Happy New Year!

Although its been said

Many times

Many ways

Merry Christmas, to you.

Henna is spending her first Christmas with Jesus. Howl with the Angels sweet puppy. The mantle just isn't the same without your stocking, but you're celebrating with the King.

Thank you to our Heavenly Father for sending us the gift of Jesus. Thank you Jesus for the gifts you give us. We are truly blessed.

Straight out of Syria

I like a little spice in my life, and even more spice in my cooking. Since Isla has been eating solid food, I can't help but feel bad for feeding her stuff that is totally bland. Don't get me wrong, I love my vegetables. But come on, who eats oatmeal without a few raisins or some brown sugar? So I finally threw in the towel on the whole feeding her one food at a time for 4 days to see if she has an allergic reaction and just trusted that she has my good genes. I made some hummus and fancy rice (basically just rice with a bunch of meat, mushrooms and spices) the other day and decided to give her that for dinner. She loved it. It totally gives me hope that there may be an ethnic bone in her body even if she does have light skin and blue eyes.

She's still trying to figure out that nothing

comes out of the bottom of the cup

We had a date night on Friday night. We went to Mexicantown for dinner and then went to the casino. Dave had me playing video roulette after I lost my first $20 at Wheel of Fortune. I promptly cashed out of roulette once I won my $20 back and earned $3 more. We walked away winners. Conservative winners, but winners nonetheless. On Saturday we both used gift certificates from last Christmas to get massages. They were amazing. We ate pizza for lunch then headed to my nephew's first birthday party. I think we sang him the "Happy, Happy Birthday" song at least five times. Isla cried each time. I'm hoping she gets used to it by the time her birthday comes along.

Cold Turkey

Dave and I have both been on a bit of a workout kick lately. For sustained motivation, THE Dorm crew decided that we would run in the Annual Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. It was a 10k and there were 14,000 people in the race. Some ran. Some walked. Some with dogs. Some with double strollers. Some with iPhones. And some with barely any clothes. In order to run in the race, we had to be in Detroit by 7 a.m. After somewhat of a sleepless night, we were up at 5 a.m. and out of the house by 6:30 a.m. For anyone who knows my struggle with getting out of the house in a timely manner, it was somewhat of a Thanksgiving miracle. Dave and Greg were nice enough to pace with me during our run (despite the fact that their legs are nearly twice as long as mine), and we all crossed the finish line together. My running friends tell me that our time of 1 hour and 1 minute was "respectable," especially considering the crowd.

The brining of the Turkey on Thanksgiving Eve

Pre-Race

Mid-Race

Post-Race

The Trotters

After the big race, we headed to Dave's parents house, showered and started cooking. I made pumpkin cakes (recipe courtesy of the Great Baker, Heidi DeKorne) and butternut squash risotto (recipe courtesy of Megan Clark via her personal chef, Jens Shroyer). They were both a huge hit. The meal was so good that everyone promptly passed out afterwards. We went to bed as soon as we got home. I was at my sister Melanie's house by 10:00 a.m. the next morning to have brunch with our dear friends, Marie and Monty. After we cleaned up brunch, we started making dinner for the Arabs. We ate around 5, cleaned up, grabbed some quick dessert and headed home totally exhausted.

Food coma

Although he didn't know it at the time, Saturday evening was Greg's 30th Surprise Party. For those of you who missed it, we had the best raffle prizes in true Dorm fashion including a gallon of Tabasco, the Snuggie, a mini-keg of Heineken (oddly enough won by my mom), a bottle of Dom Perignon and Keurig Coffee maker...just to name a few. Greg was thankfully surprised despite his sneakiness. Although his birthday isn't until 2010, we partied like it was 1999. If you missed the momentous occasion, you still have a little over a month to find the perfect gift.

He borrowed the hat

Took him about 30 times to blow out

all 30 candles

The hat owner and lucky winners of the Dom

The weekend concluded with yet another Thanksgiving celebration with the Mitzel family. I was able to hold sweet new baby Carson and eat my Aunt Linda's famous smokey links wrapped in bacon. After the 3rd Thanksgiving, I headed to my niece Logan's birthday party. I'm still tired just thinking about the whole weekend.

Isla has been crawling for a couple weeks, but she really kicked it into high gear over the weekend. After nearly climbing out of her crib on Friday night, we had to drop her mattress all the way down. She now begins each nap with ripping the bumpers off the sides of the crib and launching her binky through the slats. After she completes her destruction, she passes out. She also babbles "da da" and what seems like "hi." Maybe "Your Baby Can Read" is paying off after all.