Between Thanksgiving and leaving for CA for Christmas....

After Fritz, Susanne, Dad and Jean left, we started getting ready for Christmas...

Made a batch of coffee liqueur to give as gifts

This was the second year I made lino print Christmas cards. They may look funny, but I have fun making them : ) 

Part of the batch in process

My St Nick's present to myself - the bound version of my thesis arrived December 6th. The university requires graduate students who complete a thesis to have 4 copies printed - one for the library, one for the graduate office, one for your department, and one for yourself. They are printed and bound at a monastery outside Portland and are archival, so it takes a while to actually get them.  Felt pretty good to have the finished product in my hands!

I started a batch of homemade vin d'orange

Went to the Vancouver winter brew fest with Bryce and Heather. Drank a lot of really good local beers.

Brought some Ben and Jerry's in a thermous and went for a ride on a historic locomotive they run on the tracks through town over the holidays (the Holiday Express).  

A very old Empire Builder car! 

The train was HUGE. Really cool. 

I joined the family MDX club and got a new (to us) ride mid December.... (and sold the Corolla! kind of bitter sweet ) 

And went wedding dress shopping and to lunch with Heather (Bryce's fiance) - another fun girlie day.

Steve and Merritt hosted a huge Hanukkah party

30-some people for a sit down meal! They took all the furniture out of their dining room and living room to make it work. 

And right before we left for CA, we did a holiday party at Jami and Christian's house for our "Ohio/Indiana-Portland friends" (the kickball group, for Dad and Mom who have been to some of our kickball games years ago).
Here are all the girls of the group - me (horrible picture and wearing the cowl scarf I got as a gift in the exchange), Becky and Haylie's daughter Camille, Katy and her daughter Emeryn, Haylie, Jami and Valerie. Josh and Michelle and AJ and Lindsay couldn't make it (you'd recognize J and M from our wedding) but they are a part of this group as well. A fun night, although much milder than our get togethers used to be - three of these ladies are pregnant in the photo, and two already little ones : )

Thanksgiving week! Fritz and Susanne and Dad and Jean's visit

So glad you've kept posting Heather! I FINALLY got work to fix my phone, which had all my photos. Turns out the encryption they did to it to keep my work email private also messed with my photos. But, all is fixed now, and there is lots to catch up on.

I left off with just before Thanksgiving and Dad and Jean and Fritz and Susanne's visit:

Ashley made raclette for Dad, Jean, Fritz, Susanne and I one of the first nights.

Drank wine and had some good laughs. This one was at Dad's expense - I won't post the photos of what we were laughing at : ) 

Jean checking out the Thanksgiving weekend sales

Susanne in the kitchen

Susanne and Ashley prepping the turkey to be fried

Fritz and Dad working on the dresser 

Carmen and Jean snuggling on the couch

Fritz and Dad in garage

Dad, Jean and dessert 

The carver sneaking a taste

Fritz smelling some dandelion wine I made in 2009 - it was actually pretty good!

Sign in a window of the house Ashley and co. remodeled

The workers after a hard day helping Ashley at the house

Safety first for dad! : )

Jean helping out and representin Wisco! Packer Sunday

The group before heading out on the trains. SO SO SO fun. Thankfully I had Christmas travel and my Wisconsin trip to look forward to - that always makes saying goodbye easier 

Happy 12th Birthday Morgan

I thought I'd be posting pictures from our Florida trip tonight, but with more than 500 photos to pick from, it felt a bit overwhelming.  Sooo, I thought I'd start with an update from Morgan's birthday and Beth's visit home.  I will tackle Florida another night this week;)

I took Morgan and her friend, Kayla for mani's and pedi's...

So nice to have you home, Beth!  Miss you already.

Can you tell Macy loves her monkey umbrella she got for Christmas from Beth and Ashley?  She had to get it out to show her.

I should have taken a picture of her with her new (first) cell phone.  Can't believe I forgot to take one.  Let the texting (from anywhere now) begin...

Happy holidays!

Such great holiday photos! Sounds like everyone had a fabulous few weeks. Wish we could have been there for all the festivities, but we did have so much fun opening everyone's packages - so unnecessary, but thank you!!!

I haven't posted since October - we have lots of good photos from Thanksgiving and Christmas, but unfortunately I have been using my new phone to take all the photos, and for some reason, my computer won't open/view the files so I can't do a post. Do'h! I use my work laptop for all this stuff and need to get permission to update some software. When I actually get that all figured out, I'll do a good post. We've been keeping this up to date for two full years already - crazy!

Hope everyone's 2013 is off to a great start! Miss you : )

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Such a great holiday season this year - filled with traditions of making cookies, Christmas Eve mass, Happy Birthday Jesus cake, skiing at the cabin, etc. etc.  Sorry for the zillion pictures, but so many great fun things to capture this time of year...

Enough said

 

Home made sugar cookies

Volunteering at Brooke's school party

Sledding at the farm

Making gingerbread houses

Thanks for the umbrella Aunt Beth!

Brooke's expressions were the best - all morning...

Disney, here we come!

Brooke was most excited that Santa left them a picture of himself - now she has proof!

Ginny gave me her green glassware she got on her wedding day - a set of 8 of each

Thanks for the hats grandpa!

Penny's favorite spot lately.  

New Years at Powderhorn Mountain

We met up with Dan, Michelle, and Bella!  We had a hard time pulling these two off the hill:)

The fireworks were beautiful this year although we cheated and watched them from the car - it was 2 degrees!