It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Oh wait... no. No, it's not actually.

Yes, it's currently 43 degrees outside and rainy. A-typical for the week before Christmas in Ohio, but then again, what really is considered "typical" weather around here? One really never knows what it will actually be like. According to the Weather Channel, the average temperature for mid-December is around ten degrees lower than what it's forecasted to be today. I wonder if we'll have a white Christmas? I'm not going to bet on it.

Speaking of Christmas, you know how people sometimes abbreviate it "X-mas" ("eks-mas")? Well, I just recently found out that contrary to what some believe is an attempt to take the "Christ out of Christmas" it's actually based on the Greek letter "X" (Chi), which was the first letter of the Greek word Khristos (Χριστóς), meaning Christ. So anyhoo, X actually = Christ, SO when you abbreviate using X-mas, it's still supposed to be Christmas. ::shrug::

You can read more on this theory, as well as other proposed meanings on Wikipedia.

P.S. All that above reference to Greek etymology makes me feel like I'm spoofing the father from My Big Fat Greek Wedding who is always trying to find the root of modern English terms in ancient Greek language.

Kimono, kimono, kimono. Ha! Of course! Kimono is come from the Greek word
himona, is mean winter. So, what do you wear in the wintertime to stay warm?
A robe. You see: robe, kimono. There you go!

Ha! I love that movie...

Now - after all that randomness - here's the weekend re-cap!

Friday - As soon as I got home from work, Mark and I got started on cooking (me) and cleaning (Mark) for the get together we were hosting at our house Saturday. I baked a Red Velvet cake (for cake balls) made Black Bean and Corn Salsa (oh... I'll have to post that recipe), Sangria, mixed up the filling for these little Phyllo tartlets that I made, mixed up some Ranch dip (for a crudite platter), annnnnd... I don't know, probably something else.

Saturday - We got up early, Mark continued cleaning and got the guest room set up (Yay! We've only lived there a little more than 2 years. Clearly we like to eaaase into things...) and I finished up all of the food for the party, which ended up being - chips and Black Bean and Corn Salsa, queso, buffalo chicken dip, sour cream and jalapeno phyllo cups/tartletts, crudite platter, 7-layer dip, Sangria, and various wine (leftover from the wedding - score!). THEN, the girls made it to the house and we proceeded to have a blast!

Sunday - After everyone left : ( We went to Mark's Mom's house for her annual Holiday Open House party. It was lots of fun! I wish I had brought my camera because her decorations are so gorgeous!

*Sigh* And now it's Monday, and it's the week before Christmas, and I'm slammed at work. Of course I'm not even half-way finished with Christmas shopping even though I TRIED to finish early this year. The holiday really just sneaks up on ya!

I'm really looking forward to my 2.5 day work week next week(!) (have I mentioned how much I love working in private industry?) and, I'm also really looking forward to making some yummy holiday treats with my fab KitchenAid mixer : )