What to wear to a Kiewit Christmas Party

Oh you thought I was done blogging about the holidays? Wrong. I'm so behind. I blame it on having a puppy. And working nights. And a dirty house. And nice days. Anyway. I'm almost done. I promise. But honestly, I just hate letting these moments slip away without documenting them. Because I'm super sappy like that.

Topic at hand: Kiewit Christmas extravaganza. Once a year, we all unite for a few days of meetings (for the employees) and parties (for the spouses). This year was definitely my favorite because I got to spend time with some of my favorite ladies that I hadn't seen since Tennessee. There's something about being in a strange far away land that unites us together. We drank wine at 11am, baked cookies, drank coffee, shopped, partied at Power and Light, lunched, and generally had a wonderful time for a few days.

And on the last night we dressed up. Sometime in the middle of all this, I found out that if you google "Kiewit Christmas Party," my blog shows up. And I look like the queen of Kiewit. Kiewit, you are welcome. Kiewit Christmas Party. What to wear to a Kiewit Christmas party. Is that good for now?

In case you were actually wondering, here is the answer. From left to right: LBD (on me, with a fantastic hair day I might add), something sparkly (on Emily, who just had a baby and looks fantastic), something bright (on Christi, who looks like Barbie every single day of her life!), LBD sparkly combo (on Jami, who looks gorgeous par usual).

The other part I love about the weekend is staying in a hotel just miles from my home. Who doesn't love someone cleaning up after them? I also love this elevator. And taking silly photos in it. Since we all know Caleb just doesn't have it in him to take a sweet pic with his wife.

(As you can see, he is carrying my shoes. He really is sweet.)

Love my husband. Love my Kiewit ladies. Love the continuation of the holidays into February.

Christmas 2012: Perfect.

So this year, I had five magical days off for Christmas, including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This is the first time I've had the whole Christmas holiday off since we've been married. And it will be the last time for a few years. I'd say we celebrated accordingly. 

We started off Christmas week with an amazing Christmas wedding. Caleb's sweet cousin Emily got married and it was totally gorgeous. I took the opportunity to get my sparkle on. In other news, I just took the rest of that black glitter nail polish off yesterday. I'm on top of things.

My nephew was the ring bearer and he was awesome. As he walked down the aisle, he saw the whole row of us and we were all smiling and waving at him and he just walked right in to sit with us. Hilarious. (Congratulations Emily and Peter!)

We spent the weekend shopping and wrapping gifts.

Pinterest always makes you think your life is not quite as good as everyone else, but it did inspire my wrapping theme for the year. I actually like wrapping with a "theme." It made things a little simpler and easier.

We hit up Crown Center to hang out with the Bellinder side of the family (Caleb's mom's side). I love that place at Christmas. And my husband is clearly dressed ultra festive.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family. We dressed up Sophie for the occasion.

My three favorite guys on Christmas Eve.

Obviously I had to get my sweet pup into a stocking for Christmas. Just tell me she isn't the cutest.

Can I just say that Christmas was perfect? Christmas Eve with my family. A sweet relaxed Christmas morning with my husband and my pup. Cooking all afternoon. I used the deck as a fridge because it was so darn cold. (I made deviled eggs, PW's potatoes au gratin, and strawberry pretzel salad)

Here's a glamour shot of us on Christmas morning. I know you are all super jealous that you don't look like this in the morning. But it was perfect.

We spent Christmas night at Caleb's parents house and had a blast playing nerts and watching the babies open gifts and trying to not let Sophie destroy things. And I took zero pictures. Fail.

Being home for Christmas was perfect. We managed it the last few years being far away in Tennessee, but this year it was just so so sweet. There really is no place like home for the holidays.

Red Velvet Cheesecake

When I called my brother up on Christmas Eve morning, I asked him what he wanted me to make for dessert that night for our family dinner. I wanted to steer away from cake or pie because Caleb isn't a big fan (so weird, I know). Brent threw out "chocolate cheesecake."

Challenge accepted.

I did a sweet little Google search and found this deliciousness and adapted it just a little. So so so yummy! I wasn't planning to blog this, so the pics aren't fantastic. But after I Instagrammed it, so many people wanted the recipe that I just had to share!

Red Velvet Cheesecake (adapted from McCormick's Red Velvet Cheesecake)

Crust:
1 package of Oreo cookies (minus a couple that you eat before you make it)
1 stick of butter, melted

Filling:

2 packages (8 ounces each) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate, melted
1 tablespoon red food coloring (I just used a whole container of it, you know the kind that comes in a package with yellow, blue, red, and green. I think it actually was a little less than a tablespoon.)

Topping:

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup powdered sugar, more or less to taste

raspberries or other garnish

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Chop up the Oreos in a food processor until pretty fine, then pulse in the melted butter. (You could also just take a rolling pin to a ziplock filled with Oreos!) Press the Oreo/butter mixture evenly into a 9 inch pie plate and bake for about 7 minutes, just to get it set.

Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, one at a time on low, just until blended.

Take out one cup of the cheesecake mixture and into that one cup, stir in the melted chocolate and red food coloring.

Pour the red cheesecake mixture into the crust, top with the rest of the cheesecake mix. 

Bake 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool on a wire rack and then refrigerate for a few hours or over night. (Or just put it outside like I did, since it was super cold on Christmas Eve!)

Right before serving, make the whipped cream! Just beat together the heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar until you see some good stiff peaks. Cover the whole cheesecake with it. (My cheesecakes always get cracks on the top so I love covering them up.) Garnish with raspberries. You could also just use cool whip instead of homemade whipped cream! (But the homemade stuff is so darn good!)

This was super easy and super yummy! It would be a great dessert for Valentine's Day. Or for this weekend when you will be huddled inside because its supposed to be insanely cold out.

Get your cheesecake on, friends!

Happy New Year 2013!

Aaaaaaand its already January 7th! What?! Happy New Year! 

I feel like time goes super fast. I'm so behind on all my holiday happenings that I am going to chronicle them in reverse. Starting with New Years, obviously.

Caleb went to Wichita to spend New Year's Eve with some of his college friends. Super fun. And I holed up at the hospital taking care of sick people. Also super fun. But in a less fun kind of way. Ha.

We made the best of it. As you can see, we celebrated with a massive bag of M&Ms, veggies, chips, and sparkling grape juice in Styrofoam cups. Classy.

Toasting at midnight. Love the graininess.

Sweet coworkers. Love them.

It really wasn't bad at all. I did end my night telling a patient to "make better choices next time." I'll just let you guess what that was about.

I came home to this. Perfect snow. Clean roads, but so so pretty!

I have a couple resolutions for 2013, short and sweet.

1. Read the whole Bible in a year. I know it sounds a little hard and it kind of is. But I've never done it before. And really, it just takes 15 minutes for me to read enough to stay on track every day. A whole seven days in, I'm still on track.

2. Become a runner. I hate running. You probably already know this about me. But I made a horrible error in getting a dog that loves to run, even at three months old. So she's teaching me to run. Mostly by nipping at my heels when I go too slow. So there is that. Running is free. Lots of people do it, so it can't be that hard. And I have to walk the dog anyway, so why not run? This is what I keep telling myself.


I'll be posting more about the holidays all week. I have lots of good stuff. Happy New Year! Yay 2013!

Chocolate Pecan Pie

Listen friends, I know it is Christmas Eve and all, but if you are like me then you have some family gatherings to attend. With food in hand. This pie is perfect. It will take you 5 minutes to throw together. Bake it up while you get ready. Prepare for excess gifts from your family members after they taste this. Because they will love you for it.

My mother in law gave me this recipe a few years back and my hubby adores this pie. I try to make it at least once every holiday season.

Chocolate Pecan Pie

FILLING:
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter (I use the real stuff), melted
1 tsp. vanilla
3 eggs
1 (6 oz.) pkg. (1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups pecan halves

PREPARATION DIRECTIONS:
1. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Prepare pie crust as directed on package for one-crust filled pie using 9-inch pie pan. (Just use a frozen crust. For reals. It's so easy and takes literally two seconds)

2. In large bowl, combine corn syrup, sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs; beat well. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans. Spread evenly in crust. 

3. Bake at 325 degrees for 55- 65 minutes or until deep golden brown and filling is set. (Watch carefully, it can get too done really quick! That being said it usually takes me at least 65 minutes to get this done.)

That's it. Amazing and easy.

Serve with whipped cream, ice cream, coffee, or straight from the pan. Or eat it for breakfast the next morning. Like I was doing in this photo.

Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Sophie the Pup's first photo shoot

 On November 28th, 2012, we added a new member to our family. Sophie the puppy. She was 8 weeks old and weighed 6.6 lbs.

It was love at first site. Sophie is a rescue pup and I went and picked her out of a whole bunch of sweet dogs that needed good homes.

She was the cutest one.

Allegedly, she is part lab, part German shepherd. But who really knows.

We don't care what you are, we'll keep you, Sophie!

We had a rough first night. As in, lots of crying (from the pup) and lots of accidents (from the pup) and not much sleep (by me or the pup). But she's getting the hang of it. And she's so darn cute, we didn't really mind.

We did a little photo shoot to capture her first days with us. Get ready for cute puppy overload.

Tiny Sophie!

Sophie loves a good bone. She hates her harness. Even though it is Martha Stewart. Designer harness for my girl? Of course.

I never really understood the term "puppy dog eyes" until I saw these babies. They kill me.

 Hanging out with Caleb, her fave.

 She hates going on walks, but she loves a good belly rub. She already sits for her food and is about 90% potty trained. Such a smart pup!

Early morning, no make up. Don't care. Night shift is putting those wrinkles under my eyes.

In love with my sweet girl!

Some people have kids, but now we have a puppy. Boom. If you haven't already been overloaded with Instagram pics (we are @lorrib and @navierstokeseqn), don't worry. I will clog your Facebook feed or your blogger feed with adorable puppy goodness.

Merry Christmas to me!

#letsgetpraisy

Happy Thanksgiving/Black Friday friends! I just got home from work and am getting ready to get my sleep on. But not before I eat some pumpkin pie filling. Yum. And link up to this hilarious contest.

Check out this contest over on Jami Nato's blog. Jami is my sister in law's sister...so that makes her like my sister-in-law-once-removed? Ha. I totally made that up. I get delirious when I'm tired. But this contest is all about seeing Jesus everywhere. Listen to some rap, take a lyric, find a Bible verse. Boom. Bet Jay-Z didn't know he was preaching to you.

I love this. Hilarious. And amazing. If you have Instagram, check out the hash tag #letsgetpraisy. If not, check out the link up on Jami's blog.

Here's my contribution.

But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.

(Matthew 28:5-6 ESV)

Amazing. Seriously.

And I've even put the Fun. song ("Some Nights") up here for you to listen to. Except its not actually Fun. singing. It's a rip off version. But you get the idea.

 I love the Bible. I love Fun. You are welcome.

Can I just say amazing one more time? I've been up all night taking care of sick people. Amazing.