Birthday/Weekend Recap

So my birthday was last week. We didn't have much planned except to see Star Wars that evening! We bought tickets several months ago when they were first released. It was a bit tricky as Fandango kept crashing, but we finally were able to buy tickets! 

There is one theater in our area that lets you select seats, so considering we were going to the movie Thursday night (the day before release day) we wanted to make sure we could have decent seats. I did not want to show up at a big movie like that and get stuck sitting in crappy seats!

Anyways, the day of my birthday we stayed home most of the day. My sister and I played some Mario Kart while we waited for my brother to get home. (He had his last final that day.)

 The birthday cake I made.

 The flowers my mom bought for me.

Once my brother got home I got to open presents (and I got some very nice things!) and then we ate some cake before my mom, sister, and I drove to Target to walk around a bit. 

After Target we went to Michael's and then my brother met us for dinner. After dinner we walked around the outdoor mall where we were going to see the movie, but it was so cold outside that we ended up just going inside the theater as it was getting close to show time!

Inside the theater there was a few Star Wars characters, so we got our picture taken with a Scout trooper, a Snowtrooper, and an Imperial Officer. We also got our picture taken with R2-D2!

 The movie was long but we all really enjoyed it! It was our first time going to a movie opening night (is it still opening night if it's Thursday night?). Anyways, the movie was really good! 

It is definitely different than any of the other Star Wars movies, and if you go, be sure to stay through some of the credits. You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it.

 On Friday my mom and I went shopping. As part of my birthday present my mom said she would buy me a purse as I needed to replace one I had to throw away earlier this year. I have a Kate Spade purse that I like, but sometimes it is just too small and not practical for what I need at times. 

My mom and I wandered around the mall but didn't have any luck. My minimum requirements for a purse were not that difficult, neutral color, big enough to fit a camera but not too big, crossbody strap, and able to zip closed. I'm always surprised at how many purses don't zip closed. Do people not think about their stuff falling out? Or someone just reaching in and taking your wallet or something?

Anyways, we ended up at Target where I found the above purse. It's a tad big for every day use, but it fit all of my requirements and I think it will work great! 

 Friday night we got our first snow of the year! It's actually pretty late in the season for us to get snow and it was barely a dusting. But it was nice to see and hopefully we will get some more!

We just hung around the house all weekend and on Sunday I spent a bit of time in the kitchen doing some cooking. First I made some caramel sauce. (I used this recipe.) I don't really like caramel myself, but my family (especially my sister.) love it, so I made it for them. I even added a vanilla bean this time which my sister really loved!

Watching Star Wars while waiting for my sister to get home from her work Christmas party. I made a batch of turkey chili and had that simmering, then once she got home we got to work decorating our gingerbread house.

 I started trying to assemble the house, but the frosting the kit came with was so stiff that it wasn't sticking to anything. It would just roll off anything I tried to stick it to. So, since the house is just for decoration and not eating, I pulled out the hot glue gun and just used that! I've been tempted to do that in the past and I'm glad I did this time because it worked really well and holding everything together! I would definitely do that again.

I did end up microwaving the frosting bag to soften it up some and it did work okay at sticking the candy to the house. 

Overall I think it turned out okay! My sister got bored about two-thirds of the way through decorating so I finished up. Anyways, it was a fun project.

Did you do anything fun this weekend?