When the dust settles...

Well, Christmas is now over, and all in all- it could not have been BETTER!!! I put aside my desire for perfection and cuteness, and lived in the moment. Wow! It was great! Pampered Daughter woke up around 6:30am and had her morning bottle then we opened presents. We took our time, let PD rip open the paper on her gifts, played with each gift as we opened them, and just had a fantastic time. All gifts were open by 8am. For the first time ever, Pampered Husband and I set a spending limit for each other, and we both blew it, but we ended up spending about the same. It was just perfect.

After a day of being lazy, it was time for me to tackle my worst enemy- a prime rib. A few years ago I decided to make a prime rib for Christmas dinner and I messed it up royally. I promised to never make it again, and low and behold, I found a new recipe for prime rib that I just had to try this year. This time around, though, I have better tools. My oven has this super cool probe that I can put into the meat, type in the temperature I want it to be, and the oven does all the work. It adjusts the heat and the way it bakes it. Finally, when the probe reaches the right temperature, the oven dings to let me know it is ready. AMAZING! I conquered the prime rib this year. It was delicious.

Many more posts to come about our pampered holiday.

Ikea Adventure

On Saturday morning PH and I got up insanely early, 6:30am, which is our usual time to get up. We took care of the pampered pets and then headed out to Ikea. Pampered Husband has never been to an Ikea. I used to live near one before I moved south, so I have been many times.

When we got there we parked and headed in to the store. The store was not even technically open yet, but there was a long line of people. We found out that they were offering certain pieces for half off, but there were limited quantities. We desperately needed a new television stand and some end tables, so we got in line to see what was available. Low and behold the pieces were perfect, we wanted them. What Ikea did was ingenious, you told the employees which pieces you wanted and then you got a color coded bracelet. Here are mine:

Then you were allowed to go to their cafeteria, which was open. They were serving free breakfast! Yummy! It was really good food, and the price was right. See below:

Finally, around 10ish, the rest of the store opened and we walked around. We didn't need to worry about our furniture purchases because we already had our wristbands. PH was amazed at all of the things Ikea carries and the prices. I think he bought like 3 store tree things for $0.99 each. I think we looked around for a couple of hours then picked up our furniture. It barely fit in PH's little car, but we made it home.

Now it was time to assemble the furniture. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband, but when it comes time to put that kind of stuff together he knows his role- sit on the sofa and try not to bother me while I do it. He made a really funny comment while I was working on the TV stand, "If I were putting this thing together by now I would have lost pieces, pieces would be scratched or broken, or it would be in the pond in the courtyard." The funny thing about this statement is the fact that it is so true!

It took me two hours to put the silly thing together. It was super easy, there were just a million parts to it. I don't think the TV stand will ever break or fall apart. By the time I was finished my wrists hurt from turning the screwdriver and my biceps hurt from the amount of pressure I had to exert while putting it together. All in all, it was worth it. Here are some pics:

Here is the stand while I was working on it.

Here is the completed stand.

I assembled the end table later that day, and it was easy- no big deal.

We will be going back to Ikea-soon!

Have a great day!

Pampered Wife