Monday, January 11, 2016

Date 161 - Be Your Own Hero.

Date: Saturday, January 9, 2016
Type: At Home, Disney
Cost: $
Planned By: Dani
Adam and I really enjoy Disney movies even though we're getting older. This weekend we chose to finally watch Big Hero 6. We didn't know much about it and I didn't want to look up many spoilers so it is a pretty simple date night. 
First, snacks. I knew that the main guy - Baymax - was white and had red armor at some point so we went with red and white snacks. White - white cheddar popcorn. Red - Twizzlers. After watching the movie you could have some other snacks including; healthy treats, donuts, hot wings, gummy bears, etc. 

Second, drinks. We made a red drink with cherry vodka, grenadine and sprite (aka a Dirty Shirley). To top it off we made Baymax Marshmallows. They were adorable.
We had the movie DVRed from one of those free HBO weekends so we easily brought up the movie on our TV to watch. It was an adorable movie and if you haven't seen it yet you should. It has a nice overlying message and a lot of fun and action to enjoy along the way. I really enjoyed the low battery Baymax scenes and that the movie revolved around science and being a nerd! I would definitely watch it again and I full expect a equal to be in the works. 

Date 160 - Merry & Bright!

Date: Christmas 2015
Type: Family & Holiday
Cost: $$$$$

Christmas 2015 is officially over. Our holiday season lasted multiple weekends and I'm just going to throw it all in to one post.
December 19th - 
First, Adam and I visited with the Davey Clan. We told stories, had some home brewed beer, ate yummy food and exchanged some very cute gifts. I was also given my dad's old 35mm film SLR camera. I can't wait to try it out! We had a great time visiting with them.
Next, we had the Neubauer Family Christmas. Santa wasn't able to come this year, but everyone still had a wonderful time. Everyone pitched in with food like usual and it was all delicious! There was a new cookie exchange this year (that I wasn't able to participate in), but there were tons and tons of cookies and everyone did a great job. We also had an adult secret Santa gift exchange, all the kids got nice gifts from the family and we had three new babies in the family this year celebrating their first Christmas!
December 24th - (I started suffering from a bad cold therefore very few photos)
Adam and I both worked in the morning but made it to Conneaut in time for the 4PM church service. Then we went to Christmas Eve dinner with the Plosila's. The pizza and home made wine was delicious as always.

December 25th - 
We had Christmas Brunch with Adam's family then Christmas Dinner with my mom and Rob's family. We made it back home pretty early so we were able to exchange our stockies and give the kitties all their gifts. Then we relaxed and watched the Santa Clause to end our Christmas night.

December 26th & December 27th - 
I was still sick so I just laid on the couch both days and watched Harry Potter on ABC Family all weekend. In other news - I upgraded my DSLR camera around this time. I am so excited to learn more with all the new features that I didn't have on my D3000!

December 31st - 
Michelle & Jim arrived for my family's Holiday weekend. We went to dinner at Brio which was very good. Then we went home and opened our individual bottles of champagne. Sarah came over and we all played games and watched the ball drop! Then we stay up a while longer playing more games. It was a nice low key New Years Eve.
January 1st - 
Amanda and Zak arrived around noon. For Zak and Michelle's birthday celebration this year we went with a bar party and cider tasting! Each couple got the ingredients for a do-it-yourself bar. Amanda and Zak brought a hot dog bar - hot dogs, chili, cheese, onions, relish, mustard, ketchup, etc. Michelle & Jim made a caramel apple bar - apple slices, caramel, chocolate, graham crackers, marshmallows, Reese's, peanuts, etc. Adam and I supplied the Nacho Bar - tortilla chips, beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato, black olives, salsa, queso, sour cream, etc. It was delicious and we got to eat it all during the OSU bowl game - which they won... if you live under a rock. Michelle and Zak seemed to enjoy their birthday gifts, too. Later on, we went to Play Arcade and Kitchen for some drinks and arcade games. The biggest find of the night was DDR - which none of us had played in awhile. At one point Manda and I did the song Paranoia and thought we might die. No wonder we were so in shape back in high school. We had a lot of fun and got a lot of tickets - we all decided to save them for another day though.

January 2nd - 
The final Christmas party of the year. My mom, rob and grandma came to our house for our Christmas Story/Chinese Christmas party. We had some fun decorations including bunny ears ("he looks like a pink nightmare"), Chinese paper lanterns and chopsticks. My mom brought general tso's chicken, Amanda made a fantastic cranberry/ginger/champagne punch, I made s'more fudge ("Oh fuddddge") and Michelle and I attempted to make fortune cookies with the help of Adam with thinking up the fortunes. Michelle made the rest of the food for dinner including Crab Rangoon, Beef, Fried Rice, White Rice, Pork, etc. She is quite a talented cook! We then went down to the basement for exchanging gifts. Our family does a secret Santa gag gift exchange every year and this year did not disappoint. There were lots of smiles and laughter throughout the exchange. Adam got a mug with a picture of him holding a gag gift mug from a previous year which was probably the funniest gift - from Jim. I got a Miami Redhawks lanyard from Zak - Muck Fiami! The other gifts were fun - Zak got an empty bottle of Kenny Chesney rum from Adam, Manda got finger puppets from mom, Jim got a dino hand puppet from me, Michelle got Dr. Who salt and pepper shakers (which she absolutely loved) from Rob, Mom got a Belichick (who she hates) magnet from Manda and Rob got a shot glass with very small writing from Michelle. Overall, the day was a success.
The holidays are always a fun time of the year. I wish I hadn't gotten sick (again) but we still enjoyed seeing family, giving gifts, getting gifts and celebrating the holiday with the people we love. Better start shopping for next year...