I LOVE Christmas!

I love everything about Christmas: the music, the lights, the decorations, wrapping presents, COOKIES, and the good moods and kindness that comes in December!  I even like the snow, for the most part...although I would be okay if it left as soon as Christmas was over... :)

We don't have a lot of space to work with in our apartment but here are some pictures of our the decorating that took place this weekend!

Our little tree for our little apartment!

Top of the bookshelf

Table next to our couch.  The table runner on the table was made by my Godmother, you cannot see it very well in this picture but it is really pretty!

The kitchen table.  Ben's family did Christmas early and I received this from his parents.  

How can Christmas NOT make you happy?????!!!!!

Date Ideas - Nerd Date

Last Spring the MN Science Museum had a pirate exhibit.  Ben, with his ship fascination, really wanted to go check out the pirates.  We went to the museum and when exploring our options we decided to buy a year membership as it would pay for itself if we visited the museum only one more time (I attached a link to the membership info here).  That night we went through the pirate exhibit, since that took two hours we didn't have time to check out the regular/permanent exhibits.  

Yesterday, Ben and I have a free Saturday (these are extremely hard to come by) so we decided to go explore the permanent exhibits and the omnitheater show.  My favorite part was the omnitheater presentation: Tornado Alley.  We spent two hours at the museum and watched the movie and only went through about 50% of the permanent exhibits.  It was so much fun going through the museum and playing with all the exhibits, checking out the dinosaurs, and learning about the Mississippi river.  Needless to say we will need to go back to see the rest!  I would also like to go back in January since the BodyWorld will be the special exhibit.  

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I love anything pumpkin: pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes from Starbucks, pumpkin muffins etc. etc. I needed an appetizer or dessert to bring to a get together and since it is fall, the season of pumpkin goodness, I chose Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I found the recipe on Pinterest (lets be honest, what do I not find on Pinterest???).  Thank you to the author of the blog http://www.shetknows.com for this recipe, I made a few changes and they came out great, if I do say so myself!

• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin pie filling
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour (I used one cup whole wheat and one cup white)
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 package mini semi-sweet chocolate chips (12 ounces)
• Cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray your cookie sheet with cooking spray.
2. Mix pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil and egg. In a separate bowl, mix flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking soda, milk and vanilla.
3. Mix the 2 bowls together. Add in chocolate chips.
4. Drop spoon size dough balls onto the cookie sheet, about an inch apart. Bake for about 12 minutes (insert toothpick and if it comes out clean, they are done!).

Nutritional Info: 

Per cookie (I made 30 cookies):

Calories - 152      Carbs - 21g      Fat - 7g      Protein - 2g

***When I make these again I will probably not use as many chocolate chips, I think 1/2 to 3/4 of a bag would be sufficient

The start of a hobby?

I seem to have a lot more time on my hands now than I have really ever had before so I thought I need a hobby and why not write a blog???  Also, I am beginning to realize that it seems as if everyone has a blog except me, and since I don't like to be left out here goes nothing :)

I am not at all sure what the focus of my blog is going to be but I do know that I enjoy reading blogs related to cooking, working out and traveling.  I also like the idea that a blog acts as a text and picture "scrapbook".   With that being said, my blog will probably end up being a conglomeration of all those things.

Happy reading, hope I don't bore you too much ;)