Throwback Jamz

Last year Lori and I had a brilliant idea for Mom's Christmas gift - help her go through all of grandma's recipe boxes and organize them into a brilliant keepsake cookbook with all of her favorite recipes, photos, etc.

Welp. We didn't get it done. So this year our Christmas gift was to "make good" on the Christmas gift that we gave her last year. It is truly the thought that counts, right?

Naturally, sorting through childhood memories calls for the music of the times, so Mom pulled out her trusty portable record player (a Christmas gift from many many moons a while ago) and her stack of records and tinny, staticky music definitely added to the ambiance :)

We DID also start to go through all of Grandma Schmitz's recipes starting with the six (yes, SIX!) recipe boxes. This might be a long project...  My favorite discoveries were

1) A collection of notes with marriage advice circa 1947, which we believe came from her wedding shower! Fun to read through all of the hand-written notes, and my favorite being:

2) We came across grandma's recipe holder that always sat on her sink and her very favorite recipes were still clipped to it. The very first one being... dun dun dun.... THE grandma bars! Now we know the real name for them! However, they will still always remain Grandma Bars to me :)

Heading back to CO tomorrow, and until then, much love from the plains!

"Merry Pismas!"

On Christmas eve the Haug family came out to Mom and Dad's so we could start the Christmas celebrations and Abigail burst into the house and yelled "Merry Pismas!" (which is, of course, Abby-ese for "Christmas"), but much more adorable. She was also very excited to open our "pismas fockings" (Christmas stockings), and she just "wuvs pismas candy". Too. Cute.

Fancy Christmas jackets!

Quick - take a picture before we lose everyone

My craft project for the girls - what used to be ugly pictures at Goodwill are now re-purposed as jewelry holders!

General consensus? E looks like an elf. 

He also loves his spinny IKEA chair! (Well worth the trip, Sarah)

Alex is excited to learn the guitar! 

Christmas is exhausting.

Alex provided the soundtrack to the holidays

New hairbows are the best!

Merry Pismas!!

even?

Today I got yelled at by a student's father at 8:30 a.m.

...

But then the people in the office across from ours brought this 2-week old pot-bellied pig to visit.

Even? Even.

the Sarah Fischer Cookie Party

You know how Sky Mall titles everything "the" something or other? The 8-foot tall garden yeti. The fastest cat toilet-training system. The original hotdog plus bun toaster.

Well last weekend was the Sarah Fischer Cookie Party. I guarantee this cookie party is better than all others because, while many cookie parties are billed as "exchanges", which we all know is really code for "bring your own cookies because I don't want to spend two full days baking" - the Sarah Fischer Cookie Party is the opposite. Sarah does all the baking, all the cooking, and all the prep. And we just show up. And then bring home leftovers. This is the reason we are friends.

Wait, I lie. I did have a very important job. Hang the ornaments on the garland. Which I did, of course, and then I took it to the next level.

Garland? check. 

Fertility statue? check. 

There is a reason I fasted all day in preparation for this. 

the Sarah Fischer :)

 

"Why are we holding things from the table?"

No idea!

Sarah is saying, "Jill Muegge. WHAT are you doing?"

I am saying, "Whaaaaat???"

Can't forget the self-timer photo! The opinion was that this one was too far away. 

Take #2. Ilana is saying, "Jill's head is right next to my face!" Well, I zoomed in! You did tell me the last one was too far away, after all. 

Oh man, I'm laughing again just looking at these photos. Good times.

Jersey Girl

Last weekend I went to visit my favorite Jersey Girl for a weekend, of, well... girl stuff. We ate lots of food, drank some wine, did a little shopping, laughed lots, and watched girly TV. Perfect!

Look who I found!

"Jersey's famous Grease Trucks"

Can't go to NJ without eating a bagel or two! Yup, that happened. 

That also happened. 

 This is what it looked like alllll weekend. Rain. Clouds. Fog. Lovely :)

We also spent our Saturday morning volunteering at the Devils Care Dressing Up event at Danielle's work. Employees from her work (at the Prudential Center) donated clothing which was then passed on to local families in need during this Dressing Up shopping event. Check out the awesome video here http://devils.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=647435, and see an interview with Danielle - the top donater and Marketing Manager! (Yours truly also makes a cameo, watch closely.)

Love you, Peanut - you are amazing! Here's to Arsott House for life :)

drunk dial

I got drunk dialed over the weekend. By the father of one of my students. He left a very rambling message on my work phone which I happily frustratingly shockingly interestingly discovered on Monday.

I've since spoken with this student's mother three (yes, three!) times already today, and she apologized for her husband saying, "I told him it wasn't a good idea to call you after two glasses of wine!"

Drunk-dialed at work. That is a first for me.

The tradition continues!

Just spreading the Christmas Candy love to Colorado! This is another one of those things that seemed so normal to me... until I started to explain it to other people. "You just just sit around the stove and paint these little plastic molds with these toothpicks. Just don't get any water in the candy!" As I think about it, was this one of Mom's tactics just to keep us occupied when we were kids? Hmmm....

Regardless, still one of my favorite holiday traditions! And I think I got Sarah and Ilana on board, too :)

My, what cute aprons you have!

Intense concentration required.

Happy helpers

 

Success! 

We were limited to green, pink, and yellow due to the fact that yours truly dropped the pan in the water effectively ruining the other colors. Rookie mistake. But I'm trying not to dwell on it.

Much holiday love from the Rockies!

pancakes and art and santas, oh my!

It may be December, but the weather is making it still feel like fall, which I am 100% okay with. It made for a perfect weekend for enjoying Denver festivities! 

Friday night I joined Sarah and Gary at an event called Pancakes and Booze - boasting itself as "Denver's largest underground art show". For Denver's biggest underground art show, it was not as big as I had anticipated. AND the venue was in fact upstairs, rather than underground. I realize it did not mean literally underground, but the irony of it still made makes me giggle. It was a high concentration of hipsters in a small area, so the people watching was above average!

Yup, just a normal day for them

lookatthebirdlookatthebirdlookatthebirdlookatthebirdlookatthebirdlookatthebird

We are, in fact, not outside

 Finished 3-D bird art. I actually liked this one!

The venue was in fact just one large line for the free pancakes.

Artsy.

Continuing my trend of booze-themed events this weekend (it was a coincidence, I swear!), I joined Kate and some friends at the Running of the Santas. There is a race involved, but it is after a bar crawl and it is only 4 blocks. Still, technically exercise.

Santas + giant Jenga!

Good thing Kate made me an awesome tutu. I was grossly under-dressed (holiday-speaking) - must remember to put more effort in next year. 

Saturday = tutu, Sunday = Christmas wreath! I was pretty proud of myself for that one :)

Much love from the Rockies!