Christmas Trees in Texas

Happy Holidays! Stefan and I have been getting in the Holiday spirit over the past couple of weeks, which is difficult to do when it's 70 degrees! We went Christmas shopping all day a couple of Saturdays ago and at the end of the day we decided to get our tree. As a wedding gift, some of Stefan's aunts and uncles gave us a Home Depot gift card and we were able to get a real tree, tree stand, lights, extension cord, and tree skirt! The trees obviously don't grow down here, but they're supplied from farms in Oregon. We had to put the top down on our car to get the tree home. Stefan was pretty excited about that one.

Later that week, after the branches had fallen a bit more, we put our lights and ornaments on, and watch the movie Elf- one of my favorite Christmas flicks! I fell asleep after about 20 minutes- which many would say is typical- so I had to re watch by myself the next morning. That morning I always made some cut out cookies (using Stefan's mom's recipe). They turned out great and we decorated them that afternoon. Stefan was able to show off his creative side with the decorations. (see below) We had lots of sugar left at the end, so we did John Idso's favorite and covered the last cookie in all of the sprinkles. Stefan ate it and his mouth was completely green! Anyways, hope you're all getting in the Holiday spirit, we're packing up our things to come back to Wisconsin. Can't wait to see you all in Madison, Eau Claire, Oconomowoc, and Milwaukee. We miss Wisconsin and the snow! See you soon!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had great little Thanksgiving down here with a few friends at our place. For an appetizer we had real Wisconsin summer sausage and spinach dip. Our main course was of course, turkey, with sides of creamed spinach with artichokes and mushrooms, mozzarella and parmesan crusted mashed potatoes, apple cider and honey flavored sweet potatoes with pecans, homemade dinner rolls, stuffing, and homemade pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream. This was our first time making a turkey so we watched a lot of Food Network the week prior and learned some great tips. The day before Thanksgiving Rachel made a brine and we soaked the turkey for 24 hours in the brine solution with ice to keep it cool. This technique worked great, the turkey was very flavorful and moist. The only dish that did not turn out was the creamed spinach with artichokes and mushrooms. Rachel gave me the job of getting all the water out of the thawed spinach, her exact words were, "make sure you get all, every last drop, of moisture out of that spinach." I thought great, I can help and this is something I can't screw up. Well, apparently I got too much of the water out so the spinach dish wasn't creamy, but dry and the spinach was clumped together. To remedy the situation, Rachel got Fronk family advice from Aunt Diana, "just add more cream cheese and butter," can't go wrong with that.

Our friends showed up around 2:00 pm and we ate at 2:30. One of the guys was a friend who graduated from UW a semester before I did and is a few months ahead of me in Nav school. The other friend is from my flight and he came with his wife and their one year old daughter. After dinner we watched the rest of the football game and some of our wedding video. Overall it was a great time even though we wish we could've been home, but we can't wait till Christmas and see everyone!

keeping in touch

After numerous friends slyly mentioned that they wish they knew more about what we are currently up to, we have decided to start a Blog.

I should probably start from the beginning. We got married on September 20th. We had a phenomenal day that was better than our wildest dreams. Thank you to our wonderful family and friends for celebrating with us. It meant so much to us for you to be there. Wedding planning is a lot of work, but in the end it's all worth it. (And just a tip to Erica & Nick, Kevin & Emily, and Katie & Matt- remember it's all about you and your love for eachother and everything else falls into place- happy planning!)

The day after we got married, we moved to San Antonio, TX. Stefan is in CSO Training for the Air Force at Randolph AFB so that's why we moved south. Fortunately, the company that I've been working for decided to keep me on board and have me work from home. I travel back to Chicago one week a month to make sure that my team's success is still flourishing. We're currently working on opening another office in Detroit, so I'm there one week a month, too. It's a whirlwind of working and traveling, but I wouldn't change it!

San Antonio is a completely different world than we're used to, but overall we're adjusting. The lack of distinct seasons is something we'll probably never get used to. We're just glad to finally be married and in the same place. Being married is wonderful. The only draw back is the man I married happens to be 6'4" and thoroughly believes in sleeping diagonally in our bed, which doesn't leave me with much room!

We've been slowly exploring our new city together. Nate and Katie (my brother and sister-in-law) came to visit a couple weeks ago. We took a boat tour on the Riverwalk, a bike tour through the Missions, showed them the Base, sampled wine at the vineyards, and shopped for antiques. It was a great visit! All of you have an open invitation to come, too!

We spent Thanksgiving in San Antonio and cooked the whole thing. There was a ton of Foodnetwork watching the week before. We soaked in lots of Turkey tips, which paid off because our bird was phenomenal. (hint hint, the secret's in the brine.) Stefan was excited to have lots of leftovers for this week while I'm working in Chicago.

Hope all is well with you and yours! We'll be back in Wisconsin for the Holidays and we can't wait to spend some quality time with all of you!

Stay warm!

Rachel & Stefan

our wedding song: http://www.imeem.com/thumpress/music/BkTZkOm4/marc_cohn_true_companion/