yuper duper

About 3 weeks ago, Mikey and I packed up the car for a day of snow shoeing. We intended to do a nice hike along the south shore of Lake Superior due to lots of lake effect snow this year. After a pit stop at the Ashland Baking Company, we decided to keep driving so that we could enjoy our chocolate filled croissant. After all, the U.P. of Michigan was only another 45 minute drive. I'd never been to the U.P. but heard lots about it. We drove back in to the Porcupine Mountains and hiked along a river.
It was a beautiful day. 20+ degrees and snowing.




Anna likes to "ride" on the backs of Mikey's snow shoes:
waterfalls:
After an hour of intense snow shoeing, we made it to the big lake. Mister ambitious thought we needed to climb the mother of all hills for a better view:
And it was totally worth it! Lake Superior was swelling like a monster, the wind was whipping, the snow was coming down heavily and it felt so desolate:
We had an absolute blast!!

You can't help but love winter on days like these.

what's wrong with this picture?

whaaaaaaaaaat??

bathroom reno

Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we?
We are coming up on the 5 year anniversary of moving in to our first house. We feel very fortunate that our house was "move in ready" when we purchased it. It has charm, was (mostly) tastefully painted and gives us plenty of space. Slowly but surely we've made the house feel more like us. Since we are coming up on 5 years, I'm getting the itch to re-create most of the spaces in our house. You could say I'm a little bored with our rooms.
During furlough week, I did lots of painting, staining, sanding and cleaning. I'm excited to say that we are finally done with the bathroom reno/update that's been in the works for the past 2 years. Here we go...
Here's the bathroom on inspection day (end of March 2006) prior to closing on our house:
Besides a new shower curtain and rug, the room worked great for 3 years. Unfortunately, the old (but charming) faucet handle broke in 2008. We sawed out the old faucet, ordered a replacement, attempted to install it (with both dads) and ultimately had to give up! It became apparent that we needed to bring the bathroom up to more modern plumbing standards.

With the reality of needing a new sink & faucet, it became apparent that we were going to need a new vanity as well. Thus began the search for something that we loved, was affordable and fit the tiny space. After looking in multiple home stores and catalogs, I had a vision of what would work. Unfortunately, everything I liked was out of our price range. So to save costs, we made our own vanity with the help of my dad.

Remember these pics from Feb. 2009:



We put this together in one weekend at the school's shop:

I was able to fit it in the back of my car to haul it back to Duluth to begin the staining process:
Three coats of espresso stain & two coats of poly later, the vanity was ready for install (minus the doors):

With all new plumbing underneath the sink and a working faucet above, we were finally able to stop brushing our teeth in the bathtub!

The new vanity sits a couple inches shorter than the old one:

So, I did a little scraping to remove a bunch of layers of paint and create a smooth transition. The old plaster was much rougher than the rest of the wall so the guys at Home Depot recommended this stuff:


and it worked great! Though this seems like a small feat, it was the first time I had ever patched plaster and I was proud of how well it turned out:
Due to a very busy fall semester, our bathroom sat this way for months. I was finally able to sand the plaster and install the vanity doors around Thanksgiving.

That brings us to furlough week (week between Cmas & New Years). I painted the entire bathroom, caulked the door inserts in to the vanity, scrubbed the grout in the floor & touched up the trim. AND IT'S NOW DONE!!!

I am thrilled with how everything turned out. It's modern, clean and definitely more M&M:

December Dinner Club

Dinner Club was small and cozy this month. Lyndon and Katie couldn't make it due to their little guy being ill. Bruce also had a work Christmas party so it was just us, Nellie, Frank & Erin.
Frank & Erin brought over a tasty appetizer. It consisted of mango, avocado, red pepper, basil, honey, grapefruit juice and lime juice:

Erin sliced up a baguette, brushed the crostinis with oil and then toasted 'em:
It was just what an appetizer should be: easy to eat, delicious and lots of flavor to wake up your palette:
We ate the appetizer while huddling around the breakfast bar so that we could hang out with Mikey while he cooked.
Once dinner was ready, we moved over to the dinner table (affectionately called the "big kids table"):
Having red plates, red napkins & a red tablecloth as my everyday get-up makes setting the table for a December themed dinner party easy peasey!

Due to the small crowd for dinner, we tweaked the menu at the last minute. Mikey made Curried Shrimp :
Nellie brought Turkish Lemon Pudding for dessert:
It was like a sponge cake made with semolina flour. After the cake came out of the over, Nellie poured a bunch of simple syrup over the top and the cake doubled in size! Then, she drizzled a homemade pomegranate & cranberry syrup over the cake and garnished it with pomegranate seeds. I love trying new foods- it's the perk of dinner club! Dessert was served with coffee. Perfect combination!

Just as we were finishing up dessert, Bruce arrived just in time for the photo sesh:

Erin & Frank:

M&M:
Lyndon and Katie will be hosting in January.

Christmas 2010

Our Christmas gifts this year were all about homemade goodies!! Hannah and her friend Kelsey came over the weekend before Christmas for a baking marathon. The girls made caramel chex mix and Christmas cut-outs. The always bubbly Kelsey:
I was on dish duty most of the time and ended up doing most of my baking on the 23rd & 24th. It was so relaxing and a great way to unwind before Christmas. I love baking while listening to Andrea Bocelli's Cmas tunes.
Mikey's favorite Christmas cookies involve kisses:
Ta da! The peanut butter blossom assembly line (with the always present Annabelle):
Next I made a new mint cookie that involved melting an entire bag of Ghirardelli chocolate in the dough:
Once the brownie-like cookie came out of the oven, I placed an Andes mint on top to melt:
I've showed countless photos of my go-to granola so I'll spare you that photo again but I packaged it up in an adorable mason jar:
Another new thing this year was butter toffee nuts but there was no time to snap a photo. All packaged up:
Mint Meltaways:
P.B. Blossoms:
I love giving homemade gifts and I hope the recipients enjoyed their tasty treats. Giving homemade treats was an economical way to make gifts for a bunch of our family members this year. I really enjoyed it and have ideas for next year-- fancy nut butters and biscotti.

We partook in our family traditions again this year. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house. We always have appetizers & wine and open most of our gifts. On Christmas morning, my mom makes brunch and we open up our stockings. Then, we usually watch a movie that somebody got for Christmas. This year Santa brought my mom "Despicable Me" and it was a pretty cute movie.

Mid-afternoon we packed up the car to head to Mike's parents for dinner & gift opening. The Fudala fam has a long standing tradition of having Beef Tenderloin on Christmas Day. It was served with smashed potatoes and brussel sprouts. Dessert was light this year: Gingersnaps from TJ's dipped in pumpkin flavored cool whip.
Gift opening was fun with Sienna & Sydnie being really excited with all of their new toys.
We spent the next day doing some shopping (Dianne and I went to Macy's while Mike & John went to Cigar Jones) and Mikey made Fish Tacos (with Tuna) for dinner.
I must have been a little photoed out as I didn't snap a single shot over the 3 days. It was a bit of a whirlwind but a good time overall.
We headed back to Duluth so that Mikey could get back to work. UMD had a 3 day furlough between Christmas & New Years and so I've had 11 days off of work (combination of official holidays & furlough days). I have been b.u.s.y.
I'll have an update on what I've been up to around the house in the next few days.

Thanksgiving 2010

The 2010 holiday season started with two very good meals. Our travel plans included a trip to the cities the weekend before Thanksgiving to celebrate with Mike's family and then hosting my family for the actual Thanksgiving day.
Thanksgiving traditions at Mike's family include:

Cooking a free range turkey on the grill:

Mushroom & sausage stuffing, smashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and sweet potato casserole:
The newbie addition this year was the delectable mushroom gravy. Mike and I were putting it on everything. It was delish!
Since Mike had to work prior to us traveling to the cities, John did most of the cooking so that dinner could be served shortly after our arrival. Prior to dinner there was lots of play time:
Sienna (3) really knows how to ham it up.
Sydnie (7 mo) was all smiles and drool.
The Stumme-Fudala family:
We spent 2 nights in the cities before heading back to Duluth to get ready to host my family for Thanksgiving dinner. My family came up the eve before Thanksgiving and we had a relaxing evening of catching up.
On Thanksgiving morning, Mikey headed to work (WFC was open 7-4) and I spent the day shopping with my mom & sister while my dad & brother stayed home to watch football. We had an epic day of shopping at a handful of stores and really hit the jackpot at Old Navy. Almost the entire store was 50% off and the store was not full of people. It was blissful. My mom bought me a beautiful cream colored pea coat & scarf for my birthday.

Once Mikey got home from work, he got to work making dinner.
He started homemade stuffing:
Free range chickens (shorter grilling time):
While Mikey tended to dinner, my family and I headed down to the Bentleyville Tour of Lights in Bayfront Park:

The Christenson Fam:
We bumped into the Murphy family who was up visiting their family in Cloquet:
We returned home to a wonderful spread:
Chicken & gravy, smashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, bread, veggies & dip and pie:
Mikey did a wonderful job with dinner and I couldn't feel more lucky to have such a good cook in the house! My mom brought some great pies & cheesecake for dessert.
We love hosting dinner parties at our house!!

My mom, sister and I have a Black Friday tradition of heading out to the shoppes before sunrise. Thanks to our shopping on Thanksgiving, there was much less pressure to find all the deals on Black Friday. Per usual, we had a great time and found some great deals.
While we shopped, my mom asked my dad & brother to put the egg bake & cranberry coffee cake she made in the oven. We arrived home to a great brunch. Unfortunately, Mike had to work so he missed out although I don't think he missed the shopping:) The coffee cake will most likely become a Black Friday tradition. It was delish!
We really enjoyed our time with both of our families. Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday!!
It left us both full of smiles: