Merry Christmas!

Wishing you and yours a very 

Merry Christmas! 

Our Christmas card from us to you!

Merry Christmas Eve!

I think everything I needed to check off my to list has been done.  At this point all I have left to do is make some asparagus casserole and finish up the twice baked potatoes!  We're having Christmas with Eric's family this afternoon at our house and I am excited about "hosting" Christmas.

Since Eric was duck hunting all weekend I had plenty of time to finish up the rest of the presents I had to make and wrap them, get a head start on my cooking for Monday, and was able to clean up finally.  Last week was CRAZY.  I had 4 basketball games plus we had Eric's football banquet which meant I was not home at all last week so the house was a bit tornado-esque.

On top of that I finally caught the sickness that has been going around, which causes my voice to sound like a scary man, especially first thing in the morning.  I can handle it in it's current state and I am hoping that this is the worst of it. What a way to kick off my 9 day vacation from work....woo.

I did manage to have a little fun this weekend at a Tacky Christmas/Birthday Party for one of Eric's best friends.  It was crazy fun!

Sunday night I was spent so Eric and I ventured out to get something to eat.  Unfortunately in the small town we live in the ONLY places that were open were fast food which neither of us were feeling, so stopped by the grocery store to get something to eat.  Big mistake.  Not only were we both hungry, but we also had no idea what we wanted to eat.  We ended up with stuff to make BBQ nachos, mozzarella cheese sticks (which were NOT worth what they charge for them), and a deep dish Chicago style pizza.  Eclectic, but delicious! And it paired very well with the Christmas movies we watched while we ate. =)

Now all we have to hope for is that this crazy stormy weather does not get too bad.  Our power got knocked out last night apparently (in my Nyquiled state I had no idea it went out until I woke up about at about 8--did I mention I LOVE vacation?).   I am getting excited about Christmas and I can't wait for this afternoon!  

Merry Christmas Eve!

Christmas Crunch

So this year I made 4 batches of this stuff on Sunday to give away as gifts at work from Eric and I.  Every year I toy with the idea of just making a big batch, putting it in bowl and putting out in a general area with little bags/plates for people to help themselves.  But then I think about peoples' dirty hands (I'm a germ-a-phobe at the office and pretty much anywhere else in public), but what concerned me the most was that usually when there is a bunch of something at the office to share people are hesitant to take the last of it, which would mean I would end up with some to take back home which is NOT what I want to happen.  And then I pack them into individual bags for another year.

This stuff is the most addicting dessert in the world.  I am not a big fan of almost bark/white chocolate covered desserts, but will inhale this stuff.....because it's just that good.

Christmas Crunch (aka Christmas Crack)

these were my ingredients for 4 batches

What you need (for one batch):

5 cups Cheerios

5 cups Corn Chex

10 oz small pretzels

12oz -16oz plain MandM's (the standard size bag has shrunk in recent years)

2-12oz bags of Nestle Toll House Premier White Morsels

1-24oz block of Almond Bark (Candy Quik will work in a pinch, but the real stuff is so much better)

1.5 TBSP oil

How to make it:

Mix the 1st 4 ingredients in a very large bowl.  I use an enormous tupperware container that I have.  Combine the next 3 ingredients in a microwave safe bowl and melt (use melting directions on the almond to keep it from burning).  Pour melted ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until coated.  Spread mixture on to wax paper.  Let harden, break into bite-sized pieces and place in air tight containers, if you can stop yourself from eating it.

**Remember** If you eat this standing up there are no calories. =)

Breakthrough

We finally got one!  A win that is.  The THS Tigers now officially have a mark in the win column!  We were so proud of the girls last night.  Since we had a game on Monday night (and only 7 players available to play) we were concerned that the girls would not have enough energy to make it through another game.  We also knew that we had a real opportunity to win, so we told the girls that no matter how tired they were they had to make up their minds that they were going to win.

Unfortunately we got off to a slow start, again. We were down 10-2 at one point in the 1st quarter, but by halftime we had clawed our way back to be down by just 2 points at halftime.  During the 3rd quarter we got up by 5 which gave us a little breathing room, but was far from a done deal.  It was not until halfway through the 4th quarter when one of our starters collided with another girl's knee and then hit the floor and had to come out that something clicked.  Since she had to come out of the game we had to put someone else in to shoot free throws for her. The girl we put in hit BOTH of them (we only shot 34% from the FT line all game) and then we went on a run and never looked back.  We ended up out-scoring them 20-5 in the 4th quarter and ended up winning 44-26.  20-5.  We've had a couple of game this year where we have not scored 20 points in the entire game and we scored 20 in ONE QUARTER.  It was amazing.  Now if we could just play like that EVERY game.  I know we are still young and have a ton of potential.  I just hope we can carry this momentum into our games this weekend!

Weekend Recap

This past weekend I actually had  free weekend. *GASP* Shocking I know.  Our basketball team bowed out of a single elimination tournament on Thursday which meant we had a free Friday and Saturday on my hands for the first time since in a couple of months, and only the second free Friday/Saturday since the beginning of August.  Oh the lives of coaches.

Friday was my work Christmas Party that I was partly in charge of putting on.  It was a BLAST as usual.  We had great food, good company, and a lot of fun!  Co-workers + Minute to Win It Games = Tons and Tons of Laughs!

My sweatshirt made another appearance for the party.

Friday night we did Hibachi with friends.  I am pretty much convinced that everything is better with Yum Yum sauce on it. =)

Saturday my incapable-of-making-plans-more-than-a-couple-of-days-in-advance husband decided we'd have a "game night" at the house with some of our friends.  We had deer burgers and a ton of delicious goodies to eat (of course!).

I had every intention of taking pictures of all of the goodies, that is until I became the dog whisperer yet again. Last weekend I caught 3 of my neighbors' dogs and put them back in their yards after they escaped. This weekend it was a sweet black lab puppy who had broken the phone cord that someone had used to tie him up outside who showed up in our carport on Saturday afternoon.  I was not planning on catching him, that was until I saw he had a collar and assumed he had a tag.  Wrong answer. No tag, but he was intent on following me around after that.  I walked him down the street to knock on doors to see if he belonged to anyone.  I had never seen him before but I thought maybe someone had just gotten him. No luck.  I took him inside and posted a picture of him on facebook hoping we'd get a call from someone looking for him.  No such luck.  After fostering him for 2 days and nights we took him to a friend's house (we already have 4 fur babies and could not keep him) and put him in the guy's outside kennel Monday morning. I called all of the vets and animal shelters in town to see if anyone had called about a missing lab and none of them had heard anything.  About noon Eric called to tell me the puppy escaped from the kennel.  I was so sad.  I guess I see now why he was on the loose to start with.  I just wish we could have found his owner.  I am still hoping he will go back to the kennel we put him in because the guy said he would keep him.....at least we tried.

Sweet Puppy

Sunday evening I spent making Christmas Crack (as my co-workers affectionately call it)...it's also known as Christmas Crunch.  It's a recipe my mom got from a friend years ago and it quickly turned into a family favorite. A few years ago I decided to make some of my co-workers and the guys that Eric works with for Christmas, and I have made it every years since.  I knew it was time to start making it last week when Eric told me the guys he works with had been asking about it for a couple of weeks. Since I have to make such a large amount I usually pick a weekend and make 4-5 batches to get it all done at once. I impressed myself and had 30 bags done in about 2 hours.

The recipe might appear right here tomorrow!

I got to finish my weekend off with basketball practice because we have 4, yes 4 basketball games this week: Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Saturday.  Needless today I will be running around like a crazy person and getting waaaaaay too little sleep.  Thank goodness I am off the ENTIRE week next week!  I am going to need it!

Happy Birthday Matt-Matt!

Happy Birthday

to my 

broom ball playin', 

aviator wearin',

pep band drummin',

part time pyro,

chemical engineerin', 

snowboard lovin', 

even when he doesn't have a snowboard!

striped overall wearin'

rock skippin'

"Little" Brother!

I hope you have a wonderful birthday! (I'm bringing your present next week BTW). 

Love ya bud!  ~Sis

Weekend Recap: Getting Closer to Christmas!

Another weekend down and one more week closer to Christmas! We had a jam-packed weekend full of basketball games for me--one on Friday AND one on Saturday--and fishing for Eric--it was 75 outside all weekend and he was not missing out on the opportunity to fish.

After the game Friday we went bowling for one of our friend's birthday. It was a late night but so much fun!  And I BEAT Eric.  It's true.  He won the first game (although I had him on the ropes and choked in the 10th frame), I won the second, and when our game shut off in the 4th frame of the 3rd game I was up by four, and we both bowled a spare, so I think it's only fitting to say I won....and yes I have photographic evidence.

I'm the 3rd one down (the 1st B) and Eric is BE just below me.  

After our [away] game on Saturday I high-tailed it home to get in my tacky Christmas attire for a Tacky Christmas Party with some of our friends.  It was a blast! The food was amazing, and Dirty Santa was a classic.  I ended up with an extension cord and Eric ended up with an old school lunch box filled with baseball cards and an Alabama sunglasses cloth.  The best part of the night though?  The girls beating the boys in a Battle of the Sexes game of Celebrity 121-119.  All of them had some hurt feelings and egos once they realized we'd beat them. =)

There was plenty of tackiness to go around.  Neither of us had a tacky Christmas sweater, so I decided to make sweatshirts for us.  They turned out adorable.  Eric really got into it and insisted on wearing sweatpants and candy cane striped socks with slippers.  He also added a hounds tooth ribbon headband right before we walked out the door.....such a fashion-ista.

Sunday was my lazy catch-up day. I went to church, cleaned, and even got a start on my present wrapping.  While I worked the puppy dogs did the adorable thing.  Is there anything more precious than puppy dogs cuddling?!

We finished up the weekend watching ABC Family Christmas movies...I knew it was a long shot getting Eric to watch them with me, but he did!  I was a such a happy girl!

And the icing on the cake this weekend?  This little gem that I found in the back of the freezer!!!  I always put a box away for the summer time but I completely forgot about these babies!  I may or may not have eaten half a sleeve in 2 minutes.  I just can't help it!  I LOVE Thin Mints!

I've got a busy week ahead of me: at least 2 basketball games (single elimination tournament this weekend with a potential for 2 additional games), 2 work Christmas parties (one of which I'm 1/2 in charge of), and I am going to attempt to finish up my Christmas shopping....I have to since we have 4 GAMES next week and I will have ZERO time to do it then.  Wish me luck! Hopefully I will still be vertical by the end of the week!

I'm Getting Old and a Thanksgiving Weekend Recap (2 weeks late)

It's happening....I 'm getting old.  I've been trying to deny it, but my 27 (nearly 28--yikes!) year old body does not bounce back as quickly as my 26 year old one did. Case in point, I ran a 4 on 4 drill with our basketball team last night because we only had 7 girls who could practice (which is a story in itself).  This morning I could hardly drag myself out of bed, and I am SORE.   Just 12 hours later!  It used to take a a good 24-36 hours before soreness kicked in.  Ugh.

The reason I was running 4 on 4 drills with the team was because we have 2 of our 9 girls out with injuries.  We've had 2 rolled ankles in the past week and the school does not provide us with an athletic trainer on a regular basis (and never for practice). Last year we made it through the season only needing to tape thumbs, which I got really good at.  I knew the time was coming that I would have to learn how to tape an ankle.  I've had my ankles taped countless times before but have never actually taped one myself.  Enter my athletically trained husband who actually took that class in college (I really wish I had).  He gave me a crash course last night. and I must say I am pretty proud of my taping abilities. I just hope I can recreate this at practice without him guiding me.  That will be the test.

I realize that Thanksgiving was nearly 2 weeks ago (yikes!), but I did not want to leave this post out. I guess it's better late than never.  =)  Our Thanksgiving was a bit discombobulated this year, but we managed to have a wonderful one.  Dad stayed down south since he and Mom moved into the new house the weekend before, and Matt spent Thanksgiving with his girlfriend's family in Wisconsin.

Since the football team lost the week before we decided that weekend that we would drive up to my grandparents' house in Indiana.  I absolutely LOVE going up there because it's where I was born and spent the first 9 years of my life.  Going there brings back so many wonderful memories...it is its own little slice of paradise.

We drove up on Weds, and pulled into town literally the same time Mom got there. Thanksgiving day mom, my grandma and I did some cooking while Eric and my grandpa worked their butts off.  They were busy all day long.  Since my cousins, aunt, and uncle were not coming until Friday, we decided to have our actual Thanksgiving dinner until Friday, but don't worry we stuffed ourselves silly with beef tenderloin instead of Thanksgiving Turkey that night.

Mom and I went out Black Friday shopping early Friday morning. We've done this the past 5 or 6 years.  We don't get out too early with all of the crazies.  We usually leave around 6AM so that we can get to Chik-fil-a right when they open at 6:30AM.  We would not be able to make it without eating first. We made it through out list of places we planned on going (most of which were in one location luckily) by lunchtime and were back home in time to help with our Thanksgiving feast!

Our beautiful (and delicious) Thanksgiving Table. 

Saturday Eric and I headed into town with my aunt and uncle for the Battle for the Old Oaken Bucket AKA the Purdue/IU football game.  It's a far cry from the Iron Bowl that folks in our neck of the woods have as a rivalry game, but it's the rivalry game that I grew up going to and it was so much fun!  

We got to campus early to have the whole Purdue football experience.  This included a trip to Harry's Chocolate Shop.  I had never been so Eric and I got to have our 1st Harry's experience together.  It's a bar was built in 1928 (during prohibition).  The upstairs was a chocolate shop but the downstairs was an underground bar.  Now the entire thing is a bar but it still has the name.  It has a TON of character and it was packed....at 10AM.  

Sporting our Purdue duds that I picked up during Black Friday shopping round 2 Friday night.

After an hour or so we bundled up and headed over to Rossade Stadium for the game.  It was a balmy 29 outside for the ENTIRE GAME.  Amazingly we did not get cold until about halftime, my hands and feet went numb quickly, so I guess it was not that bad. =)  We are used to sweating to death in 100 heat at football games, so 29 dregrees at noon was quite a departure for us.  We had amazing seats, which we bought from someone at Harry's 30 minutes before kickoff. I was so thankful for the padded seatbacks that kept my hiney off the cold metal bleachers.

20 yard line about 20 rows up.....perfection

The worlds largest drum!  One of my favorite parts of the Purdue Band!  We used to go watch them perform before the games when I was a little girl. 

Since it was the last game of the year, it was Senior Day and all of the senior band members got to hit the drum.  It was pretty cool. 

Purdue won, which was awesome!  We then went to another bar in town to watch the 1st half of the Iron Bowl , which was not much of a game.  We left at halfttime to head back to my grandparents' house knowing that there was not question who was going to win.  When we got back my mom, grandparents and cousins had Arni's Juniors and Arni's Pizzas waiting on us.  Arni's is only my favorite restaurant in the entire world.  Sadly they only exist in Indiana =(   It's the greatest pizza/salad place ever! [in my humble opinion]

We headed out early Sunday morning to beat some of the traffic back to Alabama, which we surprisingly did.  I'm somewhat embarrassed about my lack of picture taking during out trip.  I guess I got caught up in all of the fun and left the camera put away, which is not so much of a bad thing.  It's trips like this that remind me of how awesome my family is and how blessed I am to have them!

Weekend Recap: Football, Christmas, and Food

Only in the state of Alabama would a high school basketball game be cancelled so that people could watch the SEC Championship Football Game.  That ACTUALLY happened this weekend.  We were supposed to have a game on Saturday afternoon but the team we were supposed to play called on Friday with "bus troubles" so they could not come.  I might have believed their story if they had not called a couple of weeks ago to reschedule because of the football game.  Oh well, at least we got to watch the Tide Roll their way into another National Championship Game!  The game was INTENSE.  This was the scene at our house:

There was quite a bit of tension in the room, especially during the 2nd half. 

There was even a little Tebow-ing.

And a lot of whooping and hollering after Alabama won!  Bring it on Notre Dame!

We spent the rest of the weekend getting into the holiday season!  It took me a few days but I FINALLY got the tree decorated!  I just LOVE it!

Notice no ornaments below 3 feet.  Hawk's tail is lethal!

 We've also added on to the decorations on the outside of the house. I saw tomato cage trees on pinterest a few days ago, and decided that I could use a few of my 28 boxes of lights to make this happen.  I picked up 4 cages at Wally World and got to wrapping.  12 boxes of lights later I had pretty trees to put out front!

I think it really adds to the house, but we still need something else on the porch.  I may pick up another spotlight this week to put on the front f the house, and wrap the railing with garland (maybe--that would be a lot of work).

Of course we can't have a successful football watching weekend at home without some wonderful food.  We had a TON of it.  We had people over not one but 2 nights in a row, and oh my did we eat.  Saturday night was deer tacos, and we had a taco spread.  It was fabulous!  Since I did not know I was going to be able to stay home and watch the game until Friday afternoon I had not planned anything to cook, but I was able to throw together a few dishes thanks to pinterest! (duh)  They were all amazing.

M and M's Cookie Bars

Caprese Bites (made with WonTons)

Touchdown Taco Dip

We didn't think that you could do much to top Saturday night's spread but we blew it out of the water on Sunday night.  The guys for some reason decided that they wanted to fry chicken for dinner, so they did.  My SIL and I managed to throw together a few side dishes (even though we were not told about it until Sunday afternoon--we're just that good).  She made an amazing Homemade Macaroni and Cheese dish.  It was amazing.  I think I had 3 over-sized servings.   I threw together a classic Green Bean Casserole that was so so good. The boys wanted some rice and gravy to go with the chicken....we went uber southern for dinner.  Unfortunately I have never made gravy before. I have had bad experiences with making rues and try to avoid them at all cost. Once again pinterest saved my butt, and with the help of my SIL we came up with a delicious gravy for the boys!

My gravy!  I was so proud =)  I even put it in our wedding china gravy boat (because that's the only one I own). 

Dinner:

I didn't get a picture of the spread because we dug in as soon as the platters hit the counter, but I did get a pic of my [first] plate.

 I knew that it was a high quality dinner when there was only one person out of about 12 who noticed there was nothing for dessert.  I call that a successful dinner and the perfect end to an awesome weekend!