Christmas was a little different this year. Since Dave was backup for work, we couldn’t attend our annual family Christmas, so we just stayed longer at his family party (which isn’t as far from the hospital as where my family party was). Ben scored a TON of presents, though his favorite was the Betty Crocker food and pan set that I got him. We’ve got a little chef in the making! He got a lot of puzzles - he loves to figure them out, with our help, of course. He even got a present from his godfather’s dog - Brody. We also took our annual family pictures - it was pretty funny this year since we tried to get Brody in some of the pictures. It was easy to get Brody to sit still, not so easy to get Ben to do the same! My dad, step-mom and sister also came to the party, and it was great to have them there. They left a little later on to go to the other party. I missed the big family shindig - going to midnight mass, coming back to the house with piles and piles of presents waiting, someone playing santa and handing them out, then opening the presents in one big flurry of ribbons and wrapping paper.

I tried starting a new tradition at our house - leaving cookies and milk for Santa. Ben didn’t really care for it much, but he was pretty excited when he woke up on Christmas morning to see that Santa had brought him presents - one of his favorite puzzles that he always plays with at the library and a Little Einsteins musical instrument set. He had asked Santa for “bells” and I think what Santa gave him was pretty close.

We then headed out to what was left of my family party (because you may remember that my family parties are often a 2 day affair). Ben had another load of presents to open there, including a remote controlled robot from his other godfather. He’s a little young to play with it (it’s made for 6 year olds) so us big kids got a kick out of trying to figure out the 30 key remote and chasing the little kids with it. Later on, Fata busted out her new Monopoly game - one that doesn’t use fake money…it uses credit cards and little credit card machine. It was pretty cool - well, VERY cool since for the first time, I actually WON a monopoly game. The game is really fun when you’re the one getting all the money!

So here’s my pictures from the holiday…I’ve got a lot more from our activities after Christmas, which I’ll post later. (hover in the top corners to go to the next picture)

For more pictures, check out my flickr set.

Tags: Party On!, Pictures by Yano
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Since Christmas is in several days, I decided to skip my usual Rudolph layout and do a more generic winter layout. That, and I’m not sure where my Rudolph files are!

Hope you all are done with your Christmas shopping! I have a couple more things to find, but for the first time in a LONG time, I’ve got all my Christmas cards sent out! Yay me!

If I don’t get to “see” you before then, have a great Christmas!

Tags: Page Update by Yano
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I’ve realized in the last several months that I haven’t been using my camera as much as I used to…when Ben was a little baby I took pictures of him all the time. I think life has gotten so busy with work, selling our house and trying to keep up with the little guy that I haven’t really had much of a chance to bring out ol’ Nick the Nikon.

So I decided to try to get myself into photography again, so I joined a couple flickr 365 groups. To join these, you have to take a photo every day for a year. Now I don’t know if I’ll make it, but I really want to try. The first several days were easy, but as time went on, I realized that it’s easy to take a photo every day - IF YOU REMEMBER! Also, it’s not easy to get a GOOD picture. Then comes the challenge of uploading the daily pictures.

With that all said, I haven’t missed a day yet. It’s been 32 days (I think) and I’ve had a picture for each day. Some are artsy, some are regular snapshots, and when all else fails, I take a picture of Ben. Here’s some of my favorites from the last month…maybe I’ll make this a monthly thing. I realized that this project has been a really great way of keeping track of what I’m doing!

Day 1

My very first picture for the project, taken late at night, without makeup and pretty tired. It was before I had my hair cut.

Day 4

Mmm…sushi. I went to this Japanese market one day to get some sushi and I walked out with a LOT of sushi.

Day 12

I love this picture of my brother in law’s dog, Brody. Can you see Ben in the picture?

Day 17

I’d been growing my hair to donate to cancer patients. Eventually I had about 15 inches from the nape of my neck, which was more than enough needed for the 12 required to donate. I had enough hair left over for a shoulder length haircut. I’m saving SO much money on shampoo now!

Day 20

Sometimes I don’t always have a camera handy, but luckily, there’s always someone who does. We went to the Illini/Georgia game a couple weeks ago, and we forgot to bring the camera. Luckily, Jerome let me borrow his camera to take this picture of the sea of orange at the United Center. ILL-INI!

Day 24

Several years ago I went to Las Vegas and found this really cute mini-mah jong set. The pieces are about as big as my thumbnail. The set had been stored away in my closet until a couple weeks ago, when I let Ben play with it. He LOVES playing mah jong with his lolos and lolas, so he was really happy to have his own Ben-sized set.

Day 29

I found the cutest Brobee ornament at Urban Outfitters and decided to get it for Ben. He loves Yo Gabba Gabba and already has a bigger Brobee doll. We had bought our Christmas tree several days before but it didn’t have ornaments yet, so I let Ben put Brobee on the tree as the first ornament. Later on, he got some company after we decorated the rest of the tree.

Day 31

These are Ben’s sneaker socks. They look like sneakers, but they’re socks.

I hope I last for another month!

Tags: Photography by Yano
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Just in time for the holidays, here’s my mini-cheesecake recipe, which I got from allrecipes.com. Here’s the original link - Cream Cheese Recipe.

Ingredients:
* 1/3 cup graham cracker crumbs i use honey grahams
* 1 tablespoon white sugar
* 1 tablespoon margarine, melted

* 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
* 1/4 cup white sugar
* 1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
* 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest
* 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 1 egg

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 6 cup muffin pan. I use a mini muffin pan

2. In a medium bowl, mix together the graham cracker crumbs, sugar and margarine with a fork until combined. Measure a rounded tablespoon of the mixture into the bottom of each muffin cup, pressing firmly. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 5 minutes, then remove to cool. Keep the oven on.

3. Beat together the cream cheese, sugar, lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla until fluffy. Mix in the egg.

4. Pour the cream cheese mixture into the muffin cups, filling each until 3/4 full. I use a big spoon to scoop the cheesecake mixture into the mini muffins Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) for 15 minutes. Cool completely in pan before removing. Refrigerate until ready to serve. I put blueberry pie topping on top of the mini-cheesecakes

Enjoy, and happy holidays!

Tags: Cool Link by Yano
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Every year I take Benjamin’s Christmas card photo because I’m too cheap to get something professionally done. Ben knows how to smile on cue, but it’s not the most natural smile - so I tried making him laugh naturally. It took 100 shots for me to get “the” shot, which made for a lot of rejected pictures! Enjoy!

Tags: Uncategorized by Yano
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Sorry for the lack of updates. I currently have a new addiction which is taking up a lot of my free time.

Anyway, I never posted pictures of the food I made for Thanksgiving. I didn’t really take too many pictures, so I don’t know if I’ll post the other foods, but I definitely wanted to post this one! Here’s my mini-cheesecakes, some have blueberry toppings, some have cherry. They were absolutely delicious, and I may just make some to keep in my fridge when I need an extra special treat!

Tags: Uncategorized by Yano
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The other day we asked Ben what he wanted for Christmas. We expected him to mention cars, puzzles, blocks, or even candy. But he thought about it for a moment, and said, “Lights!” He wasn’t referring to your average house lights - he was talking about Christmas lights, which he absolutely loves. So last week, Dave and his father put up our outside Christmas lights (which we didn’t put up last year because of too much early snow) to fulfill Ben’s Christmas wish. He loved seeing the lights, even more once the sun went down.

Now that his first Christmas wish has come true, he’s asking for the Mickey Mouse racetrack…we’ll see about that!

Tags: Uncategorized by Yano
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It’s funny that I’m the one who runs the 10 on Tuesday meme, but I rarely ever post my answers on my blog! I’m trying to be more blog-conscious (I admit, other things are currently taking up my time which I will share with you all in other blog posts) but I want to make sure I don’t forget about my little home on the web. So here’s this week’s topic - 10 ways to save money:

1. Unplug your cell phone charger when you’re not using it - it still uses power even though the phone isn’t collected
2. Don’t leave the faucet on when you’re brushing your teeth
3. Coupons!
4. Start braking for lights early and don’t press on your gas pedal too hard
5. Instead of buying bottled water all the time, get a reusable water bottle and get a water filter for your tap
6. Get a library card instead of purchasing books…many of them also have DVDs to borrow, as well as current magazines
7. Use energy efficient light bulbs - they may not look nice in all your light fixtures, but use them where you can
8. Take part in your company’s 401K. It sounds scary now, but it will work out in the long run.
9. Shop online - many stores offer free shipping, sometimes you don’t have to pay sales tax, and you don’t have to waste gas driving around. Also, you can comparison shop online to see which site has the best deal.
10. Go to the grocery store right after eating. You’ll spend less on food AND you’ll lose weight

Have a good Wednesday!

Tags: Weeklies by Yano
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Man, this long weekend went by so quickly!

I tried to avoid any shopping areas as much as possible - I can’t take how crazy it gets…people pushing, shoving, looking for parking spots, etc. After my family Thanksgiving, I was on the internet in the wee hours of Friday morning doing my Christmas shopping. I got most of it done, with the exception of a few people, thanks to Old Navy and Amazon.

On Friday we went to my in-laws to have lunch since we didn’t get to celebrate Thanksgiving together (Dave was on call on Thursday). We pretty much just vegged out (with a little more online shopping). My father in law had braved the crowds on Black Friday and was showing off the items he risked his life to buy at incredibly cheap prices. He wanted to go back to the mall for dinner at the new Red Robin. I think my love for a good burger is greater than my distaste for holiday shoppers, so we headed out to the mall.

After dinner, we took Ben to the kid play area. I sat and watched Ben while Dave and his father went shopping. The thing about mall kid play areas is that it’s next to impossible to keep your eye on your kid the whole time. There are a lot of things that can get in the way - the bridge slide, the climbing tree, fake cars, etc. Ben was having a grand ol’ time, climbing the slides and running around with other kids. I’m so happy that he’s finally started to interact with other kids, rather than playing off to the side by himself.

All of the sudden, I hear a woman scream, “OH MY GOD, SOMEBODY HELP THEM!!!” I looked at the woman and she was looking at the escalators behind the play area. Halfway up the escalators was a 10 year old boy…on the outside of the escalators, he was holding a 5 year old boy. I have no idea how that little boy got on the other side of the escalator, but the 10 year old was hanging on to that little boy, who was struggling and trying to get his feet on the thin ledge next to the escalators. One of the fathers who was in the play area climbed up the side of the escalators, up to the little boy, and took him from the grasp of the other boy. By this time, the boys were almost near the top of the escalator, which would have been horrible because once they reached the end of the escalator there would have been nowhere to go, and this escalator was pretty tall.

However, once the man got the little boy, they just stayed up there, because the man couldn’t hang on to outside of the escalator (which has that moving handrail going on) and get the little boy over the escalator barrier to the second floor. Fortunately, another man saw what was going on and came to get the boy. The father was then able to climb over the barrier himself. Once the father came back down, everyone cheered.

I have no idea who the parents were of these kids, though I’m sure that they weren’t related since one of them looked Latino and the other looked Indian. All the parents in the play area were concerned and shocked, so it was hard for me to discern if their parents were down there. It’s one of those things where the whole time it’s happening, your attention is on the drama, with peeks inbetween to keep watch on your own kid (who seemed oblivious to the whole thing). I think about that father, who risked his life to save the life of kid that wasn’t his own - little things like that often get overlooked in our society today.

When we got home, I asked Ben what he did that day. He talked about going shopping, getting toys, running around with kids, and then he said, “and there was a kid crying on the escalator”. I guess he does pay attention…

Tags: Stories by Yano
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