently from Andrew's parents' house in Alabama where we are spending a few days with his family before I head home for Christmas. We've filled the week so far with lots of wedding errands, including leaving my engagement ring at the jewler.

Shiny.

We're having it fused to my wedding band, so I won't get to wear it until after the wedding. Don't worry, though, Andrew made sure everyone will know he's staked his claim. If you see me in Cincinnati over Christmas, I'll be wearing this beauty:

Not-as-shiny $9 place-holder

Over and out for now. Merry Christmas Eve Eve Eve Eve!

Banana "Ice Cream"

I like food. I mentioned in my last post that I love to cook. I read food blogs constantly and copy recipes I like into Journler on my Mac. I LOVE how easy this software makes it for me to keep track of my recipes. I can tag recipes by ingredient, label them with different colors, and search the entire recipe collection for key words.

Gray means I've made it, purple means I should make it again, and red means 'try this next!'

One recipe that hasn't made it into Journler yet (mostly because it's so stinkin' easy you don't need a recipe!) is the banana "ice cream" I first heard this idea from the lovely Kelcie Miller. My banana ice cream-making process usually goes something like this:

Shoot, my bananas are turning brown.

In this case, the bananas are brown because Karissa and I both bought bananas at the same time. We eat lots of bananas at our house, but, I mean, not that many. Even with the banana ice cream, banana bread is probably in order.

But not for this banana. This one will be chopped up,

Sprinkled with cinnamon,

and forked.

Smash, smash.

Squish, squish.

All ready!

After a few hours in the freezer, it will come out niiiiice and ice creamy. Some people will stick the banana in the blender to make it more smooth and 'scoopable' like ice cream, but I usually skip that step. Firstly, that means you have to wait longer to eat it. Secondly, then you have to wash the blender.

It actually tastes like ice cream! And you don't have to feel bad about eating it because it's just a banana! TOTALLY a win!

Here We Are!

I have had this blog for several months. I've started introductory posts, saved them as drafts, and never finished them. I've thought of other things I could post, but felt like I couldn't post them until I had introduced myself, my life, and so on. Well, forget it. I'm going to blog whatever I darn well please. Chances are pretty good that if you're reading this, you already know me. If you don't, this post will serve as a pretty decent introduction.

First of all, this is my fiance, Andrew:

I love him:

I also have fun with the Glow Paint iPad App.

Currently Andrew lives by himself in an apartment in Des Moines, where he is studying at Des Moines University to be a podiatrist.

Feet:

I love to cook. When I go up to Des Moines to visit Andrew, I enjoy stuffing his freezer with food. While I like to know that this means he doesn't have to eat peanut butter sandwiches every day, I also love that it means I get to be in a cooking frenzy for a week or so. Fun!

When I am not in Des Moines--and the freezer stock runs low--Andrew is left to fend for himself. He's creative when it comes to typical bachelor fare, though. Cheese toast, for example, is a staple. That's bread + cheese + (sometimes) garlic powder toasted in a toaster oven until it's nice and melty. The disadvantage of cheese toast is that sometimes the texture leaves something to be desired. Melty= mushy. Not good. But not to worry! This creative mind has a solution.

Chex Mix cheese toast! The key, I'm told, is to put the Chex Mix on when the bread is fresh out of the toaster oven so it gets stuck in all the melted cheese. Yum! *crunch*