White Elephant

The Breslaw's White Elephant party is a tradition that we all look forward to each year. Invitee's typically include a reunion of the '05 Tahoe Crew and other miscellaneous VIP's. It is a time to catch up, share news, give updates and generally give each other a hard time. This is no ordinary White Elephant party. Some in attendance spent the entire year preparing their present. Breslaw White Elephant Hall of Fame Gifts Include: poop from the coop, the okie outhouse, the infamous "it hit hard tire", and the napoleon dynamite talking dolls - among many others.
Gifts Given This Year:

• Talking Darth Vader Mask
• Okie Live Well
• Portable Light Switch
  
• Sandlot 2 Movie Pack (including baseball and cracker jacks)
• Autographed Elvie Gaskey photo
• Brunette Wig
• Year's Worth of Scratched Off Non-winner lottery tickets
• Meditating Water Fountain
• Chicken Alarm Clock
• Dinosaur Chia Pet
• Kenny Rodgers CD/T-Shirt Set

I'm a little too juiced in my wig. Pretty sure I never figured out how to put it on correctly.


What is your all time favorite white elephant party gift???

Ugly Christmas Sweaters Aren't Just For People

The 3rd Annual (??) Breslaw White Elephant Party was this Saturday. It was amazing as always, more pictures and stories later. This picture of Ollie in his ugly bill Cosby Christmas sweater couldn't wait.

Nothing Says Patriotism Like Wii Tennis

Not that you can actually tell from the picture, but Zeb got a Nintendo Wii for his birthday. Well sort of birthday/graduation/miscellaneous all wrapped up in 1. Like everything he buys, he got a great deal on it - bought it off Craig's List from some guy who needed money quick for a trip to Hawaii for his girlfriend and him (likely story guy!) This is what we spent the 4th of July doing. I'm jucied on the deal because Zeb agreed to sell both the old old X-box and also the Playstation and guitar hero. I think its fair to say that we only need one gaming system at any given time.

Bucking Convention

Never ones to completely comply with tradition we thawed out the top of our wedding cake and munched on it for our 2nd anniversary. Take that. It had been safely waiting for us in my Mom's giant freezer (think the kind of freezer that Laef & Aross have in their living room, except she keeps hers outside in the storage shed) for the past 2 years. Probably because we couldn't figure out how to get it to Montana but were also too sentimental to throw it away it lasted this long. And you know what, it tasted just as good as it did on our wedding day, maybe even better, i really can't remember any more at this point. I also went to the storage unit and retrieved the old cakestand/punchbowl (see old debate regarding this doubly useful apparatus) which Zeb had forcefully made me pack away when we got back to Oregon under the pretense that "we never use it." Ohhhhhh, how wrong he was.

I had to work today, so we had decided that we would celebrate our anniversary on Monday but Zeb was grumpy for most of the day because he had contracted a gnarly bout of heartburn from drinking a glass of iced tea at a church BBQ on Sunday. (I don't know why he drank it, iced tea ALWAYS gives him heart burn!) Then we sort of just puttered around for the rest of the day, I did some laundry. That evening Zeb went to Damon's to play Wii (wii would like to play) and I finished off the night watching the Bachelorette alone. Today as I half-way hoped for an anniversary do-over, Zeb went golfing with a buddy and then brought MY CO-WORKER lunch. Yes thats right, on our anniversary, my husband brought lunch (a calzone) to my co-worker, and I had a pepperoni & cheese hot pocket for lunch. HA!

Don't get me wrong, I don't say any of this to complain, in fact I find it hilarious. That's just us. If either one of us really cared about all the pomp and circumstance of the day, we would do something about it. You never know, maybe next year we'll get all gussied up and do a big production for the anniversary, but we'll be just as likely to spend the evening watching Hell's Kitchen. (thats what we're going to do right now)

Happy Anniversary Zeb!

Holiday Spirit - Elliott Yamin Style

Yes, thats right, I'm sure some of you can hardly believe it, but Elliott Yamin (see previous posts regarding my Elliott Yamin related obsession by clicking the Elliott Yamin label on the right -->) has a christmas CD. Unfortunatly it only has 8 tracks (not nearly enough to be considered satisfying) but the tracks that are there are delightful. My favorites are:

Track 1) This Christmas - This is one of my favorite christmas songs in general, previously recorded by Stevie Wonder, and just about every other soul singer on the planet - this classic does not disappoint.
Track 2) Warm Me Up

As usual, I have had this on repeat in the office for the last week or so. This is an especially impressive feat, as it only takes about 20 mins to get through the whole thing - and if you do the math I believe that is about 457 plays in the course of a day (I might be exagerating)

As an added bonus for you guys, I've included a picture of my office decorations. Last year I only had the snowflakes, so the multi-colored lights are a big next up to the next level. Also, there are just a few hours left to have your voice heard on the Al the Gal Blogging Initiative of 2007. This is a very important topic, and it is your right as an American - so vote on my poll! Top right corner of the page!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

One day late, but I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. I know we did. Remember those wild turkeys that used to run around the avenues in Sweet Home? Crazy.

Emily said it best when she quoted Adam Sander - The Turkey Song:

Turkey with Gravy & Cranberries,
Can't believe the Mets traded Darryl Strawberry.

Have a great weekend! I'm off to Denver.

Let It Snow....

Yesterday was the first day that it really snowed. We had a little bit of snow in september, but it didn't stay long and it happened on the weeekend, when I could just close my eyes and stay in bed until it went away. Yesterday I actually had to drive in it. I detoured from my normal snow route to work (which is the straightest and slowest possible path) and almost hit a light post. So much for detours. When i got to work I decided to deviate from my strict "no christmas music until thanksgiving policy" and brought out the mythical Christmas Mix. I promised myself I would only listen to it once through, but I ended up listening twice. I'm weak - what can I say? Will any of you admit to pulling out the christmas music yet?

Happy Anniversary!

One year down and the cake stand/punch bowl is still in full effect. And they said it would never last.....

We got this carrot cake to celebrate since the top layer of our wedding cake that we saved is still in my mom's freezer. Good stuff.

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Its a good day to be thankful & reflect. Love you guys! Hope all is well.

Happy New Year

Well happy New Year to all the loyal blog readers!

It's been a crazy couple of weeks for us, but its a new year, and time for new resolutions. So guess what mine is going to be? Well, I want to make a real effort to be a better BLOGGER! Yes thats right, I realize that this whole thing was my idea. And yes, I did force Zeb to post on more than one occasion. But come on, we've had some good times here. What about the Cake Stand Punch Bowl debate? And how about all of Melanie's hilarious comments? Now we all know where Damon got his sense of humor. I know you all like this thing just as much as I do, and that is why with this new year I am going to make commitment to take this blog to a whole new level. Right now I'm working on some idea's for weekly recurring blog features, such as possibly Napoleon Dynamite quote of the week, courtesy of Emily's daily napoleon dynamite calendar, or I could do hotel reviews from the places I stay on the road. Ummmmm...Zeb could do a weekly blog entry on the various shows he watches on PBS-HD. He watched one on beatles recently (the bug, not the band) which was apparently very informative. I know you all are interested. I also think we definitely need a weekly overview of "The Office."

Well, I hope everyone is having a good new year so far! Post up your New Year's Resolution & any ideas you have for future blog features! We need your help!

In the meantime, check out this link I found where you can have Dwight Schrutte call you! Some of you have already been lucky enough to hear from him!

http://www.theofficedvd.com/dwight/

Christmas Time

Okay! Enough of the TV mania! That TV took over our lives for the better part of 2 and a half weeks, but you know what, I think its finally blown over.

We are now in full force getting ready to come home for Christmas, and it is coming so soon! We spent the last weekend making another trek to Billings for christmas shopping, which ended up to be an all day affair. We actually got just about everything done in the course of only 2 days, which I think is a world record. I'll check into that. We can't wait to see everyone, and are especially looking forward to the second annual White Elephant Party hosted by Emily & Chicken. I can't even begin to imagine all the ridiculous things that will surface at this party. I need find something that will top the bowling ball bag complete with matching ball engraved with the name Jerry, that I brought last year.

The picture above is my office all decked out for the holiday season. My snowflake lights were a real hit, too bad Zeb and I haven't really bothered to put up any decorations at the apartment.

Hope all is well, we'll be seeing most of you guys in just barely over a week!