Raise your glass to '09

John and I just returned from our New Year's Eve dinner at Schuler's in Marshall. We can't remember a time when we've celebrated New Year's Eve with anything special at all.

The only New Year's Eve that stands out in our memory – as a couple – is New Years Eve 2001. I arrived in Michigan to stay that day. John flew out to Kansas to help me pack up my car. We left Topeka on December 30th, and arrived in Michigan on the 31st. We stopped at Zingerman's in Ann Arbor for a celebratory dinner. I remember there was a gentle snowfall, and I knew immediately – just from the feel of the air in Michigan – that this was a whole different place and a whole different life. The rest is history, I guess.

Okay so back to tonight. It was fun! Nice to actually be out on the biggest party night of the year, after several years of intense parenthood. We of course started the evening with some bubbly ... and meatballs. John thought the Schuler's signature BBQ meatballs sounded good, and they were. They serve many things there in these metal mugs. This place has a very oldtime feel about it, kind of like a Detroit chop house. John said, "It's so untrendy it's trendy."



I also got to speak with our former congressman, Joe Schwartz. He was sitting right behind us. Those of you who know me know that it would be very difficult for me not to speak with a congressman if he was sitting right by me, even if he is no longer a congressman. Here is an article by Congressman Schwartz. "Don't Lose Like Me." (As a bit of history for those interested, Mr. Schwartz was ousted in the Republican primary after serving one term by Tim Walberg, an extreme right-winger. Walberg was defeated this year after only one term, however, by our state senator Mark Schauer).

Later came some classic caesar salads on romaine hearts, very crisp and yummy ... and a terrific garlicky, peppery dressing:


I asked John to go get the camera at about the time the waiter came to take our order. John told me to pick his entree between three choices: beef tenderloin, prime rib (Schuler's signature dish), and London Broil. I chose the London Broil because the waiter said it was his fave. John ended up loving it:


I ordered pan seared grouper, and it didn't look like what I expected. It was served on a bed of spinach with a lemony broth and Asian veggies (like zucchini, snow peas, etc.). I was a little worried when it came out, but I ended up liking it. The fish was mild and tender, and it's very much my style to eat lots of superfoods like spinach and veggies.



John entertained the idea of getting dessert, but without any room left, we passed on that, and came home.

Oh, and John made our New Year's toast, too. He said, "To Stella and Albert" and we clinked glasses.

I hope 2009 is a happy year for them.


Off to put my black-eyed peas in the crockpot.

I hope it's not too late to say Happy Holidays!

The above is a picture of our little tree. It's a miniature little thing atop our entertainment center ... and I think we'll be doing the same next year to keep it out of reach! But it was nice to have some Christmas in the house this year.

We returned from Joe & Kathy's yesterday evening/late afternoon. At first we were worried the entire trip would consist of really thick fog. Yesterday the temp was up to 60°, and the warm air over all that cold snow created a steamy, condensation-type vapor which made visibility very low. Luckily things were better when we got on the open road.

It was good to see everyone at Christmas. Unfortunately my pictures aren't very good. Taking pictures was kind of an afterthought considering we spent most of the time chasing chasing chasing kiddos. The chasing got very tiring, in fact.

We had 3 events ... Christmas Eve at Joanne's, Christmas Day at Jill's, and MB & Steve's engagement party on Friday. I only have pictures of Christmas Day, though.

Jill and her sister-in-law Barb and all her helpers made a fantastic feast that everyone enjoyed. Her sister-in-law Barb took these next three pictures:



Jill's house was child-proofed, too, which made it a lot more relaxed for us, too.

Little Miss Clara has grown so much, and was bigtime buddies with A.J.


A.J. enjoyed getting to see a lot of animals over Christmas. He was both obsessed with, and terrified of, Kathy's cat Fritz. Fritz is a little skittish and will get so close, only to get spooked and scurry away. A.J. spent the entire weekend saying, "Dtat?" (cat).

Luckily Jill's cat P.J. is a bit more relaxed, so A.J. was able to get close to him:


A.J. was also thrilled to see Dugan, his Uncle Bill's dog:


And like I said, the food at Jill's was great (as it was also great at Joanne & Jim's as well as at the banquet hall where MB and Steve's party was held...but I don't have pictures of those). Here are Bill and his dad Don cutting the famous Banfield Christmas ham, cooked in Vernor's.



We opened a few presents at Joe and Kathy's. As usual, they were more than generous. The Christmas money they gave us has already gone for a 7.2 ft³ chest freezer from Sears. We really need that since we can't stock up on fish sticks when they're on sale! Now we can!

Here we are opening a few gifts. Joe and Kathy got me a scarf, hat and glove set which I am modeling.



We also enjoyed getting to use the hard-disk digital video camera that my mom got us ... I'll hopefully be able to post some videos soon. That's gonna be new though...I know how to shrink pictures for the web, but am not sure on the whole video thing. Still, what a great thing to be able to take videos of Stella and A.J. when they're little. We can burn the videos onto a DVD which is great.

Right now, the weather has turned cold again after being up to 61° yesterday. It's now under freezing again, but we can see the ground ... we usually don't see it again until Spring, so it's a treat to see the earth beneath.

Have a happy new year!

Snowed In

Well, I finally got a few pictures on my 8 GB memory card; they're not very good, though.

But what else do I have to do but put them on the blog? We got another 4 inches of snow on top of the few inches we already had. I can't believe that the official start of winter is 3 days away, because it has felt like we're in the middle of January for about a month. It makes me wonder what we've got in store for us ...

I poked my head out the front door and took this:


And here is the back of the house:


All the schools were closed today, and our street hasn't even been plowed as of 2:30 p.m. The kids are going stir crazy.

They took turns trying on their dad's snow boots:



Unless something strange happens, it looks like a white Christmas for sure.

After some heavy shoveling, here are John and A.J. having breakfast. They both love maple & brown sugar Quaker oatmeal:


I spent the morning making Sweet Chicken Bacon Wraps for John's office party.



These are so easy. It's a Paula Deen recipe, and there's like 4 ingredients. They just take a lot of time!

Unfortunately, we made a TON of these, but several of John's coworkers didn't make it into the office because of the weather.

Oh, this snowy weather stuff is starting so EARLY!

I had bigger blog plans

I have been cooking a lot lately, taking a few pictures of my "creations" (inspired by the food blog The Pioneer Woman Cooks), and sharing via the blog ... but the SD memory chip on my camera went wonky.

So I can't share my pictures of the Shirk Cranberry Salad (sugar-free style), black bean soup, and black rice curried meatloaf ... all of which were enhanced greatly by that heckuva food processor my father-in-law bought for me ...

However, I did learn something from this experience. The memory you can buy for digital cameras has gotten way cheaper. Last year, when I bought our Panasonic digital camera, I purchased a 1 GB chip for $20, and it was marked down from $43 at the time. Yesterday, I purchased a 8-gig chip for $27.99 ... crazy.

The guy at Best Buy also mentioned that I could reformat my old chip, so I put it in the slot of my work laptop and hit "reformat" and it worked. Now I have 9 GB of space for fun Puzzuoli family pictures and cooking adventure pics. Watch out!

Giving thanks

We were blessed to have a wonderful thanksgiving. We did spend the weekend with Joe and Kathy, and it was relaxing and fun to spend time with them.

Stella did appear to be sick, though. However, we didn't really discover it until we were at their house for several hours. She was very sleepy and feverish, but had no other symptoms. As it turned out, it made for a rather easy weekend for us. She pretty much just laid on Papa's & Grandma's big leather couch, watching DVDs and reading books. She also snuggled with them a lot. A.J. was the one who was full of it.

He was very excited to be at Papa's house ... he was always on the move ...


He pretty much followed his Papa around everywhere.


He was obsessed with, but terrified of, Kathy's cat "Fritz." But he loved spending time with his cousins Livi and Veda ... here he is with Veda at the piano. The cousins ran around like a pack of wild dogs, and were every bit as noisy.


Stella was quiet and calm and very relaxed. She enjoyed the collection of kids' books at Grandma's house:


And even sat next to Uncle Chris to look at a book, very briefly.

John took all these great pictures.

The food was great. I ate too much and on Thanksgiving Day, drank too many glasses of wine. It was a good Thanksgiving. And Stella felt better by Sunday, and returned to school on Monday. She's been taking a medication that has helped with her anxiety a lot. We're very proud of her because she's been having a lot of success on the potty, and her teacher has reported some improvements at school.

Meanwhile, winter arrived in Michigan with an attitude. It feels like it went from mid-Fall to mid-January. We've got a frozen world around us. John even built a snowman with Albert. Even though it's so cold, he needs to be outside sometimes. He's having difficulty with going stir-crazy in the house. Last Sunday, John said after it snowed, "This is the perfect snow for a snowman."