Merry Christmas, Baby!

Merry Christmas, Baby,
You still don't have a name - I'm sorry! I promise we'll have that settled by the time you arrive (just don't come too early), but for now you're still "little guy." Anyway...as you will learn, this is my absolute favorite time of year, and it has been even more special having you around. Your dad and I keep talking about how Christmas is just going to get more and more fun from here on out.

You are almost always on the move, and everyone can see you moving through my clothes. Sometimes, I'll curl up behind your dad at night and press my belly into his back so he can feel your break dancing too. Your dad plays music for you every night too. We're working our way through the alphabet - we've covered Alison Krauss and Allen Toussaint through Dire Straits and Dr. John. Next up - Elton John and Eric Clapton. 

It's starting to feel very real, this whole becoming a family of three thing. We can't wait to meet you, and we spend an inordinate amount of time asking each other, "What do you think he'll be like?" We generally settle on awesome. Only ten weeks or so until we get to confirm it. Ten weeks until our lives are changed forever. And we can't wait.

Love, 
Me

Happy Halloween!

I'm popping in for a belly bump update (Halloween edition) before the trick-or-treaters start rolling in...

{21 Weeks}

 

 

It's been quite a while since I was all that into Halloween, but it is the first official holiday of the season, and I do love a good pumpkin carving sesh.

{Carving pumpkins with Mom, just like the old days}

Boom!

Unrelated, I cannot get enough of this dog. She is pretty much perfection on four legs, so I bought her me this festive canine bandana as a special holiday treat.

 

Happy Halloween, witches!

Happy Valentine's Day

Yeah, yeah, Hallmark holiday, consumerism, blah, blah... I do. Not. Care. Any opportunity to get my holiday on is alright by me. I feel a little silly decorating for non-Christmas holidays since it's just us, but what the hell? 
 

{Valentine's decorating from years past}

Side note: As soon as we add some mini Cusis to the family, I may have to be restrained. There will be holiday crafts galore! St. Patrick's Day, Flag Day, Dr. Seuss's Birthday... Apparently June 6th is National Yo-Yo Day... I mean, come on! The possibilities are endless! I may even let Tom tell them about Star Wars Day (That would be May 4th for you non-nerds, as in May the Fourth be with you... Groan. On second thought, maybe we'll skip that one.) Bottom line - as soon as we add a baby to the mix - it's gonna get real festive up in here. Babies like appreciate holidays, right?

Anyway - point is, a couple of weeks ago, I got out my clay, my heart cookie cutter, and my alphabet stamps and got to work... First I used the non-terrible conversation heart sayings. [There are a lot of terrible ones. "URA10?" Gross. "Tweet Me?" Just...no.] Then I went on to more personal ones - our wedding date, inside jokes, etc. Then I had the brilliant (according to me) idea to look for inspiration in a list of Prince song titles at which point this became a slightly more risque craft... 

The whole project took me a couple of weeks because as much as I love a good craft, I don't tend to think them all the way through, sooo many missteps. In the batch pictured above, I forgot to poke holes for the string to hang the things on. In another batch, the holes were too small and I broke a bunch of them trying to force the string through. Then there was the whole challenge of figuring out how best to paint them... So after several crafting sessions/Call the Midwife marathons (Watch it!), I ended up with forty-something pink and red hearts, which I strung on some red and white bakers twine.

 

Despite starting this project at the end of January, I only actually hung these babies up two days ago. I'm definitely going to have to work on my efficiency. We'll see how long Tom feels like celebrating...

In other news, the end of January brought some changes to Casa Cusimano... Tom is no longer at the Corporation That Shall Remain Nameless. While this has some obvious downsides, it also means that we get to enjoy a brief period of extra QT while he prepares for the next great thing. This is particularly lovely on Valentine's Day when I got to take advantage of having my man around for a cozy, indulgent breakfast. 

As I may have mentioned, I love a holiday...hence, heart(ish)-shaped pancakes.

In a rarely achieved moment of perfect timing, I am wrapping this post up as my multi-talented, super sweet husband is putting the finishing touches on lobster tail and baked oysters. I am a lucky girl...

{Had to share this angle so that everyone can have a glimpse of Herman, Tom's childhood bear, who wears Hawaiian-print short-alls and lives on his bedside table. Unrelated - is that crooked lampshade making anyone else's eye twitch?}

Happy February 15th!

I started working on this after dinner last night, but Tom wanted my full attention on cuddling and Downton Abby watching. He pointed out that my Christmas post came roughly six weeks late, so publishing my Valentine's post a day or two late would be a great triumph. I could hardly argue with that, so...

I ended up taking my desire for more honeysuckle and less beige literally over the last week or two by breaking out the paints and construction paper and pink-ifying everything around here. 

Paints plus excessive Pinteresting led to a burst of craftiness that resulted in some redecorating. I started with a project inspired by copied from here. The heart looks black, but I swear it's a really deep red.

{Beyond My Wildest Dreams is the title of our first dance song.}

Then I stole this idea and painted some watercolor hummingbirds. I'm pretty sure that I came up with the multi-lingual I love you painting myself, but I may have absorbed that from the internet too.

{The San Diego coastline print on the left was a gift from Mo, and on the right is my fledgling globe collection.}

Valentine's Day was lovely in these parts. I gave Tom an oversized novelty card from 7-11, and he brought home calla lilies and made an amazing dinner of oysters and filet with a blueberry bourbon sauce. So yeah...he won. But that's as it should be.

{Oysters and steak don't really photograph well, but it was divine.}

I really do have the best valentine.

Merry Christmas!

My computer suffered a tragic fall, and as a result, it is running incredibly slow, so I must be brief or this will take an hour. Our Christmas season in photos.

We bought a tree, and we named him Giuseppe Martini.

{Let's pause and notice how three of my favorite things are captured in this photo: Les Mis, NPR, and Christmas trees}

We decorated Giuseppe in a style befitting his name.

We went ice skating and to a Batman exhibit, as one does.

Merry Christmas!!

Finally Fall and Thanksgiving

Fall snuck up on my this year, but once I realized that it was here, I dove in. Pumpkin scented candles were purchased, zucchini bread was baked, boots were purchased, and cozy sweaters are in full effect.

Among the palm trees, there is proof of fall to be found.

I got a head start on Thanksgiving and headed to Coronado on Tuesday, just in time to see my dad make his official entrance into the Rotary. Baller.

Thanksgiving itself involved lots of my favorite things: time at the beach, champagne, traditions, Christmas decoration peeping, family dinner, board games and lots of and lots of delicious food.

I'm so thankful for this guy. Seriously, he's the best.

And, man oh man, do I love this dog. She's practically levitating she's so happy.

Back when we first started dating, my parents and sisters were still on the East Coast so Tom and I were on own for Thanksgiving. This lovely self-timer shot captures our first Thanksgiving together:

{Hopefully I paid my roommates that $17 I owed...}

Since it doesn't take too long to cook up a few turkey breast roll-ups, we always had plenty of time to fill on Turkey Day so we started going to the Del in the afternoon to check out the Christmas decorations and sip overpriced holiday-themed cocktails on the beach. Pretty sure this was my idea, but Tom is a good sport and we've done it every Thanksgiving for the past six years. So after we wore Lucy out, we headed to the Del.

{This year's theme - A Time to Celebrate}

After the Del, it was back to my parents' for the main event where Mo and Buckley were keeping it old school with full costumes.

 We also started a new Thanksgiving tradition - pre-dinner beer tasting.

Because my mom is the best and she still keeps all of my holiday crafts despite the fact that I am almost 32, the Thanksgiving garland I made last year was in effect again.