Angel Bread

One thing I really looked forward to while my mom was in town was The Gruber's Christmas Party. This year their Christmas party was while my mom was in town and they were kind enough to invite us all. I was so excited for my mom to finally get to meet Courtney's family. My mom always hears me talk about them, so she was very excited to finally be able to put a face to the names. Also, my mom is very appreciate to have such good people around me for the past five years and to top it of she got to meet the little angel, Grace. So it was a night we were all really looking forward to!

The fam before the party:

My mom holding Grace for the first time:

Of course my mom loved Grace and thought she was as cute as a button! My hopes were that she would see us holding her and want Ed and I to have a baby. Ed really wants to have a baby and Grace's NON-STOP cuteness does not help; however we have NO family in Vegas. Soooooo Grandma would need to move here. It's a lot of convincing to do, but we're working on it...

Before we left we took pictures by the massive Christmas Tree:

It was an amazing party and I'm so glad my mom got to participate in it this year. When we got home we decided to celebrate Christmas early and exchange presents. Since my mom works so hard, Eddie and I went with a "relaxation" theme for her gifts and got her Victoria's Secret Pajama's with matching slippers, a Vanilla/Carmel candle from Bath and Body Works and Vanilla lotion. My mom got me a hoodie from Victoria's Secret, a scarf (pink, of course) and a cupcake cookbook. She bought Ed a really nice True Religion thermal, a tapas cookbook and this really cool spatula:

My mom also brought a Christmas card from my Grandma Sophie that I look forward to every year. Each year my Grandma sends me a card with Oplatek inside. My Grandma's parents are from Poland and Oplatek is a centuries-old Christmas Tradition in Poland and my family has been honoring this tradition for as long as I can remember. Oplatek is the singular version of Oplatki; which means "Angel Bread". Each Oplatek (wafer) has a Christmas picture stamped on it.

This was the Oplatek inside:

(she took a piece from the bottom so we could share)

The card, the Oplatek, just everything was so sweet and I am so thankful to have such an amazing Grandma. Before my family eats Christmas Eve dinner we always say a prayer and we each break a piece off and eat it. It's sort of like communion, but only it's at home. Since my Grandma sends it to me, Eddie and I eat it before we eat Christmas dinner together. I’m so happy that she sends it to me because I feel as though I'm partaking in the family traditions even though I’m thousands of miles away.

Mom's Here!

When I knew I would be walking in my commencement ceremony on December 14th I knew that it would not be complete without my mom being there. I am my mother's first and youngest child to graduate from college so I just knew I did NOT want to walk if she was not going to be there. Sure enough... she came to Vegas!! My mom arrived on Friday and I had to work until 5pm! It was pure torture working while knowing my mom was not to far from me. So we met for lunch and made plans to meet up later for a fun night out on the town. We met at Harrah's and had dinner at Toby Keith's.

While we were there Ed found out that you could ride the bull for free AND get a free t-shirt so you know he was first in line...

Then Kasie...

Last, but not least...

After the riding the bull we went to Carnival Court (one of my favorite places) where we had a few drinks, danced and met some pretty interesting characters!

We always seem to have a really good time at Carnival Court and I'm glad I got to bring my mom there because she's heard some of my crazy stories from there. Even though Kasie and I couldn't get her on the dance floor she loved watching us dance, she especially liked Kasie's battling/Dougie skills (she's such a mean mugger). I'm pretty sure we really tired my mom out and this was just here first day here!

Merry Kissamoose!

Eddie, Pearl and I decided to decorate our patio for the first time. My favorite Christmas lights are the big snowflakes so we bought a pack of those and some colorful lights to add some pizzaz! We went to check it out...

 and this is how it turned out:

The following day Ed, Courtney, Isaac, Baby Grace and I went to Stu Miller's to pick out our Christmas tree. We walked around and chose the one that we thought looked the most "lively" and ended up with this 6 foot beauty:

Naturally, once we chose our tree Ed could not resist his opportunity to haggle on the price... he got them to remove the tax and make it $50 even. If there were a business for haggling he'd be the CEO. Seriosuly, this kids ridiculous! After we paid for the tree they tied that bad boy to my roof and we were off. When we got home we put on some music and started to decorate the tree. I must say a real tree is appealing and all, but the lights are a real pain in the ass!! After Court and I put up all the ornaments it was totally worth the aches and pains because it turned out PERFECT:

MY FAVORITE ORNAMENTS:

ONE:

Merry Christmas From Heaven

When my grandma Betty passed away the funeral home sent this ornament to my grandpa Wayne for Christmas that year. When he passed away my dad kept it and later gave it to me when I moved out on my own. Since I've had it I've been putting it at the very top of the tree and it reminds me of my grandparents and it is very important to me.



 TWO:

Happily Ever After

This ornament was given to Eddie and I on our wedding day from his family in Arizona. It says, "Eddie & Kelli May 21, 2010 Happily Ever After". This is an ornament that I will kept and cherish forever. Such a great wedding gift!

THREE:

Merry Kissamoose!

This ornament was my Grandma Sophie's and she gave it to me many, many years ago. It's shirt says, "Merry Kissamoose!" I tied it on one of Eddie's Christmas gifts and gave it to him when I was 16 (our first Christmas together). It's a good thing we're married because I'd have to fight him to get my moose back! ;)

Hooray for Christmas and GO STEELERS!!

It's beginning...

 to look a lot like CHRISTMAS!!

Over the Thanksgiving weekend Eddie and I did a lot of window shopping and let me tell you... it is over-rated. We went to The District to walk around and burn off some calories from our Thanksgiving feast and they already had it all decorated for Christmas. They had Christmas lights galore and this massive tree:

They also had a horse and carriage:

On Sunday, we went to Courtney and Isaac's to help them decorate their house for Christmas and look who decided to be a big girl and sit up to play with her toys:

Eddie helped Isaac put up the lights outside, while I helped Courtney with the tree. We fluffed the tree, hung the ornaments and made the bows look pretty. The tree took us all day and we practically looked like pixies from all the glitter! The two of us (plus Grace) had fun decorating and listening to Christmas music while a pot of chili cooked.

Grace sat in awe of the big green thing:

Then decided she wanted to sit on it:

And touch it:

The finished product:

All of the Chirstmas decorations really got Eddie and I in the Christmas cheer so we decided that we would start a new Christmas tradition: a real Christmas tree! Neither of us have ever had a real Christmas tree so we are SUPER excited about it. We went and looked at trees and bought some really cool ornaments from Pier 1. We decided that we are going to put it up this weekend so we will post pictures of our tree soon!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday and I really look forward to it every year. Unfortunately, Eddie and I couldn't go home for Thanksgiving because of the outrageous flight prices. My Aunt Donna texted me a picture of some of my family at my mom's waving to me; which made me REALLY happy. 

Although I didn't get to spend Thanksgiving with them, I got to talk to them all and hopefully Eddie and I will get to go visit soon. This year we spent Thanksgiving at Kasie's Grandpa Cliff and Aunt Terri's house. This is the second year we've spent Thanksgiving with their family and I must say, I am truly thankful that they take us in on the holidays. Living so far from family is extremely hard around the holidays, but they always put a smile on our faces and make us feel apart of the family. We brought one of our apple pies and made green bean casserole for the Thanksgiving Feast. When we got there we were greeted by this fellow:

Kasie made this turkey out of fruit - she's so creative!

This was our first Thanksgiving as a married couple and I am very grateful to have such an amazing husband. We face struggles, just like everyone else, but we give each other strength to move forward. Eddie is my rock and he is what I'm truly grateful for this year!

I'm also grateful for Kasie and her amazing family. They're always there for us and they are truly a second family to us.

Kasie's Grandpa Cliff collects classic cars and he showed them off to us and we took pics in his light blue Mustang:

My Turn:

It was a GREAT Thanksgiving... great people, great food, great conversation. Hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving!! :)

Slice of Heaven

Since this is our first Thanksgiving as a married couple, we decided to start a new tradition: making homemade apple pie. My mother-in-law makes BOMB apple pie, it truly is thee BEST! On Tuesday, Eddie and I peeled 5 pounds of Macintosh apples and thinly sliced them and let them sit in the fridge over night.

On Wednesday morning we made the dough:

Then we mixed sugar, cinnamon and flour into the apple container:

This is what it looked like after it was all mixed up:

Then we added the apples to the pie and put butter in the pie:

Then we cover it with dough and topped it off with sugar:

The finished product:

I haven't had any sweets for over 2 months so having a piece of this homemade apple pie was a slice of heaven. It turned out so good and I even think my mother-in-law would approve!