The Holidays are Here

We enjoyed such a nice Thanksgiving holiday & weekend with each of our families and the bonus was Jonah's (our newest nephew) baptism on Saturday.

We also decided to officially kickoff for Christmas and get our tree and start decorating- my favorite! We first went to a tree farm that we've gone to before to pick and cut down our own tree but they were almost sold out and we just didn't find our perfect tree- very disappointing to say the least. So we ended up at Earl May and found a nice one anyway. As of tonight our house looks festive and the tree lights up our living room with the glow that only comes from Christmas lights (see the process in the following pictures).

Christmas is coming and I'm finally ready!

the countdown begins!!!

Exactly 2 weeks from today Mike & I will be on vacation in Jamaica sipping cocktails and relaxing on the beach here!

open house party

Saturday Mike & I threw an open house party to celebrate the completion of our basement-finishing project! We honored my Dad, Hank, for all of the hard work he put in while helping us to finish it off and not to mention show off the awesome hand made custom bar he built us which turned out so beautiful we can never move now!

We had about 20 family members and friends of the family come and I made chili and chicken dumpling soup, ham & cheese puff pastry roll ups, cheese ball & crackers, veggies & dip, chips & brownies. We also featured Amana beer on tap in the kegerator, hot cocoa, hot cider and wine, too. Everyone said our house felt so cozy and it made us so happy to finally share all we've put into it over the last year. Thanks everyone for coming! You are welcome anytime!

READ THESE BOOKS!

Have you read the Twilight books yet?! I just finished the series last night and I absolutely LOVED them. Not lying, these were the most intriguing books I've read since Harry Potter and those of you who know me should realize this means I'm obsessed. Please, please check these books out and read them- no matter how odd the subject seems at first (vampires, I know, but it is a total romance, too)! Then we can discuss together your new obsession! P.S. The movie comes out Friday, too. Never as good as a book, though, if you ask me.

Thank You Veterans

What more can I say but thank you from the bottom of my heart to those who have served in the military and are serving today to protect our rights and freedom as Americans. We wouldn't be where we are today without you.

Joe Pa went down!

First Joe Paterno literally went down demonstrating an onside kick at like 85 years old, injuring his knee. Secondly to add insult to injury the Hawkeyes took him and his Penn State team DOWN last Saturday with a last second field goal for the win! It was quite the upset and Mike and I were lucky enough to witness it- it was so awesome and exciting despite the freezing cold that only true fans like us brave at 9 in the morning for a 2:30 game...it is called tailgating and we still do it, yes we do. The Hawkeye fans rushed the field and we would have joined in if we weren't so high up in the stands so I captured a little video to remember the madness- check it out.

home-made pasta class

Jessie & I took another cooking class at the New Pioneer Co-op last week, this time we made fresh hand rolled pasta! It was fun as usual as we mixed, kneaded, rolled and sliced the dough into fettuccine pasta. From there we made a salmon and dill sauce, citrus butter sauce and the grand finale of a seasonal butternut and roasted garlic sauce to sample with our pasta. Tasty stuff and and always much more fun with my sister- who else would help me make fun of the overly serious lady who thought she would just answer the questions herself and the other lady who asked if there was anyway to make pasta without flour in order to be healthier....umm, seriously?!

happy birthday hubby!

Happy Birthday Mike! 29 years old today :) His gift is a gourmet meal made by me tonight and a scavenger hunt for his present, no telling yet though.

my old school election day

In 2000 I voted in my first presidential election and voted absentee ballot as I was a freshman at the time at the U of I in Iowa City and still registered in Black Hawk County. In 2004 I was an intern in Washington D.C. and voting absentee once again (talk about an exciting place to be at the time- for real). The 3rd presidential race in my voting lifetime happened today and I found myself at my local polling place voting with a paper ballot and ball point pen- old school style for the first time- complete with little cardboard privacy walls and no need for identification of any sort. Does that seem wrong to anyone else? Regardless of how we all got our vote in over the last couple of weeks and today, something big is happening in our midst and history is in the making- gotta love it!