It's Been Awhile...

...We've had a great few weeks getting into the holiday spirit. We were able to much of our family over the Thanksgiving weekend, so that was something to be thankful for. Despite our best efforts, there were some that we missed and we feel badly about that, but we did the best we could.

I don't know if I'm getting more sentimental because I'm getting older (my cousin Melissa too quickly agreed about the me getting older part, by the way) or what. But this year I've really taken a look at all the things I'm thankful for. Of course, the usual things like family, friends,food, shelter, warm clothing, etc. crossed my mind immediately.

But it goes deeper than that. I am thankful for a job. I heard a statistic on the radio the other day that the unemployment rate has gone up again, and another radio blurb today about the economy possibly taking a downturn, with Minnesota being hardest hit. Not only am I thankful for a job with salary and benefits, but I'm also grateful that it's a job that I love, with people who appreciate me, people who are passionate for what they do and have a great work hard, play hard attitutde. I'm grateful that Greg's is the same way. I'm grateful that my layoff this year went so smoothly. So few people have that blessing. And so I am thankful.

I am thankful that for another Thanksgiving with my grandma. I always knew my grandma was tough. She was the second youngest in a family with four brothers. She played basketball in high school in the 40's, went to college in the early 50's, and raised two daughters on her own after in the 60's. She taught school and drove a tractor on their acreage. But this year, she topped all that by both beating lung cancer and healing completely after a hip replacement. I am thankful for that. I know there were a lot of days that were hard on her this year. But I am grateful for every one of those days, if it means more holidays, and more special times like this weekend with her.

I am grateful for family. They are so loving and so supportive of us. They are fun to be around and inspire me to be better in so many ways. We spent a lot of quality time over Thanksgiving with my family baking cookies, getting family portraits done, attending a wedding reception, enjoying a wonderful meal on Thanksgiving. For that I am grateful. We also got to spend quality time with Greg's family, playing pool, eating good food, laughing, catching up, and enjoying the antics of our nephew.

There are so many other things for which I am thankful, a loving and supportive family, amazing friends you can truly count on, our snuggly furbabies, our belongings (both necessities and luxuries). But most of all I'm grateful for the chance to reflect on these blessings....to slow down and really take it all in. Before my wedding a friend told me that best piece of advice she got for her wedding was "to slow down and really take it all in...make mental notes of the people you saw, the things that were said, how things felt and smelled and tasted because the day goes so fast." That really was good advice for our wedding day, but it also is good advice for every day life. And that's just what I did this Thanksgiving.

And to end this post with a little humor...at my grandma's Thanksgiving dinner, which is usually a little more formal (i.e.we eat in the dining room on her nice china with her nice linens, we say grace and please and thank you and we avoid controversial or gross topics), my cousin decided to tell us a joke: "How do you make a hormone?"................"You don't pay her." Which she topped off with a "buh dum dum ching"...while the rest of us stared back, then laughed after we picked our jaws up from the mashed potatoes. OK, I don't think Grandma laughed, but most everyone else did.

Cranberry Salad

This is one of my favorite seasonal treats. It's a recipe my aunt makes. She got it from her late Mother-In-Law. I made it this weekend for a friends' party and took it in the bowl my aunt gave me. It turned out super good.

Two tips: you can grind the cranberries very easily in a food processor or blender. And two: I got slivered almonds (which were good) but 1/2 cup of those went a long way. My aunt usually uses chopped walnuts and the full cup of those turns out well too. I guess it's really just your preference and what you have on hand. The reason I chose almonds was because I couldn't remember which walnuts were kind I like (black or english?), and which ones were the ones that I don't.

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Cranberry Salad

1 package 12 to 16 ounces) fresh cranberries, ground (in produce isle)
1 cup sugar
1 cup drained crushed pineapple

Mix, let stand overnight in refrigerator. Add next morning:

1 package (10 ounces) miniature marshmallows
1 cup Cool Whip
1 cup chopped nuts

Chill.

*** *** ***

Happy Thanksgiving (early)!
Michelle

One Year Ago...

...I married my best friend.

So, this weekend marks one year since our wedding. And man, has it really flown by! We kicked off the weekend with shopping and dinner out on Friday night. We both picked out new slippers because coincidentally, we were both missing one slipper from our pairs of slippers. I found these awesome super pillowy, super fluffy, super pink (duh!) ones and Greg found some sensible black fleecy manly ones. Saturday, we went to Fogo De Chao for dinner. We enjoyed the Brazilian tradition of gauchos, their signature drink (similar to a mojito), and endless grilled meat including filet mignon, top sirloin, ribeye, beef and pork ribs, sausage, wings, bacon wrapped chicken, parmesan pork....this list goes on! You also get to help yourself to the salad bar (the best salad bar I've ever seen) and traditional Brazilian sides (plantains, fried polenta, and garlic mashed potatoes) which were all good. We topped it off with a papaya cream dessert...very cold, soothing treat that supposedly has enzymes to help digest the protein we'd just eaten. I would highly recommend this restaurant to someone looking for a spot to celebrate something special, or just to have a new experience and excellent food!

After that we walked over to the Shout House where we enjoyed Dualing Pianos and a few adult beverages. Two really cool coincidences...an orchid topped our dessert at Fogo, which was a flower in my wedding bouquet and the pianists played our wedding song "A Beautiful Day" by U2...we didn't request it, and we've never heard them play it in the half-dozen or so times we've been there. So, it was a really cool coincidence to be there when they played it.

Sunday we just hung out around the house and that evening we went to see the Disney musical "The Lion King" playing now through most of November at the Orpheum in downtown Minneapolis. What a fantastic show! I would highly recommend it to anyone. Like in the movie, there are some "scary" parts so I would think twice before taking small ones who don't like that sort of thing, but otherwise it was a great family show. True to Disney form, there were a few adult jokes in there. Beyond that, the costumes and set were enough to mesmerize an audience of any age. Truly fabulous, truly over-the-top...the best I've seen in musical theatre. The singing was outstanding (we bought the Broadway soundtrack and we think our crew did even better than that recording) and we loved that there were some new songs in the score that weren't in the animated movie! If you go, try to get seats on the main floor, and if possible near the inner aisles. I won't ruin the surprise, but it's definitely worth it! I promise.

So all in all it was a wonderful weekend of trying some new things, and well, out right spoiling ourselves!

wedding photo courtesy of Emmerlee Sherman

Happy Halloween!

Greg and I had fun carving last night. I did Jack Sparrow, he did Batman! Have a fun, safe Halloween everyone!

In the spirit of Halloween...

...here's the Skull cupcakes I made for a halloween gathering we went to last night...they were super easy to make, looked great and tasted yummy too!

Happy Halloween (early)!!! ~~

No bones about it, partygoers will get a scream out of this playful treat.
RECIPE INGREDIENTS:
12 marshmallows
Confectioners' sugar
24 unfrosted cupcakes (white or yellow works best)
White frosting
Junior Mints, chocolate chips, and slivered almonds
1. Cut the marshmallows in half widthwise using kitchen shears dipped in confectioners' sugar (this keeps them from sticking). 2. Carefully pull each cupcake liner partially away from the cake and tuck half a marshmallow between the paper and the cupcake to create the skull's jaw. 3. Frost each cupcake and marshmallow, then add Junior Mints with white frosting dots for eyes, a chocolate chip nose, and slivered almond teeth.

Recipe from Family Fun

This is for you Suzy!

So, I went to a crop last night at Scrapbooks Too with a group of friends last night, and my friend Suzy commented that my blog was, well, lame because I hadn't posted in awhile. I thought that was real rich coming from a woman whose own blog hasn't been updated in several years (yes, years!). But in any case, I'm back, and this post if for you Suzy Q! So what I have been up to?

Well, I've been reading, hanging out with family and friends, enjoying the fall weather, getting acclimated to my new job and doing some deep down fall cleaning and reorganization.

The first book I finished was the Third Summer of the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. Yes, it is a book for teenagers, but I have been following this series for a few years now. They are really quick reads and you can't help but just feel like one of the gang when you read these books. Definitely not high on the literary value but fun to read nonetheless.

The second book I finished, definitely more age appropriate, was The Queen's Fool by Phillippa Gregory. Earlier this year I had read The Other Boleyn Girl by the same author and couldn't put the book down. So I had to save this one for when I would have the time to read it, and could afford a few late nights. This one, I daresay, might even have been better than The Other Boleyn Girl. While this book was still an artfully woven mix of historical fact and pure imaginative fiction, court romances, and juicy "gossip" like the first book, it had an even more compelling theme. It covered the era of Mary Tudor's reign which was marked by religious inquisitions and all the ugliness that came with it including torturous means to find heretics and then the burning of heretics at the stake.

It was told from the point of view of Hannah Green, a young Jewish girl who had fled the Spanish Inquisition with her father after the rest of her family had been burned at the stake. In this novel, she struggles to deal with that trauma.

In addition she is being torn between serving Queen Mary (strictly Catholic monarch, who represents Hannah's nightmarish past) and Mary's sister Princess Elizabeth (known as the Protestant Princess, who represents the enlightened Hannah's hope for the future) who both won her loyalty and fondness. She also searched to find a balance of her own unorthodox independnce while still trying to honor her family's customs, including a rocky arranged marriage to a fellow undercover Jew.

In the end, you are proud of the person she becomes, and of course, anxious to know what happens next. But don't worry...Phillippa has solved that with The Virgin's Lover, which I'm reading now! :)

We have also been enjoying the fall weather. We went with some friends out to Emma Krumbee's with some friends and their son. We bought some squash and pumpkins to add some fall flair to our table top and porch steps. We also bought some squash to eat and picked plenty of apples to make apple crisp. Yum!

We've also travelled to see family. My cousin Melissa and I drove home to see our family and celebrate her sister's birthday. We had fun driving the six hours jamming to Hannah Montana, Eminem, and Journey, among other things.

The next weekend Greg and I drove down to see his family and celebrate his dad's birthday with good food and bonfire. It rained, but we didn't care: Greg brought the patio umbrella out the fire to cover us.

I also started my new job which I love. I went to our headquarters this week for some training, and have been getting to know everyone. It's been a great start at a great company.

And that, my friends, is what we've been up to.

A new chapter starts right here...

After a long summer of layoffs, potential buyouts, and hauling 50 years of an office down to four 20 cu. yd. dumpsters and 30+ shredding/recycling carts, I'm done!!! I finished yesterday and topped out the night with some champagne. A new chapter begins today!

I am very sad to say goodbye to my friends and colleagues. We have all bonded so well over the past year. I was also very sad to realize that I won't be working with my current boss on a daily basis anymore. But, I also know this industry is small and all of our paths will cross again, and I look forward to that day.

I do have my next position lined up and for that I'm grateful, and also very excited. I will be joining a firm close to home, with great leadership, 3 people I already know really well (two of whom are former colleagues, the other was a groomsman in our wedding). In the few times I've met this firm prior to my interview I've always perceived them as a fun, hardworking group that's excited about what they do, and they do it well. How can I not be excited about that.

Until then, I have the week off and I plan to:

• Sleep in
• Work out daily
• Take a card-making class
• Participate in a Euchre tournament
• Do lunch with some friends
• Read
• Shop
• Scrapbook

And I start it all off today with a massage with my sweetie.

:)