Merry Christmas to All!

December was a busy month filled with Christmas parties, cookie baking, Ev's Christmas program, an ugly sweater party, train ride with Santa on Christmas Eve, and it was all topped off with a wonderful Christmas Day!

Ev was a very good boy this year! Santa brought him a lot of presents including:

• Basketball hoop
• Slide
• Bike
• Puzzles
• Saw
• Fisher Price Barn and Animals
• Bulldozer
• Books
• Clothes

Now where do we put all of this stuff? Thanks to everyone for thinking of Ev and us even though we stayed in Atlanta :-) We are truly blessed.

Here are some of my favorite memories we made this month.

St. Nick:

Cookie Baking:

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party:

Santa Train Ride in Blue Ridge, GA:

Christmas Day: 

Christmas Cookies!

Here are some pictures from the Christmas cookie baking extravaganza earlier this month. We weren't able to go to Wisconsin to bake with Grandma Tess, but I tried to recreate the baking tradition in Atlanta. It really wasn't the same...no outlet mall shopping, Grandpa was missing as our sous chef, no one was hungover, and I don't have the famous margarita machine! That said, we did manage to make A LOT of cookies and we had fun! You can't ask for much more than that.

Looks like Wendy needs some more counter space!

Lindsey chopping up Oreos for her truffles! Yum!

All the ladies posing with their spatulas!

Chad watching the kids!

Aunt Wendy creating some tasty peanut butter/white chocolate cookies!

Lots of baking going on here!

Can you believe I forgot to take a picture of all the cookies? Trust me - they were delicious!

Uncle Shuck's Corn Maze

Two weeks ago, we continued an October tradition of trekking to the corn maze for an afternoon of fun. In Wisconsin we have to go bundled up in winter coats and mittens, but down in the south it's tank tops and sunglasses! It was a toasty 80-something in the corn field.

After the corn maze and picking out pumpkins, we all headed back to our place for a chili feast!

First Visit to the Zoo

In honor of our 12 year anniversary, we took Evan to the zoo! Zoo Atlanta is much smaller than the Milwaukee County Zoo. No polar bears, penguins, otters, rhinoceros, hippos, and a bunch of others I fail to remember.

We like to think Evan had a good time, but he was playing it cool so it was hard to tell! Most of the animals were pretty far away from the pedestrian paths, so we aren't sure he saw a lot of them. We did have a good view of the giraffes and zebras though, and he seemed pretty interested. He also enjoyed the pandas, and the goats in the petting zoo.

Wisconsin State Fair

While in Wisconsin for Lee and Katie's wedding, we made a day trip to the State Fair. I can't remember the last time I went to the fair - probably about 20 years ago (dang, I'm old)?

I don't want to put down in writing all the things we ate at the fair - but, it was worth every single calorie! Especially Saz's mozzarella marinara (and the sour cream and chive fries).

And of course, the State Fair "Must" cream puff. It was as good as I remember, and totally not a let down. Evan concurred. He thought it was the best treat of the day, although the vanilla ice cream with cherries ran a close second!

Oh, and let's not forget about corn on the cob with lots of butter and salt!

I also want to give a shout out to all the family from Las Vegas! It was great to see everyone and to spend part of the day with y'all. Here is picture of all the little cousins :-)

 

Maier Crew Hits Atlanta

Dawn, Jacob, and Nick took time out of their busy summer and took a road trip to Atlanta last weekend! We had a fabulous time hanging out with Dawn and our nephews. The last time we saw them was at Christmas, and I swear Nick has grown about a foot! But he is the same ole' Nick - loves to play games. He carried our team in Super Mario Brothers on the Wii (Jacob killed me in golf), lots of dominos, and Rack-O.

I have decided that Jacob is going to be a teacher when he grows up. He loves his cousin, Evan! (Dawn says he obsessed!) LOL! It was super cute watching him entertain Ev, and Ev rewarded Jacob with lots of smiles and giggles.

We went to the park, had a cookout with the Peter's, enjoyed an afternoon at the Georgia Aquarium, and then let the boys run through the Fountain of Rings at Centennial Olympic Park. Evan loved the fish at the aquarium! He pretty much had the same look on his face all day - mouth wide open and bright eyes taking in all of his surroundings. I wonder what he was thinking?

Thanks for making the trip, Dawn! XOXO

Ringing in 2010

We rang in the New Year with some great friends, food, drinks, and of course, games! I received a fondue pot for Christmas (thanks Santa), and made classic cheese fondue. The 2 cups of white wine and the kirsch made it quite tasty!

We played Apples to Apples, and a party favorite, Catch Phrase. The girls (and Steve) pulled two wins over the boys! Thanks to Steve and Marci for hosting the NYE festivities.

Resolutions? No, I don't usually make resolutions. However, I do have a couple of goals for this year. If I can find the time, which will prove harder this year with Evan, I want to run at least three half marathons. I think training for another full will be too time consuming. I am looking at the Rock N Roll Country Music Half in Nashville, and two others to be determined. Chad also plans on running the RNR Country Music Half, so we are accepting applications for babysitters the weekend of April 24!

Cookies!

This was the first Christmas in quite some time that I wasn't in Wisconsin for the Annual Schwemmer Christmas Cookie Extravaganza. However, I invited a few girls over to fill my cookie void and we baked like nobody's business!

What cookies did we make this year?

• Peanut Blossoms
• Mom's Toffee
• Turtle Pretzels
• Snowballs
• The ones with cherries and dates in them (what are the called Marci?)

Here are some shots from the day.

The result!