This year we went to my brother’s house for Christmas Eve. Originally Amanda was supposed to work until 4 p.m., so we were going to go early to help get dinner ready for when she got home. Unfortunately/fortunately, she hurt her knee and had to take a few days off of work.
I randomly found this blog post about some simple ornaments and thought they would be fun to make. My mom had all of the supplies so she brought them over. Steph wasn’t really into it, but we had fun making ornaments with Jess. Oh, but Steph did like to wear them as earrings.
My brother made homemade eggnog for the first time. I’m not a huge eggnog fan, but I really liked the eggnog he made. It was much lighter than the stuff you buy in the store. We also had some spiced cider and many different kinds of beer. There was one that was spruce flavored and it was not good. Even so, Milo wanted a taste of it!
Even though Amanda was going to be home because of her injury, we still got dinner ready. Dallas and I slow cooked some pork and brought that down. My mom made coleslaw and beans. And we had a ton of sweets that everyone made as well as cheese and crackers that we snacked on all day.
This year my parents gave us each a set of china. They each had one set so my brother and I each took one. My set is smaller with a black and white pattern. My brother’s set had many more pieces, which was good because they also had inherited a china cabinet to display a larger set in, where our storage space is much more limited. Also, when I looked online, it looked like you could get replacement pieces for the set my brother has, so that is good if they plan to use it more. Anyway, the china came out for Christmas dinner and this is the first time it was ever used in 40 years! I was so nervous that I was going to drop a plate or something, but everything went fine.
After dinner we opened gifts. Stephanie and Jessica opened gifts from me and Dallas and my parents first. We got Steph a few small things and a couple gift certificates to shop for clothes at H&M and Forever 21. Stephanie’s big gift was an iPod Touch. She was so shocked!
Jessica got lots of clothes and a games that she dug into right away. Jessica got a lot of Hello Kitty things. She told us that she loved Hello Kitty, so I hope she really loves it, because she’s all decked out now!
There were three gifts that were from Jessica to me, my parents and Amanda. These were all handmade things that Jessica did. Jess made a ton of Christmas snowflakes and drawings for my parents. For me, she made this long wooden stick that was painted like a snowman and wearing a fabric scarf. For Amanda she made a reindeer out of a hanger and pantyhose. So cute! I have a lot of things that Stephanie made when she was younger, but not a lot of things that Jessica has made, so it was fun to get a keepsake.
Next we did our adult gift exchange. We draw names and have a $40 limit, so it doesn’t get too crazy. This year I had Amanda’s name. She has started getting into drinking tea, so I got her a tea infuser mug, some Argo tea and Tazo tea, biscuits and a book. Amanda got Dallas some Christmas Story pint glasses and a bunch of microbrews and a subscription to Wired Magazine. Dallas got my dad two Packers shirts. My dad gave me several books, an oven thermometer, and some Hawaiian treats. Richard gave my mom a Christmas tree made of Lindor Truffles and a gift card. Finally, my mom gave my brother a Packers t-shirt, a video game and a gift card.
Finally, this year was Richard and Amanda’s 10th wedding anniversary. My mom gave them a personalized Christmas tree ornament to remember the year. And she gave Dallas and I an ornament for our first Christmas after getting married. Here’s what it looks like:
I like how the guy is doing a shaka and the girl has a camera! Also, here’s a photo of the snowman ornament Jessica made:
Earlier this year I noticed that I’d somehow acquired wines from Iowa, Indiana and Wisconsin. I had this idea to have a local wine party, so I saved these bottles and added wines from from Illinois and Michigan. I’ve been trying to figure out how to schedule this party all summer, but it just got away on me. Finally, I figured out a day that several friends could get together and we did it. I got some cheese and snacks and we made a whole night of it.
For fun I also made up some wine tasting note sheets for each wine and had people fill in how the wine looked, smelled, tasted, and then an area to rate each wine.
Here’s what we thought of each of the wines:
Winery:Good Harbor Vineyards, Leeanau Peninsula, MI Wine Name: Trillium Semi Dry White Table Wine Variety: Reisling, Vignoles, Seyval Blanc Story: I got this wine at Whole Foods to round out my collection of midwestern wines Look: Pale; Smell: Fruity, Flowery; Taste: Fruity, Flowery, Light, Crisp, Floral; Overall Rating: Most people seemed to like this wine, rating it between a 6-8 on a scale of 1-10. A solid white wine.
Winery:Oliver Winery, Bloomington, IN Wine Name: Soft Red Wine Variety: Concord Story: Our upstairs neighbors who are from Indiana gave us this bottle a few years ago when their dogs jumped on Dallas. Dallas didn’t really care, their dogs are harmless little dachshunds. It was a nice gesture, though. Look: Ruby, Rose; Smell: Fruity; Taste: Sweet, Grapey Overall Rating: Just about everyone thought this wine was too sweet to drink. The overall rating was between 1-3 on a scale of 1-10. One noted “tastes like grape juice.” Several people poured this out and didn’t finish their serving.
Winery:Door Peninsula Winery, Sturgeon Bay, WI Wine Name: Peninsula Red Variety: Cherries, Grapes Story: My cousin Kelly, who lives in Wisconsin, gave me this bottle of wine last year on my bachelorette weekend. Look: Garnet, Ruby; Smell: Fruity, Spicy, Woodsy, Cherry; Taste: Spice, Complex, Sweet, Dry Overall Rating: Everyone seemed to like this wine and were surprised that they liked it. I think everyone was suspicious that it was a cherry wine mixed with a grape wine. They thought it would be too sweet, but it was not. The overall rating was between 5-9 on a scale of 1-10.
Winery:Prairie State Winery, Genoa, IL Wine Name: Recession Noir Variety: Red Blend Story: I had time to kill when the Jeep broke down between Chicago and Milwaukee over the summer. Luckily a Whole Foods was nearby. I bought this Illinois wine there. Look: Garnet, Ruby, Rose; Smell: Fruity, Barnyard, Woodsy; Taste: Sweet, Light, Spice, Crisp, Dry Overall Rating: This wine was universally disliked. Most did not finish their glass. The overall rating was between 1-4 on a scale of 1-10.
Winery:Wide River Winery, Clinton, IA Wine Name: Dry Red Wine Variety: Red Blend Story: This guy Matt sat in the desk next to mine for a while. A family member or friend of his was involved with this winery in Iowa. His stint at my company was brief, but long enough for him to gift this bottle of wine to me! Look: Garnet, Ruby; Smell: Woodsy, Spicy, Barnyard, Baby Diaper, Pigpen, Chocolate, Poo; Taste: Wood, Spice, Complex, Sweet, Velvety, Smoke, Heavy, World of Warcraft Overall Rating: The things people were tasting and smelling in this wine varied greatly, but most people seemed to like it. Ratings came in between 6-8 on a scale of 1-10, with one lowball of a 4 rating.
Winery: Something in Holland? Wine Name:Choco Vine Espresso Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon, Dutch Chocolate Story: This is not local, but I kept seeing it in the store and got really interested in trying it, so this was a surprise tasting. Look: Brown, How Now Brown Cow, Milky, Chocolate Milk; Smell: Chocolate, Coffee, White Russian; Taste: Sweet, Heavy, Velvety, Complex, Ovaltine, Overall Rating: People really liked the Choco Vine. It must be served over ice or it’s too thick. Ratings came in between 8-9 on a scale of 1-10. One person wrote in 100!
After tasting the midwestern wines and the Choco Vine, I still had about 12 bottles of wine left in my case so we busted out a few of them. I had some generic wine tasting note sheets and as you can see, people were getting very… creative… filling them out:
The damage the next morning:
Only 8 bottles. I thought it would be worse, actually. Thanks to Emily, Jen, Jess, Jill, Kate, Loden, Sara and Stacy for coming over and drinking wine with me! I’m already thinking about how we can try to make this happen again!
My Uncle Doug made these dill green beans and the last time we were visiting my parents in Wisconsin they let us take them home with the promise from my cousin Dawn that she would get more for them. I hope that happened because they were SO GOOD! I was afraid they’d be really spicy because of the red pepper I could see, but they were a perfect dilly, garlicky combo and were not spicy at all. Yumyum.
Last weekend was my 3rd annual visit to Miller Park to see the Cubs take on the Brewers. Sara, Kristin and Cousin met me at my house for the drive up to Milwaukee. Alden was at his parent’s house in the Milwaukee suburbs and was going to meet us at the game. Except, when I went out to the garage to leave, this is what I found:
Ok. Plan B. Kristin drove to my house so we took her car to my brother’s house. Then we switched cars because his fit all of us in it and he had a premium parking pass.
Alden, Sara
Note to self: Don’t place the jalapeno poppers on the grill this way. We lost a few!
Cousin, Kristin
Brats!
My brother also bought and prepared all of our tailgating stuff and we threw in money on it. I was expecting a few brews, a few sausages, some cheese curds… but he went all out! We had fresh, homemade guacamole, brats, Italian sausages, some jalepeno poppers, three kinds of cheese curds, a ton of chips and all the condiments. We had not only one, but TWO grills! Also, not one but TWO kinds of cookies. I made a chocolate mint one and some snickerdoodles.
Wisconsin Microbrews
Also, my brother didn’t just grab a case of Miller Lite and call it a day. He brought so many different Wisconsin microbrews. I took photos of some of them. I think there were a few more that I didn’t get. A Leinies one for sure, but I can’t remember which. These are the ones I know for sure:
We mixed the Sand Creek Hard Lemonade together with the New Glarus Belgian Red and it was so delicious. It tasted like a tart juice.
Richard, Rachelle, Danny
Caroline, Sara
UFO?
Danny and Caroline were tailgating nearby with Caroline’s parents and they came over to visit for a while. I meant to go visit their tailgate but got caught up in our stuff. Sorry!
Sara & Alden. Check out all the Cubs fans!
Alden, Sara
The weather was perfect. A little windy, but sunny and very comfortable. My brother brought his urban horseshoes/washers game and we played that for a bit. Somebody (not me) managed to toss a washer down the sewer, but otherwise it was a fun game. I guess a sewer hazard is appropriate for urban horseshoes. Sara had never tailgated before and had never played urban horseshoes and had never been to Miller Park, so it was fun to show her the ropes!
AAA to the rescue!
After two games of urban horseshoes it was time to head in for the baseball game. We packed everything into the car and my brother was going to roll the window up… well, I mean press the button that puts the window up. Time for car problem #2! His battery was dead and we couldn’t put the window up. We tried to have the guy next to us jump our car (note to Alden’s mom, he didn’t jump ON our car), but it didn’t work. We tracked down the free AAA service at Miller Park and somehow the guy got our car started. We then had to run it between 10-20 minutes to make sure it would start later on when we wanted to leave. We ended up missing 2 innings of the game, but at least we got it sorted out.
Alden
On the walk to the stadium, we found this file folder on the ground. For some reason it was HILARIOUS. Someone had made this folder, slipped in their tickets, and filed it somewhere up until VERY recently. The 7 almost looks like a 9. Very dangerously close to going on the wrong day! We made up a lot of stories about this folder before throwing it back on the ground.
Ok. Inside the park, finally, we were headed for our seats when we ran into these degenerates:
Lycke, Trent, Biefel
And I mean degenerate! They had been drinking since about noon (it was a 6pm start for the game) and it showed! I ran into them a couple times, actually. They didn’t have seats even. Just standing room tickets.
Miller Park at Sunset
Miller Park Scoreboard
Bernie’s Dugout
Sara had a hankering for some ballpark nachos so we asked a lady where she got hers and scoped it out. They were no ordinary ballpark nachos, though. They were piled high with meat and peppers and everything. We picked up a couple Lites and a couple Leinies Honey Weiss while we were up. Actually, that was the only beer I had all game. One beer, because I thought I was driving back to Chicago.
Miller Park Sausage Race
Miller Park Sausage Race
It was a gorgeous night in the ballpark. I brought a light long sleeved shirt but I didn’t even wear it. During the 6th inning, the sausage came running out right in front of us.
Miller Park Sausage Race
I cheered for chorizo like always, and Sara cheered for chorizo as well. Too bad he got spanked! Polish sausage smoked everyone!
Take Me Out To The Ball Game, Roll Out The Barrel
During the 7th inning stretch they played Take Me Out To the Ball Game, but the people who’d never been to a ballpark in Wisconsin were surprised with the Roll Out the Barrel follow-up song!
A few notes on the players:
1. I really wish the player called Corey Hart would play Sunglasses at Night for his at-bat song.
2. Alfonso Soriano was fielding right in front of us and gave Sara a nod when she was screaming “FOOOONNNNZIIIIEEEEE GO FOOONZIIIIIIIIEEEE!!!!” I don’t know much about Soriano, only that he wears the tightest pants in the MLB.
Miller Park Scoreboard
3. I love the scoreboard at Miller Park, which is new this year. It shows a huge photo of each player when they’re at bat and shows the stats so far for each player. Sara taught me what Strikeout Looking is when a guy’s stats said at one at bat he struck out swinging and at another turn he struck out looking. She definitely knows a lot more about baseball and the Cubs than I do, but the big board definitely helped me keep track of what was going on and helped me get to know the players better.
The Wrigley Field Road Tour
In the stadium there must have been a hundred(s?) of people wearing this same red tshirt. They’d biked to Miller Park from Wrigley Field in Chicago for The Wrigley Field Road Tour. I think I’d have been sleeping in the stands if I’d done that.
In the end, the Cubs lost 4-6. They made a rally in the 8th inning when they made 3 runs, but it wasn’t enough. The Brewers actually swept the Cubs in the series. But that’s ok. We all still had a great time.
Miller Park at Night
After the game I had to go to the bathroom so I said I’d just meet people at the car. I didn’t even make it to the car when I found that everyone I was with had made new friends and was drinking all their beer. After the game is pretty much like another big tailgate. We’d run out of beer, so how convenient that these fans were willing to share. They didn’t want to share with the Cubs fans, but they were convinced when I broke out the extra cookies I’d baked. Also, they liked that Alden and I were from Wisconsin. Also, we met a couple from Milwaukee whose daughter lives a few blocks from Alden in Chicago. Alden asked if the guy would put in the good word with his daughter, but the guy said the daughter was getting married in a matter of weeks. He said he’d let Alden know in October if it didn’t work out. He also asked that Alden please refrain from stalking his daughter now that her location had been revealed!
Sobriety isn’t an accident, but getting drunk many times is!
I drove the car back to my brother’s because he’d had a few too many. On the way Alden was texting his mom and she invited us over for more drinks, but I vetoed that plan. My brother and cousin and Alden were all for it. Of course, because they were the drunkest ones! My brother was busy typing Alden’s parent’s address into the GPS and when it was shouting out instructions it was so confusing to get back to my brother’s place! It would have been fun to visit the Almagro family, but it was getting late, especially since we still had to drive to Chicago. At my brother’s house we all made a pit stop. Alden had a special moment with Milo, the dog, and then we were off to Chicago. I thought I’d be driving but Kristin insisted. We all knocked pretty hard on wood and it worked because that car made it home without incident. I think we got home at about midnight? Long night, but so fun! Thanks to all my friends for making it a fun day and special thanks to my brother for organizing the tailgate and getting the tickets for us! A new set of washers in IN THE MAIL!!!
Continuing on with our day at the Bristol Renaissance Faire (see part 1 here). We continued walking on and came upon this parade of people dressed up. This jester(?) got all up in our faces yelling about “the queen is coming! the queen is coming!”
The parade was actually pretty cool. People were dressed very elaborately. No one was really doing any tricks or anything.. just walking.
When we could see the queen then the jester really went nuts in his excitement. Dallas asked “Which one’s the queen?” and the jester was all like “duh!”
Dallas said something like “You’re the queen?” and the queen looked back and waved, saying “One of them!”
Dallas looked on in disbelief.
Shortly after we posed for a photo. Kelly took this photo three times to get it just right. I didn’t realize til later that “just right” meant getting Adam and Brian’s head perfectly between ours in the background! Photobomb!
Throwing more knives. One of the actors let Adam wear his hat. He looks like a Country Western singer. I’m not sure that’s exactly what this hat is supposed to do.
And then we came upon another Jacobs Ladder. Adam had already failled at this thing several times earlier in the day. Here he is getting suckered into trying it again.
What did he think? 5 more beers would help his balance?
Uh… nope!
I’m not going to call this guy a jerk, but……
… right after Adam failed to climb the ladder three more times, this guy had to go and climb the ladder backwards, standing straight up, just to show off.
Dallas, Christine, Kelly, Todd, Adam, Mike
Christine
Christine really wanted me to go on this ride with her. She asked me beforehand but I said I’d have to see it. I didn’t totally “get” what it was. No one else wanted to go, and before I could figure out what it was and if I wanted to do it, I was getting strapped in.
The contraption mixes trampolines with bungees so when you jump you spring up 50 feet (?) 100 feet (?) in the air. It looked something like this. Christine had gone on this thing a few times before and was an advanced jumper. She was even doing flips and stuff. Check out this video of this girl doing a zillion flips on this bungee trampoline. Christine didn’t do that many, but enough to freak me out.
I didn’t do flips. I just held on. And screamed. I made a mistake in the beginning by telling the ride operator that my friend made me go on this thing. And then as he was hooking me in he made some comment like “oh, you got the broken harness. I don’t know why they keep sending people back with this broken harness. I keep telling them not to. ” And then he sprung me into the air 100 feet. And I screamed!!! I don’t know why I even believed him. Oh, wait. It was because I drank 10 beers that day. Also, I made the mistake of telling him that my friend right there was doing flips but there was no way I was going to do a flip. Then he told me he was going to press the button to make me do a flip. “Ready? 1…. 2….. 3…” And I was screaming “Don’t press the button!! I Don’t want to flip!” As if there’s a button to press to do that! Again….. 10 beers! Anyway, by the time I got out of there I was just thankful to be alive. Everyone was watching the whole time and got a good laugh. Dallas took this photo and while it’s not very flattering, I think it’s hysterical, so I had to post it.
Since I’d just had a near-death experience, I passed on the rock climbing wall we came across next. It seemed like too much work! I did a lot of wall climbing in high school, but I had no idea if I could still do it today.
Christine, Adam, Kelly and I think Brian were all over the wall.
Todd climbed too. And he got beat by a little girl. He did not get teased at all!
I showed this photo to Adam on my little camera screen and he was all “Whoa! Where is she!?” and then when I pointed he seemed so disappointed that it was a statue. Hilarious.
I don’t think I’ve ever been on an elephant before? I don’t know how I feel about this feature, in hindsight. The elephants didn’t seem to have a very good life. Kind of like the ponies you see everywhere for kids. Adam tried to say something about this and the workers were quick to point out this bulletin board they had displayed with photos of the elephants living it up in the off season. They must hear this complaint a lot.
Plus, for $6 you only got to go in one small lap. Plus, I had to let Mikey O straddle me!
Near the exit I spotted these two. No expressions. They didn’t move. Kind of freaky.
And that was about it. Fun, fun, fun first trip to the Bristol Renaissance Faire. I’m almost afraid to go again because it can’t live up to it!
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Winery: Something in Holland?
