Our Christmas Wonderland

Our Demdaco Willow Tree Nativity...I love it and had to include a picture.

I had to take this picture without a flash because the lights are so bright that if I take the picture with a flash, it looks like there is a flood light on in the room.

A blurry shot of our outside lights (the Christmas tree is so bright, it looks like the living room is on fire if you look through the two windows on the left!) Merry Christmas!
(And Happy Birthday tomorrow Chrissy!)

Stollen...I did it!!!

The Before Picture...check out all of that butter!

Kneading the dough...and yes, it's just easier to do on the floor.

The pictures are out of order somehow, but this is my favorite loaf!

Rise yeast, rise! (another picture out of order, not sure why it does this)

The finished product!

First off...I apologize that the pictures come before the explanation...the formatting of this blog confuses me! I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are experiencing the joy of the Christmas season. It has been too long since I updated the blog, so I am going to try to add several new posts in the next week. We are in full gear here in Richmond preparing for Christmas and today the baking began! Every year my Grandpa Schlecht and my mom have made a traditional German bread called Stollen. I have observed my mom making Stollen many, many times. Two years ago I had the pleasure of assisting my brother, David, in making it. Last year my sister, Anna, and I had a go at it. I have had such wonderful teachers that I figured this year it was my turn to tackle the task alone. Other than dropping about 1 cup of the golden raisins on the kitchen floor, everything went rather smoothly (by the way, I did not use those raisins). My yeast even rose on the first try. It is also my family's tradition that we not "break the bread" until Christmas Eve...although I think a few of us may have cheated on that rule from time to time. We'll let you know how they taste.

Chrissy's Baby Shower

On Sunday I had the pleasure of throwing a Baby Shower for our dear friend Chrissy. I was a little nervous as I had never thrown any type of shower before, but I think the day went off without a hitch. Adam found escape from the festivities by hanging out with our Pastor Bean and the wonderful Bean boys. We girls had a great time eating, playing games, and most importantly celebrating Chrissy and God's gift of her almost-here baby girl. Chrissy is due around the beginning of the year. To our delight, Adam and I were also asked on Sunday night to be the baby's godparents. We can't wait to meet "Emily" and know what a blessing from God she will be to her family.

Other notes from the weekend include us buying our first turkey (we got a little over zealous and bought a 22 pounder) and buying our first big Christmas tree. We'll let you know how the turkey turns out and will hopefully get the tree up by next weekend. I am sure we'll be back soon with more updates...

Until then, we hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Smorgasbord

Another picture of the house...this time with a lawn (way to go Adam!), new shrubs (the shrubs our builder planted quickly died), and our fabulous red door. When I took this picture last Saturday it was 80 degrees outside!

Instead of purchasing gifts for Adam's parents for Mother's and Father's Day, they asked that we buy some nice plants for our house. This is a picture of our new Flowering Plum Tree. We can't wait to see it bloom in the spring, and it looks great on the side of the house. You can also see in the background the drainage pipe that Adam has been working on to keep the side of our lawn dry.

Our nephew Ethan has had the privilege of seeing Adam frequently and has come to love his visits. Here I captured a quiet moment they shared watching cartoons one Saturday morning. They are each sipping their morning beverage of choice.

This has got to be one of the most humorous pictures I have taken. Here's the story...when we moved into our house we inherited Anna and Garry's lawnmower. Since they live outside of D.C. now in a townhouse, they have had no use of this mower in 2 years. When we finally had the opportunity to mow our lawn, this is what happened. As embarassed as I was to have Adam mowing amidst a cloud of smoke, I knew it would only take a few minutes for him to quickly mow our front yard. I ran inside long enough to grab the camera, snapped a few pictures, and prayed that no one would drive by and see this pathetic situation. The good news is that a nice man in Sears was able to tell Adam exactly what he needed to do to restore the mower, and it has worked great ever since.

Veteran's Day

In honor of Veteran's Day this past weekend, I thought I would post this picture of the 788th Dillon Crew, the Carpetbagger crew that my grandfather flew with during WWII. My grandfather, Max B. Rufner, is the first person on the left in the front row. Thanks dad for bringing this picture to my attention!

PIPPIN

A few weekends ago Adam and I made a quick trip up to Wilmington, DE to see one of my best friends (and college roommate...kudos to her for putting up with me), Lauren Marshall. Lauren is currently touring with the national tour of Stephen Schwartz's Pippin. Although we talk often, I had not seen Lauren in two years. We had such a wonderful time and are immensely proud of all she has accomplished. Other than sitting in a packed theatre that smelled of AquaNet and moth balls (no offense to anyone who uses either product) we had a blast watching the performance. We were also able to spend time with her before and in between her two shows that day. Check out the picture I took of her at dinner! We were able to spend more time together if she didn't completely take off her make-up, so she left some of it on. What a hoot! No shame, right Lauren? Love you!

Nephews, Newer Nephew, Newest Nephew

If you know me at all, you know that I am probably one of the proudest aunts that walked the earth. I think certain friends and co-workers think I may be too proud, but how could I not? Look at these faces! The first is a picture of our "newer" nephew, Levi, born in June. The second is a picture of our "newest" nephews, Elijah, born November 3rd. The third is our nephew Ethan, born in April 2004 (brother to Elijah). And last but not least, or first nephew, Jed, born in February 2004 (brother to Levi). We are certainly blessed by these 4 little guys!

Please forgive any formatting errors on these posts...I am still learning how to use this thing! Have a great day.

Following the Lead

Hello friends and family! If you are reading this, Congratulations! You have found our new blog. We hope to keep everyone more up-to-date with what is going in our lives in Richmond. Enjoy!

(These pictures are of Adam and me in Nags Head, NC last year to celebrate our 1 year anniversary. There is also a picture of our house taken last spring. We have since put in new shrubs, painted the front door red, successfully grown a lush green lawn, and put in the driveway...I will post an updated picture soon.)