Grammy and Gramps come to visit

During a rather dreary and rainy January, gma and gpa trekked from AZ to visit us West Coasters for a week (as well as see some friends and other family) It was so nice to see them, and show them around our town and Southern California.
We hung out a little bit during the week but between our church commitments and their friends, we didn't see them much.

On Friday, they stopped by to see the seminary and I showed them around.  Then they were off with Eric to the Wild Animal Park.  Leave it to grandpa to take this photo of a bird of paradise, but no real animals :-)

Saturday we met up early-ish for coffee and then trekked up to Julian where we explored the cute little town.  Julian is a former mining town turned tourist town with lots of fun shops, antiques, collectibles, kitschy home and garden stores, and old fashioned cafes and diners. Grammy and I both remarked how much Auntie Dee would have loved it.



One of many shops with kitschy collectibles.  But grammy and I both found something!




Eric and Gramps waitied patiently while we girls ventured into every shop



We stopped at the Julian Cafe and Bakery for lunch

yum!

They served our drinks in cowboy boot shaped glasses...loved it!


We ended our time in Julian with a piece of pie to share, and took a whole pie home (wild mountain berry and boysenberry apple respectively, if you must know :-)) for Sunday dessert.



We spent most of the day in Julian, so afterwards we relaxed at our house for an hour or so, before heading west to watch the sunset from Oceanside Pier.



grammy was cold. eric was goofy. [so, nothing new]




Doesn't this make you want to come out and visit us?



How bout now?


Don't let the wind and jackets fool you. We are wimpy californians. It was probably low 50s


grammy got really cold so I gave her my scarf


we go close enough to a pelican to pet it.


At the very end of the Oceanside Pier is a 50's style diner called Ruby's where we ate a light dinner.


I love when people come visit us becuase we do touristy things we wouldn't otherwise.

On Sunday, I made dinner and had Eric's parents over.
[the sunset pictures and those that follow are grandpa's...my camera battery died]

I had an itchy nose! and yes, I washed my hands before finishing the food.


Eric's mom brought me tulips. She was thinking of her daughter-in-law's dutch family :-)



Monday night was another rousing night of card games and dessert since grammy and gramps had lupper with grammy's niece.

Thanks for coming to visit us Grammy and Gramps! We loved having you
& we would love to have more of you here....hint, hint :-)

*As you read this we'll be on our way to Tuscon, AZ to visit some of Eric's relatives for a very short weekend.  Hoping also to see my first rodeo!  Blog post on our youth group retreat and AZ weekend to come!*

Cooking at our casa

I wanted to share some of the food that's being made over here in Casa Chappell.

When we first settled in and i started cooking, I was really interested in trying a bunch of new recipes--both from the new cook books I'd received and from a few of my favorite blogs.  Having my own kitchen, being the grocery shopper again was a really fun experience, so I continued to experiment with different foods almost every evening.

Now over 7 months into our marriage, I've realized I've been 'experimenting' for quite some time.  Other than our busy nights (when we have 30-45 minutes to make dinner and eat it) and Eric's favorite...stir fry, I haven't made a single meal twice! (and even with stir fry and 'quick meals' I do some sort of variation)

So i decided to continue to challenge...for one whole year I'm not going to make the same meal twice.  After the first year, I'm going to take our favorites from year 1, but still try to make new meals once or twice a week.  I love the flexibility of trying new things, and adding things to our 'regulars' that we never would have guessed we liked!

For whoever's interested, here's a little taste of what's been on our menu the last few months, with recipes linked.
(sorry I got lazy and didn't edit these pictures)

Pasta Primavera





Hearty Beef Stew
(it almost got cold enough for this!)



Creamy Mushroom Risotto




Chicken Broccoli stir fry ( a variation from what I normally make)



The Mushroom Soup
photo by The Pioneer Woman

Dinner Rolls (from scratch!)

Pasta Carbonara
Photo and Recipe from The Pioneer Woman & Pastor Ryan, respectively:

Other meals I've made but haven't photographed:

Mandarin Beef Stir Fry
Ginger Peanut Pork
Salmon with Spinach Sauce
Chicken Parmigiana
Fried Zucchini
Chicken Scallopine
Cranberry Chicken Salad
Garlic Chicken stir fry
Roasted Red Pepper Pasta
Rosemary Roasted Pork Tenderloin
Party Pinwheels
Blackberry Cobbler

I promise to do a better job at taking pictures of our food!  And then making the pictures look nice.

First Married Christmas: celebrating with the in-laws

This post got lost in cyber-space!  It's been waiting to go up since January 2!  Sorry peeps.  
I think I was actually waiting for a certain video of a certain cute wiener dog opening her presents, from a certain younger brother in law...whom I won't mention here :-)

We had a fun Christmas celebration the Saturday before Christmas with Eric's family because we left early the next week to IL to see mine.

Eric's mom and I made a big dinner with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce--the works and enjoyed it at candle light with champagne...

Then we commenced with opening presents--pookie acted as the baby of the family and kept us all amused.  She knew which was her present and ripped it and shook until she got to her new toy!


Also some very happy news--I got a new camera!  I am so thrilled with it!  Most of the photos you see on the blog from here on out were taken on my new Canon Powershot SD 780 IS.  

After gifts, a new family tradition was started of playing board games during our Christmas celebration (before video games).
After a couple rounds of Fact or Crap, the boys got into the new video games and I cuddled with Pookie on the couch.

Later we broke out some sweet home videos.
It was a fun relaxing evening to kick off our Christmas celebrations!

New Year

For weeks before the holidays I had begun planning a big New Year's bash to top all others, hoping many of our local friends (that don't usually make plans) would be available.
Due to the busyness of the holidays, and my lack of foresight with invitations....by the time I actually got the word out, most people we had planned on being guests had made plans elsewhere.

A few of our good friends were able to make it, though Thomas had to leave for work at 11:40pm.  We rang in the new year a bit early, but it was a good time!
We played Eric's new card game, Bang, and watched the countdown via you-tube from NYC's ball drop.  It was a laid-back New Years and Eric has finally convinced me that it is an over-rated holiday!  I do miss the New Year's Day family parties though!

The spread:

Bacon wrapped water chestnuts (pre-cooking)


cream cheese veggie rolls


mint chocolate dipped milanos and peppermint merinques


Cran-tinis


Decor:


and friends:





What more could we ask for?

Christmas catchup and Gesch-ness.

Sorry I've been such a slacker.  But it's not until I stop writing on this blog that I actually find out there are people reading it!  I think I changed the commenting function to allow anyone to comment.  So I hope to hear from all you lurkers that read this!

Grammy and Gramps just left after visiting for a week.  We had a great time with them! I'll post about the week they were here once I'm caught up on the month of January.

The perfect end to our Christmas vacation was a couple of days spent with good friends.
We met up with the G-unit at Covenant OPC and headed up to WI for a couple days of fun in the snow.

Interestingly enough, Eric and Alex received the same gift for Christmas (both unrequested by them).  We spent the evening playing card games, eating and lounging:







The next morning the boys went out hunting


And I stayed in with the girls and helped prep for the big Gesch family BUNCO night, scheduled around our visit :-)
Witness the best layered dessert i've ever made or eaten. It's way to good not to share in it's full glory.
I call it light, fluffy, chocolately, yummy trifle.

First you layer 1/2 pkg lady fingers (miniature angel food cake treat) then drizzle with 1/4 c milk


then spread 1/4 of a mixture of 2 pkgs devils food chocolate pudding prepared and cream cheese


a 1/4 package of cool whip.


and a layer of 8 crushed oreos


If i was more of a perfectionist, I would have tried to make the layers look nicer, but I think messier taste better in this instance


Repeat layer 4 times, and admire results. (then put in fridge out of sight, and lick spatula and eat oreos to resist digging in prematurely)







Thank you for drooling with me on this Wednesday afternoon.

The birds are drooling too.



We stopped for lunch at a classic Sheboygan diner, Schultz's, for some chili, onion rings, steak sandwiches and burgers


And on our way back we stopped at the thrift store to pick up some crazy gifts for BUNCO night


When we got back, Caitlin and Wil has arrived. I was thrilled to be united with my Caiters and we're so glad they made the 6 hour journey from MI to see us and the Gesches for a couple days.

More card-playing ensued complete with inappropriate references:


real shells for bullet life points


lots of happiness to see friends again:


and a gorgeous sunset



Then it was time for BUNCO!
Which I failed to take any pictures of because I was busy holding someone else's baby and getting all the cuddling out of my system. Alex's family is funny and sweet and we had a blast playing the game, but it was even funnier to see all the gag gifts for the winners!

The next morning we all had to head out after lunch, so we took a lovely winter hike on the Gesch property and discovered an iced over pond





 I looked at this picture and thought I looked so out of place in winter! I don't remember what it's like to bundle up!


curling


throwing things:





Our final destination in WI was Gibbsville Cheese--we couldn't very well leave WI without a taste of it's most famous products!








Goodbye Wisconsin! We miss you, but we'll be back some day.