Snowy Christmas in MN

I was thankful to make it back to MN for Christmas this year. It was a very short trip, but a wonderful one. While the weather was very touch and go sometimes, I was able to see my extended family and travel safely through the Winter Wonderland.

Here's a little video from Christmas Day.

Christmas Memories - Colter

Last year was a very precious Christmas, as it was the first year that Colter was able to celebrate with us in MN. It is so amazing to celebrate Christmas with little kids! Granted, he was still a little young to understand everything, but that also made it fun for us adults.

Are you taking the time to appreciate celebrating Christmas with the little ones in your life?

Christmas Memories - Favorite Holiday Movies

My #1 favorite holiday movie is "White Christmas". Hands down. I have to watch it every Christmas. This year, I was able to sit down with two of my best friends here in Chicago, Janet and Mary, and watch the movie together. We're all big fans!

My #2 favorite holiday movie is "Christmas Vacation". Classic. Again, I have to watch this movie every year, and preferably with my immediate, and maybe extended, family in attendance. So many one-liners. I do think my brothers and I could quote the entire movie.

What's your favorite holiday movie?

Christmas Memories - Zumwalde Family

The lasting memory of the Zumwalde Family Christmas celebrations were my grandmother's date cookies. It is a family favorite.

We always seem to have some wacky celebrations with the Zumwalde clan, so many crazy antics, stories and stories, and laughter until our sides hurt. One particular Christmas, we decided to stuff my Aunt Linda into a shopping bag. Yes, she did fit. And yes, I do have pictures to prove it.

I also enjoy what each year's hostess will have us do at the celebration. Last year, Gary & Linda had us each say something that we were thankful for from that year. None of those things were material items, and it really reminded all of us the true meaning of a Christmas celebration with family.

Merry Christmas to my family!

Christmas Memories - Zenner Family

One of the earliest memories I have of Christmas celebrations with the Zenner Family is that my grandparents always threw a Christmas party at their home in Cold Spring. There would be extended family in attendance, as well as family friends. The food would be abundant, and for the adults, drinks galore!

My grandparents had a little electric santa that would hobble along and ring a bell. Even as a teenager, this was my favorite toy.

A more recent memory of the Zenner Family Christmas was my grandfather's last Christmas. He was dying of lung cancer, and we knew we had little time with him. We decided to have a celebration of life, by having a bonfire on their frozen lake and shooting off fireworks for that year's Christmas celebration. We were able to move my grandfather's hospital bed closer to the window in the living room, and he was able to watch the show. Of course, he tried to run the show, as a true Zenner does, but it is a moment that will always stay with me.

Merry Christmas to my family!

Christmas Memories - Over the river...

Another favorite memory that I have of my childhood Christmas' is visiting both the Zenner's and Zumwalde's on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. For those readers that don't know, my parents are high school sweethearts and grew up about 10 miles away from each other. For the majority of my childhood, my grandparents lived that close to each other. So the 5 of us would all pile into the car and spend some time with both families. Looking back now, I really was blessed to be surrounded by most of my extended family every year!

Christmas Memories - Dessert

Another one of my Christmas memories are all of the dessert goodies. We had a tradition of making sugar cookies together and then frosting them. My mom had the best sugar cookie recipe and we would make dozens and dozens of cookies. We would clear off the dining room table and throw flour on it, roll out the dough and cut out cookies. We had cut outs of reindeer, santa, stars, holly, ornaments...you name it. Shaun, Chris and I would make the cut outs and mom would throw them in the oven.
After the cookies had cooled, we would take store bought frosting and throw in some food coloring. We would lay out wax paper on the dining room table and also set out the containers of frosting and all of the sugar decorations to add to the cookies. Then we would all sit down again and frost the heck out of those dozens and dozens of cookies.

I usually had a stomach ache the day we made these cookies, because I could not stay away from the cookie dough, the baked cookies, and the frosting!

While the sugar cookies were my favorite, we also had peanut butter cups and rosettes. They were always a treat to have around!

Christmas Memories - Christmas Cards

As I sit here trying to finish my holiday cards this year, I am also remembering the anticipation every year in receiving Christmas cards from family and friends. I loved running out to the mailbox to see it stuffed with envelopes.

Before the social networking explosion that has occurred, we all would pour over the Christmas letters that would arrive each day giving us "status updates."

The tradition that we had, was to tape up all of the cards on our door leading to the basement from our dining room. My mom would decorate the doorframe with garland, and it became such a festive looking door with all of the amazing designs of the Christmas cards we received.

That is one of the images I will always have of my childhood Christmas'.

Christmas Memories - Advent Calendar

Growing up, we always had an Advent Calendar that came out on December 1st. Before these Advent Calendars became all fancy and included candy, we had a standard Advent Calendar that had the Bethlehem manger scene and behind every flap told a snippet of the Christmas story.

I can remember my brothers and I impatiently trying to take turns opening the different days. Sadly, I do remember some fights over who was opening which day....especially once that calendar had been with us a few years and the flaps hardly closed.

But the waiting and anticipation was exactly the lesson we needed during the Advent season.

Happy St. Nick's Day!

BTW, today is St. Nicholas Day!
I hope you all had a chance to set out your shoes last night and found some goodies in them this morning!

That is definitely one of the fondest memories I have of Christmas growing up. St. Nicholas Day was always the "kick off" to our holiday season growing up. It was the first gift we received of the season and we always had our Christmas tree arrive on St. Nick's Day.

Christmas Memories - TV Shows

I'm feeling a little sappy this Christmas season, so I'm going to try and post more often in December with some of my favorite Christmas memories and traditions.

In my first trip down memory lane I'm going to write about my favorite Christmas shows when I was a little kid. Am not going to lie, they are still favorites, but they were the must watch shows around this time of year.
The top show is "Charlie Brown's Christmas". Linus talking (sometime annoying, but so sweet), the Charlie Brown Christmas tree (which I'm sure I'll have at one point in my life), and the crazy dancing of the Peanuts team.
The second show is "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer". Loved Yukon Cornelius, thought Rudolph's nose sounded a little like nails on a chalk board, and was scared of Bumble.
The final show is "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". I mean, it's a classic and it's Dr. Seuss. You can't go wrong with it.

I hope you get to watch some of your favorite Holiday TV shows this year and take some time to reflect on your family!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving spent with family and/or friends!

I was very blessed to have my parents visit me for Thanksgiving this year in Chicago! They arrived on Thursday afternoon, and I was able to pick them up at Midway Airport in a ZipCar. (Note to self, ZipCars DO get booked up around the holidays. I had to take the train into downtown Chicago, pick up the car, drive back up to my apt to load the car, and then drive through downtown back to Midway!!).
After I had picked up my parents, we then drove out to Plainfield to spend Thanksgiving night with my cousin Tim, his wife Evie, and a mixture of family/friends. We had a slight detour in the cornfields, but we finally arrived, unpacked, and headed downstairs to the Newman Bar!
Evie put on quite a spread for Thanksgiving dinner - so fabulous. My small contribution was Fried Green Beans - if you want the recipe, let me know!
The evening finished with a rousing game of Catch Phrase!

On Friday, we had breakfast at the Newmans and then came back into Chicago. When we returned the ZipCar downtown, we took a little walk in the chilly Fall afternoon. We spent a little time in the Christmas Village, and then went to have lunch at the famous Billy Goat. Cheezeborger, Cheezeborger, Cheezeborger!!!

The evening was topped off with attending a show of "Jersey Boys". Mama and Papa Z celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago. SO, as a gift, Shaun, Andrea, Colter, Christopher, Dustin and I purchased their tickets to "Jersey Boys". O what a night!!

On Saturday we went to uncommon ground for brunch complete with mimosas and a bloody mary. We then walked around the neighborhood and finally took the afternoon to relax at my apt.
That evening we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo for the Zoolights. For those that don't know, they decorate the entire zoo with Christmas lights and you can just walk through the zoo getting into the Christmas spirit! From there we continued the Anniversary celebration and went to Zed451 - a Brazilian steakhouse. It was dad's first experience with that type of dining, and he is now a fan!

Such a wonderful Holiday weekend, and I look forward to spending time with mom and dad over Christmas!

I hope you all were able to reflect on things you are thankful for in 2009!

Check out this ditty...

My friend Jay has a pretty aggressive project where he is uploading one of his songs onto myspace every week.

Some of you may know that Jay and I worked together at Musicland oh so many years ago. We became friends over car pooling and basketball. When I had my shooting accident, he wrote a song entitled "Muse" that was about me.
He's posted it on myspace and you can check it out - www.myspace.com/nakedjmusic

From my friend Janet

Janet emailed me this week with the following note and photo:

"Snapped this photo today on Broadway Street. While seeing a bicycle locked to a stop sign or parking sign or light pole is an everyday occurance, this scene took me completely by surprise."

Work, Work, Work

First off, I apologize to all the friends and family that I haven't been in touch with lately. It's sad, but the Advertising job has been taking a lot of my energy.

Then in the past 2 weeks I have been all consumed with Premier Planning Services. Rita has been working with NASP (National Association of Subrogation Professionals) for the past year and a half and our job was to coordinate their annual conference. This year we were in Colorado Springs at the Broadmoor, and it was an 8 day trip for us. This allowed us time to set up / break down for the conference and then coordinate during the 3 day conference as well.

It was so great to get back into Corporate Events again. I love this stuff! I wish I could be doing this full time. One day. :-)

A day after arriving back from Colorado, I headed out to Indianapolis to attend the annual Association of Bridal Consultants conference. It was great to connect with my colleagues from MN and WI - they are such a supportive group of Planners. The educational content of the conference was very good; however, I did feel more uncomfortable at this conference than others. The vast majority of wedding planners are married and are able to dedicate their entire time to their business. I don't feel the support from my Association as a part time wedding planner. It definitely is not by choice that I can only work part-time as a Planner.

I'm hoping that I can change some of these things as I go into 2010. Wish me luck!

Girls Weekend in Minneapolis

As most of you know, my best friend Kris is about to embark on another humanitarian effort overseas. She will be part of a Human Terrain System crew headed to Iraq in December. You can check out what she'll be up to here:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8789072

As a Farewell to her, a few of us gathered in Minneapolis in October. We visited a lot of our favorite haunts and laughed until our sides hurt. There was Dawn who could not get out of the car, but still caught my arrival on video. Kris seemed to do a little jig. I tried to imitate said jig and broke my necklace. Dawn and Kris proceeded to help me pick up all of the pieces.

Here we are at The Liffy. Acting all civilized. And then we had to be crazy. Look how Lorrie and I go for the Guinness!??!

It was definitely a fabulous weekend, because nothing can replace your best girlfriends. As I write this post almost a month later, it does feel like this weekend was 5 months ago. To all my girlfriends, I send you warm wishes and happiness. Know that you're thought of often. XOXO

Cassie & Brent's Wedding

On September 12th I was blessed to attend my cousin Cassie's wedding. It was a spectacular Fall day in WI and you could just feel the love between Cassie and Brent, as well as the happiness felt by friends and family.

If I do say so myself, this was the best shot of the day.

One of the best entrances I've seen...the entire wedding party came down the hill from the Golf Club on golf carts. The ceremony was conducted by Cassie & Brent's best friend.

It was a family affair. Dani baked and frosted the cupcake dessert. Guy and Mark acted as Videographers. Did I tell you that my mom and I helped assemble flowers? This was our handiwork on Cassie's bouquet.

Congratulations to Cassie & Brent!

So very late in Posting...

I don't think I have a very good excuse...just living life.

Back in August, I made my way up to Duluth, MN for our 10th annual visit to the Bayfront Blues Fest. The trip started with my arrival on Thursday night and I was able to spend Friday morning cuddling with little giggle-meister Logan (Dawn and Helge's boy).

Then Dawn and Helge and I made the road trip up to Duluth. Of course there was much smart talk and a pretty competitive hour with the crossword. Why were all my answers written "lightly"?

It was a very typical MN weekend...about 40 degrees and overcast on Saturday, but then 80 degrees and sunny - actually got sunburned. Crazy.

The Blues Fest once again did not disappoint. So many excellent musicians....Otis Taylor was my favorite of the weekend. You should check him out!

But the best part of the weekend was spending time with best friends and enjoying some of our favorite Duluth-Superior locations. Like Anchor Bar for the most amazing jalapeno burger. Or Pizza Luce for brunch and a fab Bloody Mary bar. The best moments of life!

Is this true?

I just read something and am not sure where I can figure out if this is true or not...please comment if you have some insight into this little fact.

Is it true that it is illegal to sleep naked in MN?

Beer Knowledge

You all know I'm a beer snob and tend to know quite a bit about beer....for a girl. One of my best friend's also shares my love for beer, and Chad "educated" me in May about Guinness 250. I've been amazed at how many people have not heard of this brew, so I've been imparting my wisdom as I see fit. Just like with Scooby Snacks, someone must take it upon themselves to educate the masses. :-)

So, for those of you that don't know. This year is the 250th Anniversary of Guinness. Can I get an Amen!?! Guinness put together a special anniversary brew that is part stout and part ale. And so delicious. As far as I know, you can only get this brew on tap at an Irish pub, and in bottle form at select liquor/grocery stores. Go out and get some for yourself - there are limited supplies!

PS - I just found Guinness 250 in the Jewel grocery store across the street from my apt. Thank you, God.

Sarah and Chad's Wedding

I'm a little late posting my stories and pics from Sarah and Chad's wedding in June.

I arrived in O'Fallon late on Wednesday with a very warm greeting from my cousin at the St. Louis airport. Chilled Guinness is what should be packed to pick up a weary traveler. Rebecca, make sure to take notes.

Thursday was spent decorating the reception room, doing a little shopping, greeting the arriving family and relaxing at the Newman's. I think my favorite pic of the weekend came from the evening spent at the Newman's:

We also held a surprise Engagement Party for Rebecca and Jason this night.

Friday was a busy day with a Spa Morning (Linda and Mary Kay had some "moments"), a Southern-style Bridal Shower (complete with hats, gloves and pearls), more arriving family members, the Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner. Many stories from past family weddings were told, and too many songs were sung - exactly what we've come to expect at the family weddings.Saturday - The Wedding! Sarah looked absolutely stunning, and the photographer thought so too. I think she's going to be his model going forward. It was a beautiful ceremony and I cannot even believe my little cousin is married! From there we ventured back to the hotel where we had a small little gathering at TGIFriday's and then made our way to the reception. The night was filled with karaoke and dance moves to rival the best entertainers. Oh, and Rebecca gave a toast to rival Christopher's - not an easy feat. A very, very fun reception - and check out how hot Mama Z looks!!Sunday was detox day in that we hung out at the Newman's, but made 75 trips to the store. Ask Fred to tell you the story. :-)

Congratulations to Chad and Sarah!!!

Twins vs. Cubs - Wrigley Field

I'm a little late in posting these pics from the Twins - Cubs series. It was such a great weekend of baseball and I feel very blessed to have been able to attend all 3 games! Here are some photos of the fun!

Job Update

I know a number of you have reached out to me this week to see if I still have a job given all of the GM news. When we had our last round of layoffs in February, our agency management told us we were now staffed for whatever happened to GM this year....including bankruptcy. Management sent us another note last Monday and repeated that fact to us.

As I know it, it's business as usual. GM is still advertising, and thankfully I'm in the digital space, and they will continue to advertise there. So, as before the bankruptcy announcement, I'm just taking it one day at a time and rolling with the punches.


Wedding and Event business still continues to be very slow for me. But I'm continuing to network and help out at St. Clement Church.

Thanks for your concern and prayers. I'll keep everyone posted should things change.

Colter's Vocabulary

After spending 10 days with my beautiful nephew, Colter, I now have a new insight into the English language. :-) He is such a little parrot, but here are some of my favorites:

Colter's Word = What Colter is saying

Cwis = Chris

Toater = Colter

Peas = Please

Side = Let's go Outside

NeNe. Corner. Cry. = At my babysitter Jen's house, I was put in the corner because I misbehaved and I cried.

Couscou = I want to watch The Emperor's New Groove.

Play = Let's play.

Kank u = Thank you.

Colour = Let's color.

Mrr = More

O. I. E. = Letters or the Alphabet

Another recommended movie

Last night I watched, 'P.S. I Love You.' I know. A chick flick - that shocks all of you. While the premise of the movie is quite sad and heartbreaking, what I loved most about this film were the honest, real-life, and mostly humorous moments. I was actually laughing out loud, which is sort of embarrassing when you're watching a movie by yourself.

Of course the parts of the movie that were filmed in Ireland and the very cute men with Irish accents didn't hurt either. LOL.

Have YOU seen any good movies lately?

Happy Mother's Day

Once again, my mom and I walked at the Race for the Cure event today. Erin, Marsha and Sinnea also joined us - the group was back together again!!!

Here are some photos of our walk, and I hope all of you mother's, grandmother's, and aunt's enjoyed the day and know how much you are loved!

Life's Burning Question

For a long time I've wondered why I don't see squirrel poop on the ground. I mean they have to, they're animals. But why don't we see squirrel poop like we can see bird poop, or rabbit poop, or cat poop?

Google has not failed me.

"Squirrel droppings are very small - they are 5 mm long, about the same size as a raisin. They are also light brown and a similar color to soil, so are hard to find. I should imagine that many of the droppings are trodden on before they are seen by people. Generally speaking, tree squirrels leave their droppings anywhere, so there are not large concentrations of them, which people would be more likely to notice."

Something to think about the next time you want to just sit or lay down in your yard.

Bawling

Yes, I meant bawling, not bowling.

I watched "Marley and Me" last night. I knew it was a story about a man and his dog. *SPOILER ALERT: I could assume it would be about the beginning and end of a relationship with a dog.

I was not prepared. I was bawling. Out and out crying my eyes out. Crying hysterically. I do not even remember the last time I cried that hard.

Great movie, I do recommend it. Just make sure to have kleenex on hand and that you're comfortable crying in front of the people that you're watching it with.

Easter Weekend with "My Favorite Aunt Mary Kay"

If you celebrate, I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend. I spent the weekend in O'Fallon, IL with the Newmans!!! And with my favorite Aunt Mary Kay. Madness is all I can say. And I should have had my notepad out to catch all of the zingers and jokes from the weekend. Alas.

The food was fabulous, drinks always flowing, dogs running everywhere, and too many card games to count. Did I mention I got to spend time with my favorite Aunt Mary Kay? Spending the holidays with family is always priceless.

Rebecca, I hope I did you proud as your fill-in for this year's festivities! I even got Wayne with a confetti egg!!


**Disclaimer. I do love all my aunts - equally. Just had to give my Godmother Mary Kay a shout out!

A Sneak Peek!

A few pics from MT....Enjoy!

*Kitchen, Dining Room

*Entry, Living Room


*Master Bathroom

TONIGHT - Earth Hour

Pledge to turn out all nonessential lights from 8:30-9:30 pm on March 28, 2009.
www.EarthHourUS.org

Moving Day is Here!!

The house in MT is complete, and Shaun, Andrea, and Colter spent their first night in their new home last night. I cannot even believe that Shaun finished building that house in under a year. It's amazing. And Ann was such a trooper during it all - I don't know how she did it either!

Of course they are not yet sharing pictures, but I'll be out there at the end of May and will definitely fill up a few blog posts with photos.

Yay!

St. Patrick's Day

I definitely put on my celebration cap for the St. Patrick's Day weekend celebration in Chicago this year. I was blessed to have Kris and her sister Karrie visit me for the festivities!

We kicked off the Saturday celebration by heading downtown around 10:30am to watch the river go green. We actually went to my office building to watch, but the dye didn't quite reach us. So we waited a little longer and then had a chance to get out amidst the crowd and get our pics of the river.

We then made our way back up to Wrigleyville to hang out with my Chicago crew. We were not in an Irish bar....we're too old to stand in lines. Our crew already had the back of the bar scoped out for us when we arrived at 1pm, and we settled in for the rest of the afternoon.

**Like the shout out to Notre Dame?

Of course there were many stories told, and a lot of Guinness consumed.

Kris, Karrie, and I rolled ourselves back to my apt by 10 that night, and we were on the train the next morning by 8:30am. Yep, rockstars. Kris and Karrie had to catch their flight back to MN, and I had to catch a bus to get me to the Southside Irish Parade. After meeting some friends, and getting our supply for the day we were on our way. This recent article probably gives you a good idea of my experience.

http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/03/south-side-st-patricks-parade.html

One of the more priceless stories of the afternoon occurred when we were headed back to the bus to take us back north.....

Some of my friends noticed that a house was selling Girl Scout cookies. While we were waiting, I had finished my roadie of Guinness. The house next door had a HUGE wooden side that read "Cooney's Tavern". Hmmm. Then the Irish luck came my way, as this 70-year-old man walked out to the house. I went up to him and asked if I could possibly purchase a Guinness from them. Sweet old man...he told me to just go in and help myself. I hesitated, but he told me that if anyone asked who I was I should say that Jim Cooney sent me. So I walk into this stranger's home (but us Irish peeps are never strangers to each other), and find may way to their back porch where they have a keg of Guinness. It was my pot o' gold.

**Seems a little cruel, but he was such a good old dog.

**The random couple I invited to our table. The spirit of the Irish - always willing to pull up a stool and chat with strangers.

I hope you all had a wonderful St. Pat's celebration!

Work news

In these troubled times, it is always hard to find the right emotion to express when you survive a round of layoffs. I was very humbled and thankful late last week when I managed to escape our 3rd round of layoffs in 9 months. Unfortunately this last one hit a little closer to home and we lost some friends and valued co-workers.
I know one may think I should be jumping ship right now, but 1) there really isn't another ship to jump to, and 2) with almost every agency/company experiencing layoffs this year I don't know if now is the time to become the "new man" on the roster.

Looking at the bright side of things, my NYC colleague has decided to leave the agency. This means that all of the national digital buying will handled out of the Chicago office. This gives me more job security (for as long as GM remains in business) and also gives me the chance to work with some of the reps that I had developed relationships with when I worked in MN. Yay!

On the wedding business front, as you can imagine it's a rather slow year for me. Not only with our company name not having a presence in Chicago, but also with the economy. It's a tough sell job to couples and families, even though my wedding planning services are valuable and needed. However, I'm keeping in touch with weddings by volunteering at St. Clement. They are desperately in need of a volunteer, and they've got me!

I hope you are all doing well. I hope you are as safe as you can be in your current job. And if you're in between jobs, I wish you the best of luck in landing your next adventure.

Progress on the MT house

Andrea sent us some photos of the house outside of Missoula. Hopefully we'll see some more updates soon!!

Front door and stairs leading to basement.



View of the kitchen and then dining room by the windows.

View of the living room.