Roomies Again

My college roommate, Michelle, now lives and works in Syracuse. She recently moved in to her own apartment, and I visited her the other night. She showed me her new place and explained her plans as she continues to make it her own. We enjoyed just catching up and spending time with each other again.

We went to Dinosaur BBQ for dinner and felt like we were back in college having a crazy adventure together when we couldn't find a good place to grab coffee! After multiple K-turns, we ended up at the grocery store and bought stuff to make a cake. Neither of us had our aprons, but we baked a carrot cake together and ate it that night.

I don't think Michelle knew this, but "bake something with Michelle" was on my list of goals last year. We never made time for it in the dorm, so it was fun to be able to finally do that together!

Michelle has a fireplace, so we enjoyed that and spent the evening talking until we went to bed.

Syracuse was a great stop along the way as I headed to Rochester for an appointment the next morning. After my appointment, I went to campus to have lunch with Jillian and visit with a handful of professors and staff. I also stopped by my aunt's house for a bit to talk, and then I redeemed my birthday dinner coupon and went to the Cheesecake Factory with Honna! Remembering how exhausting these trips to Rochester can be as I catch up with so many people, I kept the trip short and headed home after dinner.

I have enjoyed keeping in touch with friends from Roberts, and I was glad to spend time with some the past couple of days, and even feel like I was back in the dorms for one night! (It was a much classier dorm though, I must say!)

One Last 2011 Trip

By now you should know that I like to travel! I explored quite a few places this year:

• Ecuador
• Cleveland
• Pittsburgh
• Minneapolis
• The Bahamas
• Maryland and Virginia
• Delhi
• Syracuse
• Philadelphia
• The Bean in Chicago
• 4 Corners out west
• The Grand Canyon
• Rochester
• West Virginia
• Canandaigua

Wow! I didn't realize how many places I had been this year! It's fun when you have family and friends all around the country - you can check out new places while catching up on friendships.

My final trip of 2011 was to Niagara Falls. I had never been during the off season and didn't remember much about seeing it at night. Nate and I headed up for the day on Friday. I had never seen the Falls from the American side, so we started there. We hiked the Gorge Trail for a while and then viewed the Falls. The Observation Tower is free during the off season, so we checked that out too! There is a path that loops around to different look-out points by the Falls, so we enjoyed our afternoon walking around and exploring. Eventually, we headed over to Canada for dinner and more views of the Falls. They shine colored lights on the Falls at night, and we saw that from up high on the Sky Wheel! We exchanged Christmas presents while we were in Canada and stayed until the fireworks went off over the Falls.

It was a wonderful trip and a fun way to spend one of the final days of 2011!

Gifts to Ecuador

Have you ever prepared a box of gifts for a child through Operation Christmas Child?

I remember doing this at church when I was in elementary school. I remember doing this in homeroom in high school. I remember doing this on my own during college. I have always enjoyed picking out toys, toiletries, and school supplies for a child in another country that does not have as much.

Recently, Operation Christmas Child has made available a way for you to track your box - they will email you and let you know what country your box was sent to.

Nate and I put together some boxes this year, and I got an email saying they want to Ecuador! Yes - Ecuador, the country I minister in this past February!

The email had a link to a website with more details, stories, pictures, and videos. Check it out here if you are interested. The videos will make you smile!

Our boxes were two of 151,200 that went to kids in Ecuador this year - a simple task we did that will bring joy to children and allow them to hear to good news of the Gospel.

Family Christmas

Our family decided to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve this year, with responsibilities at church on Sunday morning, we still wanted to have a relaxing morning. We set cookies out for Santa on Friday night and crawled in bed anticipating Christmas the next morning!

Amy and Julie decided we needed a real tree this year, and there were several presents under it on Saturday morning! We enjoyed choosing gifts for each other to open - some gifts were to replace what was lost in the flood and others were simply for fun.

After all the gifts were opened, there were still stockings to do! Amy had made new stocking for us to replace the ones lost in the flood. Mom and Dad have not had stocking in the past, but my sisters and I had a fun time stuffing them [overflowing them!] full of goodies for our parents!

My grandma from Maryland was able to celebrate with us this year, and Nate came for our appetizer dinner before the Christmas Eve service at my parent's church. While we celebrated on a different day, we still kept our Tischer Family Christmas traditions alive!

Oh What Fun!

It looks like we should be heading to a Christmas party! Both of my sisters are home, so we are having a party! We've had a couple nice family dinners all together and have plans to celebrate Christmas. Trying on our dresses from high school was just one of the many random things we will end up doing during the time they are home!

My grandma is also in town, so while Mom and Dad are at work tomorrow, my sisters and I plan to spend time with Grandma. We'll probably decorate a gingerbread house, bake lots of cookies, and have Grandma take us out to lunch!

Julie and Amy decided we had to have a real [big] tree in our house this year, so that was their project today. They found and cut down a tree for our living room, and we all spent the evening decorating it. It already has quite a few presents under it, waiting to be opened on Saturday morning. Yes. Saturday. We decided to have a more leisurely Christmas morning on Christmas Eve. We'll save our [new] stockings [that Amy made!] for Christmas morning before church, and have a nice turkey meal for supper on Christmas day! Grandma will be with us for the weekend, and then we head to my other grandparents on Monday to celebrate with more extended family for the day.

It's nice to have the whole family together - we haven't all been together since May! I'm looking forward to our time together as we continue to make Tischer Family Memories - like trying on fancy dresses!

Breaking in the Kitchen

Here's a look at our new kitchen. And that pile of pots and pans means we have been putting it to good use!

I picked out a handful of new recipes to try for my birthday. Mom started working on things in the morning, and the meal turned into a three-person morning activity! Mom was working on three recipes at once, trying to coordinate each one with the others. Dad stepped in to help, but I continued to hear, "Oh shoot!" come from Mom's mouth on occasion - what was going on in that kitchen?! I decided to keep my distance and hoped to be pleasantly surprised when it was time to eat.

My sister, Julie, wandered through the kitchen, and Mom pulled her into the mix! Julie became in charge of grating the cheese...lots and lots of cheese!! I picked out buffalo chicken grilled cheese and Dinosaur BBQ's mac 'n cheese for my lunch. I could have continued the theme and asked for cheesecake, but I requested fruit flan for dessert.

After an overflow on the stove, a few substituted ingredients, and an exhausted cook, we sat down to a very tasty meal!

Nate was able to join us for lunch, and after we ate, we tried another new recipe - eggnog cookies. Nate has not been able to stop talking about eggnog since he started thinking about Christmas, so I figured he would love these! Our time in the kitchen had a few interesting moments as well, but the cookies turned out yummy!

We certainly put our new kitchen to good use today! Notice the lower cabinets, dishwasher, and counter tops in that picture! With just a few details left to take care of in the kitchen, Mom is looking forward to a break on the house project until after Christmas. I'm sure she'll do plenty more cooking and baking with her "time off" and enjoy her new kitchen!

Free Passes

About a month ago Nate and I went to a snowboarding and skiing movie. Everyone who went to the movie got free passes to a few different mountains. With limits on what days you could use the passes, Nate and I went today, even though only a few slopes were open at Windham Mountain. After the two hour drive, we were on the slopes around 11:30. Nate has his own snowboard, and we were able to borrow some skis for myself. Free lift tickets and no rentals - score!

They were making snow and only two chair lifts were open, so we went down the same slopes over and over. I had not skied in two years and the conditions were not excellent, so I cautiously made my way down the mountain each time. We did warm up to an intermediate blue slope, but I let Nate brave the black diamond alone this trip!

We're hoping to use another one of our passes sometime this season to enjoy these winter sports some more!