The Kaiser Family

Christmas Party!

This was an awesome party, we had a lot of fun! It was held at the Kaiser home, and the Lady of the house had it all decorated beautifully for Christmas. It looked, and smelled great. Not that it normally smells bad... But she had holiday candles burning :)

This party took place after we decorated the Christmas tree, but I felt like posting about this first. It was great because EVERYONE was there. Everyone in mine, and JoAnns, immediate family. Which is great.

The food was delicious, and we had a white elephant gift exchange, which was of course exciting. I didn't think to take pictures of what Michael and I ended up with. I got a beautiful candle holder (I'll post a picture sometime) and Michael got a slider maker. Those are delicious tiny hamburgers. We eat them at Marley's sometimes (that's a Harley Davidson restaurant)

Here is a picture of the food laid out. Oh, so good.

Michael, enjoying the food

Michael wanting to give me food

I just had to take a picture of the plate. Annie and Rachel worked hard to make everything

Everyone mingling

More mingling

Annie holding Paul and Rachels new baby, Lovely

Me, Uncle Ron, Jimmy and David checking out the food. You can kind of see our tree. It's a great tree.

Dad, and his brother Ron

Amber, Dave and David. Doesn't David look like he's having a blast? :-P

These two, Rachel and Annie, worked hard to plan the party. It was great fun!

Helena and Dad. She changed her shirt and hair half way through. You know how Helena is. :)

Kurt brought his lollipop; it's one of his Christmas things. He and JoAnn had fun talking about Pittsburgh.

Amber's telling Helena about how she wants to decorate her house next year (if she doesn't get to this year).

It was such a blast! There were some great gifts people brought. Some fighting over iTunes gift cards, and pretty wreaths, and of course there was the gift no one really wanted. I'm proud to say that was brought by yours truly. I thought it was cool, it was an essence burning thing. Paul got it though, and since he isn't a girl, he kept trying to pass it off... Haha, oh well. He can always regift. :-P

Michael and I also had a Magistro family Christmas party, I'll have to post pictures of that and the Christmas tree decorating... only 6 days left people! It's crazy, and exciting. It'll be mine and Michaels first Christmas together! :-D

If I don't have time I may need to post some Christmas things after Christmas.

I hope everyone is excited, and ready, and remembering the reason for the season :)

I want to leave this up all year...

Our Apartment Looks so Nice all Decorated!

The day after Thanksgiving, Michael went to work, I stayed home and got out my Christmas decorations that I've been collecting over the years. I then put together our very first Christmas tree (it was $20 bucks from Target) then I went shopping with JoAnn and got a few more decorations, and then had our place made into our own winter wonderland by the time Michael got home.

He was very surprised! I was so proud of myself! It was my first time decorating our place for any holiday. It was such fun!


I got these little bows at Big Lots, and put them on all of our cupboards in our kitchen.

This is the wreath that is on the inside of our door. So pretty.

I stood on our stools and hung this picture up while he was gone too. It was a wedding present. Then I put that garland stuff down the sides of the door frame, and put the bows on. I like it

We didn't decorate our tree that night. We decorated it about a week after I put the decorations up. We didn't do a color theme. We put on my ornaments I have collected over the years, a small strand of lights, and some different colors of the ball ornaments. I love it!

After we decorated it I was going to take a picture of it, and Michael jumped in front of the camera! He's silly.

Our tree!

The bottom of our tree! I got the tree skirt when I went shopping with JoAnn

This is our bakers rack, all decked out for Christmas

A closer view of it. I tied the bows in all over the living room

Our bathroom. I put that garland stuff around the mirror. See the towels in the background? They are so cute! Annie and Jimmy gave them to us for our wedding.

We discovered that Michaels stocking when he was little was Santa, and mine was Mrs. Clause. Cute huh?

I got this angel when out with JoAnn as well. I then put some of that garland around it. It's our center piece on our table. I love that angel!

I got this with JoAnn as well. When Michael and I get a nice big picture of Christ we'll put this under it I think. This is a decoration that can stay up all year round.

Our entertainment center, courtasy of Helena!

Our awesome lamp! Below are pictures of the shelves on the lamp all decorated

In front of our tree! There are a few other things I decorated and I want to take pictures of, but this post is so long in the making already, that I figure I'll just do a shorter post with them later.

I love our place all decorated! I want to leave it like this all year round... I'll just have to think of stuff to put up in its place... any suggestions?

Hope this wasn't too long. Let me know what you think! Remember, it is my first time. So I'm sure it'll be better in years to come :-)

I think I gained 50 pounds...

We Had Two Thanksgivings!

I know this is kind of late, but I only just got my pictures to upload onto my computer. I've been trying for a while. But my camera and my computer were conspiring against me.

At any rate, here is a post about mine and Michaels first Thanksgiving! Beware: there are lots of pictures.


We went to Michaels parents house first, they were eating in the early afternoon, and everyone on my side was eating around 5

This is Marisa, Mia, Mendy and our niece Maria hanging out as we wait. They didn't need help in the kitchen. I asked a few times :)

Kai started playing some music, and assigned each of us an instrument to pretend we were playing, and he conducted us. It was cute.

This is my Mother and Father-in-law working hard in the kitchen

The food is ready and waiting

I wasn't able to get a long shot of everyone at the table, so I did shots of each side of the table. Here we have Mia, Elisa, Marisa, Maria, my mother in law and my father in law

This is the other side, we have Kai, Edisa, Matt, Edina and Mendy

The food was delicious. Charlie was begging a lot during that meal.

Then we headed over to our other Thanksgiving. We got to Dad and JoAnn's place and this is what we saw, Amber and Dave putting up Christmas lights.

They worked very hard, and did a great job! Michael and I helped after dinner. I hope they get to decorate their new house too!

Dad, enlisting the help of Michael in the kitchen. Everyone was helping with different dishes.

Well, almost everyone :-P This is my little brother David, playing with Tally

The table is all set!

This is everyone sitting down to enjoy. I was able to get a shot with everyone. Michael took another one after this, so I could be in one too. He's so sweet. We have Annie, Jimmy, Brett, Michael, Uncle Ron, David, Amber, Dave, JoAnn, and Dad. This meal, too, was delicious!

Annie, helping to clear the table. She is so cute!

We had two thanksgivings! I felt like I had gained about 50 pounds. I don't look like it here though!

Michael on the other hand... LoL. He was sticking out his tummy.

Our trick was to eat small portions at the Magistro Thanksgiving and at the Kaiser Thanksgiving, that way we could taste everything at both, and be able to fit it in.

I forgot to take pictures of the pies. Annie made some very yummy pies! Pumpkin, and I think Pumpkin banana, and cupcakes. Michaels mom also made yummy pies, she made 4 kinds. We were nervous about having room to eat at the Kaiser Thanksgiving, so we didn't have her pies until the next day.

We had a lot of fun, but next year we may have to only eat at one families Thanksgiving. It is hard to eat so much!

Hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving, and is having fun getting ready for Christmas!

Beware The Jabberwock!

A.K.A. The Venus Fly Trap

Michael and I went and saw "Little Shop of Horrors" on Friday. I'd never seen the play, or movie, before. It's one of Michael's favorite plays. It was very fun!

I enjoyed the music, and it had some pretty funny parts. It was kind of sad at times, but I enjoyed it. The acting was overall great! Some people were wonderful. The main guy I thought they just picked him because he looked how the director wanted, not so much because of his singing and acting.

Anyway, while we were picking up our tickets Michael and I saw that they were selling Venus Fly Traps, for $5, Michael got very excited! So, we got one. We now have our first plant as a couple!

Don't worry we wont feed it human blood.

This is Michael about to try and feed Jaberwock -that's what we named him :-) - a spider. It didn't work though, the spider is in the plants container thing, but it didn't fall into the plant. So, we put the lid on, and the spider can't get out. We'll find something else to feed it soon.

Here it is! Our little Jabberwock! We named it that because of the song, "Jabberwocky"

We learned a bit about Venus Fly Traps, or Michael did and he taught me. They will only close 3-4 times before they die because it takes so much energy. But, if it has gotten food, in it's place a bigger and stronger one will grow.

We didn't know that at first and we made it close without any bugs in it... oops! But, it still has some closing left, as do the other leaves on the plant.

The leaves are interesting, they give off a scent similar to rotten meat -don't worry, only insects can smell it!- and thus it attracts bugs to land on it.

I'll keep you all posted on our little Jabberwock!