Holiday Remix

I'm at work right now. Trying not to think about the fast that it's CHRISTMAS EVE today and I'm sitting in an office. Found this link through another blog that I follow. Hope it makes you giggle as much as I did. Might have made this my favorite thing this week if I'd found it sooner. Just kidding.



Click here to see the show. My favorite is holiday cast remix. Napolean does a nice job on his solo act as well. Check it out...

Favorite Things - Week Six

For my last installment of Favorite Things 2008, I wanted to tell you my absolute favorite thing at the holidays......

FAMILY.

The Zyduck Fam (and the Szymaseks too!)

The Haskin Fam (with the Edwards and extended Haskin Fam too...)


We're blessed to spend time with both of our immediate families (and the Szymaszeks cousins) over the holidays. We have no idea what and where our life after graduation will take us, so we're soaking up the fact that we can drive to see family this season. I hope all you fabulous friends, family and (always welcome) lurkers have a wonderful holiday filled with good food, good friends and FAMILY!

Merry (early) Christmas

We're going to be traveling all throughout the holiday so Nate and I decided to have our own little Christmas tonight, gifts and all! We started the night with dinner at our favorite restaurant in town, Zingermans Roadhouse! I love the pimento cheese there...and Nathan has yet to find something he doesn't love (except the goat, that wasn't his favorite)!

After finishing some chores when we got home we started the gift opening. I am so delighted to say that this is the last post I will make using our 2002 digital camera because MAMA GOT A NEW POINT AND SHOOT! HOLLA!!!!! I am absolutely ECSTATIC about my cute little baby camera. Nathan did a wonderful job researching and got my new camera complete with 2G memory stick, an extra battery and a nice camera case. It's a Canon PowerShot SD880 IS...and I LOVE IT!!!!



Okay...I know, enough about MY NEW POINT AND SHOOT...

Nathan was next to open presents. (His family opens presents by age, and he insisted we do that too.) He hearts him some Bleeker.




Then for the big guns. What could it be??????




That's right! Nathan got his very own LITTLE GREEN!!!! I know what you're thinking, "What a mean gift Elizabeth. He buys you a FREAKING FABULOUS CAMERA and you buy him something to clean the house?" Well...take a look at this mug and tell me he doesn't FREAKING LOVE him some Little Green.




P.S. Between you and me, he gets two more presents on Christmas Day. Shh...don't tell!

Baby It's Cold Outside...

Tonight we visited with Carm, Marc and Morgan at their place. On our way there Sadie (Nate's car) was sooo cold that the XM radio wouldn't even work! The wind here is horrendous right now. The snow is just whipping all over the place. Right now it's only 1 degree, but it feels like -19!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are sooo moving south...

Vel Vel Vel Vel-VEETA

Not to be confused with Ch Ch Ch CHIA!

Tonight I was busy baking these yummy treats from PioneerWoman.com for the holidays with my family so Nathan decided to make an interesting concoction. His started by making his mom's famous cheese dip (if you've never heard that story feel free to ask us about it...it's a good one!) with the leftovers from his Favorite Things birthday party. Then he made noodles and mixed it all together. A bit too spicy for this girl but it looked D-lish!

(mmm...cheese...)

(He's quite proud of his culinary abilities...)

(Oatmeal Crispies!!!!)

Tradition and a Twist!

Nathan and drove to Toledo for our annual "Lights at the Zoo" night. We decided to visit the zoo before dinner. We had a great time seeing the lights and trying desperately to keep warm. We attempted to get some hot chocolate but they didn't take credit cards...gah! So we resorted to walk close to each other and avoiding the wind! Here are some shots from the trip...

(disclaimer...Nathan was trying not to close his eyes...)

After Lights at the Zoo we had dinner at the BEST Mexican restaurant around, El Vaquero. We were so excited to eat there...we hadn't been since this summer!


The twist in our normal “Lights Trip” came after dinner. We were able to join in on the Tharpe Holiday festivities...a wine and cheese party. I was SO excited because Laura Morgan was going to be there with her hubster, Rich. Jenny and Brandon were great hosts and we had a great time laughing and telling stories! Val reminded us all about just how funny the Tony-Wagon really is..."yeah, yeah yeah..."

(The Bensmans and I)

(Me, the hostess with the mostest Jenny, Val, LM and Rich)

Laura Morgan just finished her first semester of seminary...shout out to her and all of her hard work so far! One down, 7 more to go!!!! Yeah Laura Morgan!!!!


We had to leave after an hour of talking because it was starting to snow and Perrysburg seemed to be icy. Thank goodness we made it back with only a few flurries in our way!

Home Sweet Home.

Oh Crap.

So it was my turn to take the dog out this morning. Whatever. Anyway, I'm having a hard time falling asleep after I get up so I just stayed downstairs and browsed some of my favorite blogs. Well, to my complete shock and surprise I came up a post from the blog More Wine Please that stopped me in my tracks. She had a link posted. A very exciting link. For anyone that loves Twilight. And Edward. Oh crap is all I can think.

I've already read 23 pages...there are only 264 so I'm trying to take this one nice and slow. But holy flippin crap! Stephanie Meyer, the author of the Twilight series, is writing a new version of Twilight all through Edward's eyes. Sorry for any exciting plans you had for us today Nathan, Midnight Sun here I come!

Oh. My. Goodness.

Class

This is how we roll...

Don't judge. You'd be doing the same thing if you lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan and just got 10 inches of snow dumped on you in one morning. Nathan and I are officially flying south for marriage...

A Pioneer Night

Tonight I made two dishes for dinner. My tooth feels fine, but my gums are killing me so squishy easy eating was in order! We each tried a little taste of them both, but saved the rest for the next few days meals.

photo courtesy Pioneer Woman

The first dish was Chicken Spaghetti. It made so much I ended up freezing half of it for a rainy day in January.

photo courtesy Pioneer Woman

The second dish was Penne a la Betsy. This was my favorite by far. I really love the bite size pieces of shrimp versus large pieces...what a smart idea!

Both of them are Pioneer Woman's recipes. I just love using her site to cook. She has a delicious peppermint cookie on the cooking main page right now. I'm so not a chef, so seeing step by step pictures always help me when cooking. Now if I could just dice my onions smaller...

Favorite Things - Week Five

I love decorating for the holidays. Last year Nathan and I brought his nativity set home from his parents house. He's been receiving a piece for his nativity every year at Christmas. Last year we put all of the pieces out, but this year we opted for just Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus. It's a nice little reminder of why we celebrate the season...

The Crowning of Elizabeth

I'm getting one of these tomorrow morning. Except mine will be white and small and on my tooth. Wish it meant I'd be a royal highness instead of just drooly.

Bummed

On Sunday night we celebrated Carm and her family's new adventure. She, Marc and Morgan are moving to Korea. We are so sad to see her go - many tears have been shed over this move especially since she's the first of us girls to leave. Sara treated us to Pioneer Woman's Penne ala Vodka. It was delicious!



Carm and Morgan enjoying the feast.



Meghan...always hiding from me but never getting very far.



Morgan eating everything including the dinner napkin!



At this point in the meal the ladies were scheming against me. They are always thinking of ways to make the wedding a little more personalized. For instance, they are planning to wear black dresses and bright pashminas and stand in as bridesmaids. From there the conversation got a bit ridiculous and TOTALLY one sided with their schemes of wedding sabotage! Needless to say...their invitations may get lost in the mail...who's laughing now ladies???





Bye Carm...I'll miss you and your cute little family. I'm so glad you're a blogger now though!

Cookie Party

My friend Jenny held a cookie party on Sunday afternoon. Jenny invited all of her very eclectic friends and we enjoyed baking and decorating a few different cookie recipes. I even brought prepared molasses dough (don't worry Bev, I didn't share the recipe!) that we rolled and baked together. Carmy-Carm came with Morgan who was super happy and then super sleepy. It was a nice way to spend the Sunday afternoon.



Some of the gals taking a baking break.



Jenny never stopped...



Thanks for a fun afternoon Jenny!

SURPRISE!

Nathan celebrated his birthday on Saturday in a lot of ways.

1. He slept in
2. He had his favorite lunch delivered by yours truly from Maize and Blue Deli
3. He got to wear his new t-shirt and Merrels all day long
4. He attended the Michigan basketball game...we won!
5. He got a surprise visit from his great friend Chris!
6. He came home to his very own PBR Surprise party!

With the help of so many great friends I was able to throw a "Nathan's Favorite Things" birthday party. Yes, he only turned 27 so why throw him a surprise party? Well I just figured it was the last time we'd live so close to so many good friends from high school through grad school and I wanted to take advantage of it for Nathan's sake!

I sent invitations to friends far and wide that read as follows:

Snowfall in winter and drinking PBR
Ice cream in cartons and shopping for new cars
Hail to the Victors proudly he sings
These are a few of his favorite things...

Please join me in celebrating Nathan's birthday with a few of his favorite things!

Here's a list of the featured favorite things...

1. Swedish Fish
2. Otto's Chex Mix (family recipe made by his mama now)
3. Hummus and veggies
4. Ann Arbor Tortillas and his favorite Jack's salsa
5. Nate's moms FAMOUS cheese dip (or so he thinks)
6. Homemade Christmas cookies
7. His favorite beers...PBR, Miller Lite, Bells and a feature of his favorite team the Wolverines!



Waiting in the back for the birthday boy to arrive.



My scheming sistahs...Sara and Meghan



In a word. He was excited!



Seeing our friends from high school that traveled all the way from Columbus Nathan said "people are coming from all over the country for this thing!"



Even K-Tan enjoyed a PBR. Well, at least he opened one, not sure he enjoyed it.



Everytime we walk by the cookie shop in the mall Nathan proclaims "I love those things!" and then I throw up a little in my mouth. I hate them. He loves them. Oh the things you do for love. Anyway, one cookie cake and two kinds of his favorite ice cream later everyone enjoyed a sweet ending to the night!






Honorable Mentions:

Chris flew in for the night all the way from Houston. He and Nathan met while working together in Iraq. Chris just happened to be on leave for the month and surprised Nate by flying in for the party. He wins for longest distance traveled.



Michelle and Chad were featured earlier this year after we attended their wedding. Michelle and Nathan have been great friends since junior high. Michelle and Chad were so sweet and drove from Columbus where they live now to Ann Arbor just for the par-tay! They win for longest friendship present at the party!



It was a wonderful night and I was so glad that so many of Nathan's wonderful friends came to help him celebrate turning 27. Thank you to all of you for helping pull off a great birthday surprise!

Happy Birthday Nathan...I love you!!!!

Lumber-nate

We drove to a tree farm tonight to get our Christmas tree. We really enjoyed the family run place we to last year so we went back again this year! Nate has a real eye for trees...I on the other hand want to find the PERFECT tree. That theory never works. But somehow we come home with a great tree that's even better once the ornaments are on. The presents below always help too!

Nate was in charge of the tree cart. He rode down that hill on it. Silliness.



And she's down...



Trying to even it out perfectly. I am SOO not the perfectionist in this relationship!



Posing on the cart with our 2008 tree. I was forced to take this picture. "You always take pictures of me. Sit down and smile. And don't delete it until you post it." That's what I heard before, during and after this picture. Whatever.



I love these shots and Nathan's so good at taking them. I always cut off my own head. Maybe I love them because it's a great excuse to get close on a cold day?



The finished product....

Cookie Weekend 2008

Let the baking begin! Bev picked up matching aprons and hats for Frankie and Joey. Too cute!



Phyliss starts in on the dough...can't remember what kind though.



Chocolate Pizzas...delicious! Rick makes these and is planning to make a black and white version for the wedding!




Bev and Rissa discussing the doubling of a cookie recipe. Bev was smart and wrote out the doubled numbers on the recipes instead of us trying to figure them out on the fly.



Frankie and I unwrapping candies for the peanut butter kiss cookies.



Frankie taking a much needed tickle break with her Aunt Rissa.



Joey playing games with her Papa.



Homemade cinnamon rolls...mmm...I brought one home with real frosting for Nathan!



Squirrel Lovers do need read further! They have a real problem with squirrels so they've resorted to a beebee gun. Well, apparently Noah's aim is a little too good sometimes. I promise, they try normally to scare the squirrels, not kill them!



A group shot during the Holidazzle. I was impressed that the man got everyone in!



Rissa and I enjoying the parade.



And then, I dropped my camera. And it busted. So, the rest of this story will be told in pictures from Rissa and Bev.

Libby watching to Holidazzle with Joey. She was so good, especially considering how freezing it was outside!



Rissa and I waiting for Santa. Okay, we were just trying to entertain ourselves.



Rissa and Joey at the end of the parade. Isn't this a sweet picture?



Check out our loot!



Joey just loved playing with Tank and Kaiser. She would sit on them, bounce, play with their ears...anything they'd let her do.



Frankie loved decorating cookies with her Papa. They've done it together every year that I've attended. It's nice for them to bond and SOOOOO nice that us other girls don't have to do it! Rick flew back just for the weekend...



In action...



Frankie, Papa and their loot!



The last night the girls got to wear their new Christmas pajamas. Aren't they sweet?



All in all it was a great weekend. We all traveled too and from safely. Nate and I are slowly eating the goods that I brought home. We're so glad that we have different favorites, otherwise there might be a bit of a throwdown! Ha!