Monthly Archives: January 2012

christmas recap: the party

27 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in Christmas

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I really like to throw parties.

A lot.

Ask my lover. He’s learned the art of how to be extremely illusive (like suddenly having a paper due in the middle of summer) during certain parts of the year. It’s especially bad during birthday week in May. Where I run around a lot. Crying. And at Christmastime. Oh glorious Christmastime!

This year we had the 2nd annual Russo Christmas party. That’s right. Annual. As in, we do one every year. And it is so much fun for me. Maybe not so much fun for anyone else, but I’m okay with that.

This year I got inspired but one of my most favoritest new Christmas movies. Elf. Anybody know the scene where he decorates his dad’s house with paper snowflakes? And paper chains? I went that route.

Tacky and fabulous!

Oh, and there were props. Like the Merry Christmas sign. And this:

I took a frame that was unused, pressed a line of glue into the grove around the edge, and went to town with the glitter. This made for a couple of wonderful pictures. Like this one:

See! We’re able to take cute pictures without becoming totally awkward in front of the camera. Although I am 100% sure that right before this picture was snapped John said “you’re a dragon, you’re a dragon” and I said “be a tiger!” So we WERE totally awkward in front of the camera, but thankfully you can’t hear through pictures.

So now do you wanna talk about food?

Well, do ya?

I do. :)

I always want to talk about food. If you ever see me around and there’s awkward silence, just start talking about food. I’ll take care of the conversation from there.

I fail miserably. I did not get great pictures of the food. Or very many pictures. Just a few group shots of all the food together. So here are all 2 pictures of the food:

Now, let’s talk punch for a minute. I got this recipe from my mother dearest, she uses it for everything. With good reason too, it is DELICIOUS! I’ll give the recipe at the end of this post. Just know that it includes sherbet. KNOW that.

I also put out hawaiian sliders, you can find the recipe here via pinterest. I copy-catted after my sweet friend made some back in July for an english garden party. No party is complete in my opinion without some lil’ smokies, smothered in barbecue sauce of course. I put out a veggie tray with dip, some cheese and crackers, and chocolate fondue. I was tempted to hang out by the fondue pot all night, but since I was hosting this shindig I decided against it.

And then there was cake. I absolutely love Christmastime spices. Ginger, cloves, nutmeg, mmmmmmhhhhhhhmmmmmm!!!!!!! Good to the last drop. Wait, that’s coffee. Good to the last crumb? Yeah, good to the last crumb. :) I started a spice cake tradition with our first Christmas party. I attach charms to the end of a ribbon, and then insert them into the middle layer of (cream cheese of course!) frosting. As guests get their cake, they also get a charm. Each charm is connected to a prize (e.g. the wreath charm meant a candle, the bell charm meant a picture frame, etc.)

One of my favorite things about Christmas is giving. Don’t misunderstand me, I like EVERYTHING about Christmas. Celebrating Jesus birth is numero uno on my list, and then there are lights, music, gifts, food (helloooo, food) traveling, family, and friends. But I really love giving. Even if it’s something so small like a dollar tree frame. Or a bucket of hot cocoa mix. I just enough of bringing a little slice of happy to the people I love.

Sorry about my little sentimental rabbit trail there. I’ll try to keep us on track.

Keep us on track with photos, perhaps? But of course.

Jerri’s Delicious Party Punch

Ingredients: 1 carton raspberry or lime sherbet

1 (2 liter) 7-up

Pineapple juice, to taste

Directions: Scoop (with ice cream scoop) sherbet into bottom of punch bowl.

Pour in entire bottle of 7-up.

Add pineapple juice to taste.

I usually use about 2-3 cups of pineapple juice each time.

And that’s a Merry Christmas wrap! What did you do that got you in the holiday spirit? Any delicious punch recipes? Come on, we can still talk about this at least until Valentine’s Day. Heck, I still have my tree up.

I lied about that. My tree is gone. But it is forever up in my heart!

christmas recap: a little side trip

26 Thursday Jan 2012

Posted by in Christmas

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So this is one of those better-late-than-never-things

We went here:

That’s not even my most excited face. When I make my most excited face my mouth is open waaaaaay wider. Seriously. That happens.

I’ve been to a few caves in my life. My parents took us to Mammoth Cave in Tennessee and Kartchner Caverns in AZ. I’ve been to Natural Bridge deep in the heart of Texas. Seems like maybe some place in Illinois too. Anyway that’s not important. What IS important is that Carlsbad Caverns are my favorite. Because you see stuff like this:

*We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to warn you that these pictures are terrible. Please be aware that taking pictures in caves is IMPOSSIBLE. We now return to your regularly scheduled programming*

Those little beauties are the Queen’s Draperies. Carlsbad was absolutely stuffed to the gills with formations. everywhere. And it was amazing. So stunning.

Ohhhhh, I skipped too far ahead. Sorry. I just got really excited about caves. We were told beforehand (thank you Alison!) that the entrance is kind of like a big sideways hole in the ground so we were ready for it and took some pictures. Like the one below:

Intimidated yet? No? Imagine going down in there during the wild wild west days with nothing but a kerosene lamp and a prayer. Intimidated now? That’s only the mouth of the cave. We walked down for what seemed like forever before we even got to the awesome part. And we hiked back UP. Like a boss.

Okay that last part isn’t true. We took the elevator up. Because I value oxygen a lot and I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have been able to breath coming back up. I’m that out of shape. Please don’t tell anyone. :)

This next picture really has nothing to do with the cave. I just laugh when I see it. It’s a running-inside-because-it’s-windy-and-cold-in-New-Mexico-and-there’s-no-way-we’re-stopping-for-pictures picture. I’m an Arizona girl. I cannot handle anything below 75 degrees. And I hate loathe wind.

That’s my action movie hair. Because if I was Laura Croft:Tomb Raider I would look like that. Which is maybe why they went with Angelina Jolie for that movie. *sigh*

Everybody STOP!!! You must think about Michael Jackson for a moment, then start humming the opening music to “Thriller” before you look at this next picture. I’ll give you a moment…

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You know that scene in the Lion King where the one hyena keeps saying “Mufasa” and the other hyena gets chills? I get those kind of chills when I see this picture.  That’s an overstatement but I said it anyway for dramatic effect.

And that’s our little side trip! We’ve been saying for years that one day on the way to my parent’s house we would stop, and now we have! I cannot wait to go back. I loved it so much. At one point on the tour they said part of the 1959 movie Journey to the Center of the Earth had been filmed in that very room and I nearly jumped out of my seat/yanked John’s arm off with excitement. Because I’m that much of a dork. Ahhh, Carsbad. How I love thee.

wednesday worship: fellowship

25 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Worship Wednesday

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Good afternoon everyone!

When I first started thinking about today’s post, I intended to talk about my current devotional book that I’m reading throughout this year. It’s good, but it can wait until next week.

This week I want to talk about God’s faithfulness and blessing.

You see, this year God chose to take one of my dearest friends from my life and move her to Virginia (Virginia is for lovers is NOT the state motto, fyi) leaving me in a panicked state of “um, so what am I supposed to do now?” My dear sweet lover has done everything in his power to keep me happy now that she’s gone, but it’s still so sad to do projects by myself, not share recipes, not fight over play games with her family. And on top of that I was an emotional wreck after visiting family in nice, warm, sunny Arizona. Then I got in the car the morning after my friend left and it would. not. start. I could have watered a small garden with the tears I shed that week.

You may have guessed where I’m going with this in the post title, but I’ll just state the obvious. The Lord has watched over me/us in a way that I didn’t see until just last night. Sometimes we make the mistake of only seeing God’s blessings when He does monetary things. When that unexpected check comes in the mail or our tax return is bigger than we expected. (Fingers still crossed for that one!) Yet our God is so not limited to caring for our financial needs. He is the lover of our souls, not the liner of our pocketbooks.

So now we come to it. God has blessed me while I was sad with such joyous fellowship! We have met and been blessed by so many new friends these past weeks. Our sweet precious friends who are getting married this summer asked both John and I to be in their wedding. I cried tears of joy. Leave it to our mighty God to turn tears of sadness into tears of joy. It’s been such a wonderful time of leaving worries behind, and sadness in the dust, and just to enjoy the fellowship of our dear Christian friends.

What a joy!

 2that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. (found here)

one word: here we go

22 Sunday Jan 2012

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Okay, Okay that’s three words. I couldn’t come up with just one word that said “I jumped into this crazy bloggy world with no clue what I’m doing and very little direction of where to go next and I don’t know what I’m going to write about and I hope this isn’t a disaster waiting to happen.”

Three words really do seem to say it better.

So, here we go.

This is going to be fun. I’ll write whatever pops into my head, my lover will make fun of me before I ever post it (I told my husband that I’m going to call him my lover. He asked if that’s too cheesy. I said no. He rolled his eyes. Most of our conversations go this way) and you will have a glimpse into what this crazy girl is thinking.

Ready to get started?

This here ole blog will be about everything. Recipes, projects, parties, stories, friends. Every Wednesday will be a day to talk about what the Lord has put on my heart. Hopefully it will be a time of encouragement and accountability. Fridays will be Friend Friday. Every Friday a guest will write about something they are good at, or a project they have finished, or a thought they just really need to share.

But mostly it’ll just be me. Musing. Randomly.

Here. We. Go.