Who wouldn't love a gingerbread house for Christmas?  But making gingerbread can be too much work!  How about making a graham cracker house instead!?!  This is my monthly Martha Stewart tip, graham cracker house. 

You can buy graham crackers and just cut out the shapes of the roof, front and back walls, and side walls.  Assemble the small house with royal icing and decorate with all kinds of candies.  These houses are much smaller than the traditional gingerbread houses, but they are much easier to make.  And you can make many at a time and put together a villiage!  I think this is a brilliant idea and looks like so much fun to make.  I would even package these little houses and give as Christmas presents!  I may try this next year. 

Below are more graham cracker home ideas from the December issue of Martha Stewart's Living.  Also great for Valentine's Day.

Just when I think Toby, at 4.5 years old, have finally outgrown his dorkiness he proves me wrong.  After living with Pascal for almost 6 months, Toby finally noticed him last night while he was snooping around the Christmas tree looking for presents.  He stared at the fish tank for about 30 seconds.  Then Pascal swam up to Toby's face and stared right back at him!  Talk about a spunky fish! 

Well, Toby didn't like that at all!  He started to bark at Pascal.  Pascal remains unphased by all the barking.  I had to pull Toby away from the tank and distract him with a toy.  Thankfully, he forgot about Pascal.  Hopefully, Toby will behave himself when left alone at home.

Sorry for the lack of blogging this past week.  I have finally printed and sent out all of my Christmas cards!  I have also wrapped 90% of my gifts, a few have been sent to its rightful owners.  I am already looking forward to after Christmas to run more errands before the year is over. 

But, before I get ahead of myself, I would like to share with you a beautiful experience I had last Friday evening.  Mr. BAW and I decided to go visit a famous neighborhood in Torrance known as Candy Cane Lane.  The homes in this neighborhood go all out every Christmas with their lights and decorations.  In fact, if you purchase a home in this neighborhood, you have to sign an agreement to decorate your home each year.  For about three weeks in December, cars line up each night to drive through the residential streets and admire the beautifully decorated homes.  But it's lights out at 10pm every night to ensure the home owners with a peaceful night's rest. 

There are two ways to enjoy the lights, stay in your car and drive very slowly in heavy traffic or park and walk around on foot.  We chose the latter.  It was a warm evening and we brought Toby along.  Plus, we picked up a hot chocolate from a kid's stand in the front yard of a home.  There were just as many walkers as there were cars.  It was all very festive.  Enjoy the pictures!

Beautiful lights are strewn across street-lined trees.

A bike-riding-SC Santa...way too cool!

This home was so bright it lit up the night!

Ginger bread children playing in the yard.

I liked the red and green colors on the trees.

A charming home...

Santa in his sleigh with all kinds of creatures on his lap.

This ferris wheel had dolls and stuffed animals on it!

I finally got through a very tough work week!  Mr. BAW was very simpathetic to my recent late nights at the office.  He surprised me with these roses after i got through giving a two-hour presentation at work.

I can't believe it's Friday, my last work day of the year!! Whoo hoo!  Tonight, we will attempt to go see some Christmas lights.  We're going to bring Toby along.  Hopefully he'll behave himself in the car.  He likes to bark at dogs and people he would never bark at if he was not in a car!

The last day of work couldn't come at a better time this year.  My birthday is on Sunday.  Mr. BAW will be taking me to Griffith Observatory for my birthday.  I have waited years for the newly renovated Griffith to be opened again!  Last year I gave my Astronomy students extra credit for attending a planetarium show.  I finally get to see one myself, it's been years.  If you have never seen a planetarium show, I highly recommend it.  We will also try to visit the Los Angeles zoo since it is at the base of the Griffith Observatory. 

With so many things to do, I still have make my Christmas cards!!  I'm getting a little stressed out!  Happy Friday everyone!

It's been a typical warm fall in LA as usual.  But winter hit us hard yesturday!  We had our first winter storm with heavy rainfall.  Today, the wind was howling and the air was a cripy chill.  I turned on my "fireplace" (the gas kind) for the first time since early February.  I broke out my warm jacket and scarve for a day of Christmas shopping.  It is kind of nice to have a bit of cold weather to ring in the Christmas season. 

I also got my first Christmas present today, a box of cookies from my neighborhood friends Tom and Maggie.  They came by my house this morning to drop off the treats.  I also have plans to give them yummy treats in return.  I will get some Starbucks mint brownies and respberry bars for them.  I love Starbucks, it's my backup Christmas store.  When in doubt, give the gift of coffee (mugs, cookies, giftcards). 

One more tough work week to get through and then I will be on full Christmas mode.  I still have to make and send out Christmas cards, wrap presents, and send presents. 

Oh, and Toby wanted me to remind everyone to bring your pets into the house on very cold nights.  Happy winter to everyone!

I attended UCLA for 7 years and there's only one thing I like about the Bruins.  That they have Diddy Riese in Westwood Village just steps away from campus.  What is Diddy Riese you ask?  It happens to be the most awesome cookie store in LA.  Why are they so awesome?  The cookies are the most yummy I've had from a store.  Their selection is amazing, including chocolate chip, white chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip with walnuts, chocolate chocolate chip, and much more!  The most amazing part is that they only charge $1 per 3 large cookies, and $1.25 for any two cookies of your choice with your choice of ice cream flavors!!!!!  Too much, I know!!  This place had kept me going through graduate school at UCLA.  The only reason I attended so many department seminars is because of these cookies!  My close friend Boz used to walk down to Westwood to pick up these yummy cookies for our boring department seminars. 

This cookie place is a must-try if you ever pay a visit to Westwood.  I picked up a batch of 12 cookies last weekend when Mr. BAW and I went to Westwood to watch the ill-fated UCLA-USC football game.  The cookies are my only consolation from that day.  We've been feasting on the cookies after every dinner.  They also made wonderful Thanksgiving gifts which I gave to our dinner guests to take home!

Santa snuck up on us this year.  I didn't expect him to visit Redondo Beach so soon!  But luckily, Toby and I bumped into him just as we were getting ready to go on our daily walk.  Toby managed to ask Santa for a big rawhide bone and a new stuffed animal to destroy. 

I have been extemely busy at work, but we still managed to bring home a beautiful Noble Fir Christmas tree.  We got a 5-footer, slightly larger than the one I had last year.  Toby doesn't care for the tree, but he is waiting for me to put his present under it. 

Work has been crazy busy but luckily I have already gotten 90% of my Christmas presents purchased.  I just have 3 more people to go, one of whom is my father.  He's been the toughest to shop for in the past few years.  I also have not had time to make my Christmas cards yet.  I have a design in mind but will not have time to make it until 12/18. 

And yes, I am upset over the USC-UCLA game.  But we'll settle for beating Michigan at the Rose Bowl. :-)