What a great end to the season – Nebraska shut out Arizona tonight in the Holiday Bowl. I must say – that was a fun game to watch!
A freak accident tonight left Pinot with a deeply cut back paw. She’s now sporting stitches under this very stylish band-aid. My poor pup!
Bandaged Paw
Pinot seems to be in fairly good spirits despite everything
Is there anything better than starting a new year feeling organized and decluttered? I am sure there is- but that is still tops on my list. I was excited to get home from work today to discover that it was up there on NJs list too:). We still have a ways to go, but we made leaps and bounds of progress today, sorting through closets, setting aside piles to donate, starting to put holiday stuff away. Check out our new bookcase- we love it!
Lots of close calls this trip. Between an amazing run through the airport to catch our initial flight to NE, being snowed in to the point where we had to make a special call to the maintainer to make a pass so we could get past the drifts and into town, and then having our 5:45AM flight from OMA this morning be delayed, arriving in Milwaukee after our connection was scheduled to leave only to find that there were enough DC bound folks with our same connection that they held the plane for us…and our bags… we’ve had some travel luck in the past week, and it’s good to be home!
In honor of that – today we went to Indian buffet, went grocery shopping, hung out with the kitt-eh, awaited Pinot’s return home (Thanks MM & JJ!), watched a couple of movies, took a nap…. it was the first time in 3 days that I took out my contacts, and sleep was oh so nice without them. 
I somehow managed NOT to unpack today – but it should be fairly easy considering the majority of my suitcase is filled with clean clothes. (Being snowed in on the farm didn’t really lend itself to the desire to change out of my new blackshirts sweatshirt, though I did manage to tame down my throwing the bones to only once a day or so.)
Within 20 minutes of getting home, I got out my new cookbooks to plan meals for the week. I’m totally excited about all of them and wanted to share…
I’m all excited for this cookbook, which from reading in the foodie blogsphere got some great reviews. There aren’t pictures associated with each dish, but the ones that are pictured look really good and I think it’ll be a great way to get some veg dishes that break the norm into the rotation! We tested our first recipe from here tonight (Penne Vodka) with great results, and we’ve got a few more lined up for later this week.
We don’t use our slow cooker nearly enough. I was inspired to dive into a slow cooker book (past the one that came with the crock pot) when looking through Mehul & Liz’s earlier this fall. Theirs was rated really highly, but had a lot of meat dishes – and since we are not buying meat at home anymore in my (mostly) vegetarian approach to food these days, I wanted something that was more vegetable-centered. This got great reviews on Amazon and I’m totally excited to try it out. This week we’re testing out slow cooked lentil sloppy joe’s and a corn chowder. Yum!
I adore the Pioneer Woman! I’ve been reading her blog for over a year now, and have used her recipes online for various occasions throughout without any complaints – they always result in some lick-smacking goodness. While everything is online at her site, having this collected bound version is wonderful – from the photography and the stories, everything I’ve seen makes me adore her more. So psyched about this – I think it was my #1 Christmas wishlist item. We’re going to test drive with maple pecan scones to start 2010 later this week.
I’ve had this in my maybes for years now – and this year, this book got bumped up (and purchased!) with (again), the attempt at ‘cleaner’ eating. Not to mention that 266 five star reviews on Amazon can’t be wrong! And honestly – with my inherited sweet tooth (thanks Mom!), it’s hard to feel guilty about eating a vegan cupcake. I asked Nick this afternoon to take a look through and pick out one to make for New Years – to which he replied that asking him to look at pictures of delicious cupcakes while hungry was just plain cruel. Alas, we don’t know which one we are going to kick off 2010 with just yet – but my mouth is watering just thinking of the possibilities.
While not on my list of things to cook this week due to all of the holiday baking (and eating!), as well as my inability to refuse the peanut chocolate candies that Merry Lou makes thanks to their inclusion of butterscotch (I heart butterscotch!), I am again excited to own the bound copy of another blog that I’ve been reading for the past who knows how long. And, I have no doubt that the occasion to test drive will come in the near future!
Today involved:
- waiting for the maintainer to sweep by the lane so we would be able to make it out through the drifts
- grandma circuit, albiet quickly
- quick stop to see Sarah & Rachie
- Omaha for Christmas #2!! Between seeing the triple D’s (Derrek, Dalton & Dannika) earlier this week and Josie & Savvy tonight, I’m continually amazed at how quickly kids grow and sad that we only get to see them twice out of each year. The last time I saw Savvy, she had not yet taken her first steps. Now, she’s a walking, talking ball of personality.
So this is what they mean by "Drifts"
Eggnog Martini's @ Chad & Jen's
Merry Christmas to all on this blustery day! We are snow and wind bound on the farm today, enjoying a low key day of reading, snoozing, eating, presents, and playing games. Wishing everyone safe travels and time with family today! Stay warm:)
Besides a short visit from Gina, Derrek, Dalton & Dani earlier this afternoon, we are officially forging a new Christmas tradition today which is only used during blizzards. Nick, Merry Lou, Louie and I are house bound, and it does feel oddly quiet without all the kids running around tonight- no big rush to get ready for mass, no big rush to get all the munchies out and consumed so that the present opening can start, no big family pictures in front of the gorgeous tree. Gina’s visit this afternoon provided a bit of daylight resemblance to the norm, but from this point on, we are settled in and ready to ‘weather’ the storm. What will tomorrow bring? The traditional grandma circuit? Only time will tell….
By the way, I am officially amazed that our phones get a bit of the Internet out here. I <3 the iPhone!
Nick & the boys
In our new Huskers gear
Gorgeous place to be snowed in!
So glad that we made it back- without needing to drive! It feels like we haven’t been here in quite awhile and it is so good to be back:). With the snow already started, the question is quickly becoming… Who else will make it back for Christmas this year? Nick and I are preliminary in calling everyone else wimps for not making the trip.
A leisurely day today by a gorgeous tree and with bellies filled with the bestest pizza in all the land- Welsh’s!! YUM! Maybe this will be the trip where I get my Welsh’s t-shirt…. Hrmmm….
We also met Sheeba for the first time this trip- what a sweet puppy!
Gorgeous tree!
Today:
- mom treated us to lunch at Ruby Tuesday! Yum, I love the salad bar!
- we (I) had some luck at the mall- yay to 40% off at the Limited
-the afternoon flew by while we watched Singing in the Rain
Nick & I gave ourselves a 2+ hour headstart to the airport tonight for our flight to Nebraska. When we finally got off 270 an hour and 15 minutes later, the realization that we were not going to make our flight started to sink in and we started to gameplan driving. Somehow, traffic on the GW parkway lightened up and we got to the airport with 19 minutes to park, check in, go through security, and make it to our gate. Between bags breaking while sprinting through DCA, we got to check in to find that our flight was delayed by an hour– online, it said our flight was on time. *phew!*. And so, our adventure to Nebraska begins!
Nick is amazed we made this flight!
Mom loved the soup
Today was pretty busy in practice. We all slept in a bit which was nice, and we ’started’ the day by having my mom experience the wonder that is the Shrimp Tempura Tokyo Noodle Soup at Raku. yum! I think it is safe to say she enjoyed:). Unfortunately, we discovered after our longish lunch that Mount Vernon closed at 4PM (it was about 3 when we left the restaurant), so we completely missed that. But not all was lost – mom and I hit up the stores to finish her Christmas shopping! Fun:). We swung back to pick up Nick and hit up veggie Indian buffet for dinner before heading to the box stores. Back home, we surprised mom with her last Christmas present- give a give a give a Garmin! She seemed psyched! .
Mom & I
One looks up, the other looks down
