"Get a little warm in my heart when I think of winter..."

So, for those of you who may not watch the news and think of me, the Great Northwest has been hit with its first winter storm. Definitely some parts got hit worse than others. As for the boyfriend and I: some torrential rain, a little snow and some damn freezing temperatures.

Guess what that means?!

Lots of snuggling with the boyfriend :)

Seriously, yesterday was below freezing. Minus a brief foray into the craziness outside, we spent the day at home doing some cleaning. The fun thing about helping the boyfriend clean and sort through things he has in storage is seeing the little clues to his past. A few treasures we stumbled across yesterday:



A magic 8-ball pen



An Oscar Mayer weiner-mobile whistle



A Lego man



A pinball



And the coolest thing EVER!! A "Where in the U.S.A. is Carmen Sandiego?" board game. Can anyone guess what we did last night? Have I mentioned how much I love being a kid again with the boyfriend? Which reminds me...in honor of Thanksgiving tomorrow, here's your holiday Top 9 list.


Top 9 Things I'm Thankful For This Year

(In no particular order...I'm feeling very random today.)



The great love of my life.



Our Netflix membership.



Finding a few more soul mates.



The ability to pursue my passion.



A wonderfully brilliant, healthy and handsome son.



My library membership.



The truest friends a girl could ask for.



A warm roof over my head and a kitchen to cook in.



My health. (As tenuous as it seems some days.)


And now that we're all warm and fuzzy, I should probably say Adieu and start getting stuff ready for tomorrow. Just curious...am I the only one silly enough to be cooking crazy amounts of food?

Have a fantastic holiday y'all. And for my readers who might be in places where tomorrow is not a holiday: Celebrate anyway!! Bring on the wine and Grey Goose ;)

Toodles, my loves!

I challenge you...

“If there is no passion in your life, then have you really lived? Find your passion, whatever it may be. Become it, and let it become you and you will find great things happen FOR you, TO you and BECAUSE of you.” -T. Alan Armstrong


Passion: The state of the mind when it is powerfully acted upon and influenced by something external to itself; the state of any particular faculty which, under such conditions, becomes extremely sensitive or uncontrollably excited; any emotion or sentiment (specifically, love or anger) in a state of abnormal or controlling activity; an extreme or inordinate desire; also, the capacity or susceptibility of being so affected; as, to be in a passion; the passions of love, hate, jealously, wrath, ambition, avarice, fear, etc.; a passion for war, or for drink; an orator should have passion as well as rhetorical skill.

When most people hear "passion" they think of sultry romance novels and, undoubtedly, sex. But, like the definition above states, passion can refer to any strong emotion. When I think of passion, I think of the things that bring me the most joy, the things that I'm passionate about. For instance, I love music, movies, books, reading, writing, the color blue (all shades and variations), singing, panda bears, cartoons and cooking. I could probably come up with more but, for the sake of space, we'll stop the list there :p

Take cooking, for example. I love to do it, it doesn't particularly matter if there's anyone to eat it or not, I'd still cook. I do prefer to cook for others though, whether it's recipes I've hi-jacked from Food Network chefs and put my own little twist on or it's something I've come up with in a mad moment of craving. I adore it all!

Or books. I think I'm a little obsessive about books. I'd have my own library if I could afford it. I like certain authors and strive to collect their complete works as well as exploring new writers and adding to my growing stacks of books. One day I'd like to add a copy of my own novel to that pile...just need to finish writing it first.

Or music. I KNOW I'm obsessive about music. In my perfect little world, music would play constantly, a random variation of new and old rock with a little country thrown in to catch you off guard.

These are just some of my greatest loves, the things, or hobbies, that I thoroughly enjoy and attempt to learn more about at every opportunity. I can always find a new recipe to try out or a new author to read. I can discover little known facts about a band that I love or even stumble across a new artist that tickles my fancy. And that's part of what makes a "passion" so exciting.

What are some of your fascinations? I'd like to hear from you all. Maybe it's collecting sports memorabilia. Or music. Or poetry. Or entertaining. Do you love gardening? Or blogging, even? If you don't think you have a passion, I challenge you to go out and find one...and live life a little more passionately :)