Back in the Saddle again

Well we're back in the South after a couple of CHILLY weeks in South Bend. The last month has just flown by with Christmas and out of town trips!

Mike and I had our annual Christmas party here in New Orleans right before Christmas. We were delighted by all our guests, but were especially pleased to see friends and family from out of town. Mike and I have worked hard in recent years to perfect (I know you're all shocked by this!) all workings of the party. As part of this, we've taken to creating many of our signature drinks in bulk before the party so that we can pour them quickly. It really helps free us to be better hosts (we hope!). This year we had some great drinks including self titled Father Christmas Fizz, Little Drummer Boy, and Snowflake. They were all super yummy concoctions and were topped with our handmade garnishes out of gum drops. If it looks like something Martha Stewart would do, you're right. It's straight out of her magazine! Mike got really good at this (better than me in fact) and started making fun variations himself.



After much work for both our Christmas party and the community Christmas party, we set out with Joan up to South Bend. A long but thankfully uneventful trip later, we finally arrived in the icy cold north. The next two weeks were filled with probably more conversation than I have the whole rest of the year!

We celebrated Christmas Pingel style with lots of laughter and singing. Pat and Beth and family had recently purchased "Rock Band" and there was much fun to be had watching and participating in this game. Others sat around the piano, pulled out the guitars, and sang in harmony to all sorts of Christmas songs. It was great because it was the first time that all of the Pingels have been together since Mike and I moved almost 3 years ago! And I don't think any of us will ever forget Beth's questions about the nature of life at IU. :)





We were also able to visit with a number of friends in town including checking out Matt and Carrie's lovely new home. And we were excited to catch up with many people from my high school class at the annual Stowebash party! We also took off to Chicago for a couple of days to visit with James and Jenni and their sweet girls as well. And despite Mike getting the stomach flu while we were there (sorry James and Jenni!), Mike and I were able to attend the musical "Wicked". We've been playing the soundtrack non-stop in our car ever since thanks to Jim and Colleen gifting us with the music!



The Finke Christmas celebration proved to have it's own set of hi jinks as well. Unfortunately we've all been sworn to secrecy, so I can't share them with you. But Mike claims that he has never laughed so hard in his whole life. Rest assured, the famous Finke eggrolls made a grand appearance, mainly due to the hard work of Mike!



The weeks ended out with Sean and Gretchen's wedding. The wedding was full of beautiful music and it was so fun to be able to catch up with so many out of town guests. There were people there that I easily haven't seen in 5 years, probably more. But boy was I done talking after that!

Since arriving back home, we've celebrated Mike's birthday with any number of great meals and were blessed by some great new work that came to Mike's company. Life is good in '09 so far. Let's keep it that way!