Holiday Travels, Part 1

Because 2008 was a busy year of travel for Branden and I (and he was deployed for six months), we had decided to spend Thanksgiving at home (that didn't happen, but that's a story for another day) and Christmas traveling to see both families. Given that, Christmas 2008 was a whirlwind of planes, trains and automobiles! We spent six days in Minnesota/Wisconsin with the Martys and six days in Mexico with the Deals. We didn't come home in between trips, so we were quite a sight with our four huge suitcases that went all 6,000 miles with us!

Here's Christmas in Northern Wisconsin, at Grandpa Rowe's cabin.

I wouldn't mind snow if it was always this beautiful!

Cross-Country skiing on Christmas Eve

Beautiful Jackson Lake, frozen solid.


Traditional Rowe/Marty Christmas Eve dinner: Fondue. This is one of my favorite family traditions!

Settling in for another family tradition: Grandpa reads 'Twas the night before Christmas before all of us kiddies are sent to bed !


Christmas morning visitor!


Ryan, playing his traditional role of Santa



In the Marty home, it is tradition to play with all new gifts, as they are opened. Here is Grandpa testing out his new toy, a wine preserver.


Yes, I'm still the shortest!


Preparing the field for the annual Christmas Day football game (it ended in a tie, as always).


Playing a joke on Mom...Ryan's wedding was December 27, so the only rule for the football game was "no one gets hurt!". Don't worry, Ryan was fine!


Grandpa teaching Ryan some dance moves for his wedding!

Christmas Dinner - cheers!

Merry Marty Christmas!

Holiday Shenanigans!

Despite this December seeming oddly short due to a late Thanksgiving, we still managed to attend and host the annual holiday soirees.

First up was a Holiday Sweater/Costume party at the Moeller's:

Krista is dressed as tinsel, fyi! Very Creative!

Next up was the annual Marty Holiday Party. As you know, this is our favorite party of the year and we take a lot of pride in hosting a festive bash. Unfortunately, due to a noise violation at Halloween (I feel like we live in the dorms again!), we had to substantially trim our guest list. We hosted a "Cookies & Cocktails" party for out closest San Diego friends. It was a great time and everyone went home with a tray of holiday cookies! I apologize I didn't manage to get any photos of the cookies, but they were all delicious.

Just like Middle school...girls in one corner, boys in the other (take notice, the boys are in the kitchen, closest to the cookies!). Sporting the "crowns" that came in our party poppers. Thanks, Jan Moeller, for providing the poppers (Jan is Erik and Amy's mom)!

Pumpkin Carving

Happy Halloween

Halloween Part 1 is behind us. We held a small dinner party this weekend in honor of the upcoming spooky holiday. We're looking forward to more fun festivities this upcoming weekend!

We were undecided as to which costume we liked better, so we tried out both at our dinner party. Option 1, seen here, is McCain/Palin. Option 2, seen below, is McCain/Obama. Which costume do you like better?? We're going to have to choose one for Oct 31st!

Prepping for the party - our attempts at mini caramel apples were unsuccessful, despite numerous attempts. Our other efforts were much more successful, thankfully!

Using Momma Marty's "crazy chocolate cake" recipe, Branden made these creepy cupcakes - they were delicious!

These caramel apples turned out much better than the mini version. Another delicious dessert!

No Halloween party would be complete without a costume contest. We had prizes for the Most Creative, Funniest and Best Overall costumes.

Momma Deal visited the week before, so she helped me with the table decor. I always appreciate her good design sense!

Eric (the old school golfer) won the Most Creative costume, Gregg (nerdy basketball player) won Funniest, and Erik (Will Farrell's "Elf") won Best Overall. Branden and I can be seen as McCain/Obama here...have you decided which costume you like better for us??

Best Overall Costume: Elf (from the movie, "Elf")
The best part is that this costume is 90% homemade!

Amy, the wine glass thief! Don't set your glass down when she's nearby, she'll snatch it up :) (She managed to steal four on this particular night!)

Happy early Halloween! What are you going to dress up as?
We'll be back next week with more Halloween fun!

Miscellany

I've had a little break from papers since Kirsten's wedding, so I've been able to work on other fun projects. Here are a couple of my recent creative endeavors...

My friend, Shelly, hired me to put together these "inspiration boards" for a client of hers. Aren't they beautiful color combos??

This was a recent culinary adventure. Branden's boss and his wife just moved back here from Naples, Italy, so they hosted a group of us for an evening of Italian wine tasting. I was in charge of the fruit and cheese...I was so proud of my efforts I had to take this pic!