Doggy Day Care

Say hello to Sasha. She lives right next door to us. But on weekends, we get to watch over this sweetie while her family heads down to the hospital to be with Ashlynn and Tami. (Be sure to check Ashlynn's website for an update on how she's doing. She is completely adorable!)

So, Tom brings Sasha over on Friday and she settles right in with the our family. This pup plays hard and when she's done, she ZONKS hard! This is a nightly ritual in our house. Dano climbs into bed and Abby lays next to him and they have their moment of togetherness. Well, no one told Sasha that it was Abby's moment, so she jumps right on up there with Dano and Abby and the three of them have some bonding time. At first, old lady Abby (mid-yawn, above) didn't quite know what to make of Sasha spending so much time around the house, especially when it came time for the nightly bonding. But over the last few weekends, she has gotten used to it and dare I say it, is enjoying Sasha being around?! When Tom comes to take Sasha home on Sunday nights, Abby has been known to go sit and stare longingly out the front window. It's a sad sight indeed. Don't tell her I told you that.

So, after the moments of bonding, everyone falls asleep. I cropped Dano out of the sleeping photo, as per his request. Heh heh. Here are the girls, as we like to say, "crack to crack."

This only lasts for so long and then Abby jumps down from the bed and goes into her Dorm Room. Sasha, choosing comfort over privacy, stays on our bed all night, curled up in a tiny ball. She makes a great cuddle pillow!

And that, my friends, is another example of animals living together in harmony. Missy Laura will be so proud!

Hayley and I are off to Olympia for another round of Power League volleyball tomorrow. Yes, two hours away. We almost got to slated to play in Stanwood (about 20 minutes north of here.) But no. They only taunted us with the possibility and then decided...no, you shall drive two hours to play! FINE! (Listen to me whine...everyone knows I'd go anywhere to watch my Bobo play volleyball.)

Have a lovely weekend!

A Favor Please...

This is Ashlynn.

Can you stand the cuteness? Ashlynn is our six-month old next-door neighbor. She is the sweetest little doll. Ashlynn and her family need our prayers.

Ashlynn was diagnosed last week with Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Her wonderful family is doing everything they can to get this little sweetie healthy so she and her mama (Tami) can come back home. Ashlynn's daddy (Tom) started a blog to keep everyone informed of her progress, so please go visit the site and bookmark it. Most of all though, please keep the entire Hagar family (Ashlynn, big sisters Amber and Alyssa, and of course Tom and Tami) in your prayers. They have a long journey ahead of them and every little bit helps!

Ashlynn's website is http://ashlynnsfight.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much!

P.S. Apologies for the lack of attention to my blog. January was a long month with Danny out of town for three weeks and myself battling the crud/laryngitis for two of those weeks. The kids and I were just living our busy lives and missing Dano. Honestly though, since we found out about Ashlynn, it just didn't seem important to update this thing. If there was a reason to get back into the swing of things, this is it. =)

New Years Eve...and Bunco!

Yes, we played COUPLES BUNCO on New Years Eve! Pay no mind to that sad face there. I think most of the menfolk were like, "What the heck is Bunco?" and "Why do WE have to play?" Until they started playing. And then it was all about the stickers and everyone pretty much agreed that the men thoroughly enjoyed their evening of Bunco! A total of nine couples and probably an equal number of offspring gathered at Ken & Kathy's lovely home to ring in the New Year.

Here they are...the host and hostess with the mostest! Aren't they cute?

We started with a yummy spread of appetizers.

Meatballs in sauce. What's not to smile about?

I have to include the following photo: This is a very common sight in the Pacific Northwest. (My SoCal readers will marvel at this!) When you arrive at someones home, the shoes come off. Because no one wants all the snow and water and muck on their floors that you might otherwise drag in!

Okay, back to the Bunco festivities! Here we have Table #1 or the Head Table. Left to right: Tony, Kathy, Jay, Mary and Mike. (This is the written portion my test on everyone's names!) Teehee. Also of interest: Jay is sporting the fashionable "I Rolled the Last Bunco" Hat. I think Tony actually got to wear the hat three times. And that didn't jive with his ploy to stay in his comfy chair and not move tables all night!

Here we have Table #2. The losers from Table #1 migrate to this table. I certainly didn't mean to say that this is a group of losers. That came out all wrong, huh? Forgive me. Anyway, (left to right) is Jim, Sheryl, Carrie, and Dan. Dano's eyes are closed, but he is ready to roll the dice!

I didn't get photos of the other two tables because the bell rang and I had to sit down!!!

Ken and I. Oh, look who's wearing the coveted hat now! Yes, I rolled a sweet Bunco to steal the previous game. Ask Tony, he'll tell ya! (And for my Bunco girls back in SoCal, that last Bunco was on Sexy Sixes!!! Woot woot!)

So, after three rounds of rolling the dice, Jay was triumphant. Look at all those stickers! For Jay, it was all about collecting stickers. His plan worked.

This is Mary and Mike. They were also big Bunco winners. If I remember correctly, Mike had the last Bunco and Mary came in Second Place for the most stickers. How cute are they? We'll talk about these two later...

Danny won the Booby Prize. His sticker paper looked the opposite of Jay's. Actually, it might have even been worse, but we won't go there.

Instead, let's go upstairs. The Christiansen's have this awesome bonus room full of games to play.

Ken organized a Darts tournament, with teams consisting of each couple. Here, Ken is explaining how its gonna go down.

When you weren't playing darts, you could play foosball, pool, or the ever-popular Rock Band. Left to right: Jerry, Abby, Darlene, Sheryl and Mike.

The dart action shots aren't so good, so let me just cut to the good news: Danny and I went through the bracket undefeated. Our final opponents were Mary & Mike. Mike is very good, and Mary is the queen of the "Triple 20." It was a tough match and I thought we had no chance when they had us 490 to somewhere around 440. I think I threw a 14, then I know I threw a 25 (woohoo!) and then, thinking it was over, lobbed it and it was a double 13...ding ding ding...we won! You seriously could have knocked me over with a feather. But we do concede that had the game gone only to 300, instead of 500, we would have not been victorious.

Amazingly, the Darts Tournament ended at about 11:55, so we all went downstairs and gathered around the TV to see the fireworks off of the Space Needle and ring in the New Year. This is my only proof that Hayley and Brian were there. That is Hayley in the turquoise sweater and that is Brian's foot by her elbow.

Kathy, Ken, Karen and Rob: Thank you again for such a fun evening! And for introducing us to such a sweet and fun group of friends! We are blessed. =)

Happy New Year everyone!

Do You Fon-Due?

What better way to celebrate the kindness of good friends... ...than to gather 'round vats of hot oil and cook an assortment of meats???

It all started when we were talking with our friends, Ken and Kathy Christiansen. (Hayley is good friends with their daughter Karen, and Kathy and I have discovered a kinship based on A LOT of similarities. And we have that good old Catholic connection going! And all the guys are at the Pistol Range right now, so there's that!) Anyway, we mentioned fondue and all agreed we should do it sometime. Well, long story short, our new friends loaned us their 4-wheel drive vehicle to get us through the recent "Great Snow of 2008." You know, the one where more snow fell on the PNW region than anyone can EVER remember? Yeah, that one. So, as a small gesture of thanks, we invited their family over for a fondue feast. Filet, lobster, scallops, shrimp, chicken, pork and mushrooms all took their turn in the hot oil jacuzzi's (better known as the fonduzzi.) Then, they were slathered with horsey, dill, deviled, lemon butter, cocktail and Asian sauces. Oh and there was classic Swiss fondue, which is basically a cheese/wine melt and you dip chunks of french bread into that. Yeahhhhhh!

We thought the kids would prefer chicken strips and Dano's home fries, but really, they would have been just as happy with fondue for their dinner. They eventually headed back upstairs for more Guitar Hero World Tour, but did come back downstairs for this: That is Swiss Chocolate Fondue. From a recipe circa 1973...that cracks me up! Basically, it is cream and chocolate and a dash of liqueur...with hunks of banana, pound cake and rice krispie balls for dippins'.

Take a moment....

Now, I do apologize for the lack of photos. But honestly, it is really hard to hold a camera when you're holding a fondue fork in each hand! Trust me.

Ken, Kathy, Rob and Karen, thank you so much for lending us your truck and for a really fun evening!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Well, Dan and I got our morning exercise shoveling snow off of both decks! It was snowing pretty heavy earlier, but now it seems to be warming (?) up a little bit and dare I say, the sun is poking through? Regardless, we are hunkering down inside today and staying warm.

We hope everyone near and far has a wonderful Christmas!

With love from us PNW Liebels =)

One Year Ago Today...

Dan's mom passed away. Just think...Christmas Eve. (You have to be a Liebel to get that one...)

It was a pretty sad moment to get the call that we knew was coming, but somehow it made perfect sense for Mom to leave us on Christmas Eve.

Mom loved Christmas and what better way to make her exit than to go hang out with Jesus on Christmas? I know in the days that followed, her entire family all took comfort in that thought. I didn't think we had a lot of photos of Mom, but going through the files, I found that we do! And for the record, I have this labeled under "Celebrations" because really, I think we should celebrate Mom today.

Here she is keeping watch over Thanksgiving gravy. She was really good at that!

With the kids after the annual Grandparents Day Mass at school. The first few years, I'd always go get a fresh corsage, but one year, I found a beautiful ivory silk rose corsage and gave that to her. (It is in the top photo next to the angel.) I think Mom really liked the functionality of the silk corsage and she wore it every year after that.

Mom also loved Halloween. Living close to her, we'd usually drive over and start our Trick-or-Treating at her house before heading back to our own neighborhood. I'm really struck by the color coordination here!

This is Grandma Liebel and Hayley after her First Communion. I'm not sure there was a happier day for Mom than when any of her grandchildren received their First Holy Communion. Mom was a woman overflowing with faith.

Here is Mom with her youngest, her baby. Her Danny. We miss our Mom. We miss our Grandma Liebel.

I'm sure I speak for everyone in simply saying...we miss her.

I Posted the Wrong Photo...

This is the entire Roadhouse.

I can't believe I posted the wrong photo of the gingerbread Roadhouse! So, instead of swapping the photo out (which entails basically doing the whole post over again) I will just post it here. It's just too cute not to share! I think I originally did the close-up version so the "smoke" in the smoking area would be visible. Anyway, enjoy! The rest of the post is below.

The Big Gingerbread Reveal

Sigh. Here is our house. I save all the decorations from our house every year and then pile them on the next year. Overkill? Perhaps. But we wouldn't have it any other way. So, how do we get here?

Remember this? All baked up, edges evened out and stacked up ready to assemble. One of them is longer than the others. You'll see why later on.

You can't assemble an edible gingerbread house without Royal Icing. After years of making this, I truly believe it is an art form. If the icing is not right, as in too thick or too thin, there is lots of unsavory language in the kitchen while the houses are being assembled. Trust me on this. I grew up with it....and I am carrying on the "tradition." But, if the icing is good, it is a thing of beauty. I make my icing tubes out of freezer paper. That plastic lining is a lifesaver.

I found a lovely pastry tube with all the fancy tips, and in a weak moment, I bought it. Meh. This is the last time you will see the fancy-schmancy pastry tube. Anyway, the windows have to be attached and allowed to dry before any real construction can take place.

Now, the actual construction takes many hands and those hands cannot be holding cameras while holding the pieces. So, fast forward.......

You can see the house in the back has no roof. The order goes: Front and side. Other side. Back. Then the two roof pieces. Usually about that time, I am thinking, often out loud, "These look horrible!! Not a GOOD YEAR!" (Josie Grandma, does this sound at all familiar??) You see, it is a PROCESS. Like any process, you have to trust in the final vision. They just don't look that cute while they are being put together.

This is my subcontractor, Hayley. (Well, these are her hands.) I wouldn't dare try to decorate these little gems without her help. She would shoot me. And then never speak to me again. I can't have that, so she does a lot of the decorating. This is her friend Karen's house.

And here is our Bobo with the finished Christiansen house! We're not thinking the houses are horrible anymore!

See, they go from ugly ducklings to cute swans! We include a little light to insert in the back to provide yummy light through the door and windows.

This is Molly, our kitty. She only gets to go outside in our gingerbread world!

We have a snowman. And the mailman leaves presents outside the door!

That's me...standing in the doorway. Teehee. Can I just say it was a pretty good year for icicles? (Another familiar term for Josie Grandma!)

And Santa and Rudolph hang out on the roof. Can you stand it???

This is The Roadhouse Bar and Grill. They've kind of adopted Dano as their own. It's his Joe Josts of the PNW. That is his car there in the middle.

I thought they deserved a little gingerbread replica of the Roadhouse. It came complete with the fenced-in smoking area and neon pub signs. Normally, recipients love the houses and they gush over them. This might have been the best reception ever. The women in the Roadhouse went nuts, but the male owner and male manager pretty much acted like little boys on Christmas morning! I love it. It is why I make these little houses year after year!

So that is the story of our gingerbread houses. There is just one drawback to having a house made of gingerbread. The mice enjoy them as much as us people do!

I know. =)

I can't stand it either!

Breaking News...

WE HAVE ELVES!! NAUGHTY ELVES!

Elves wielding glorious cans of spray paint. They travel under the cover of darkness and are very sneaky...as elves usually are!

This is not an elf. This is my Boy. Can you tell how happy he is to be home? He got all bundled up and headed right outside this morning to shovel the snow. Why? Because we're going to get dumped on again tonight. That's why.

Back to the elves. The naughty elves. They do good work. Very colorful and precise. I love these elves. One realizes while taking photos of the elf art, one sees ones own shadow. Yes, I was still in my robe. Don't judge.

Sighhhhh. I love it here. You don't see this kind of love down in SoCal. The elves down in SoCal use toilet paper. (no, not like that! They throw it in the trees and wrap up your car in it!)

HEY NAUGHTY ELVES ~ WE LOVE YOU, TOO!

P.S. The gingerbread reveal might have to wait for tomorrow. I may have used up all my blogging time today!