Birthday Celebration

Birthdays are a big deal with my in-laws. My mother-in-law always throws a big family birthday party for each person's birthday, complete with a special meal, cake, and presents. Even though it's more than a week after the fact, this was my day!

Steve and me on the front porch before we walked over to my mother-in-law's. He looks thrilled, doesn't he? :::grin:::

Morgan and me. She smiled a little nicer than Steve. Now, off for BBQ!

Diplomas and Recitals

My sister-in-law, Susie, graduated from college today. We were all so proud of her. Here she is with her parents.

The Two Connelly Girls. (Note the scrapbooking magazine under Connie's arm. She knew the speeches would be boring. We both read the scrapbook magazines she brought and I was quite glad for the diversion. Rude? Maybe a little. But definitely more polite than the people conversing loudly during the speeches.)

Then we ran to get a bite to eat, then went right to the place for Morgan's piano recital. No pictures from that (Steve was manning the camera), but we got some good ones afterwards. Here's Morgan and Susie.

A proud father and his daughter.

Three generations of Connelly women. (Brooke was manning the camera.)

It was a busy day, but a good one!

Talk DERBY to me!

We are big Kentucky Derby fans, even though we've never been to the "real" race. The week before, Steve and the girls generally check out the videos of the contenders and they pick their horse. My "pick" is generally just a whim - the name, the way the horse looks, where the owner or jockey is from, etc.

Last year, Steve decided that our first Big Event in the new house would be a Kentucky Derby Party! The planning started! In April, the hand-stamped and watercolored, printed invitations went out, lauding this event as our "First Annual."

The week before was very busy. I had a detailed list of what needed to be done each day. This was quickly thrown out the window bright and early Tuesday morning when the other daytime medical transcriptionist was transported to the hospital. In addition to all the party preparation, I had to work extra to boot! AND it meant I had to work the weekend. The weekend that I had invited a million people to my house for a party! (Okay, so it was more like 50.)

Last minute prep - in hat, dress, AND apron! The denim Pampered Chef apron did not go with the outfit. I need a frilly apron. (I looked. I couldn't find one.)

The food table. Well, one of them anyway.

The second, and most important, food table - the one with the desserts!!! The Mint Julep Brownies were AWESOME!

We had our own little impromptu "Red Carpet." Me and Elen.

She and her hubby look like they should be modeling, don't they? Such sweet friends. I went to school with Travis and lost touch for more than 15 years. We met again at a mutual friend's birthday party. Now our daughters are best friends!

Christina is not to sure about Brooke's hat!

Our neighbors, Cindy and Anthony. I went to school with Anthony, too! We had also lost touch over the years. I was so surprised when they bought a house on our street! They are great neighbors!

Isabelle and Joshua. Isabelle didn't have a hat, so she borrowed one from Joshua!

Everyone is gathered for the race. We had "high stakes betting" - everyone brought $1 and put it in a jar and wrote down their name and their horse. Earlier in the week, I wrote down my Top Three: Friesan Fire, Mine That Bird, and Chocolate Candy, in that order. When two men wrote down Friesan Fire, I decided to go for the long shot - Mine That Bird! Everyone teased me, especially when the horses walked in. "Look at yours, Ginger! He's asleep!" I told them he was just faking out the other horses and conserving his energy. They laughed at me.

Then he came from second to last place and won the race! No one was laughing then! And I won the enormous $16 purse! LOL!

After the race, we voted for the hat contest. Elen won Fanciest and Connie won Most Creative. Brooke won the prize for the Biggest Hat. Prizes were official commemorative glasses with all the past winners.

We had a ball and hope all our friends had fun, too. We're already making plans for our Second Annual! I can't wait!

Resurrection Sunday

He is risen! He is risen, indeed!

My two beautiful girls. Steve and I both had to work today, but at least the girls and I were able to make it to the early service. Wonderful message.

Par-tea Time!!!

It doesn't take knowing me long to know I LOVE a good tea party! So when my mother-in-law invited me to come to (and bake scones for) a bridal tea party for a friend of the family, I was ready! We had some awesome food.

I made the scones - Chocolate/English Toffee, Ginger Lemon (my favorite, of course), and plain cream scones. My sister-in-law made the curd - strawberry and lime. My mother-in-law made everything else. (And I happened to be working that weekend.)

My mother-in-law had just painted the room and decorated it for spring. Very cute. And here are the gifts for the bride.

The ladies enjoying tea. We had a different tea with each course. Blackberry sage was my favorite!

Oh, look! Here is one of our elegantly dressed servers. Morgan, when did you become a young lady?

And who is this lovely young guest? That can't be MY little girl! :::sigh:::

Warm House, Great Friends

:::tap, tap, tap::: Anybody still there? I know I've neglected this blog for over a month. I may be speaking only to myself now. I'm going to try to update and keep it updated. A lot has happened in the last month.

One of the most FUN things that happened was our Housewarming! Our wonderful friend, Ashley....

and her sweet husband, Josh...

asked if they could throw us a housewarming party! How could we say no? We had SUCH a wonderful time and were blown away by the terrific party Ashley and Josh put together for us.

Ashley had some great special touches...she had come here to our blog and downloaded a bunch of pictures of us building the house and from our first few months in the house. She mounted these on little standing "frames" and put them all around. She also gave me the great cookbook stand in the back holding the housewarming party invitation. Ashley has a beautiful cookbook stand in her house and I always comment on it.

Because Ashley is a fellow scrapbooker (and that is actually how we met some 5? 6? years ago), she made this great scrapbook page for all the guests to sign and leave notes of good wishes and house blessings. When the party was over, she popped it into a frame. Steve couldn't wait to hang it up and it is in a spot where everyone can see it when they come into our home.

She also cross stitched this bread basket cloth and a tea towel with our name and the year of our marriage. All this in addition to the food. OH, the food! My, oh, my! Delicious beyond all delicious-ness!

There was a yummy pasta salad, an antipasto tray, hummus and artichoke dip for the bruschetta.

And tulips! She bought my favorite flower to decorate the tables! Lovely white tulips that she mixed with sliced lemons in the vases for the neatest looking arrangements! How clever!

My mother-in-law made chicken salad sandwiches and at the last minute decided to just "whip up" a small batch of jambalaya. LOL! It was delicious, though, and it is for sure that between Faye and Ashley, NO ONE left hungry! If they did, it was their own fault!

I felt helpless, so I asked Ashley if I could make something - dessert perhaps. She acquiesced. I think to hush me up. So I made some mini cream puffs, little brownie cups, and a lemon blueberry trifle. Joy and Jenna are discussing whether the cream puffs or the brownie bites are healthier. Joy picked the brownies since they had fruit on top. A good choice, Joy!

Although the lemon berry trifle was pretty good, too! Not that the cream puffs had to be thrown out or anything, mind you.

Here's Paige and Morgan. The FRIENDS were just as wonderful as the food at my party!



And family is pretty wonderful, too. Here's Joshua and his adorable girlfriend, Isabelle.

And not only did we have great food and great company, we even got PRESENTS! That was just the cherry on top. But the best gift was just gathering together with all our friends and relatives and neighbors. Love is always the best gift of all!

Thank you, Ashley, for showing your love for us in such a wonderful way! You and Josh are such a blessing to us and we are so grateful for your friendship! Thanks for the party!

(And they even cleaned up afterwards!)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to All! We had a great Christmas in our new house. We hosted Christmas Eve this year, as my sister-in-law has been waiting with baited breath to "turn Christmas Eve over" to Someone Else.

Steve, Ginger, Joshua, Brooke, Joshua's girlfriend Isabelle, and Morgan in their Christmas PJs on Christmas morning. (No, Isabelle didn't spend the night here - Joshua went and picked her up after she finished opening gifts at her house - wearing the PJs she opened at our house the night before was a requirement.)

We went to church on Christmas Eve, then back to our house for lasagna, spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, and Italian Hazelnut Creme Cassata for dessert. I changed the cake recipe just a wee bit - I omitted the raspberry jam (for Steve, who hates raspberries) and hazelnuts on top (for my mother-in-law, who can't eat nuts). Even with the omissions, the dessert was delicious! Unfortunately (or, per usual) I didn't get any pictures of Christmas Eve.

For a slight twist this year, and totally unplanned by me, Steve did most of the gift choosing and buying. And the girls did most of the wrapping. I wrapped perhaps four gifts, total. I liked this! I hate to shop. And wrap!

Steve is always the hardest one for me to buy for. He never gives hints as to what he wants. Or either he mentions things that I couldn't possibly buy - like a Cessna or a small tropical island. And NO MATTER WHAT, he always guesses his presents. Like the time I bought him shoes and wrapped them in a computer box with two cinder blocks. Yes, he guessed it was shoes. No, he doesn't peek. But he just always seems to KNOW.

But this year, I was able to get him something he had asked for - a big TV. We have an old "fat" TV. Steve had the entertainment center in our new house, though, built for his Future TV - a 50" flat screen plasma TV. I was shocked when I looked at the sticker price on these monstrosities and knew there was no way I would be able to get him one. But, thanks to a good sale and 18 months interest free financing (and a new job), I finagled a way to buy his biggest ever wish.

However, it would spoil the surprise to simply wrap it and put it under the tree. And he would be suspicious if he didn't have anything to open. So, while picking up some driving gloves at Bass Pro Shop that he mentioned wanting, I got an idea. "What is the smallest amount you can put on a gift card?" I asked the clerk. She didn't know and thought that was the strangest question. I explained what I had in mind and she got with the game. "Let's try $0.05," she said! And it went through! I write on the gift card "$200" and wrap it up. I also told Morgan if her dad opened it and said, "Oh, how nice!" we'd know he was completely disappointed (which was what I was hoping).

Christmas morning, he opened his gifts from the kids. Then his gloves. Then the gift card. "Oh, how nice," he said. "I can buy lots of stuff with this." (He is very gracious, even when thoroughly disappointed.) Morgan is holding her side and trying to stop the laughter that is bubbling inside. "Hey. Did you open your red box?" I ask Steve. No, of course he didn't. The kids got right into the game, lifting up their empty boxes and searching through the wrappings. "Brooke, you didn't leave it in the guest room, did you?" She admitted she probably had, so Steve and all his entourage trek to the guest room. "It'll be on the shelf," I say. He gets to the guest room, opens the closet, looks up on the shelf, then looks down....

Do you see the look on this man's face? Do I need to tell you that when he ripped off the paper (he knew what was in it by the size of the box) that he assuredly did NOT say, "Oh, how nice?" And, to my great delight, he never found out, so it was TRULY a surprise!

Steve has worked so hard the past two years and has given so much. The best gift *I* received was watching my wonderful, darling husband receive his Christmas Wish.

It's 3 PM on Thanksgiving Day....

....do you know where your turkey is? Here's mine!

Steve's family eats Thanksgiving Dinner at High Noon. In fact, Steve's mom called me at 10:30 this morning saying she was STARVING and couldn't wait until time to eat! Since this was the first Thanksgiving I've hosted in the new house - and only the second Thanksgiving I've EVER hosted - I wanted to take loads of pictures. But I forgot. :::sniff, sob::: So you get my AFTER Thanksgiving pictures!

By 3 PM, we had eaten, cleaned the kitchen, finished taking the meat off the turkey carcass, and I had him in the pot making stock! Here's the cleaned up kitchen....

On my bar below, you can see the pies and other things that didn't have to be refrigerated, covered and lying in wait until we descended again for supper.

And here is my dining room. It was beautifully set with my china and my grandmother's silver. Now all of that is back in the china cabinet and the linens are in the laundry room.

And poor Brooke....here's where she spent Thanksgiving afternoon and evening.....

....in my bed, lying amongst the cats and tissues, because she caught a terrible cold while working as a counselor at "horse camp" earlier this week. It takes Louisiana a while to really get "into" winter - instead, it dips a toe in periodically and we have temperatures ranging from hot to cold and back to hot all within less than a week's time. And everyone comes down with a malady known as "The Crud" because of it.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It is my favorite of holidays (and I've been crazily avoiding all the radio stations who have prematurely been playing Christmas music - it makes me feel like poor Thanksgiving is getting pushed aside). Here are a few of the things I'm thankful for this year....

• my faith - how people make it without Christ, I do not know;
• my family - how blessed I am with a wonderful husband and great kiddos, my parents and all my siblings, as well as in-laws who love me as though I were a daughter;
• the members of the armed services who selflessly put themselves in harms' way for our country's sake - thinking of them today brought tears to my eyes;
• and last, but not least, I'm thankful to be FINISHED building this house! Whew! It took way too long!

Brooke's Chicago Trip

Hey! We have a computer AND internet!!! Hurray!!! So I'll be trying to catch up a bit.

Here are some pictures from Brooke's trip to Chicago in September. When she was in Illinois with my mother-in-law, her aunt and her boyfriend came to visit and brought her on a day trip to Chicago.

When Steve, Morgan, and I went to Chicago last year for Joshua's Navy graduation, Brooke elected to stay home, so she was excited to get to the Windy City.

Here are some of snapshots of her exciting day.

She went to Wrigley Field.

Ate Chicago Deep Dish pizza at Dagostino's.

Went to the Tribune Tower. Saw the Nathan Hale statue.

Rode on the "El."

Saw very strange creatures...(what IS this thing?).....

....and mummies at the Field Museum.

Went to Millennium Park. Saw the "Bean."

Was AMAZED at the sheer number of people.

And fell in love with the Chicago skyline at nighttime.

I'm so glad she was able to experience Chicago. Thank you, Mike and Susie, for showing her a super time!