Say My Name

Well, I survived my family's christmas celebration. Barely. I've pretty much spent the day recovering, although I had nothing to drink but grape juice. Do you ever have moments where you really want to cry, but you start laughing instead? That's what being with my family is like. The dogs had a similarly bad time.

In the collage above, you can see me, Jeremy, my parents, brother, and niece Brianna. Brianna just turned four and knows a lot more stuff since the last time I've seen her, including her full name. She has my middle name, and her last name is my maiden name. It is so bizarre to hear her say "my name is Brianna OurMiddle MyMaiden." It sounds familiar, but slightly off, you know? Just like when I got married and started pairing my first and middle with my *new* last name. Bizarre.

Here is me kicking butt at Catan the Card Game. Notice the dog(s) huddled on my lap.

Perfect

Do you see this? I was wrapping Kate's birthday present along with all my holiday gifts last week, and I managed to (accidentally) cut and wrap this paper in such a way that the design matched up perfectly at the seam. It was so, so satisfying. Yep, I'm a dork. I was so taken with this event that I knew I needed to document it. So, here you go.

I have the entire week from 12/21-1/02 off from work. I'm even getting paid for it this year! We will see if I get any crafting done. My biggest goal is to clean all the crap out of the spare room so we can have some space to get creative.


And this? The only photo that turned out from the Frank 'n' Rita photo shoot. We will be trying again.

Merry Christmas, y'all.

Latkes

Also last night, I made latkes for the first time ever. I asked Jeremy's grandmother for her recipe, and she happily obliged. "All Jewish women know how to make them, except newlyweds," she wrote me, "it's like breathing."

Without further ado...

6 medium potatoes
1 onion
1/2 c flour
2 eggs
salt and pepper


Grate the potato and onion into a bowl. Use your hands to squeeze as much moisture out of the vegetables as you can. The potatoes will turn brown, but that's ok. Add flour, egg, salt and pepper.
Mix everything together. Heat olive oil on medium high. It's not necessary to deep fry the latkes; you can always add more oil if needed.

Drop potato mixture by the spoonful into oil. Flatten with a spatula.
Let your husband take a zillion unflattering pictures of you:

When latkes are golden brown on both sides, remove to a plate covered with paper towels to absorb excess oil. Serve with sour cream and applesauce.
Enjoy!

Hanukkah Wieners

We celebrated the first night of Hanukkah last night, and both dogs got special magen David cookies for the occasion.


Even though Rita Bean is Christian, she seemed to enjoy last night's festivities. More presents to come!