Nuggets: End of Holidays

January 11, 2012 in Filed Under: Family, Nuggets 3 Comments

Well, the holiday season has definitely come to an end in our lives. Our home decorations are back to normal and work is back in full swing. We worked last week too, but we never felt like we got back into our normal routine after having last Monday off. After two super full work days this week we both feel like it should be closer to Friday already. Life goes on, with a few random nuggets…

:: Un-decorating. Boo! It’s soo fun and exciting to put up all the Christmas decorations, but taking them down is such a pain. I always have to take our stuff down right after Christmas, I feel like I can’t relax knowing that I have to do all that work eventually. But then again… it’s nice to have things back to normal too.

Christmas decor

:: Ramekins! I’ll bet that you have no idea how useful ramekins can be. My mom got a great deal on a set of ramekins and has since decided that they should be used constantly. Over the holidays we enjoyed a variety of foods served in ramekins. Eventually, “ramekin” became the answer to any and all questions. Just a few examples:

Our New Year’s Day meal and one of my favorite dishes… tourtiere.

Tourtiere

Allergy-free version… in a ramekin.

Tourtiere in ramakin

Crust-less pumpkin pie… in a ramekin.

Pumpkin pie

Dip with appetizers… in a ramekin. You get the idea? How did we ever live without them?

Dip in ramakin

:: Pomegranate seeds. Yummy! My sister introduced me to this new snack. We’ll have to enjoy them again soon.

Pom seeds

:: Ashley. She is on a plane headed home as I write this. The rest of my family returned to work and school this week, and she had to return to California. We like when she is able to visit, and we like all the game nights we get to have when she’s here. It’s always fun when we can all be together.

AshAshley

Happy hump day. Ramekin!

Nuggets: December

December 23, 2011 in Filed Under: Nuggets 2 Comments

I can’t believe that Christmastime is here already! December has just flown by so quickly, here’s a little of what we have been up to…

:: We got to go to a Bucs game. It’s only the second football game I’ve been to. I’m not usually a big fan, but games are more fun in person than they are on TV. The tickets were Jesse’s birthday gift from my parents. It was a beautiful day and we had a lot of fun.

Bucs game

:: The CF wives planned a cookie exchange at our last dinner. I just love getting together with these girls, and look at all the cookies I took home. I’m serving these yummy treats for Christmas Eve.

Cookie exchange

:: I even got to take home a plate of allergy-free peanut butter cookies. One of the girls made a batch just for me… and I’ve been super nice too and shared a couple with Jesse.

Peanut butter cookies

:: I came across this recipe for black bean fudge. At first I thought there was no way it could be any good, but the reviews were great… so I had to give it a try. I love it! I served it to my family and they almost didn’t believe me when I told them it was made with black beans.

Fudge

:: We went to Church Street Christmas last night. It’s just a simple Christmassy activity, walk up and down the street admiring the Christmas lights and a few performances.

Lamp postChristmas house

:: When we went last year it was FREEZING! This year, not so much… which was a bummer because I really wanted to wear this new, beautiful scarf I got as a Christmas gift. In case you don’t catch the significance it’s purple, for CF, with roses, also for CF… from one my CF wife friends. (I really love it, Ami!)

Scarf

:: I decided that I would just wear my scarf anyways… which made the rest of the girls decide that they all wanted to wear scarves since it was Christmas after all. So all the girls just pretended it was cold enough for scarves even though it was 62 degrees. It’s a fashion statement!

Scarf girls

:: Ashley is home from school for Christmas. Yay! Now we can take some silly pictures!

Muscle girlsSiblings

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!!

Nuggets: Birthdays

December 12, 2011 in Filed Under: Family, General, Nuggets 2 Comments

Family birthday dinners are a forever long tradition in our family. This weekend we had a three-in-one birthday dinner to celebrate Nicole (last month), Andrew (on his birthday), and Jesse’s (next week) birthdays. Mom made black bean soup and a salad, and I brought my no-noodles lasagna (Jesse’s new favorite). We had a great time hanging out together.

:: Balloon wars. One should never underestimate the amount of fun to be had in hitting each other with balloons. Mom and Dad had filled Andrew’s room with balloons on his birthday eve and we spent a lot of evening attacking each other with them. You’d think it would get old, but just when you though it was over… someone would start another battle. I have to say that arm is actually sore from smacking so many balloons.

Balloons

:: Cake. Mom made a cake filled with 21s for Nicole and Andrew, and 33s for Jesse. The colorful balloons on top of the cake are as old as I am. I’m pretty sure they’ve been on just about everyone’s birthday cake every year!

Cake

:: I was pretty excited to give Andrew his Math geek gift. In our house, you know it’s a good gift when it causes Dad and Andrew to spontaneously burst into problem solving. Perfect gift… weird men!

GiftClock

:: Andrew got several nice gifts. One of the things Nicole got him was personalized guitar picks. They had their picture and a birthday message printed on them. She’s so smart!

Picks

:: We sang happy birthday to all of them and they blew out their candles. Nicole also made a peanut butter and jelly pie (at Jesse’s request) and a key lime pie.

Birthday people

Happy birthday to all, and to all a good night.