Ahh...Christmas

Please indulge me in this moment to be an obnoxious Aunt....I can't believe Christmas is already here and gone. What a great time it was this year as it was Finnegan's first Christmas.

Of course, I have no pictures of our awesome progressive dinner chaos, or really any photos of the family opening gifts or playing games. But what I do have is a million pictures of Finn.

Here was the big hit of the day. Of course it wasn't even the gift, it was a gift bag. Yes folks, a gift bag that sings Holly Jolly Christmas when you play it. Now the real photo would have been when Nick had this on his head, but I couldn't take my camera off of Finn.












Finn is definitely in the "I will put everything you give me straight into my mouth stage."















Yummy.....bath toy.





Check out how great he already is at modeling those baby duds.

Art for Lucy

So our poor 20 year old cat, Lucy, has been sick lately.

Nate and I feel really bad that she is under the weather. In her old age she has decided that our office is the most comfortable, most safe place to live. She of course comes out of the office when she wants loving, food, attention...you get the picture.

But, being that she is sick she hasn't felt like coming out as much recently.

So, tonight Nate and I decided to paint some artwork for Lucy's kitty condo to spruce it up a bit.

I realize this is a litle over the top...but come on....she is like 140 years old, and spends 20 hours a day in this room. She at least deserves something nice (nice being subjective of course) to look at.

It's Cookie Time!

We had Debra and Rachel over for some good old fashioned cookie decorating fun this weekend.

It only took Nate and I 5 batches of cookies to net out a true 3 batches.

Pretty good for the first time.

An angel fell victim to too much frosting and broke in half, so of course Nate and I had to eat it.

Here we are proudly displaying our 'best' cookies.

I have to admit, some major details were put into this years cookies. Rachel and Debra weren't messing around.

Here's a close-up of our favorites. Mine is the John Deer snowman with the green overalls and the straw hat.

Check-out Rachel's picture perfect nutcracker.

And then, there were Nate's cookies:

These probaby won't make the cookie platter for the holiday's...but they are still delicious. :)

Holiday Book Club

This year, our book club decided to start a new holiday tradition.

Lisa K. picked our December book, which was A Thousand Splendid Suns. The book was very good, and sparked great discussion. She hosted at her house and made the most amazing Indian food. YUM!

Our new tradition was two-fold. First, each person brought one friend or family member to participate in our book club. They all read the book as well, so it was double the fun.

Second, we all picked a book out from our personal collection and wrapped them up to give away. Except of course for Rachel, who thought it was a swap and wrapped up her beloved Matilda book, only to have to ask for it back once she realized it was supposed to be a gift. We played the stealing game, which was really fun. Water For Elephants and the Post Secret book were the two that got stolen the most.

Nate came as my guest, and he said he was pretty jealous of how cool the book club is. He already asked if he could be my guest next year.

Hawaii Pics!!!

The pictures that Nate and I had professionally taken in Hawaii arrived this week! Thought I would share a few of my favorites:

For the Difficult

I really do enjoy Christmas shopping. Especially shopping for those people who you know so well that you could buy them a million things you know they would like. Those are the people who I LOVE shopping for. Like Nate for example. He is ridiculously NOT picky, and in general enjoys most things. And...since we've known eachother for like a third of our lives I would say it is safe to say I know what he would really want.

But..man...what about those people that you really want to get something for, but they either
A) have everything they could possibly need
B) have enough money to buy themselves anything they could possibly want
0r
C) are difficult to shop for because you just don't trust yourself to know their style, or what they would really enjoy.

Well...I came across this website today (http://www.excitations.com/). Now....for those of you reading this who think this is my lame attempt to give you a Christmas idea you are wrong. For one, they don't cover the Minneapolis area..or that would probably be my motivation. But honestly, I thought I would share because it really is a cool idea.

Basically, you buy your friend/family/etc an experience vs. a gift. So you could buy them a local an in-home wine party, a childrens museum experience, or a picnic for two in their local park. There are a lot of other really cool 'experiences.'

Thought I would share in case any of you out there are struggling for that perfect something for that perfect someone.

In the Loop

Last night, Nate and I attended a taping of the radio show In the Loop with Jeff Horwich. This show is broadcast on MPR Sunday afternoons.

I must admit, when I found out that we were going to a MPR show my initial reaction was (yawn!)..I hope I don't fall asleep. To my surprise, the show was very fun, informative and entertaining.

The topic was all about fitting in, and the lengths we go to to ensure that we fit in. There was a range of guests on the show from 7th grade girls who talked about fitting in, to a chimpanzee researcher, a transgendered man, an immigrant and a woman is literally allergic to any scent. Super interesting. Plus, the main host had a little side-kick band called the Smarts that were very good.

To top it all off...the tickets were free!! AND we got one beer a peice, and some delicious pre-show snacks.

So...for any of you looking for a fun, cheap, different evening...log onto http://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/programs/in_the_loop/ and request your free tickets!!

Warm and Cozy

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

We got our first snowstorm of the season this weekend which put everyone in the holiday spirit. Mom was up and we got lots of shopping done, and we determined it was time for the annual Greta and Lucy picture. I felt bad forcing Lucy into the Santa hat since she is under the weather, but she was a good sport.


The Christmas tree has been decorated, gifts have been bought, the holiday music is on the Ipod, cookies are being consumed, hot chocolate keeping us warm.

Tis the season.

BONUS: Thanksgiving pics of the most adorable nephew ever!

At the Twinkle Parade:



Watching Football!

Finn getting his first taste of Ostrem dessert


The Holidays are tiring!

It's Been a Good Month

This weekend was the Badger/Gopher game. We celebrated by starting with the Badger blast. As you can see in the picture below....Nate had plenty of beer (as illustrated by the number of cups he has stacked up). We had a good time with our Badger Buddies Summer and Joe (and the forthcoming Schuster baby).

Today is Nate and I's one month anniversary....something I didn't even remember or think of celebrating. Lucky for me I have a super thoughtful husband, and when I came upstairs tonight this is what was waiting for me:

How lucky am I?

Review of Hawaii: Zipline!

On the 3rd day of the honeymoon, Nate and I did a Zipline Tour on Haleakala (the volcano on the east side of Maui). It was really cool, and definitely an adrenaline rush. They started us on a small zipline (I think it was 250 feet) and then they worked us up to the big one which was 1,000 feet long.

The tour guides were hilarious and definitely made the trip. They were put to good use as they helped slow us down so that we could actually stop on the platform at the other end.

It was pretty funny because we didn't leave on-time due to a group of 4 running about 20 minutes late. I guess they told the guy there was a medical emergency and they had to take someone to the hospital that morning. The tour guide said "oh i'm sure they have kids, and you know how that goes".....but this crew rolls in and they are definitely all in their 20's and looking pretty hungover. So I'm not sure what exactly qualifies for a medical emergency these days, but either way Nate and I got a lot of use out of it all week.

Review of Hawaii: Road to Hana

The Road to Hana is a long, winding road on the north side of Maui that has over 600 curves and 54 bridges. Nate and I used our Maui Revealed guidebook to map out our Tour of the Road to Hana. There were a million things to stop and see so we mapped out what we wanted to see.

One of our very first stops required what was said to be "a 20-30 minute hike". However, what it should have said was "45 minute rock jumping excursion through the jungle." There were lots of spiders, mosquitoes and weird fruit flies. AND we saw some fresh water shrimp. I definitely needed some gently nudging from Nate to make it through to the big payout at the end: a beautiful waterfall, and just the two of us to enjoy it.

Here is the documentation picture that Nate took to prove I actually did this and the water fall (of course it doesn't do it justice..but for affect).

Here was my personal favorite stop of the day: The halfway point where we enjoyed a shaved ice as big as your head. We agreed to split the flavor in half so we could each have what we wanted: Pina Colada and Mango. Yum!

Next, we stopped at Black Sand Beach. This was pretty cool. You can see in the picture that the sand really is black. It was one of the coolest beaches we saw on our trip.

Review of Hawaii: Race Day!

On our first morning in Hawaii, we woke up bright and early and headed out to the Maui Prince Hotel in Wailea where we participated in the Xterra World Championship 5k Charity race. On the way to Hawaii we read a magazine article that said this was the hardest 5k in the country, so I was pretty nervous.

It was definitely the hardest 5k I have ever run in my life, but it was totally worth it. It was one of our favorite memories of the honeymoon. I have also never done a run with such beautiful scenery to take your mind of the excruciating pain in your legs.

The post race feast was amazing with tons of fresh fruit and muffins. YUM! Nate and I got lots of cheering because we wore a bride and groom get-up!

Check-Out those views:

Running up of the many long, steep, rocky hills

After the finish line:

Review of Hawaii: Fun in the Sun

I've decided my first week of entries will feature our recent trip to Hawaii.

Today is all about fun in the sun. Nate and I went on a long walk one day and spent a lot of time goofing around taking crazy beach pictures.

Here are a few of my favorites.

First Post!

So I thought I would get my feet wet with this whole blogging thing by posting a few pictures from Nate and I's wedding. I am sure there will be more of these to come as people continue to send me pics.


Here is the bride with her favorite gals:

And of course the happy couple:

More to come!

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