Marvelous Monday: Week 48

There are four more Mondays in 2013. Can you believe it?

This week's big news is that two of our friends will be welcoming a baby into the world sometime very soon, and Josh and I are so excited for them!

Here are five other nice tidbits to begin the week:

1) The weekend included a Tennessee football victory! There was some incredible college football on Saturday (Iron Bowl! A&M at Mizzou!), including a Tennessee win against Kentucky in UT's last game of the season. There will be no bowl game for the Volunteers this year, but the future is bright - and the SEC football storylines this year have been exciting, to say the least.

2) I took a class through Minneapolis Community Ed tonight with Sara on the art of Yule log-making! The Yule log (or Buche de Noel) is a French holiday dessert that's a layer of spongy cake covered in pastry cream and then rolled up and topped with ganache. We learned how to make the Buche de Noel but also picked up a bunch of other really helpful cooking tips from our teacher, who was great. He had lots of knowledge as well as a genuine and wonderful joy for cooking and teaching. I can't wait to try more cooking classes. (He teaches one on homemade puff pastry!)

3) Big, fluffy snowflakes fell from the sky today.

4) Over the weekend, I read in a magazine about a book on American house architecture that sounded great. The trouble was, later I couldn't remember which magazine and couldn't remember enough key words about the book to be very helpful. I googled "book about houses Real Simple magazine" and "book about houses Martha Stewart Living" before finding success with "book about houses Entertainment Weekly." It's A Field Guide to American Houses and I'm in line at the library for the first copy.

5) I'm having a good time thinking about what holiday decorations I'll try around the house this year. I have a hankering to revisit 2011's snowflake window!

What's sweet about the start of your week? Have you made a Yule log dessert before? Did you watch the Iron Bowl? And have you already decorated for the holidays, and if so, what's your favorite decoration?