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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Ingredients:
-2 sticks of butter
-1/2 cup sugar
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1 egg
-1 tablespoon of vanilla
-1/2 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 teaspoon of cinnamon
-3/4 cup four (I use bread flour but you can use all purpose, or a combination)
-1.5 cups of instant oats (raw)
-1.5-2 cups of cinnamon chips

The cinnamon chips I used were these Hershey brand that I found around the holidays at my local safeway:
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I am sure you could find these at a specialty grocery store, or on amazon! I buy my mint chips on amazon and it's super convenient. Just order them before summer!


Directions:
1. Cream the butter  and sugars in an electric mixer on low.
2. Add the egg and vanilla, and mix minimally until combined.
3. Combine your flour, oatmeal, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon, and gradually add it in to the butter mixture. Mix until combined (don't over mix).

*note, I didn't combined the oats into my flour and added separately (you can see in the picture below). You can do this step either way!
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4. Add the Cinnamon Chips in, and stir with a metal spoon until incorporated. I used to try to stir chocolate chips into cookies with the same spatula that I would use to scrape the bowl, I quickly learned that a metal spoon (just a kitchen spoon for eating soup or whatever) works best to mix in the chocolate chips!
























The spatula was already in there! I took it out after I poured in the chips and used a metal spoon - I swear :-)

5. Here's my trick that I learned from my friend Stacy - scoop out your dough immediately, and cool it to harden. I used to refrigerate my dough, and then scoop it out! Not only does it take longer to refrigerate, it's so much harder to scoop out!

My good friend Ilana Shapiro recommended vollrath cookie scoops (they are technically called dicers). You can get these on amazon for not that much, and they are AMAZING. I have about 4 or 5 different sizes!


I use the purple one (size 40) for the smaller cookies (they fit in mini muffin tins while they refrigerate), and the yellow one (size 20) for larger cookies.


If you are going to be making lots of cookies, I HIGHLY recommend you get one of these instead of using tablespoons. If you don't have one and want these cookies now, just google size 40 scoop in tablespoons and it will tell you. I guess I could just do it for you now. Stop being lazy Avigail!

Size 40 scoop: 1.5 tablespoons
Size 20 scoop: about 3 tablespoons

Okay now that that's out of the way, and you have a lovely colorful vollrath scoop, let's go back to number:

5. (continued). Scoop the cookie dough using a size 40 (1.5 tbs) scoop, and let it rest in mini muffin tins (if you don't have, a sheet pan is fine). Refrigerate for at least an hour.
6. This is the fun part - you can choose what to do!
Option 1. Bake the cookies (at 350 for 12 minutes) in the mini muffin pans. they will look like this:
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And there will probably even be a bite taken out of one of your cookies (ps those are mint chip chocolate peppermint cookies - separate recipe post).

Option 2: Bake on sheet pans - they will flatten out like regular cookies and taste the same.
Option 3: freeze in gallon bags in your freezer, so you can have a cookie or two whenever you want!

Just let thaw a bit, and then bake for 12 minutes at 350!

Here are some that I made a few days later that I whipped out from the freezer (the chocolate mint recipe will come soon!). Obviously they are the ones on the left.


















Enjoy!

Monday, January 28, 2013

Some "please say a prayer" news (written on 1/15)

*DISCLAIMER* This is personal. It's not my usual "I took Clara on the swings and baked cookies post*
*IMPORTANT MESSAGE* please share this with as many people as you think it will touch. I encourage comments and questions below, please share your stories and spread the word that it's okay to talk about these things - it helps.

This blogpost was written almost two weeks ago on Tuesday, January 15th, but Charlie and I weren't ready to post it yet.


On December 11th, two days before Charlie and I were leaving for Boston, and exactly one week before he deployed, I was g-chatting with Eden, and casually desperately went to take a pregnancy test. Without getting too much into period math, I was about a week before my missed period. Even if pregnant, I knew a test wouldn't yet show it.

You can imagine my astonishment when this came up:
I immediately called Charlie and said the news so calmly, he didn't even believe me at fist. It hadn't even sunk in.
I then typed "omgomgomgomgomg" to Eden which was followed by "I can't tell you, I have to tell Lauren" (my mother) "first".

We told very few family members and best friends, and waited for the news to sink in.
Here is Jaren giving me 23482384 books to read:


We had all noticed my more extreme exhaustion, but I am ALWAYS a tired person. I never want to wake up in the morning. So we didn't think anything of it. Also noticed a heightened sense of smell, but the same - I usually have a strong sense of smell. No nausea or anything.

I kept taking pregnancy tests each day to make sure it was real. When sore breasts made their way into the picture I believed it a bit more. Charlie left on the 18th for his deployment, and I traveled a bit more. I kept obsessively taking pregnancy tests and analyzing if the "line" appeared more quickly. I hope some of you are laughing at this since I am sure we've all done the exact same thing.

I started believing I was pregnant a bit more. You really don't feel pregnant at first, it's very surreal! I snapped pictures of food I couldn't eat (the conference I was at was at the Ritz and had amazing food) and sent pictures to Charlie and my mom with pouty faces.
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Sad, no seared tuna for this sushi lover!

I went home and enjoyed it.
I took a "belly" pic to highlight my not flat for the first time tummy:
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My body is very un-proportional - I have a tiny waist (25 inches) and large hips, thighs, and butt. I know the baby was the size of like, a pea that week, but trust me, that is a pooch compared to my normal tummy.

I was still exhausted and had a great New Years Eve eating a pizza in bed with my dogs and disney movies :-) Hmmm, maybe my pooch was due to these sorts of things....
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I had an appointment a week after I came back (7 weeks pregnant already). Can you imagine my frustration when I wasn't scheduled for an ultrasound? Let me just say, that although I love my ob-gyn and have been with her for over 10 years, that I am beyond disappointed with her office. I will talk about this more later in the blog, and yes, I have a list, and some advice on how to be an advocate if your doctor's office is incompetent.

Since my dad is a radiologist, I begged him to get me an ultrasound at an imaging clinic that day. My doctor wrote the referral, and Charlie stayed up until after 1 am his time, having to fly the next morning, so he could Skype in to the appointment. Best husband ever award. Hands down.

We had a heartbeat. Tiny thing in the middle of a white alien blob flickering! Instant relief. I measured about 6 weeks, which wasn't a red flag (based on my last menstrual period I was 7 weeks) since early in pregnancy your dates can be off, and I didn't know when I ovulated, just when my last period was. Heart rate was 105. Jaren said her heart rates with both girls were much higher, but I wasn't concerned - the heart starts beating at around 5 weeks, at around the same as the mothers (85), and increases about 3 beats per day. Keeps beating til it gets really fast (up to the 180s in some cases) and then levels off for the rest of the pregnancy.

Anyway, the baby basically looked like a blob. Charlie snapped one through Skype that semi-resembled a gummy bear as opposed to a triangle:
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Okay it still looks triangular. Most beautiful triangle you've ever seen though, right?

And now I present you with another act of disappointment with the doctor's office - I had to call 5 days later to get my official results. It went something like this:
Them: Oh, (casually mentioning) you need a follow up ultrasound, since you measured so early. You need to do it on Thursday.
Me: (internally): WHAT THE F*** why am I calling you for this information, are you incompetent? (if you're curious, the answer is, yes they are)
Me: (to them): Okay, what time should I come in on Thursday then?
Them: We're full on Thursday.

Me: (I had to remove the "what I would have liked to say to them" line because on second thought, I am still a lady)


Really was:
"Dad can you please book me again?"
Thank goodness his imaging center takes tricare and fit me in. Thank you for their amazing ultrasound tech for staying late etc for me. The cookies I baked were not enough to express our gratitude.

Thursday rolls around. I've already told a few more people - they say once you hear a heartbeat it's extremely unlikely to miscarry.

2 days growth happened in 7 days. Heart rate drops. To 99.
99.
Avigail PANICS.

Now all of you that know me know I do not have a good memory for detail. You usually need to tell me you're going out of town 6 times before I stop asking you for a gym date, etc. Let me tell you something - when you're studying about your baby's medical development, you remember every single figure. It's miraculous.

The ultrasound tech did not know if it was bad. Charlie starts looking things up. Everyone I know starts looking things up.

But I know what it's supposed to be.

I call my doctor's office, and they literally said "your progesterone went up, we'll see you on the 31st for your next appointment" (this was on january 10th, so 3 week wait).

Um, I am having a 90 something percent chance of a miscarriage, and you're telling me I'm fine????

Yeah, no.

No no no.

Through the power of dad being a doctor, I got another ultrasound the next day elsewhere, to make sure that the reading was accurate. He also spoke to my doctor who told him I should come in early next week (he spoke to her on a Friday, she acknowledged it was very bad, and wanted me to come in Monday or Tuesday to follow up). She supposedly called her office to tell them that. Guess what her office said when they called me?

"Your progesterone is finally higher. We'll see you on the 31st".
To which I again had the reaction go "F YOU!!!!" (excuse the insane amount of profanity in this post).

That same day during the ultrasound, we couldn't even hear the heartbeat, just see a small irregular ish flicker. They guessed 93.

It's so interesting what happens then. I didn't feel like grieving. I didn't feel like people telling me to pray for a miracle. I didn't pray for a miracle (then). I just knew what it meant, wanted to accept it, and that's it. I of course had to share the news with the few people that were desperately keeping tabs on me. I texted something like "barely detectable heart rate. don't want to talk about it". I didn't take any phone calls, not even from my sister whose almost a doctor (in may!) or my MOTHER. I went over to Jaren's house and told her I didn't want to talk about it. Instead I played with her daughters and we baked a cake.

Obviously you get the "I love you so much and I'm here when you are ready", or "I'll pray for you" texts when you ignore the voicemails (sorry friends). At that moment, you just ignore the text because anything loving, any support, makes you remember what you're going through, when you just want to bake a damn butter cake and watch an episode of Friends. By the way, thanks Nick at Night for airing the episode when Rachel has her baby. That wasn't a moment that made me wake up my mom after midnight sobbing.

On Saturday I decided to pray for a miracle. I remembered reading the story of a college friend who was told at 6 weeks, that he and his wife's baby stopped growing at 4 weeks. They went two weeks later for a d&c, and there was a strong heartbeat and a growing little lima bean (she's now due in February and has a gorgeous round belly)! So I started singing "mishehberach" with Odge, and asking friends of all faiths to pray. I remembered that my friend Ilana Shapiro (the same one with the original cookie recipe) had recommended a doctor to me a few months ago. I called and scheduled an appointment. They fit me right in.

To anybody in the Las Vegas area who is pregnant, call Desert Perinatal (I saw Dr Adashek). They are a g-dsend.

Do it.
Now.

I had an ultrasound the day I wrote this, which was 13 days ago, and there was no heartbeat. The baby stopped growing at 7 weeks. I know nobody ever thinks this will happen to them. Especially after seeing that initial heartbeat, you think you're safe. You're basically guaranteed to be safe, except for a very small percentage, which we fell under.

I made an appointment for a d&c (update, I had the d&c 9 days ago and will write a blogpost about why to expect); I did not want to risk waking up soaked in blood - sorry if that's too graphic. The blood isn't even what I care about, but the emotion of going through that. Plus, with the d&c, they will send in the "specimen" for analysis, to see what went wrong (probably chromosomal, in which case it was inevitable from conception). It may not work because they need live cells, and the baby has probabley been dead around two weeks. If they are able to analyze, we can choose if we want to know the gender. I want to know but Charlie doesn't.

I had to leave immediately to teach my Hebrew school class, so I guarded myself up again and didn't accept hugs or anything. Definitely shut my mind off during T'filah (the prayer portion) of the evening. I really don't want to talk about it just yet. Nowhere near ready. I know you all love us and are praying for us and are there when we are ready. Thank you in advance for those messages I know we will receive.
*update - it's been a week and a half since I wrote this and I am ready to talk about it if anybody has questions, etc*

I was astonished when I realized that I hadn't made an effort once throughout this ordeal to console Charlie.  How freaking selfish. We are both ready to be parents and want it so bad, and we know our time will come. Sorry my most amazing husband, I love you more than you know.

Well that's my debbie downer story, or my "shit happens" story, or my "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" story etc. Like I said, please understand that when I see you, I will have a smile on my face and talk about things like the Golden Globes, the freezing weather (seriously what is up Las Vegas?), and my dogs needing to be groomed. I guess that's just my way of coping for now.


Sunday, January 27, 2013

Berry Ginger Fizzie in the Vitamix

A while ago I saw a pinterest post for a "smoothie" using diet sprite as your liquid. I didn't have diet sprite, but I had ginger ale, and I thought, why not?! I always love adding fresh ginger to my smoothies (my vitamix basically pulverizes ginger, but if you don't have a vitamix or very powerful blender, you may want to peel and chop it really well before adding it in). TOTALLY irrelevant to this recipe, because I didn't have to use it! Ginger Ale to the rescue.

Disclaimer, I LOVE this smoothie, Charlie thought it was okay after he got "used to it" whatever the means, and my parents didn't like it. I made it last night again and LOVED IT! I guess to each his own.

Well, this was a great substitute for fresh ginger that goes bad: right our of my pantry - diet ginger ale!

Ingredients:
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I ended up adding a second cucumber, just because.

-two persian cucumbers
-quarter of a lemon. I added mine whole to my vitamix, but you can just squeeze in some juice. If you don't have a powerful blender I don't suggest adding it whole.
-1 can of diet ginger ale
-2 cups of frozen berries (any variety you like).
-Optional - extra fresh fruit, I had three strawberries that needed to be used, but these aren't necessary.

Directions:
1. Add your cucumbers, fresh fruit, and lemon to your vitamix first. Process these until they basically liquify. If you don't have a powerful blender, just use the juice of the lemon, and you may need to add in your cucumbers with some liquid for them to blend.
2. Once the cucumbers and lemon (and fruit if you are using any) are pretty liquid, add in the frozen berries. Blend until it's all mushed up and a thick frozen texture. (it will be thick because you haven't added your liquid yet).
3. Lastly, add in your ginger ale.
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If you are using a powerful blender, then please do this last, so it maintains as much fizziness as possible. If you don't have a powerful blender, you may need to add some in at first so that the rest of your ingredients blend, and then add the next bit at the end.
4. Pour into a glass and add a fun straw!


Saturday, January 26, 2013

Sarah's Cucumber Dip

When I was in Alabama, we had a family tradition dinner or all sorts of different dips, etc. There were small plates and dips - sausage balls, spinach cheese dip, cucumber dip, and a million other dips! It was quite a cream cheese/sour cream/mayonaise filled dinner! I absolutely loved the cucumber dip with corn chips. Sarah sent me her recipe and I modified it just a little, but all the ingredients are basically the same. I used nonfat greek yogurt instead of sour cream, and used all low fat ingredients for the rest.  I also played with the ratios a bit. I added a little bit of dill, took out onion (because I didn't have), and added some lemon, mostly because I had those on hand. It tasted really similar at the end to the original, and was lower in fat and higher in protein! My dietician s.i.l will be proud!

By the way, look how cute these mug/bowls are that my mom has (I have been living here since Charlie deployed and we've been renting out our house).
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You can enjoy this with wheat thins, ritz, etc, but I loved it with the large frito corn chips, where you can really get a bunch of dip on them!
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Ingredients:
-one 8 ounce cube of low fat cream cheese (you can use nonfat if you want but I HATE nonfat cream cheese)
- 12 ounces (2 cups) of nonfat greek yogurt
-3 tablespoons of low or non fat mayonnaise
-2 persian cucumbers, peeled
-1/2 lemon, juiced
-1 teaspoon of garlic salt
-1/2 teaspoon of dill (optional)

Sarah grates or minces 2 tbs of onion into hers - I didn't do this because I didn't have onions. Feel free to!

Directions:
1. Mix the cream cheese, yogurt, and mayonnaise together
2. Cut the cucumbers in half lengthwise, and then chop very small. You do not need to seed the cucumbers because the persian cucumbers' seeds are so small.
3. Put the cucumber in the cream cheese mixture, and add the rest of your ingredients. Stir until combined.
























Wow, that's a weird picture, but whatever, look how much dip is in that little corn chip!!!

Enjoy!

Thursday, January 24, 2013

French Onion Chicken

I made this for dinner last night and didn't think to snap pics along the way. In my blogging hiatus (hiati for plural?) I do keep cooking awesome things if I say so myself, I just forget to snap pics. So it's only natural that upon the return of one, I don't think to obsessively photograph each step. Sorry!

Anwyay, it was really good so I snapped pics of the leftovers which really don't look that good, but I promise they taste great!



















I do normally use glass tupperware. I guess not last night.

I sent Jaren and Eden an email with the instructions. Here was my email t them:
I served this over pappardelle noodles, but you could serve over whatever.


I bought chicken breast cutlets from costco - I think I probably used an equivalent of 4 chicken breasts cut into strips. It wasn't organic chicken, we'll survive.
-1/4 block of low fat cream cheese
-1/4 cup fat free plain greek yogurt (or fat free sour cream)
-1 packet of liptons french onion dip
-olive oil
-2 medium onions (I would have done way more onions but i only had 2)
-white wine and chicken broth - I have no idea how much since i just eyeball (start w/a 1/4 cup each and go from there)

1. Rinse chicken. Sprinkle some oil in the crockpot and put the chicken in it - no need for salt, plenty in the liptons. Turn crockpot to high.
2. Mix the greek yogurt, cream cheese, and french onion, then mix in the wine and broth. The mixture should be more runny than creamy (if this helps determine how much broth and wine to put in). Dump it over the chicken and mix.
3. While the chicken is getting started in the crock pot (on high), slice the onions and separate them. Melt a tablespoon of butter and some olive oil over medium heat and add the onions, with some salt. Let it cook for about 10 minutes, then lower to low to caramelize, cover, and let cook for about 30 minutes.
4. Add the onions to the crockpot, stir, and cook for about another hour. It doesn't need to cook for very long since the chicken is smaller strips and the crockpot is on high. I think it was about 2 hours before it was completely cooked through.


It was easy and yum!

Here is a picture of it plated for lunch today:


























I added some shredded part skim mozzarella cheese.




















By the way, here was Jaren and then Eden's response to the e-mail:

Jaren Rabe
9:46 PM (16 hours ago)
to meEden
I stopped reading at "it wasn't organic chicken". 

Sent from my iPhone


Eden Sherman
5:47 AM (8 hours ago)
to meJaren
Hahaha oh man I wish I lived in Vegas... Never thought I'd type that

Sent from my iPhone


Haha love my friends, they make my heart smile. Enjoy the chicken!! Oh and speaking of friends and food, one of my favorite things is that Katy will pin a recipe, I see it, and make it for dinner that night or the next (obviously inviting her). We didn't really realize this until one day she said "I love pinning things, they magically appear for dinner at Avigail's that night". Hahahahahah! 

Some southern love with Charlie's family, and Christmas for a Jew :-)

I had my first Christmas in college with my college boyfriend's family. We broke up the next week (after being together for 4+ years, so you can imagine how that went).

Last year Charlie and I had a small Christmas together. It was secular and based on being together and presents, which is what I"m told a large amount of Americans do to celebrate Christmas anyway, so I was okay with it, being Jewish and all!

This year, Charlie left for his deployment on the 18th, and I was on the east coast, so I decided to stop over in Alabama and Kentucky for a few days to spend with his family. Even though I wasn't there on Christmas (i was in Arizona for a Jewish Educator's conference, ha!), we opened presents together and it was awesome.

I flew into Alabama and Sarah picked me up. I LOVE spending time with her, she's truly become an older sister to me, who gives me advice etc. Her hubbie Hunter was on a short business trip, so I got to have her and Mister Will all to myself.

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He was a little tired and shy at first. And don't worry, we were stopped for some take out, not driving that way!

Will is probably thinking "Aunt Avigail, I kind of remember you, give me a moment to warm up to you again"
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By the next morning, I snuck him into my bed and got these sorts of smiles - you should have heard the laughs!
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Sarah went to work that morning, and since Hunter was still on his business trip, I had a car to myself. She encouraged me to drive to Auburn (2 hour drive) to visit Uncle Jim and Aunt Jill and the kids for the day. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being with them. Uncle Jim is Charlie's youngest Uncle, who he still thinks of as being 29 years old. He is big and tall with a heart and sense of humor to match. I don't want a year to go by without seeing this Perry family!

When i asked him to snap a pic of me and my new cousins, I got this:
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Followed by these:
Just the girls:
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And then all the kids:
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I somehow didn't snap one of Aunt Jill. Sad. Guess we'll just have to have another visit soon.

When I left after dinner, they all stood outside the door waving and yelling "We love you!". I know this is such a little thing, but I just about burst into happy tears from all the love (I didn't, but when I thought/wrote about it now I almost did!).

Before going back to Sarah and Hunter's house in Birmingham, I had to stop at CVS to pick up a prescription. Actually let me back this up a bit. Earlier that day, before heading to the Perry's, I stopped at Walgreens for a prescription. Lo and behold, they doesn't accept tricare. Um, what? Really? One of the two largest pharmacies (I think! Haha) doesn't work with the military's insurance? How is this not more public?

Anyway, I asked the guy to call it in to CVS for me, making sure the pharmacy stayed open late, since I knew I'd be driving back from Auburn. In Boston, Jason (my sister's amazing boyfriend) gladly told me and Charlie that you could officially download google maps to your iPhone again, instead of apple maps. However, since I was driving and using Siri for my directions, it defaulted to Apple Maps. Well, at around 11 or 12 at night, I arrived here:
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That doesn't look like CVS to me, even in the midst of wonderful southern hospitality!

Frustrated, I found a way to get there with google maps (instead of apple maps), and when I got there, the guy from Wallgreens hadn't called it in!!! I know that this isn't a real life problem, or you may call it a "first world problem" but BOY was I frustrated!

The next morning we left at the ass-crack of dawn to go to KY. I slept in the car while Sarah and Hunter chauffeured me and Mister Will :-)

In Kentucky, we stayed at "Grandy's" house, which is on his farm, and adorable. Also visiting were Buddy (charlie's brother) and Carol and their kids. I had never met their kids and fell in love instantly! Especially when Sarah Grace let me braid her hair in all sorts of different ways! What I loved most was how these little kids were so excited to babysit and hang out with their cousin!
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Jonathan, Buddy and Carol's Youngest, wasn't sleeping over at Grandy's, and so we had to get him bundled up and warm for the ride back. Would ya look at this combination of clothes?
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Sarah zipping him up:
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Good night hugs from Auny Sissy (whose recipes will be highlighted in later posts)
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Over the next few days we just hung out with family and had fun. Buddy found me this gem:
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Sarah Grace let me do her hair some more:
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But most importantly, we got prepared for some special nuptials. On Thanksgiving, Paula, Charlie's mom, called us and told us she was getting married over Christmas! How amazing that I was already planning on spending that time there with them!
Hunter and I ventured to (this is literally the name:) Tinytown, TN, to pick up a small wedding cake for them. Of course we got lost but we had a great time, I love that I got along with him since Sarah is so special to me!

Here's the cake all set up:

When we got back Sarah had been working up a storm to get the house decorated, and it looked amazing. Here she is with some of the flowers:
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She blogged about the wedding in greater detail here.

Dan, or "grandan" as the grandkids called him, has been in Paula's life since they were little kids! They make each other so happy and I am beyond thrilled for Paula and the happiness she has found. One of the most touching things was that Paula wanted to use some of the blessings that I interpreted from the sheva brachot at my wedding. Specifically, she wanted Sarah to read the one she read at our wedding, Buddy to read the one they read, and me to read the one she read. I absolutely love how this carried through from our Jewish Ceremony to their Christian ceremony!

Here is Dan ready for his bride in the front porch of Grandy's house:
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All the family (except the bride and groom) on Grandy's porch
















Kiss under the mistletoe!
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One of my favorite things about Sarah and Hunter is that every time I've spent time with them, they have this special cuddle time in a love seat. I love seeing her sitting in his lap and watch them interact, they are so in love! Here is the should be pro-photographer checking her 500+ pictures during their special hubby/wife time:
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And of course while they were sneaking some hubby/wife time I tried to sneak as much baby time as I could:
























That evening we opened Christmas presents, since Sarah and Hunter and myself were leaving on the 23rd. I loved that they put a cowboy hat on their tree! How southernly authentic!
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I loved the gifts that I received SO much (including a camera strap cover Sarah made for me with her sewing machine after I mentioned how much I loved hers!). More specifically, I loved GIVING gifts! I know it sounds lame and cliche, but I get so excited when I figure out exactly what to get someone.

Sarah used her sewing machine to make the "babies" of the family these matching PJs:
















Can' get any cuter!!! And you shoulda seen the near dozen adults acting like monkeys behind the camera to get those smiles!

Some of the food served over the weekend that I just loved (albeit, not the best for my waistline) was:
-sausage balls (ummmmm, have any born and raised westerners heard of these? SO YUMMY!
-cucumber dip (I have a "healthy" version sitting in my fridge right now!)
-Aunt sissy's crazy bread (recipe coming when I make it and snap pictures)
-Jam cake with brown sugar frosting

I want it all! Speaking of recipes, I made a yummy french onion chicken last night but didn't snap pictures. I'll snap one of the leftovers and post the recipe.

Good to be back, Y'all!!!