Dinner for six and other stories

I have people coming over for dinner tonight. We're going to be celebrating brother-in-law's girlfriend's graduation, and saying farewell to them for a few weeks as they're leaving for the holidays. I haven't got the menu totally figured out yet, but some sort of soup, a big salad, and I think some oven roasted chicken and rice will be on the table along with some good wine. A call to my mom is necessary as I need some tips on cooking the chicken-probably can manage on my own, but I want it to come out perfect...I will cook the chicken ahead of time, so I need a strategy to keep it moist and good for a second heat-up. Or maybe it's better to adjust the timing so that it's ready just as they get here? Hmmm...Also we're going to need some sort of dessert, haven't got that part figured out just yet.

Last night Mariachi and I finished "making" our Christmas presents for our parents. Photo albums with 100 pics in them depicting our 2009 together...With the explanations written on the margins... The albums themselves are really cute to look at even when empty but that wouldn't make a very meaningful gift. I hope they'll like them. Since we're so far away from each other, we (or rather I) thought this would be appreciated. Mariachi helped me get it all together by napping on the couch while I sorted and labeled the photos. Then we put them in the albums, and then I wrote the labels for both albums, because we (I) decided my hand writing is better (and because he didn't really want to do it heh). I forgot how much fun it was to look at photos in an album. We never have our pics printed, we just look at them on the computer screen and I realized last night that it's just not the same. BUT thinking about all the trees and ink we save by not getting the pics printed puts my mind at ease. Also, really, the albums are cool but you look at them 1 or 2 times and then they just sit there in a drawer or on a shelf...It's a different story with parents though, I'm sure they'll be looking at them more often ;).

I got Mariachi a yoga mat and we've been doing yoga together at nights. I'll spare you the details but he looks soooo funny when he does yoga. :D

And now, I have to plan out my menu, my day, and then call mom.