Happy Halloween

Sophie is a penguin this year for Halloween.  She loves her costume, obviously.  It took about 15 treats...and 20 minutes to get this shot.  And thanks to Red Stamp's awesome iPhone app, Sophie can send her well wishes to everyone.  Enjoy!

Halloween card courtesy of Red Stamp

Holiday Parties

Saturday night, I attended my first holiday party of the season - an ugly Christmas sweater party.  I love these parties.  You don't have to get stressed out trying to look your best; instead, you get to have fun dressing a little goofy.  It's stress-free.  Anyway, a college friend, Rachel, invited me to the party and it was great reconnecting with a few friends from undergrad as well as meeting new friends.  I don't really get out much, so this was a nice break for me.

Learn more about the earrings here

Then, tonight was our department Christmas party at work.  It was held at the Gramercy Tap in the Kirkwood Hotel building downtown.  Lindsay, one of my favorite co-workers who has been on maternity leave since October, was there and it was so fun seeing her.  She doesn't look like she just had a baby - I'll need to get some pointers from her one day!

My little buddy, Nick

Deanne (she's a Kappa, too!), Lindsay, me and Brittainey

Deanne, Barb, me, Lindsay, and Leah

Christmas conversation starters, perfect for Christmas parties

Thanksgiving Extravaganza

Last week, we celebrated Thanksgiving three times.  It was a Thanksgiving Extravaganza, and it was wonderful and exhausting.  I made lots of delicious goodies I was able to share at all the events (I planned out my recipes earlier last week here).  Thursday was the Haugo Family Thanksgiving in Mt. Vernon, Iowa.  After making all my goodies, Josh and I were an hour late.  We missed eating a warm dinner, but the cold leftovers were delicious!

I'm a stickler for fresh pumpkin pies.  As in, I only make pumpkin pies with fresh roasted pumpkin.  So, the first thing I did when I got off work on Wednesday was roast a pumpkin.

While the pumpkin was baking, I put together the ingredients for the fresh apple pie, mini pecan pies, mini salted caramel apple pies, and chocolate peanut butter pie.  It was a little hectic.  I baked for about 12 hours.  I finished baking everything and still had some extra pumpkin leftover so I made mini pumpkin whoopee pies.  These desserts were certainly a labor of love, and I was so happy to share the with our families.

Haugo Family Grandkids

The "older" Haugos

Friday, we headed up to Maplewood, Minnesota, for the Huntley Family Thanksgiving with Josh's mom's side of the family.  There were almost 30 family members in attendance, and it was great seeing them all.  Josh and I accidentally wore matching shirts.  It makes us easy to spot in the family photo.

Huntley Family Photo

Saturday, I hosted Thanksgiving dinner with my mom, sister, four kids, and Josh and Sophie. On Wednesday, I made the brine for the turkey.  It was my first time making a brine, and I feel very sophisticated for making a "fancy" turkey this year.  I also tried making mashed potatoes in a slow cooker.  The convenience of letting the potatoes cook for hours on their own seemed lovely, but I don't think I'll ever make them like that again.  They ended up being kind of hard (not like my normal fluffy version); I think they were overcooked and I wasn't impressed.  My sister took photos on her camera; the only one I took was of my delicious peanut butter chocolate pie.  I doubled the peanut butter filling...and I don't think I'll ever go back to the original recipe.  More peanut butter is always better.

Christmas Front Door

I did a little decorating tonight. After driving around almost the entire Des Moines metro area, I finally found a little (fresh) tree and some white lights for it. I planted the tree in a planter box I already had (this is what it looked like in the summer), which is conveniently located near an exterior outlet. I need to find a timer to put the lights on, but the only I ones I've found are $20, and I'm too cheap for that. The wreath is from about three years ago. I made it from crafty things at Michael's. The skeleton key door mat is from Target. I hope to get the rest of the front porch area decorated tomorrow. I love Christmas!

2012 Christmas Card

I love Christmas cards.  I love designing and mailing them, and I love receiving them.  It's so fun to have all of them displayed.  While I don't have a plan of attack on the card display yet this year (I'll figure out that later), I do have my Christmas card designed and sent to the printer.  I downloaded the chevron background for free here.  I used my favorite fonts:  Lavanderia and Century Gothic.  And I had to incorporate grey because I love it very much...and then sprinkled in a little lime.  We didn't have time to get Christmas photos taken this year, so I used one from our shoot last year with Amanda from APL Photography on the front.  The back of the card has photos I've taken over the year on Instagram.  Sophie wrote the letter on the back (I simply transcribed it for her since it's difficult for her to type).  I'm using OvernightPrints.com to print them.  I've used them a lot over the past few years and am always happy with their work.

So, check that off the holiday to-do list.  Now I just have to wrangle up all my addresses...and go to Costco to purchase stamps.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

The holidays are right around the corner (it's October 2 already!)...and that means lots of family get-togethers...with lots of food.  I typically struggle at any pot-luck as not many people bring gluten-free options.  I'm pretty sure this spinach artichoke dip recipe I found on the Undressed Skeleton blog (below) is going to make the cut this year.  Paired with some Food Should Taste Good chips, I'm pretty sure no one will notice it's gluten-free!  However, if they do, there will be more for me to eat...

Healthy Spinach and Artichoke Dip