Virtual Running Date No. 36: I owe you one

Hello Crushers!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (belated)! Welcome to birthday week!

It's Tuesday and it's still very COLD. Like, schools canceled, businesses are closing early, high of -8 degrees cold. The thermometer is saying that it's currently -13 degrees, and I'm going to trust it because there is no way I'm going out there for more than a few minutes to test it myself. You can throw boiling water up into the air and see it turn to steam instantly.

Yes, really. See a video here. Yes, I know that's from Great Falls, but if my facebook friends are being truthful, then I know a lot of stay at home people who have tried it and it works!

Anyway, the move went great! We are almost all settled. Steve painted the baby's room and our room and thankfully, we didn't have to paint anything else! Most of the stuff on the walls have been hung and it looks like regular humans live there. Not just humans with boxes. WHOO!

For Christmas we got a freezer, so I've been working on filling it up with goodies. What goes in first? Chicken and 1, 2, 3 Lasagna. I also made huge batches of Steve's favorite Cranberry Fluff salad. Next week I'm hosting a Wildtree Freezer meal party, so I'll have a review of that coming up.

Here are a few photos that I would definitely be showing you if we were on a running date:

Me in front of the new house!

We quickly discovered that they never moved the furniture in the master bedroom to paint!
Thankfully, Steve is very good at painting!

Our first meal in the new house - soup and grilled cheese with sparkling grape juice!

Baby's first family Christmas photo!

Steve's favorite Cranberry Fluff (recipe below).

All the ingredients for making my Grandma M's Glug
(you can search for "glogg" in Google)

 

Delicious Cranberries getting chopped up.

Here is our room with a fresh coat of paint. And yes, we moved the furniture to paint.

Some art in the baby's room. I learned how to hang the floating shelf!

Recipe for Steve's favorite Cranberry Salad
Ingredients:
2-3 cups fresh cranberries, chopped into fine bits
1 can whole cranberry sauce
1 regular size tub of Cool Whip (not the giganto size)
1 bag of mini marshmallows

Directions: Mix all the ingredients until pink and fluffy. Store in a large bowl in the fridge or serve as a side dish for a holiday meal. Enjoy!

Virtual Running Date No. 33: No excuses and lots of sharing!

Good morning Crushers!

I would like to apologize for my silence in the blog-o-sphere for the past week. It's been crazy around here. I do have a recipe to share and fun news.

If this were a running date, I would tell you that baby and I did some run/walking while Steve actually ran. It was nice that he was happy to just jog on his own. We've had some snow here in Wisconsin, and that means there's some icy spots hiding. I hate ice. I do not want to slip, especially now! Unless I have ice clinking in my glass of iced tea or lemonade or keeping my cooler chilly, I do not need ice.

If we were on a running date, I could tell you that we finally sold our house! After moving the closing date three times, we were able to close on Friday after Thanksgiving. So while everyone else was out buying things, we were selling! YAY! New home in 19 days... pictures will follow I'm sure.

If this were a running date, I would tell you that I got to spend time with two of the cutest dudes this weekend. See?

Oh the cuteness! Such chubby cheeks!

If this were a running date, I would share this adorable photo of my 97-year-old grandpa helping me make butternut squash risotto (recipe from Iowa Girl Eats here). And yes, you really can make risotto by pouring in all the broth at once. Just keep stirring! It was delicious, but I would definitely add more garlic than the recipe calls for. We have garlic lovers at our house!

He's carefully measuring squash for me.

One last fun piece of news! We had people guess the baby's gender at work and at Thanksgiving. Since we've been on this football theme, my friend Sarah made these yummy cupcakes.

People placed their bets!

And the answer...

Team Pink!

We're very excited to be able to call the baby "she" or say "her" instead of "it" all the time. Healthy baby girl on the way! Can't wait to decorate the new house and the baby's room!