Christmas Brunch

We had all the local relatives over for a Christmas brunch on Saturday.  The definition of local has expanded to include Illinois since more of our relatives continue to move there from Wisconsin.  We made our usual mix of egg based brunch dishes but included a vegan option this year for our niece.  This was the first time we ever cooked with tofu and after finally finding it in the grocery store - I needed to ask, since it wasn't where I would have expected it to be - the dish turned out pretty good.  At least in our humble opinion.  As you might imagine, desserts figured heavily into the meal planning with monkey bread making its annual appearance.  You just can't go wrong with bread slathered in butter, sugar, cinnamon, and a touch of nutmeg.

Sunday was spent recuperating and cleaning up the house after the party along with enjoying the beautiful and warm weather with a couple of nice long walks.  Just want to wish everyone a joyful holiday season since this is probably the last post before St. Nick makes his trek down everyone's chimney's.

And the Stockings were Hung by the Chimney with Care

We stayed in town for the weekend, for once, and decided to get a jump on our Christmas season.  First up was picking out our tree, which involves the usual debate about how big of tree to get.  We usually start out saying we should just get a 6 footer.  Then we promptly start pulling out 8-9 foot trees that we think look great - which leads to the realization that our ceilings aren't going to move upwards suddenly - before we finally settle in on a 7 foot tree that usually just (and we mean just) fits.  After that, we launch into a similar discussion on what size wreath to purchase as if this is the year that our front door is going to grow (it's growth is apparently tied to the ceilings).  Anyway we found a great tree and wreath that made the short trip home without falling off the roof of the car - always a good sign.

Saturday we spent most of the day unboxing Christmas decorations and then semi-randomly distributing them around the house.  It is semi-random, since some items go to the exact same spot every year while others enjoy the freedom to placed wherever they hit our fancy that year.  It is always an interesting balance between keeping traditions alive versus doing something new and novel.  We didn't quite finished in one day as we were also splitting our time with watching the college football conference championship games and Jo needed a tension relieving massage (work has been tough recently).  We did get a start on getting the ornaments on the tree and, as always, most of the fun was reminiscing about where we got them from.  Although, we have decided to start writing the locations on the actual ornaments, since our memories aren't quite 100% anymore - we had a really fun debate on one ornament that teetered back and forth between Sweden and Finland.  What was particularly fun was that we each had a clear memory of where we purchased it, including the location and store, we just didn't  have the same memory (and since I write this blog, it was Sweden - Jo was wrong)!

Sunday morning we felt the need to get some outdoor exposure, so we headed out for a 2 hour walk around the neighborhood, before buckling down and finishing the Christmas tree and the last few decorations.  Then it was finally time to just sit back and enjoy our pine-fraganced house and decorated tree.

Relaxing Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent a wonderful, long weekend in Madison over the Thanksgiving holiday.  We had lots of time, for once, to take a couple of really long walks around town - including a 6-7 mile trek one day along with another nice, long walk to a local diner (we firmly believe you should always be hiking toward food).  We figured we needed to get some long walks in before winter really closes in and our desire to be out walking plummets due to our dislike of have our faces freeze.  We also had time to do some organizing around the place as we continue to try to determine where everything should ultimately land up and to see if there are any other furniture or decorating needs.  And when we weren't being so active, we nestled in and caught up on a backlog of newspapers and watched some football games on TV.

Kathy and John hosted Thanksgiving dinner again this year and, as usual, the food was delicious and everyone needed stretchy pants afterwards.  Friday night we moved the leftover turkey dinner to our condo to host our first official dinner party.  We do finally have plates, silverware, and glasses along with an actual table with chairs, so it is almost civilized.  Of course, we don't really have any cookware as yet, so Kathy needed to bring everything over.  Not a bad way to host a party, make someone else bring all the food - you just supply something to eat it with and on.

For the rest of the weekend, we attended the last football game - which didn't end well for the Badgers - and a show at the Overture Center.  We saw "School of Rock" which was very enjoyable and the kids performing in it were just amazing.  They had about ten, 8 to 10 year old kids who did a great job singing, dancing, and remembering all their lines.  Sure wish I had that kind of poise and guts when I was that age - or as Jo rebutted to that comment, sure wish I had that kind of poise now.

All too soon it was time to head home and start preparing for the upcoming holiday season.

And It Just Keeps Snowing

We are apparently going to have a snowy winter this year.  While all the predictions are for a warmer winter season, the weather folks haven't mentioned the amount of snow we might expect.  We have already had several snow falls and another piled in this last week.  We aren't even to December as yet for goodness sake.  We have also realized that while they are predicting a warmer winter that could mean that our average high will be around 25 degrees instead of around 20 degrees (or 20 and 15 degrees not sure where to put the starting point).  Sure it is warmer, but will you really notice and will my fingers and face be any less frozen?

We had a lovely weekend in Madison.  We spent most of Saturday getting a jump on some of our holiday shopping and we were fairly successful.  While, we didn't get everything done, but we made a nice dent before the stores get really hectic.  Still need to brainstorm some gift ideas for a few people on our list.  In the afternoon, we watched some football, including a cliffhanger for the Wisconsin team with a thrilling come from behind effort to tie the game at the end of regulation play and then they would go on to win in the third overtime.

We also got our first glimpse of Santa for the holiday season as we headed over to the official holiday lighting ceremony on the capitol square - one nice thing of living right next to the square.  Afterwards, we walked through the night market being held on State Street on our way to the Kohl's center for a men's basketball team (they won, just in case you are keeping track).

On Sunday we headed home early so we could get to the gym for once on the weekend.  We need to burn some extra calories before heading into the Thanksgiving weekend and all the good food.  Time to pack on a few pounds with turkey, Christmas cookies, and holiday parties.