Itty Bitty Fitty/ Holiday Punch & Cake Pops

This past month, my Ford Focus, affectionately known as BMO, has been having some trouble. After a lot of deliberation, I decided to get another car. But which car to get?

I never knew how complicated car shopping can be. Between the dealerships, the used car lot, craigslist and the newspaper there are just too many options. Don't even get me started on year, make and model.

My family has always bought Japanese cars. I don't know if it's because the relocation price is cheaper because Hawaii is closer to Asia, or the reliability, but it's probably due to loyalty. After all, my Grandfather was a Toyota dealer.

After a lot of online research, talking to salesmen and test driving, we decided on the new Honda Fit Sport. There was only one problem, I didn't like any of the colors our local dealer had, and if I'm gonna pay for a brand new car, I want it to be perfect.

Luckily for me, Boyfriend found a Honda dealer in Bourbonnais, IL with the exact model and color I wanted. Unfortunately, Bourbonnais is about an hour and a half north of Champaign. We had a very small window of opportunity, since I wanted to get the car on one of my days off, I wanted Boyfriend to come with me, we had to coordinate with the dealer's schedule and I leave for my Las Vegas Christmas on Monday.

Yesterday, was the day and in my opinion, it couldn't come soon enough. Driving north, I had butterflies. I was so nervous. It reminded me of when Boyfriend and I drove to Des Moines, IA to pick up Puppy a few years ago. I even painted my nails to match the new car.

Happy Honda-days with Purple sparkle

We get there and the car is gorgeous, I couldn't stop smiling and giggling.

After going through all the paperwork, I got into the new car and Boyfriend and I drove separately back to Champaign. The next thing I know, it's starts raining, not a great thing for a new car that just got waxed. A few minutes later the temperature takes a drastic drop and it starts snowing. Boyfriend and I had to drive home from Chicagoland in a blizzard in two separate cars. To lend some perspective, the high for Thursday was 50 degrees and the low was 20 and the entire day there was 50 mph winds.

Disney Bitty, post blizzard

What a great way to celebrate the holidays, with a new car and a blizzard. BTW: my new baby's name is Bitty, as in Itty Bitty Fitty.

But wait, there's more!



Since Thursday was December 20th, 2012, our friends hosted an End-of-the-World party. Since the internet was flooded with Mayan prophecy and end of the world talk, they threw a party where we played survival-themed board games, watched apocalypse-theme movies and had cocktails and desserts.

Here's what we made for the party:

Holiday Punch

2 cups of fresh cranberries
1 orange, sliced into wheels
1 2 liter bottle of ginger ale
3 cups of light cranberry juice
2 cups of orange sherbet

Pour all ingredients into a punch bowl. You can add liquor if you like, but one of our friends is pregnant so we added the alcohol into our individual cups. This punch works surprisingly well with bourbon, but vodka, gin or wine would work well too.


Cake Pops/ Balls

1 box of cake mix, I used yellow
3 large eggs
1 cup water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 tub of candy coating, I used white/ vanilla
sprinkles

Make cake according to instructions on box. Pour into cake pop maker and cook for 4-5 minutes for each batch.

Cake Pop maker

Coat in candy coating with whatever design you want. I coated some entirely, some half and drizzled the candy coating on some. Add sprinkles or design with icing. Place on lollipop sticks or leave as balls.

Drizzled icing

Half-dipped with sprinkles

Turns out, we survived the end of the Mayan calendar and the punch and cake pops gave me a sugar hangover.

-Akemi-chan