This is Christmas

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A mound of crumpled wrapping paper, toys and such strewn everywhere, Dad sleeping on the couch after being drug out of bed at the god-awful hour of 8:00am, and the child fixated on the favorite toy of the day.  This is Christmas.  Hope yours was merry.

Holiday Cheer

The box is the best part of the gift

Alexis got a box full of presents from her grandma today.  She can't open the presents for a few day, so she found a way to have fun with what she could play with.  Ninja was along for the ride, not always willingly.

House Decorating

Glue it together.

Pizza Break while it dries.

Make a front door.

Decorate.

It's not done yet, but looking good.  To be continued...

Smart Cookie

I really wasn't planning on making holiday cookies this year.  But my daughter had her own idea.  Now she's a smart cookie, she didn't come to me and ask me to make cookies.  She asked, "Can you show me how to make those little butter cookies?  I want to learn."  Can you ever say "no" when your child comes to you and says they want to learn something?  So, with my supervision, and my mother's amazing recipe, she made a batch of butter cookies.  Judging by how many she and her dad put away, they must have come out pretty good.

Happy Perogi

During dinner, whilst listening to my husband and daughter squabble about their not so jolly holiday shopping adventure earlier in the day, I looked down and saw a happy face smiling back at me.  It was my perogi.  I showed it to my family, and the smile on my perogi seemed to take the stress and bickering right out of the room.  Thank you little perogi, you brightened our day, and tasted so yummy too.
NO PHOTSHOP, so shut up all you naysayers, this is as my perogi was at dinner last night!

Grandma Candy

It's been a long semester at school, but now it's over, and I will now be able to get back to posting a daily picture for your viewing enjoyment!
To my surprise, my husband came home with a bag full of old time candy last night. The kind your grandma used to keep in a dish on the coffee table.  When you try to pick up one, you actually get about 12 pieces stuck together, and despite the varying colors, they all taste exactly the same.

Morning light

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I know I can hardly call it a Photo a Day blog lately.  It's been a long semester in school, and the end is in sight.  Once the finals are done, you can look forward to more daily photos.
This is my sleepy pup Ninja, as the morning sunlight creeps in the windows.

Booby Trapped

Recently, my husband was caught snooping through my daughter's room in search of the Halloween candy stash.  She was quite upset, but I was proud that she told him, "if you had just asked, I would have given you some."  But now, the room has been booby trapped to prevent further snoopage.  I was a bit surprised when I tried to enter her room this morning, finding the door jammed by various toys purposely placed behind the door, and this elaborate lego trap.  As you can see, it kept Ninja at bay.  Don't know how well it will work on her dad.

No Parents Allowed

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This is from yesterday's 5th grade field trip to the California Academy of Science.  For some reason, I volunteered to chaperon with over 100 loud and hyper 10 year olds.  It was an interesting place, but I could hardly enjoy it.  Every other minute I was searching my surroundings and counting 1-2-3-4-5.  Counting the 5 kids I was in charge of keeping safe.  In a large, child filled, often dark museum, that's not such an easy task.
Here's a pic of when I could let them get away from me.  They all traveled down the 3 foot tall tunnel to a special spot where apparently no parents are allowed.

mundane

I just happened to set my glasses down on top my laptop, when I looked over and saw this.  I liked the shadows from the rims, contrasting the bright highlight.  The accidental perfect placement of the logo in the frame was catchy too.  I just had to take a picture.  Sometimes mundane stuff makes cool pictures.

Pumpkin Pie Eating Contest

Today was the World famous Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival, where the largest pumpkins in the country come to weigh in.  And what's a pumpkin festival without a pumkin pie eating contest.

Alexis wanted to prepare for the contest by skipping lunch.  She didn't do all that well at skipping lunch once we passed the row of booths with the likes of turkey legs, garlic fries, pizza, corn on the cob, tamales, sourdough bread bowl clam chowder, you name it, there was a booth for it.

Later she reflected that his must have been her downfall, and that she shouldn't have eaten anything, then she might have placed in the contest.

This portly lad was the second place winner, and very proud of it.

This is the third place and second place winners.

 Here's what Alexis managed to do to her pie when all was said and done.

Though the contest was done, Alexis apparently was not.

Arch Enemies

Ninja Vs. Hoover in the classic battle.  I'm not too sure there was a clear winner here.

Alexis and the Nerf Gun

The big kid went out and got the medium kid (can't call her little anymore) one of those toys every mother is just so happy to see in the house.

A girl and her pup

Kitchen Studio

What do you do when you don't have a studio, and your unrelenting teacher constantly asks you to go above and beyond what any reasonable student should be able to accomplish?  That's right, improvise.  So I had to take some advertising shots of my pasta sauce project.  Without access to a legitimate studio, I made my own natural light studio in my kitchen.  I have a skylight in the kitchen that always gives me great lighting, so I set up below the skylight, and used and old dry erase white board to bounce light back in to the shadows.  Hopefully, no one will ever know.  Here's what my kitchen looked like during the shoot.

Been workin' hard

Here's a quick photo of my project I have been working on in my Image and Promotions class.  Been busy busy busy with so many school projects. 

Evil Ice Queen

Tuesday Nights

If your keeping tabs, you will notice two days that have gone by without a Spicuzza Photo of the Day.  Sorry kiddos, schoolwork comes first.  I have actually taken photos on those days, they are just for my class project, which I have been working on diligently. 
This is a look into my Tuesday night, between Dreamweaver/CSS class and Image and Promotion class, I sit at a fairly unsanitary community desk, eat my dinner, and work on some homework.  Today, I am working on a logo, eating a salad, and chugging a Jamba Juice ColdBuster to aid in killing the sickness my daughter was so happy to spread through the entire household.  This is pretty much what my Thursday night will look like as well.

Bark in the Park

Today was the annual San Jose Bark in the Park.

Ninja took part in the costume contest, but didn't really have a chance.  He was wearing his Ohio State Buckeyes football jersey.  We think the judges must have been from Michigan.

Dorothy and the Scarecrow, part of the foursome that came in second place in the costume contest.  The cowardly lion is nearby, chewing in his mane, and the tin man was busy trying to get the silver funnel off it's head.

Ninja tried out some agility training.  This is the only apparatus he totally mastered.

Pup Chef.

A crowd of small children formed around this micro tiny chihuahua.  

These would be the lovely toes of a dainty Great Dane, and a boy doggie as well. 

New Crocs

My daughter lives in Crocs.  Those hideous fashion nightmares and molded of an alien material,  have adorned her feet for at least half her life.  She will wear no other shoes, unless she must.  Thank goodness Crocs are not allowed at school.  Today we went on a shopping trip to the outlet mall in Milpitas.  They have a Crocs outlet store, in which she found these gems.  These are no ordinary Crocs, these are fuzzy, fleece lined Crocs that she can wear all winter long.  Crocs aren't just for summer anymore, yipee! (Please read my sarcasm in all that).  Despite the near 80 degrees and unseasonable humidity today, she is still wearing her wonderful new Crocs, no matter how much she says her feet are sweating in them.

It all seems so simple

Here is a tasty view at my snack today.  I always have peanut butter in the pantry, and quite often have celery in the crisper.  Yet it's been many, many years since I put the two together.  This is a fond snack from childhood.  It all seems so simple, yet, I have not bothered to make it in so very long.
It was very tasty.