Party People

So over the last few weeks Taylor and I have been attending multiple Christmas parties! I feel like I have had a somewhat active social life lately. Ha! Two Fridays ago, we went over to Taylor's research professor's house for his groups Christmas party. We pretty much just sat around talking and drinking yummy wassail! I had never had wassail before and it is so good.

The next night we had our friends over to the house for a white elephant gift exchange! I ended up getting a bottle of nail polish from Laine and Taylor wound up with this trophy that says "#1 Balla!" Keith brought Ha. It was really funny!

And last Friday, we went over to my director's house for our office Christmas party. It was nice to see people outside of an office environment so you can get to know them better. That day at work we also had a building wide gift exchange. Everyone who was participating had a balloon on their cube and gift sitting on the floor.

Basically, all day long if you saw a gift that appealed to you, then you could swap the one outside your cube for it! It was fun to see which gifts everyone wanted and then once we opened everything what they ended up being. I ended up receiving an ornament that had reindeer poop on it that is supposed to guide Santa's sleigh to your house on Christmas eve! Ha.

Sorry, I don't have many pictures to share! I updated my phone and lost a couple of the photos I had taken at the parties. Oops!

Wrapped up...

Well, I finally got all of our presents wrapped! I forgot how much time it takes to wrap presents. This year I went simple with the wrapping paper and used tulle so the bows wouldn't get smashed during our 9 1/2 hour drive to OK. A couple years ago my mom used brown mailing paper to wrap our presents and I thought that was so smart. First, it's cheap. An entire roll costs $5 and wraps a billion gifts! So that's a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea.

Next, it travels well. Last year a lot of our gifts were torn after the drive so I thought this paper would be a much better idea because it's sturdy.

Third, since the paper is simple you can use all kinds of ribbons or tulle to the make the gifts look pretty!

Finally, you could (if you were crafty and I am not) decorate the paper however you wanted to! I just wrote everyone's name on the gifts but you could stamps or stickers, etc.

We are so excited for Friday to get here and to head back to OK and AR! I get off work Friday at noon and don't go back until January 3rd. Wahooo! This will be the first time since we moved up here that I have had an entire week off and I'm so excited. We are looking forward to seeing you all soon :)

Party Sandwiches, Potato Soup, Fruit Salad

For the last 3 or 4 weeks our small group has been fasting on Wednesdays for the Advent season. Then, when we get together that evening, we break the fast by eating a meal together and discussing the book we are reading. It has been tough not eating on Wednesdays and it makes the day seem a lot longer, but I have noticed that I am thinking more about what this season truly means and how blessed I am to have the things and people in my life that I do.

Each night a different couple has brought the dinner and last Wednesday was our turn! Audra (one of the group leaders) is a vegetarian so it was a bit tricky picking out meal options that she could eat as well. Here is what we prepared: ham and cheese party sandwiches, vegetarian crock pot potato soup, and fruit salad.

Here is the ham and cheese party sandwich recipe I used (and doubled since we had a lot of people to feed):

1 12 count package Kings Hawaiian Rolls
12 slices swiss cheese
12-16oz thin sliced ham
1/2 cup butter melted
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp poppy seeds (optional)
2 tsp onion flakes (or 1 tsp onion powder)
2 tbsp worcheshire sauce

Place ham and cheese on the bottom of the sliced rolls. Cover with the top half of roll. Mix together the remaining five ingredients in a small bowl and spoon over the tops of the sandwiches. It will look like you have too much, but just dump it all on there. Let sit overnight or a couple of hours. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350 for 15 minutes or until warmed through and the cheese is gooey and melty. These turned out very yummy!

I decided to go with a crock pot potato soup recipe since we had to work that day. It was very simple and turned out delicious.

First, use a 6 quart crock pot and peel and cut a 5 lb. bag of potatoes.

Then add 1 large onion, diced, 4 cloves garlic, minced (I used a little more than that), 2 teaspoons seasoned salt, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I used crushed red pepper flakes).

Next, add 8 cups vegetable stock since the recipe is vegetarian!

Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or on high for 4 hours. The potatoes should be fork-tender.

Once that is done, cut 16 ounces of Neufchatel cheese into blocks and use an immersion (we used a hand blender with the immersion attachment) to puree the soup.

Finally garnish with shredded sharp cheddar cheese, chives or green onions, and bacon bits. The soup was a little thinner than we imagined for potato soup, so we added a SMALL amount of cornstarch/water mix and it was just perfect! I highly recommend trying this recipe next time you have a big crowd to feed.

Finally, we look along a fruit salad so Audra would have something else to eat! Ha. This turned out to be delicious and we had extras that stood up in the fridge for a couple days after. Here is the fruit salad recipe I used:

1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks, juice reserved
2 apples, peeled and cored
1 (21 ounce) can peach pie filling
2 bananas, peeled and diced
3 kiwis (I used grapes)
1 pint strawberries (I did not use since they are ridiculously priced right now!)

In a small bowl, toss the chopped apples in reserved pineapple juice. Allow to sit for 5 to 10 minutes. In a large salad bowl, combine the peach pie filling and pineapple chunks. Remove apples from pineapple juice and add to pie filling and pineapple mixture. Add chopped bananas to reserved pineapple juice and let sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Add chopped strawberries (if you used them) and kiwi (aka grapes in this case). Remove bananas from pineapple juice and add to pie filling mixture. Chill and serve.

**Be sure to add the apples and bananas to the pineapple juice because it helps them not turn brown! Genius.

Hope you are having a great week!

1 1/2 years down...

Well, today Taylor completed 1 1/2 years of graduate school! I can hardly believe next May he will be done with 2 years and that we will have been in CU for that long. Wow, time flies :) To celebrate another semester completed, tonight we are heading to Cracker Barrel for dinner. Ha! I asked where he wanted to go eat and that is what sounded good to him, so that is where we shall go. After dinner we plan on watching the Biggest Loser finale and just spending time at home. Really exciting celebration, huh? :)

Hope y'all are having a great week!

Important

The other day I walked over to Taylor's building during lunch. It's only a street over so it's nice to be able to have lunch together. Normally we eat in the downstairs portion of the building where there are a whole bunch of tables. So I called him once I was inside and said, "Hey, I'm downstairs". He had a kind of serious tone when he replied, and said "Come up to my office, I have something really important to show you".

I figured I was going to see a new crystal he had grown or something cool he had discovered about his lab. Little did I know that the "important" thing he needed to show me was this...

Ha! I do have to admit that's a pretty impressive game of Minesweeper and yes, he did finish without hitting a mine :) Hope you had a great weekend!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Last night we put up our Christmas tree and I just love the way it looks in the living room now!


In my family, it is a tradition to put your first baby rattle in the tree each year. Here is my rattle, a set of car keys! I always find this a little funny since I don't like to drive at all.


In Taylor's family, the tradition is the night you put up the Christmas tree, you also make biscuit donuts. Obviously, this is a tradition I will be glad to continue :) We also invited Laine and Andrew over to watch the Bedlam game (Go Pokes!) and eat donuts. These were so delicious! Taylor did a great job making them.

(I can't get this picture to rotate! Sorry!)

It was a little tricky finding a place to put the tree in the living room, but we settled for next to the chair beside the TV. It will be a sad day in our house when the tree has to come down, I just love it!

Only 21 days until Christmas! I need to get some presents under that tree :)

How Taylor Studies

So Taylor can't just use 1 screen to study...

He needs 2! Haha. The other night he was looking up lectures on YouTube, about some physics concept I will never be able to pronounce, and I looked over to see he was using the TV screen as well! I guess once you make it to grad school 1 computer screen doesn't suffice anymore :)

Hope you are having a nice week!