Mmm great chicken recipe!

I just finished my lunch (last night's leftovers) sitting here at my desk and it was so good that I figured I should pass the recipe on to anyone who wants it. I got the chicken recipe from a blog titled "Eat, Live, Run". It's Lemon Brown Sugar Chicken. I served it with steamed asparagus and butternut squash that I cubed, spread on a cookie sheet, drizzled with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roasted at 400 degrees F for 40 minutes. The whole combination was perfect (to me, at least). The textures balanced well as did the sweetness of the sugar and squash, tartness of the lemon, and slight bitterness of the asparagus. I highly recommend it, in case you couldn't tell!

The Pack

We have quite a doggie exchange set up with our friends Dani and Jerad. This past week they went to visit Dani's grandmother, so we got to add two dogs to our house for awhile. They're a mess when they're all together, but it's fun. They really do act like a pack! Arty's not such a fan, but he gets over it right after the extra dogs go home. The previous time Ace and Tucker came for a stay, Ace decided the toilet plunger looked like a fun toy. I was sitting in the study when Ace walked by with it, dragging it from the laundry room to the living room. I promptly took it away from her (after I snapped a picture, of course)! It's always fun when they come to stay, but it's also nice when they go home again. The feeding routine in itself is exhausting since two of the dogs are total food hounds and the other is, well, not. Some coordination is involved.

Gift from Lauren & Jim: www.aggierichards.com

I talked to my sister Lauren the other night on the phone. We had fun catching up! Love you, Lolly! She told me that her and her husband were going to give me and Travis a website for Christmas, but then I made this blog. I assured her that I would love our own website and would have no problem with it. It will be a work in progress as Jim, her great husband, is swamped with other projects at the moment. Currently the site is linked to our Picasa albums page, so feel free to head over there and check out our pics. (Kristine, pictures of our house are on this page!) The site is aggierichards.com - isn't that the perfect address?! Props to Lauren and Jim; thank you sooo much!

Christmas in Texas, New Year's Eve, and Back to Normal

I have a lot of catching up to do here! Things were a little crazy and out of sorts for awhile through the holiday season. As has become our custom, we drove to Texas to spend Christmas with our families. We like driving for a couple of reasons: 1) it's much cheaper than flying this time of year; 2) flexibility to see everyone on our own terms; 3) Wyatt gets to come!; and 4) packing is much easier. The top picture is Wyatt in his comfy ride. He gets more room than we do! I think he would prefer to ride up front with us, though.

Our first stop was in Terrell to visit the Richards family. The house always looks so pretty, especially the tree with all of the perfectly wrapped and coordinated gifts (second picture)! They hosted a dessert party on the 20th so we could see Travis's dad's side of the family, and we had "Christmas" on the 22nd with his mom's side. It was great being able to see just about everyone in the period of a few days.

On the 23rd we headed to Cypress to hang out with the Gray family. This was actually the first time we had been there for Christmas Eve since we were married! It was nice to go to Christmas Eve Mass with my family and to the Schilbergs' Annual Schnappsfest. Sadly, this year marked the end of that tradition since Gale's parents are moving to Oklahoma City soon. I will miss that tradition and that house where I spent so much time during high school. Christmas with my dad's side of the family was held at my parents' house on the 23rd. Christmas morning was spent at home where we had the traditional egg casserole for breakfast. This year I made some yummy cinnamon rolls to go with it. I think that might be the new annual thing. After that we went to College Station for Christmas with my mom's side of the family.

All in all, I believe we had three turkey dinners in a period of four days. Whew! Good thing I could still fit in some workouts! We had so much fun visiting with all our family and friends. We're extremely blessed in that area. We love you all!

Our friends Dave and Joan hosted a "Roaring 20's Murder Mystery Party" for New Year's Eve. It was so much fun! I was nervous at first because I'm not good at acting, but I got into it and had a blast. Travis won an award for being the player with the most play money because he was really good as extorting people as Al Capone. I won an award for the best costume! It was a lot of fun to ring in the New Year that way with some of our best friends!

Now things are pretty much getting back to normal. We're looking forward to my parents visiting in a few weeks!

Girls' Baking Night

 

Just before we left Denver to go home for Christmas, I had a baking night with two of my best girl friends here, Berkeley and Dani. Berkeley and I did it last year, so I guess it's a tradition now! We made fudge, sugar cookies, toffee, Mexican chocolate cookies (with cinnamon and cayenne pepper), and some shortbread-type cookies with almond and dried cherries. We made a mess, shared some laughs, ate a lot of sugar, and promptly gave everything else away the next day!