Happy New Year!

Emily made a party cake

Party-goers

Another Puzzle Victory

We got this one from Keith and Christina for Christmas.

Lazy Blogger

Check out RAK-KAK's blog for highlights from the weekend.

Surprise!

Mom, Dad, and Aunt Krystal showed up at my doorstep late Wednesday night. Emily and Andy arrive tomorrow and finally Chris gets in tomorrow night.

Lights!

On the way home from our McChristmas, we stopped to take in some of the Christmas scenery.

First McChristmas

The Bakers

The Finished Products

Chocolate Covered Chow Mein with Sprinkles

Christmas Wreaths

Snowflake Cut-Out Cookies

Penguins at the Beach

Chris worked into the wee hours of the morning and completed another favorite childhood puzzle, Penguins at the Beach. Erica watched, and by watched we mean slept on the couch.

We're Making a List and Checking it Twice

We are getting ready to do some holiday cookie making. So, we have been getting all of the recipes together and taking inventory of the kitchen. Chris is feeling overwhelmed already which means beer will be on our grocery list. Chris said if there is enough beer, he can get through it! ;)

Wine Time

Wanna guess who's gonna have a crazy Christmas? Chris and Erica! Four bottles of wine should just about do it :)

Anyway, one of the web sites that I check every week is Woot Wine. They have a week long wine deal that starts every Monday. Of course, the deal only lasts a week if the wine doesn't sell out. I had never bought wine from them until last week when they had a deal that I couldn't pass up. These four bottles came from a little California winery called Vino Noceto. Andy and Emily may remember that this is one of the wineries we visited earlier this year when Erica and I were out in Minden. It was the one with the Doggie Diner head. Here's a little reminder...

We got two bottles of 2005 Sangiovese, one bottle of 2004 Reserve Sangiovese, and a bottle of 2004 Ferrero Zinfandel. We really enjoyed the winery which has gotten rave reviews in the Woot Wine Community.

The wine wasn't actually my first purchase from Woot Wine. I got a nice decanter from them just before the wine deal came up. How perfect is that! Naturally, I had to head right out and get a cheap little wine rack to display the goods.

Now I just need to keep the wine rack full :)

Christmas Cards

The holiday greetings are rolling in. We got a batch of Christmas Cards in the mail today. I love getting mail and I especially love getting Christmas Cards!

We didn't plan on sending our own cards out this year. Maybe it can be a New Year's resolution for 2008...

Christmas at Chris' House

It is officially Christmas at Chris' house. The stockings made it through airport security and have been hung by the chimney with care. A beautiful gas fueled fire rages as my utility bills shoot ever higher. Actually, I never use the fireplace, but it seemed appropriate for this festive shot. Erica even hooked me up with that majestic tree. Can you believe that that foot tall beauty is my first Christmas tree since I moved away from home? I love it!

Rumaki

This is a slight variation on an old favorite. Traditional rumaki consists of chicken livers and water chestnuts wrapped in bacon.

1 8oz can pineapple chunks in juice, drained (reserve 3 tbsp juice)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 dash garlic powder
6 slices bacon, cut into thirds

Combine the 3 tablespoons juice, soy sauce, ginger and garlic powder in small bowl.
Marinade the pineapple chunks in this for 1- 2 hours.
Drain.
Wrap a piece of bacon around each chunk.
Secure with a toothpick.
Line microwave carousel with several layers of paper towel.
Arrange around the outer edge of carousel with space between each one.
Microwave at 100% power until bacon is lightly browned (5 to 9 minutes).
Serve.

www.recipezaar.com

I took this to a holiday work party today. I added water chestnuts and used a 20 oz. can of pineapple chunks and then adjusted the recipe accordingly. This included a whole package of reduced sodium bacon. There were no left overs so I took that as a very good sign. You can't go wrong with bacon!

Elf Yourself

Click Here to see us dance!

Bathroom

Chris is happy and feeling good @ 20 minutes into the project. Ask him how he was feeling 8 hours later when we weren't done yet.

Bathroom Progression

Remember this nightmare?

Improvement.

Much better!

Parallel lives

Just like AGPERP, I also went to the dentist today and can also happily report NO CAVITIES! Chris is heading to the dentist tomorrow and he says he has a lot to live up to!

I also had dinner plans this evening. I met up with my grad school class at Rudy's, a little Mexican restaurant not too far from my house.

Backyard

KC really is an ice cube. It has been raining and freezing for almost 24 hours now. My power was out for a bit in the middle of the night, and then flickered on and off into the early morning. It is really loud outside, everything is crackling. We might get some flurries tonight and that should be it. The last time KC had a big ice storm about 5 years ago, some people were out of power for 7+ days.

Ice

Apparently, this is what Kansas City is going to look like by the morning...

I will keep you posted.

I am officially done with Finals! Wahoo!

I almost forgot...

Our stockings were hung by the chimney with care too.

O Christmas Tree

Chris is at his work Christmas party tonight. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I put up our Christmas tree!

Airfare Watchdog Widget

Check out our newest sidebar widget- it will help you find cheap airfare.

First Snow

We got 2 inches in KC today. It has stopped snowing, but activities and events all around town have been cancelled. I went to the campus bookstore after work and it closed early because of the weather too.

Did You Put Your Stockings Out?

St. Nick comes tonight! And tomorrow is St. Nicholas Day.

We actually won't be getting St. Nick tonight since we are apart and he came early this year when we went home to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving (Thanks again, St. Nick!)

Never heard of this before? Read more here:
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Article
stnicholascenter.org

Tag we're it!

Amy, my friend from Milwaukee tagged our blog. So, here it goes...

The rules of tagging are as follows:

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.
3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

And now for the Randomness:
1. Chris DESPISES goat cheese
2. Erica calls lip balm/chap stick, "lip chap"
3. Chris loves beer, especially Odell's 5 Barrel
4. Erica e-mails Trader Joes often, begging them to come to Kansas City
5. Chris gets his hair cut by a nice lady named Eunice
6. Erica is a soprano
7. We dated for ~4 months, but only spent 39 days together before we got engaged.

We are tagging Courtney, Nikki, and Emily. We don't know 7 people with blogs and of the people we do, these are our best bets for participation.

Erica went home Sunday night, as is the norm when she visits, and I just didn't know what to do with myself. It was quite sad. So I broke out one of my favorite childhood puzzles - Erica and I picked a few up while at my parents - and kept myself busy until bedtime. I hereby present the "Putt-Putt Puzzle." I think my next endeavor will be "Penguins at the Beach." Stay tuned.

Friendly Flight

My grad school classmate Claire was on my flight to Colorado this weekend. Not only that, but we sat next to a very nice girl who is also in a long distance relationship with her fiance who lives in Denver. We all discovered that we were all on the returning flight home tonight as well so we sat next to each other again and chatted the whole way home. We exchanged info, so now I might have a little flight buddy!

Old Town

On Saturday we met Ivan, Joy, Ella, and Brian (who was in from Connecticut) at Beau Jo's in Old Town Ft. Collins for pizza and beer. Erica had never eaten at Beau Jo's before. It reminded her of Minsky's Pizza in KC.

After lunch, Ivan and the fam went home, so we continued on to CooperSmith's (this is where we had our first date) with Brian for more beers while we waited for Brian and Steph and their kids.

It was really nice to see everyone and get down to Old Town. We need to do it more often.