The Bianco Kennel

For the Christmas season we have not only welcomed family into our home, but we also have two new doggies here with us.  We are watching Chrissy's puppy Tabitha and Ted and Stefanie's dog Lola while everyone is out of town.  All the dogs are doing great together; lots of playing, running, wrestling, etc.  Although, Mocha is not keen on letting the other dogs play, she apparently is the Queen of this house.  

Tonight, after picking Dad and Becca up from the airport, we took all the dogs for a walk around the neighborhood.  It was fun walking all four dogs.  Our neighbors must think we are crazy!

More pictures to come as the days go on...

The Dog House

I heard about this video at work tonight. I found it on YouTube so I could decide for myself if it really is as funny as my coworkers say. It is pretty funny. I will let you know in a week if Michael is the newest arrival or not. He usually does well with presents, I have never received an appliance as a gift. I am sure this Christmas will be no different!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SecVCh9dg4I

Gingerbread Girls Night

Last night I attended a gingerbread house decorating party. It was hosted by one of the girls from our church and there were about 15 girls who came. Teresa (the hostess) baked all the gingerbread and assembled the houses! I am so impressed with her. I was expecting kits or graham crackers, but she went all out and it was awesome!

I have never, in my whole life, decorated a gingerbread house. It was just never something that my mom did and therefore we never had them in our house. So the decorating was a foreign concept to me. Everyone who came brought a different kind of candy. We all had our own house, a bag of icing, and tons of candy.

It was a lot harder than I was expecting. You really have to be creative to make a good house. I kept looking around at the other houses and they looked soo nice. The details on the roofs, icicles hanging from the eaves it was all so creative. In the end, I am happy with my house. Everyone said that their kids would love it because there is so much candy on it. And when I brought it home, Michael loved it (maybe because there is so much candy on it).
So I made it through my first attempt at a gingerbread house. Maybe this will be the start of a new holiday tradition for the Biancos.

I had such a great time with all the girls who were there. It was nice to sit around and talk and laugh. Especially since the conversation had nothing to do with medicine. I can't wait for the next girls night!

Christmas Shopping: Completed

I just have to say, I am so surprised with myself. I actually finished all my Christmas shopping early this year. In fact, we are not even into the double-digits on dates and I am finished. In the past, I would just be getting started only to wrap things up on Christmas Eve. But not this year, I started in early November (thanks to a trip here by Mom) and am now done in early December.

This clears my Saturdays up for baking, lounging, wrapping the gifts, pretty much anything but shopping. I am very happy with myself. Its definitely a first for me!

Our Decorated Christmas Tree

After too many hours of playing with our tree, we finally were able to get the tree positioned so that it looks somewhat straight. We ended up wedging a piece of wood under the stand. We also had a hard time finding a place in our house that it fits because the tree is so wide and our house is so narrow. But finally, late last night, we settled on a spot and hung the lights.

Tonight we finished the tree with the garland and ornaments. I wish the pictures could really show you what the tree looks like decorated. It turned out nice, if I do say so myself. I am especially proud of our tree because we have so many old ornaments. I have many of my grandmother's, some from my mother, and we even have some of Michael's from when he was a kid. I really enjoy having these heirlooms to hang on my tree.

Now that the tree is finished we need to get busy putting presents under it. Luckily, my mom wrapped some of her presents when she was here, so I can place those underneath. I am so excited for Christmas and especially for my family to be here to celebrate with us. I can't wait!

The view from our front door:

With no fireplace, we hang our stockings from the bookcase.

Our nativity scene:

Our Christmas Tree

Before we went to work yesterday we took a trip to get a Christmas tree ($24.99 at Lowes, great deal). When we were looking through the trees, this one caught our eye. It seemed full and straight and had great branches. We picked it out, paid and brought it home. Well, when we were putting it in the tree stand, I was in charge of directing the bottom into the stand while Mike watched the top. I kept telling him it was leaning and he kept saying it was fine. We got it in, stepped back and saw that the tree was not leaning, it is just crooked. Somehow, we overlooked the large curvature that our tree has. Standing in front of the tree it looks alright, but looking at it from the sides, you can definitely see the bend. Also, when we thought it was full, we were not wrong. This tree is bushy! We are going to have to play with it to get it to look right and fit in the small space we have for it. I will post more picture once we get it decorated.

For now Mike says we will always remember this Christmas and our tree with scoliosis!

Thanksgiving Weekend

I am a little late on my posting, but here is a synopsis of our Thanksgiving weekend.

After sitting through 5 hours of lecture on Wednesday morning, Mike and I hurried home from New Jersey and loaded the car. We left our house at 1:45 (our goal was to be on the road by 2:00, so not too bad), but still had to take the cat to the vet for boarding. The vet is clear opposite the interstate and they were super busy, so we did not actually touch the interstate until 3:00! Then we crawled along the turnpike with all the other holiday traffic. Once we got further out of the city, we picked up some speed. Overall, with a bit of traffic and bad weather we made it to Ohio in about 7 hours (not our best time, but decent).

We got into Ohio and had yummy meatball sandwiches, which were great because we were starving. We visited with everyone at Mike's Dad's house and then left to get to his sister Chrissy's (where we were sleeping that weekend). The best comment of the night was when his youngest sister Cara declared that Mocha was not the "real Mocha". She thought her tail was too short and that she was not acting like herself. In Mocha's defense, she had just traveled 7 hours, vomited 4 times (she gets car sick), and had not had dinner yet. I am not sure what to say about the tail.

Chrissy's apartment is soo nice, we were very jealous of its space and newness. She has two bedrooms, so we were able to really make ourselves at home. It was really great to spend the weekend there with her. We enjoyed seeing where she lives and just having the time in the car and at home to visit with her.

Thanksgiving was spent with the usual tasks of cooking, eating, cleaning, visiting, and eating some more. We had 12 people around the table and tons of great food. Aunt MaryAnne made Italian Wedding Soup, it was very good. Also, Thanksgiving fell on Mike's birthday this year (he was born on Turkey Day, too) so we celebrated his day with carrot cake and presents. He received some great gifts and was very happy to be able to celebrate with his family.

Friday and Saturday we shopped. I got almost all my Christmas shopping done. The crowds were not as bad as I was expecting and so I was able to take care of a good amount of my list. I think I will only need one more trip to complete it. On Friday night we also went to a Cleveland Cavaliers NBA game. It was a fun time made even better because I got to eat wings!

The weekend was a great one, we always love to be around family. The time passed too quickly and before we knew it we were back on the road. We left at 6:15 on Sunday morning hoping to be home by lunch and be able to pick Sam up from the vet. Unfortunately, once we got up into the PA mountains we hit sleet, snow, and rain. The roads were in bad condition and were closed for 2 hours. There were a lot of accidents along the road and we had to drive extra cautiously. We ended up getting home in 9 hours (our worst time ever), not being able to get the cat or attend any church meetings. We basically came home, unpacked, ate a quick dinner and crashed in front of the tv.