Deck the halls!

Well, it's that time of year again! There's a light dusting of snow on the ground, we've got our tree up and all I need is a good dose of "A Christmas Story" to really get in the spirit of the season!

We survived Thanksgiving well enough, even after eating my own stuffing. I'm not sure what I was thinking when I offered to make stuffing, but it sounded like a good idea at the time. Except, oh shoot, I've never made stuffing! Sure sure, I've made Stove Top but really - does that even count?

Being the good little planner that I am, I went to allrecipes.com and found a basic, easy stuffing recipe. Chicken broth, onion, celery, pepper, Peppridge Farms stuffing mix. How can you mess that up? So off to the grocery store I went to stock up on supplies. I decided that I'd make a green bean casserole as well, mainly to save face against my stuffing should it turn disasterous. I've made that tons of times, so we're good!

Things were going okay until I decided that I needed about 20 servings of stuffing and casserole. So there I sit, in the middle of the stuffing aisle with my Dad on the phone, trying to figure out cups vs. servings ratios and if I needed one bag or two. Saftey won out and I bought two bags of stuffing and about 14 cans of green beans. Yea....

Thanksgiving Day roles around and we were told that we weren't eating until 4 that afternoon. So we had a lazy day, watched the parade and the dog show. Then at 2 o'clock my sister in law calls to say that the turkey is done and we can come over any time. WHAT!?!?! I guess I better start on that stuffing! The green bean casserole came out fine like it always does, despite me trying to overload the green beans. The stuffing on the other hand.... I think that Pepperidge Farms ought to put a disclaimer on the bag saying something to the effect of "Warning! There is about 2 cups of pure crumbs in this bag! Move on to the next one!"

Of course I thought we could get the job done with one bag of stuffing. And we did. It was just mainly crumbs and therefore pretty mushy. Trav also did a great job as my sous chef for the day, but the onions and celery he cut up were in rather large chunks. So we had onions and celery with a bit of stuffing thrown in for good measure. In the end, it didn't taste bad. Actually it was rather good. And Trav's Grandma, Memaw, actually complimented it and said we did a good job. So I guess if it gets the "Grandma Seal of Approval" then it was alright!

We also had lots of wine with our dinner (and I do mean "lots"!). What's Thanksgiving dinner without a little wine? We brought a bottle of Rhubarb wine and it was probably the biggest hit of the night. Everyone had a glass! Check out Minnesota's own http://www.winehaven.com for more info. Of course when there is wine, there's always some carnage as well. A wine glass met it's demise by my elbow after dinner. But most of the wine landed on Travis so no harm, no foul! We also had pictures from some of our festivities, but unfortunately they were after all the wine and should be considered blackmail rather than fun, family photos. Ahhh, Thanksgiving!

Now the T. Scofield household has moved on to my favorite holiday, Christmas. All the decorations are up, and our house has taken on a warm and cozy glow. Our task today: Christmas lights on the house. We're going to double team it, so hopefully we both survive! More to come next week!

Grease is the word

have you heard? It's Grease Lightning! Why am I singing Grease songs you ask? Because last night we saw the Broadway version of Grease, starring our very own Dane Scofield!

Dane and his parents, Cherie and Alan, live in St. Cloud which is about 3 1/2 hours south of us. Pretty close to the cities. Dane played the lead, Danny, and was awesome! The whole cast is a bunch of really talented kids, we were pretty amazed. Here's Dane with his co-star Jennifer as Sandy and their proud moms:

Trav could have gotten a little closer, but he wanted the sign in there. And the whole family with Mr. Cool:
Good times! After dinner we went out to eat at the Green Mill in downtown St. Cloud. If you ever have a chance to go, go! It was pretty good. They had a pasta special with a free bottle of wine, so of course I convinced Travis that we needed to order pasta! We ended up drinking the entire bottle at dinner - and no one wanted to share with us even though we asked. So the drive home was pretty entertaining! All in all, we had a great time!

In other news, I have my first real estate client! I got extremely lucky and happened to get a phone call on my very first day doing floor. A gentleman from Colorado was interested in a house, and he wanted me to show it to his friend who would then relay the information back to him. His friend must have gushed about it because he ended up putting an offer in! So we're in the middle of that. Fingers crossed that we can work something out!

Thankgiving is a short 3 days away and thankfully we're not hosting! I'd be very overwhelmed at this point. I did offer to bring stuffing though. Why I did this, I have no clue! Leslie and Dave will be hosting, and she said she wasn't planning on making stuffing so of course I piped up and offered. Did I mention that I've only ever made Stove Top before? Yikes! So I printed off a recipe and it doesn't sound that hard. Just have to get the supplies! Fingers crossed for this too. Soon I'll be crossing toes and limbs! I think I'll bring a green bean casserole too, but only because I know how to make this, and make it well. Hooray Thanksgiving! It's making me hungry just thinking about it.

So that's it for now, off to make my shopping list!

Got Orange?

That's the en vogue color right now: bright, neon orange. It's hunting season! This weekend marked the official start of deer season and let me tell you - it's a little crazy. I'm thinking that Minnesota should just declare the month of November a holiday to let all these crazy men (and a few women) get it out of their system.

Now I'm not to sure on the rules and such as I'm not an avid hunter myself but I think I have the gist of how it goes. You buy a permit to hunt, and depending on what type of permit you get, you can shoot either one buck or doe, or you can try to shoot two deer in any combo ( two bucks, two does, one of each, whatever). The law states that you can only have one permit per person. So how do ensure that you can go willy nilly and get as many as you want? You get permits in other people's names! Travis has been asked twice now if someone can get a permit with his name. Then there are all these "gentleman" rules about hunting together and who gets to shoot what and when. That's beyond me so I won't even go there.

Needless to say, living way out here in the country, I'm a little afraid to leave my house this weekend. Travis and I went on a walk yesterday and saw multiple dogs with bright orange collars on so that they wouldn't get shot. Scary! I don't have any pictures either because I'm not sure where I stand on deer hunting yet so I don't want to promote it.

In other news, I'm finally done with my real estate classes! Hoooorrrraaayyy! I've applied for my license, which takes 3-5 weeks to process and come back so now it's just a waiting game. Until then I can go to the office meetings, do open houses, and hang out at the office but that's about it. The only downside is that we were planning on Trav's bonus from Country to pay for some of the fees to get me started, but they took so much out in taxes that I'm not sure how we'll pay for me to get started. We'll figure it out: where there's a will, there's a way!

Thanksgiving is on it's way, and right now I'm thankful for heat! It's a balmy 46 degrees outside but it's also a little rainy and damp. Brr!! So I hope this finds you all warm and toasty, have a great week!

Happy Halloween!

Or All Saints Day since I'm a day late. But whatever, this post is dedicated to Halloween! We had a great time last night at Bimbo's Octagon Bar where Shamrock'd played for the Fireman's Ball. There were some great costumes for sure! Since Travis and I are on a limited budget we put some things together and borrowed some things and voila!



Gypsies! Trav looks a little more like a pirate, but all the pictures we could find online of a male gypsy were of shirtless men smoking cigars with a donkey in the background. It's a little cold to go that far! Of course, no Minnesota Halloween would be complete without snow on the ground. We only have an inch, but I think it's an inch too much!









As I said earlier, Shamrock'd was the entertainment for the evening. We had heard rumors of their costumes but no one had pinned them down yet. Here they are as:

The Village People! Classic I tell you. Dan is the cop, Ian the cowboy, Zach the sailor and Eric is the construction worker. But what Village People costume would be complete without....


The YMCA Dance! We seem to have lost a cowboy here but it still works.

They say that Halloween is a time for ghouls and ghosts, that you never know what you might see on this magical night. I guess whoever "they" are were right because we really did see a ghost!

Michael Jackson is alive! It's amazing!

I'll save you from some of the racier pictures. Some of the "law enforcement" were taking their costumes a little to literal and started arresting people. All in good fun!

I hope everyone had a very Happy Halloween!