An ornamental arrangement of photos from our third Christmas celebration with the Cooper side of the family!

Christmas #2 was with my dad, we went over Christmas morning to find all of the kids dressed in their pj’s still! I refer to my siblings as “the kids” because they’re all younger than me (4yrs younger, 8yrs younger and 10yrs younger). They’re not really kids anymore though!

You cannot tell from this picture, but this ornament lights up!

To save space, I made this Christmas Collage for you to see! Everyone had a wonderful day!

Since we both have divorced families, we get to have multiple Christmases. I like that we get to spend a good amount of time with each of our families to celebrate this wonderful holiday! Here are some photo memories from Christmas #1- the Newlyweds Christmas!

Nativity set made in Bethlehem!

Newlyweds’ first Christmas!

Special Christmas drink for Mowgli

Gold coins make some people go insane

Christmas pipe for the Husband!

Christmas Crispix and socks for me!

Merry Christmas from the Coopers!

Silas wishes you a Merry Christmas as well:

One last video: Belly Rub

The Cooper household has been filled with some wonderful aromas this holiday season. After baking with our dear friends, the Tuckers, we decided to bake with CRANBERRIES! Two versions of bread were baked: Gluten Free Cranberry bread, and a Pumpkin Cranberry bread for the husband!

The Gluten Free recipe came from the Gluten Free Club e-mails that arrive daily in my inbox- recipe HERE. I subbed Pamela’s Pancake and Baking mix, omitted the xanthan gum, salt and baking powder, switched in oil for butter, used less sugar and used Cranberry flavored Crystal Light instead of OJ. (I guess I didn’t really follow a recipe). I also chopped up the cranberries and added a hefty handful of chopped pecans. The resulting bread was sweet with a nice “toasty” crust, and a lovely pink color due to the Crystal Light!

The glutinous version was created using THIS recipe. Again, substitutions were made (we were out of WW flour, I reduced the sugar, added pecans and added more spice). Daniel said the bread was “one of the best you’ve ever baked”!

Apparently the bread was SO delicious that our friends’ pup, Rooney decided to eat 2/3 of the loaf. He somehow managed to get the loaf off of our counter top and into his belly…

Rooney and Silas. Rooney is Silas’ dear friend. Our pals needed some quiet time to study for exams (the husband is in LAW school and the wife is in GRADUATE school). Rooney has some mischievous blood running through his little aussie-mix veins.

I WILL be making this bread again for my Hubs.

In case you cannot tell from this picture, there are two dogs and one cat surrounding Daniel. Nap times are fun in this house!

“What’s wrong with Silas’ eye” you ask? He had a case of FOLLICULAR MANGE. Little mites that live on Silas’ skin are usually kept in check by his immune system, but when the IS goes out of whack, the mites go insane! They feast on hair, leaving Silas with a goofy bald donut shape around his eyeball. His hair is growing back, and we apply a weird smelling cream each day to keep the mites in check. He’s fine, it’s not contagious, and I think he just looks so silly in pictures!

In other news, and to tie in the “ice” part of the post title, we were hit with our Annual Ice storm here in central Kentucky.

Fortunately, it’s pretty warm outside so everything is incredibly slushy.

We’re now waiting for our furnace to be repaired, have a wonderful day.

CHRISTMAS IS ONLY 9 DAYS AWAY!

Here is our engagement story from December 9, 2009. Enjoy!

Daniel sent me a text during my small group and asked if he could cook dinner for me, of course, I said “sure”. I had been feeling under the weather for the past few days, and I was probably just going to reheat some “sick soup”. Daniel is a great chef, so I had no problem letting him create a masterpiece.

He went around to several groceries to find the ingredients he needed (I think his ingredient run lasted over an hour and a half, plus extra time for Lexington traffic)! During his grocery run time, I immersed myself in studying genetics with a large wad of tissues at my side (studying was done with my space heater on “high” and all of my blankets on top of me). When Daniel got to my house, he said he didn’t need any help cooking. I was so grateful that he didn’t need help- I decided to lay down and rest for a little while. While I was napping, some delicious scents crept through the cracks of my doors at the apartment. After about an hour of hearing some clanking and chopping in the kitchen, dinner was served.

A delicious Asian-inspired feast. He made miso soup with sautéed mushrooms, wilted spinach and tofu. Alongside was seared sesame-encrusted tuna, and greens with a wonderful miso dressing that rivals other Asian restaurants. We prayed over the delicious feast and enjoyed our meal, saying “mmmmm” at every chance we got!

After we finished dinner, we hung out the table and just talked about our days a bit. Then, as I was getting ready to start cleaning up some dishes, he said “Wait, I have a special dessert!” He said “close your eyes”. I responded, “I’m cool with closing my eyes, but do I have to close my eyes and open my mouth? What if it’s something ‘icky’?” He laughed and said “It’s not squishy or anything”. And for whatever reason, that satisfied my curiosity, so I closed my eyes and sat with my hands out.

The next thing I knew, I opened my eyes, and he was on one knee in front of me (I was still sitting in my dinner chair), and he had an open ring box in his hands. He said “Holly, will you marry me?” I think both of my hands were on either side of my face (in shock), and I immediately said “Yes, Oh my goodness!!!” We hugged, I cried some (I’ll blame it on the sickness, but it was really tears of joy), we hugged some more. Finally I decided I should put on the “symbol of commitment and an eternal relationship”, and we proceeded to take some pictures because I knew you (and the rest of the world) would want to see.

(excuse the deathly pale hands)

The lovely crying/shocked face. Man, I look great when I’m sick. Good thing I had showered earlier, otherwise I would have looked like an unshowered sick person.

And two more pictures, I didn’t realize how difficult it was to take a picture of something so sparkly! It came with its own wedding band, so that curve on the top will be mirrored on the bottom! It’s fantastic! (EDITED: We actually got a different ring, see below)

The first thing we did (after doing the dishes) as a newly engaged couple was a trip to Kroger. I ran out of NyQuil, so we bought a bottle of that and a pack of allergy medicine (it was on sale, and I am probably going to need it over break). We came back home, watched some Food Network, I may have cried a little bit again. Then I sent out texts to many, many people, had some NyQuil, prayed with Daniel and slept.

So there you go, our engagement story. Daniel said he wanted to do something hugely extravagant, but he doesn’t know his work schedule for Christmas break, and chances are, we’ll be in 2 different places for a good portion of the time. He said he wanted to make it easier to do wedding planning stuff (we’re still thinking May), if we were officially engaged! I don’t need any big shindig, so a home-cooked meal was the perfect occasion.

And a few more pictures. The first is Daniel finishing his miso soup in this strange glass we have (it’s his favorite). We decided it looked gross, so we took a picture. And I was astonished to find out when/where he asked you mom and dad for permission to marry me. He’s so sneaky! I also had no idea that he traveled back to Louisville to go to Shane Co to get the ring one day, and he had coffee with his mom. I’m oblivious! And the ring choice? Daniel had asked me a while back to send some pictures of styles that I liked. I found a picture of this ring (and a few others) online, and Shane Co had almost the exact same thing! How cool?

Edited to add: We actually took the original ring back and chose a different one!

Sapphire bling!

Newly engaged- Christmas 2009

We tied the knot May 28, 2010.

Last night we did some baking with our friends, the Tuckers (and their two adorable kittens):

We all wore aprons!

The kitties watched our every move:

Ingredients were measured out for two different cookie recipes:

• Pumpkin Molasses Cookies (adapted to be gluten free) from  The Healthy Everythingtarian
• Pumpkin Cranberry Cookies from Allrecipes.com

Thank you, Tuckers!

Tools for keeping your feet warm during a winter run:

Sprinkle some Crushed Red Pepper/Cayenne into your socks

Put your peppery socks on, add another layer of thick wool socks, and you’re ready to run, shovel the driveway, etc!

A quick snuggle with your dog will ensure you have a great outside adventure (I was quite excited to run, this is pretty much the first time since winter ’08 that I’ve run outside in the snow!)

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Feet after being outside: toasty!

*Rinse off your feet as soon as you get back, otherwise your feet may have a slight burning sensation for a few hours!*

I realize that I really like posting pictures on this “blog”. However, the most “exciting” parts of our lives are captured in pictures, so photos will be my (Holly’s) main way of posting until I can think of something more creative! This post contains a montage of pictures that show some of the winter festivities happening in the Cooper household!

I LOVE colorful Christmas decorations!

First day at a new job, “new” clothes from Plato’s Closet (and a picture of the tree)

Ornaments from Goodwill- We spent $5 on Christmas Ornaments, and the tree is a hand-me-down from my mom, SCORE!

Our street on December 4, the first “real” snow of the season!

We currently do not have any birdies living in the birdhouse

Silas checking out the snow (he looks so dingy next to the pure white snow!)

Puppy tracks in the snow

Happy Holidays!