Wednesday, December 31, 2008

While catching up on blog reading this a.m., I found this recipe from The Country Doctor's Wife's Sister's Blog. The Recipe is for Ginger Muffins. My kitchen smells soooooo good right now. The muffins have such a high crown too (just beautiful). I definitely recommend this recipe. Bake them!
**Note: These muffins aren't very sweet. I sprinkled raw sugar on top. The next time I bake them am going to double the sugar. But...if sweet isn't your game, then bake them according to the recipe.

I also found this cute New Year's tradition from Noble Pig. It's simple and sounds like fun.

Happy New Year!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Netflix This!


I actually watched two movies last night. The first was Footloose. My kids had never seen it. There was a lot of laughter over clothing & hairstyles (1984), but it was fun to watch. I can definitely wait another 24 years before I see it again.
The second movie was called P.S. I love you. My friend Tammie gave it to me for Christmas. The first ten minutes were pure torture. I mean torture. I almost turned it off several times and wished I had saved it for a regifting party...but I knew Tammie was going to ask me about it so I persevered through it. I am so glad I did.
The movie got much better and was actually quite funny in-between the sad parts. Basically, my emotions went like this through the movie: boo hoo, ha ha, boo hoo, ha ha, boo hoo, ha ha. So...if you plan to watch this movie: have a tissue nearby. I only used one during the movie, but it was pretty soggy by the time it was over.

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Fun with Friends (& Naughty Remy)

No pictures for this post, sorry. I have had two cameras die in the last two weeks. Omid promises to get me a new camera this week. I have a larger digital camera I can use, but I like the smaller ones that fit in my purse and I didn't want to lug my big camera around with me last night.

So...we picked up Lin, Ward, Jeff and Tammie and drove into Portland for dinner. We were celebrating Lin & Ward's 17th wedding anniversary. Jeff chose a neat restaurant called Bay 13. It's really good and really pricey. I checked out the wine list before we left and saw that the cheapest bottle was too much, so we brought our own bottles and paid the $17 corking fee per bottle. Much more economical.

We shared oysters and sushi and everyone ordered a different meal. Omid had the beef tenderloin which was soooo good and I ordered the sea scallops (they were good too).

After dinner, we wanted to eat dessert at Papa Haydn, but the wait was too long, so we had dessert at Moonstruck Chocolate instead. After dessert, we walked around until almost 1 a.m.

When we came home...we went right to bed so we didn't notice Remy had been naughty in our absence. When I woke up this a.m., I noticed the beautiful bourbon pecan pie our friend brought us yesterday afternoon had been eaten. All of it! We didn't even get one bite. Remy had covered his tracks really well. Hardly any crumbs or anything. I knew for certain it was him as I found some pecan filling on his water bowl. I called him to the kitchen and he refused to come. He ran to Matty for comfort. I take full responsibility for leaving the pie out. I thought it was far enough away from him....but I was wrong.

Saturday, December 27, 2008

Africa Stuff

You can get cool shirts on this site for $20 that read, "I need Africa more than Africa needs me." http://www.mochaclub.org/

Also...Toms Shoes (http://www.tomsshoes.com/) has a "one for one" campaign. For every pair of shoes you purchase, Toms will donate one pair to a child in need. As of right now, Toms is sending 37,000 shoes to Ethiopia. Pretty cool.



ABBA Mania!

Let me just start this post by saying I loved ABBA before the movie Mamma Mia! hit theaters. The closest I have ever come to seeing ABBA in person was seeing Bjorn Again at the Crystal Ballroom a few years ago. They are ABBA impersonators and they were so fun to see. Can't wait for them to come into town again.

Omid bought the Sing! Star! ABBA! game for our PS2 system. It has been loads of fun. Just so you know...I rock at The Name of the Game and Knowing Me, Knowing You. The other songs the kids are great at as they can hit the higher notes. The game is so cute as it has all the ABBA videos which are so fun to watch. The cutest was Chiquitita - the band is all smiles and it's contagious.
Remy singing Take a Chance (which is super hard to sing back up on).


Matty being forced to play with me (payback for all the times I played Swords & Legos).

Singing to Super Trouper



ABBA

Friday, December 26, 2008

Foodie Bride

Found this great new recipe site on the Oregonian website today. Lots of good recipes & pictures.

Christmas Day

We braved I-5 and made it up to Olympia. My parents have 24"+ of snow in their backyard and we had to park at the bottom of their hill and walk up to the house. Because of how difficult it was for guests to arrive at their house for Xmas, my sister who lives a few miles down the road offered to host dinner at her house instead. Her road was almost as bad, but we made it no problem. Ham dinner
Sammee, Nas & Cayden


B, Cayden & Grammy





Matty with a Christmas 'cracker.'


Sammee with her cracker crown.



Nas & Sammee





Matty & Buddy






Buddy & Mike







Buddy! He survived a brown recluse spider bite this summer. After 2 surgeries and countless antibiotics, he survived.


Samme playing Guitar Hero.





Tom & Mike

Conner & Kohl




Omid, Cynce & Papa (Omid is pretending to have had too much wine).





Wassail punch (recipe below)



Presents!



Beer - chilling on Cynce's deck.




Grammy & Papa's back yard.




Merry Christmas!
We woke up to news that my alma mater's roof had collapsed. Shocking! Some of our family members still attend this school and it may not be ready for classes on Jan. 5th.
1 pint cranberry juice
1 6 0z can frozen oj (thawed)
2 c water
1 T sugar
1/4 t allspice
1 bottle Chenin Blanc
1 bottle ginger ale
1 orange sliced (& studded with cloves)
Simmer until warm & serve.


Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Happy Christmas Eve!

Remember these? From my March 08 post of this year? Well, Arezou & Even remembered and gave me my own pair today. Love 'em!




Remy with his new treats from Arezou & Evan (he loves them too!).
Oh my gosh! A cell phone!


Presents!


Abercrombie! Cash! iTunes cards!



Happy Christmas!


We miss you Evan!


One last note: Twilight fans everywhere got a great gift! Edward cut his hair! This is how it should have looked in the movie: short! Short hair is beautiful hair. Love the new look. Hope he keeps it this way for New Moon.

Out & About

Omid was kind enough to again chauffeur us around town so we could finish up our Christmas shopping. Fari
Arezou & Matty

Fari's wool sock covered shoes (guaranteed non-slip!).



Matty and I spied these frightening creatures at Bed, Bath & Beyond.






Matty was scared I would buy one for his stocking.


The kids received Sing Star Pop! a few years ago for their PS2...I spotted this exciting game today. Omid bought it for me. You know what this means....the next party we have ABBA Karaoke!!!

We stopped for coffee at Brewed Awakenings and the cashier was soooo rude. No Christmas spirit.



Waiting for our drinks.

Still waiting.

And.....still waiting.

Now we are home. The tradition at our house is: the kids get to open one gift on Christmas Eve. Well...the kids knew what they were getting and couldn't wait until this evening. Omid bought them Guitar Hero World Tour, so they ran upstairs and are assembling the game like crazy so they can play it. This also means I won't be able to use my ABBA karaoke game for weeks & weeks. :(