Super Tuesday!

It's Super Tuesday here in Virginia, and Ollie and I voted on the way to work this morning. We also talked to a woman with a petition to get the light rail proposal a referendum in November (which is a very complicated and long-time issue in Virginia Beach / Norfolk).

Ollie's 3-Day Weekend

We haven't been doing much, other than going back to work and cleaning up after Christmas and New Year's. But this is a three-day weekend, so we're having a little bit of fun!

Friday night, we tried a new sushi place (and no, Ollie didn't shrink... the pieces were ENORMOUS compared to what I'm used to at our other favorite sushi restaurants). And we didn't order any octopus, because we didn't want Ollie to be icked out.

Then, today, we went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens again, but in IMAX 3D this time. We went at 9:15am on a Sunday, so Ollie got his own seat this time...

(Those are previews... I wouldn't take a photo during the movie!)

We spent the rest of the 3-day weekend doing boring things like cleaning and watching TV.

New Year's Eve

Every year for New Year's Eve, my husband and I borrow my in-laws' house (we're usually house-sitting for them anyway) and host a dozen of our friends for a full fondue dinner. (I highly recommend it... we start at 6-7pm and it takes up most of the time until the good stuff on the New Year's Rockin' Eve show around 11:30pm starts.) But this year, my best friend had a baby two days before Christmas, two people couldn't make it... it just wouldn't have worked out quite right. So it was just us, the cats, and Ollie!

Ollie sampling the chocolate fondue

Ollie trying on my silly New Year's Eve hat from Wal-Mart

Happy New Year!

Checking out the table before the cheese fondue starts

And finishing with the table set for chocolate fondue

Happy 2016, everyone!

Christmas

Between the chaos of having four different Christmas celebrations and my phone suddenly deciding that every other photo should swap the blue/red colors to make everything weirdly colored (Ollie turned out a burnt orange in every photo like that), I didn't get photos of Ollie doing things like opening presents or stockings, etc.

But on December 30, Tidewater Comicon hosted a free movie night at another library (not the one I work at) in Virginia Beach, so we went and saw Guardians of the Galaxy, and we saw this big book tree in the library.

Hanukkah (Belated)

Sure, Hanukkah was in early December this year, but my in-laws don't celebrate until my sister-in-law can come home for Christmas, so it's usually a few days before Christmas for us, no matter when the actual holiday is.

Ollie helped me and my husband make a batch of latkes for me to take to work as a gift for the people who had to work at the library until 9pm on December 23rd.

Yum! Want to make your own? We put five potatoes and two yellow onions in the food processor (with the grating blade on), mixed it by hand with four eggs and added matzo meal until it felt more like a dough and made neat patties. (Salt and pepper them at some point, too.) Then we fried them in vegetable oil in the wok (the wok made it REALLY easy to flip them without splashing oil everywhere) and as they finished, we put them on paper towels to drain a little oil. This made three dozen latkes about 3 inches in diameter.

Christmas Town at Busch Gardens

We are only an hour (without traffic) away from Busch Gardens Williamsburg, so we had to go to Christmas Town, which is when they transform the park into a winter wonderland with lights, trees, decorations, food, and shows.

(I downloaded the photos in the opposite order in which I took them, so it will look like it went from night time to day time...)

For the unfamiliar, Busch Gardens Williamsburg is Europe-themed, so each section of the park is a country in Europe. Each country gets a different Christmas theme for Christmas Town.

France has a "12 Days of Christmas" theme all in white.

Ireland has a green-and-gold theme. We made three circuits around the park,
and we didn't see these candles on the side of the castle until our third time around,
because it wasn't dark enough to see them lit up until then.

The horses are extraordinarily well-trained. People were taking photos
with this guy (they said his name is Eddie) and we watched him gently
put his head on each person's shoulder (on the direction of the guy on the right).

Sun's going down in England (in a Dickens theme).

Festa Italia was transformed into a 1950s style American Christmas,
surrounded with Coca-Cola vintage Christmas billboards.

The big "O Tannenbaum" outside the Festhaus in Germany.

A bear in the "Polar Pathway" that connects Italy and England.

The big Christmas countdown in the 1950s Americana Christmas area.

Hard to make out, but the train bridge has a big lit-up sign that reads "Peace on Earth."

Photo op near the carousel.

North Pole outside of Santa's Workshop.

The big "12 Days of Christmas" tree in France. (The lights on it
change in time to the song that plays over... and over... and over...)
There are twelve white trees along the walkway, each one
decorated with the number and ornaments to match each day.

First photo in the park, entering England.

Bottle Cap Candles

Ollie helped me make my Mom's Christmas present, which is a jar of bottle cap candles! I had them Pinned on a secret board as a Christmas idea for her last year, but didn't get around to it, so we tried it this year.

Melting wax in a cleaned-out peaches can in a pan of water,
with our bottle caps (with wicks glued in) waiting in the background.

Filling the bottle caps (carefully!) with hot candle wax (and spilling a lot of it, as you can see).

Pretty jar full of bottle cap candles in three different scents!

Now the apartment smells like cranberry martini, vanilla cookie, and rainy spring day all at the same time... which is a little odd, but not unpleasant.

Rice Krispies Treats!

Ollie and I haven't been up to much, except work, but I have a few days off this coming week and we have big plans! In the meantime, we made Rice Krispies treats last night and they were delicious.

(There aren't that many steps, so there aren't many photos.)

As a side note... we celebrate Hanukkah... sort of. We just do a Hanukkah dinner, and it's rarely actually during Hanukkah, because we wait for my sister-in-law to come home for Christmas, so it'll be about two weeks late this year. But I felt like I should probably mention it before Hanukkah actually ends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ollie got to go to two Thanksgiving dinners with us, since my family and my in-laws both live in the same city we do!

So I've heard that ham biscuits are, for the most part, unheard-of outside of Virginia.
This right here, which Ollie is helping to plate (or maybe just sneaking bites of!) is "biscuit ham."
It's Smithfield ham (even saltier than straight salt) cut in scraps and sold as biscuit ham,
because we Virginians like to make biscuits and put slices of Smithfield ham in them.
It's really as simple as that. Anyone can do it! But this way of buying the ham is much
cheaper and easier than getting a whole ham, especially if you've just using it for ham biscuits!

Watching the re-airing of the Macy's parade, since we were busy making
mac and cheese during the live broadcast.

Watching my husband and his mom playing ping-pong while we wait until it's time
to start making side dishes.

Baked brie as an appetizer!!! Take a large Brie, cut off the top (but leave it on), bake it at 350F for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, mix 1 cup each of Kahlua, brown sugar, and pecans and heat on the stove.
Take out the Brie and remove the top skin, then pour the pecan mixture over the top. Serve with crackers.

Pretty table setting! My mother-in-law is very good at this.

The beautiful turkey!

Thanksgiving Mac & Cheese

That isn't a tradition for us, or anything. My dad called a few days ago and asked if I wanted to bring anything to Thanksgiving dinner, and I decided on mac and cheese. We actually just made this for the work potluck two days ago, so we already had all the ingredients! This time, Ollie wanted to share the recipe with everyone.

Step One

Step One: Get a pot of water boiling for your pasta. Boil a 1/2 pound of pasta (we use rotini because it holds the cheese so well in its little ridges) according to package instructions and drain. Also, preheat the oven to 400F. Line a baking sheet (with raised edges!) with foil and parchment paper, and lay bacon in a single layer. When the oven is ready, bake bacon for 15 minutes, then check on it. (We usually let it cook another 5 minutes but I like to check it at 15 just in case.)

Step Two

Step Two: Look at that beautiful bacon! Sneak a piece because nobody else is up yet, and it just smells so good... plus, this is about twice as much bacon as we actually need. Let it cool for a minute, then layer paper towels and bacon to pat the grease off it. Then chop the bacon into little pieces. It will be going in our crispy topping!

Step Three

Step Three: Speaking of our crispy topping, it's time to make the rest of that! In a small pan, melt 1 Tbsp of butter. Add 1/4 cup of panko crumbs and stir to coat with the butter. Add Parmesan (I usually add almost 1/4 cup) and stir well. When it's almost all toasted, add garlic powder to match your personal tastes, and finish toasting. Turn off the heat and add the chopped bacon. Let it sit on the side until later.

Step Four

Step Four: By now, your pasta has finished cooking and been drained. Hang on to that pot! Melt 1/4 cup butter in it. Then add 1/4 cup flour and whisk well to remove large lumps. Slowly add 2 cups milk, stirring as you go. Let the milk mixture warm for a couple minutes (not boil!). Add 3 cups shredded cheese (we have 2 cups Italian mix - Provolone, mozzarella, Gouda, and Parmesan - and 1 cup sharp Cheddar here, my favorite combo) one handful at a time, stirring to let each melt before adding the next. When the cheese is all melted, add the pasta back to the pot and stir to coat.

Step Five

Step Five: Pour the now-cheesy pasta into a baking dish (mine is an 8" square metal pan and it fits PERFECTLY) and top with the panko/Parmesan/garlic/bacon topping. Bake at 350F for 5-10 minutes (it should be starting to bubble around the edges when you take it out). Let it cool before posing any LVs with it for photos.

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Christmas Tree

Yesterday, I found myself with some unexpected free time before I had to get to work, so I took apart a table we had in the living room and put it on the porch, like we had planned to do when we moved into this apartment over the summer. With that done, the space I wanted to use for the Christmas tree was available, so I pulled it out and put it up. It isn't decorated, just up. Ollie got a... unique perspective on it!