Wedding Pictures!

Okay. So I went to my sister's-in-law, Amy's, blog and stole a couple of photos from her blog to share here. Many of you are dying to see pictures from the wedding. Unfortunately, the photographer has all rights to his - - so I can't post those - - but I can borrow from family. Here they are.

David and Melissa at the luncheon
(day of the wedding).

At the reception.
David got tired of holding his eyes open. :)

David and I getting in a little extra dancing practice before the reception.











My new sisters! From left - - Amy, Becky, Elisabeth, and Sarah (front). Wow! I am lucky! They are wonderful and I am so blessed to be a part of their family. They have accepted me in with open arms. It is really fun to have more sisters.

Actually, it is funny - - I inherited 4 new sisters (5 with Caroline - Steven's wife) and one new brother - (2 with Cameron - Elisabeth's husband) AND David inherited the same amount - except opposite from my side. 4 brothers, 5 with my brother-in-law, 1 sister (2 with my sister-in-law). Funny!

Snowman Comic

One of my students, Gabe, shared this comic with me today. I laughed and thought you all would enjoy it too.

Cookie Exchange 2008

Cookies. Cookies. Cookies. Make 3 batches of yummy cookies and head over to a cookie exchange. Katie Rogers hosted our party this year. It is a great tradition complete with yummy egg nog and wassel.

The instructions for everyone was that they had to bring 3 dozen cookies - - but they couldn't be regular chocolate chip cookies. So, David was all over this! He adapted his oatmeal/chocolate chip cookie recipe to include white chocolate, macadamia nut, and craisins. Yummy! I got off easy, cause all I had to do was show up for the party. David did all the baking. Yeah me!


David and Melissa dressed up in their holiday attire.



Kerri, her daughter, and Katie (our hostess)








Cute Ann and Emily trying out the yummy treats!




I am including the recipe for David's delicious cookies below. Adapt if you want with chocolate chips, (including semi-sweet and milk) and white chocolate. Put in one bag of each. Sounds like a lot I know, but it makes a TON of cookies. He makes them up and then freezes the dough in a gallon sized zip-lock bag. Make sure to smoosh it down so it is like 1/2 inch thick. Then, you can just break off some chunks of cookie dough to bake.

Craisin Holiday Cookies
From the kitchen of David Durtschi

Ingredients:
4 cups butter
3 cups white sugar
3 cups brown sugar
8 eggs
4 Tablespoons vanilla
4 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons baking soda
6 cups oats
7 cups flour
12 oz Craisins
8.5 oz macadamia nuts
12 oz white chocolate chip morsels

Directions: Preheat oven to 325°. Soften, but do not melt butter. Cream butter, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Add salt and baking soda and oats. Mix. Now, let the mixture set for 1-3 hours to allow all the ingredients to get nice and cozy. It actually allows the oats to expand and makes your cookies nice and soft. The longer you let them set, the better the cookies – up to 3 hours.

Add in flour. Mix. Add in craisins, macadamia nuts, and white chocolate chips. Mix. We like to use our cooking stone, but any cookie sheet will work. Bake on 325° for approx. 13-16 minutes.

This recipe is fabulous to freeze. It makes lots of cookies, so you may not have enough room for all of them. Freeze them. We take the leftover dough, put it in a ziplock bag, smoosh it down kind of flat and then freeze it. Then, later in the week you can pull it out and make fresh cookies. Just break off as many cookie chunks as you would like and cook them a little bit longer - - about 15 min.

One of my favorite memories from the evening HAS to be Caleb, Katie's little boy, becoming BEST BUDS with my hubby, David. The two of them chased each other around the house. It was adorable. Then, when we were all watching the movie - - Caleb snuggled up with me and David. I loved it! Cute huh?!

Girls' Night

There's a lot to be said for Girls' Night! Wahoo! We had a blast going to "The Pie." Yummy. I love hanging out with my girlfriends - - we always have a great time. Thanks ladies for hanging out. We definitely have to do it more often!

A couple of the pictures have the traditional writing on the brick wall. When you go there, you get to graffiti the brick wall. Fun!

Saratoga Shores Faculty Christmas Party 2008

So, we had a great time playing "Don't Forget the Lyrics" with the staff at our Saratoga Shores Faculty Christmas Party. Here are a couple of video highlights from the game. See if you know the lyrics to these popular and not so popular or well-known Christmas songs. It is fun to see what teachers act like when students are not around or when you get a large group of us together. he he he.

Faculty Christmas Party 2008

Wedding Pictures?!

For those of you dieing for wedding pictures . . . . here's the thing. I don't have any yet. As in, my photographer has them all. I haven't had a chance to go and meet with him. So, if any of you have some snapshots of the wedding, I would love to post some. Please email them to me at hymasmel@gmail.com. Thanks bunches!