Bread Maker!

One of my most favorite Christmas gifts came from P.  He got me a bread maker!  Last Christmas (I gave you my heart), my parents got me a bread recipe book.  Let's just say I've not had the energy to make bread on my own.  Remember that time I made bagels?  It's a lot of work.  Not something you can pull off very quickly.  And by the time you're done, you don't even want to look at the bread you just poured your heart and soul into.  

Enter the break maker!  This little device literally does all the work for you.  You put the ingredients (in a very specific order) inside the little bowl, press the buttons and voila!  Bread!  So far I've made:

• Walnut/Gruyere whole wheat bread
• Whole wheat pizza crust
• Beer bread

Next will be something sweet.  I'm thinking cinnamon swirl.  Below are some pictures from when I made beer bread (which I'm eating the last piece of as I type).  And for anyone reading this who is about to host a party I will be attending -- I'll be bringing bread.

It's over...

...let the post-Christmas / Holiday let-down begin. It was exhausting, no? Same time next year!

"Hi, your blog is dead."

"Hi, your blog is dead." That's how I was greeted on Facebook one day from my brother. And he's right. The first post of 2010 for the blog is on January 18th! Yikes. I can only speak for myself (and if you'll note, I was the last one to post anything), but the holidays seemed to take a lot of my time. Maybe that's because they were never-ending this year!

It all started with our party, of course. Shortly thereafter, we headed to NY for Christmas. Since most of you have never experienced a Nelson Family Christmas, let me give you a little taste of how we roll.



Can you find P in that picture? No, that's Regis! He's the one in the snazzy pajamas.

This was an extra special Christmas because it was our first with Carmencita (the 'Cita). Here she is saying, "Yay, Christmas!"



Grandma had an especially good Christmas. Here she is showing off her new shoes (and her shocking level of flexibility).



She also got a magnifier.



This is a pretty good picture of my parents. Mom usually has her eyes closed.



Next we have a bad picture of me (but a cute one of the 'Cita), P with his new friend the giant freshwater shark, Carmen with her folks, and Carmen with Oma.









It was a quick trip, but we plan to go back to see everyone very soon. More on the rest of our Christmases in another post.

Our poor neighbors...

Found some videos! Trust me, this is the LEAST offensive to the ears, so imagine WORSE singing the rest of the night. Plus, you can see J's rack, and she was the one taping!

And we did warn our neighbors.



Some more party prep.

Cookies: A Series

Last weekend, J-Diddy came out to Chicago. It was her first time seeing out condo. It was also the weekend of our Christmas party. It was supposed to be a much larger affair than it ended up being, but there were several last minute "something-suddenly-came-ups". We would not be deterred! We still made cookies enough for all, whether they showed or not!

The cookies were delicious! We made pumpkin chocolate chip, almond butter kiss, Mexican wedding, sugar (with canola oil -- which ended up tasting a bit fishy *grimace*), and sugar with butter cookies. We neglected to account for the 2-hour chill time for the sugar cookies, so we were frosting them while people were arriving. As a result, they looked like we had taken them to a local kindergarten class to decorate. Also, we didn't end up using many of the tons of cookie decorating items we purchased. But all in all, it was a fun night!

Also, it's not intentional that I'm only including pictures of me in this post. Turns out, through all the karaoke, food and drinks, there literally isn't a single flattering picture of anyone from our party. Not that these are flattering of me, but... well, think of these as an early Christmas gift.

In honor of the holidays (note the PC title)

In the spirit of the season...

Have a listen.

I find the comments at the bottom of the page fascinating. This goes back to J's post on comments. Seriously? This is offensive to you? Because "Italian" is mentioned? Really? That must be so sad for you. You must really be broken up about italian dressing.

Happy Holidays from the Obamas

I know it's a little early, but I couldn't wait to share: