Desserts and shopping

My last week or so can be summarized well with desserts and shopping.  Desserts because I spent most of Saturday baking a few treats for my pre-birthday get together (I made lemon bars, cheesecake-ish bars, a raspberry trifle, and a heath bar cake from scratch, along with brownies from a box) - and eating lots of them since then - and shopping because I've been filling most of my free time trying to finish up our Christmas shopping.  I love gifts.  And no, not just getting them, I love giving them.  And since we aren't as "wealthy" as years past (hello student loans!  I don't think you cover holiday spending...), I've spent a bit more time making some (hopefully) nice gifts for our family and friends.  Matt and I even spent about 25 hours trapped in our recording studio mini-office recording a few Christmas songs for some folks.  Not the highest of quality, but we're happy to have them :)  In case I haven't mentioned it a thousand times, my husband is beyond talented! Here are a few samples...

O Come, O Come Emmanuel:


White Christmas:


The official countdown is T-4 days until the big 3-0.  I'm getting more and more used to the sound of it, but still not quite excited about it!  We'll be doing a big celebration in the mountains next month with some friends (I absolutely can't wait for it), but since we weren't able to invite everyone, we had folks over for drinks and desserts this past Saturday.  It was so wonderful to have so many friends come by (even one who was in from New York and surprised me by coming by for awhile!  Thanks Dave :) )

Here are a few pics from the great night.  It's always presents a few difficulties when not everyone knows each other (hence why Matt isn't in any pictures - he was a real trooper mingling all night and trying to help people meet each other), but I am grateful that everyone was there and seemed to have a good time. :)

I am beyond excited to host Christmas at our house this year - as I mentioned in another post, both of my parent-sets are coming to celebrate at our home, and though it may be interesting, I'm so happy to have everyone together.  I'm looking forward to making some delicious food and hopefully just having a great time together.

And the last bit of news is that Matt's sister Sara got engaged a few days ago!  She's such a gorgeous, smart, fun, and fabulous woman - I hope Dave knows how lucky and blessed he is to snatch her up! ;)