Did you know there are actually NO hobos in HOBOken??

Remember this picture from a few posts ago?

It has come time to document that blissful weekend. Now two weeks since I left the nice warm apartment of my dear Vanessa in Hoboken, enough time has passed that I can talk about it without bursting into tears or beating my chest in heartache that my bosom buddies live so far away. 

Oh how I miss those days when our crappy little Chicago apartments were only a few doors apart! Well...maybe I don't miss those apartments. Or Hyde Park. But I do miss the friends, because those kinds of bulletproof superglue bonds can only be formed when you go through fire together. These lovely ladies are some of my closest companions.

All weekend, the fruits of our Chicago labors (read: babies) played and laughed and cried together quite nicely. It's hard to believe they're all upright creatures now, prowling around on two legs.

Hoboken is such a cool place. Beautiful old buildings, lots of great parks, every kind of food you could want, The Cake Boss's bakery, and an amazing view of New York City right across the river. Such a fun change of scenery for us.

Can you tell that someone is really starting to h-a-t-e pictures? Especially when he's freezing cold?

Isn't it the BEST when the women are good friends and the men are good friends?? It was actually the men that really got the ball rolling on this spontaneous get-together.

Now because I looked like death in this picture, while those other two looked lovely as ever, I compromised with the black and white effect. Don't make fun. My winter translucent skin was ruining the whole picture, so really it was a super nice thing I did for the whole world.

 Of course we made good use of the poker chips. Clearly, I was the only one with my game face on that night.

Oh no wait...Vanessa definitely had her game face on too. This is how she always looks when she's taking something super seriously. Like her wedding day, for example. Or Real Housewives marathons.

If I do not see Vanessa pee her pants in laughter, or at least shed a few tears, I can't count the visit as successful. The reverse is true as well. That kind of laughter is good for the soul, and only special people can draw it out of me, so I have to hang on to them.

When it came time for Carina's family to leave Monday morning...bleeeeghslejhklczzz. That's how we all felt. I'll let Jude's face explain it.

We couldn't miss the opportunity of getting all the kids in a picture together before they parted. It took some significant bribing for one small male wearing a Thor shirt (not to name any names), but a little Carina magic behind the camera and we got it!

Although the baby girls truly love their big sisters, it kinda looks like all the babies are looking over at Josh like they're ready to fight for a spot on his lap. Doesn't it?

Don't mind Jude. He does that to everyone. Little scavenger.

Josh and Leah were so happy to be reunited. They fiercely defend each other in their separate preschools, not allowing anyone to claim the title of "boyfriend" or "girlfriend" because they're already taken. It's pretty serious.

The boys really enjoyed playing together this time too. I think Josh is starting to get old enough not to annoy Carson too much. Which is nice, because the girls were stuck to each other like glue.

This is how the kids looked to me most of the weekend. A big blur of noise and movement.

Monday afternoon found me and my boys alone with the Palmers, since Matt had returned to Philadelphia for more meetings. I met him there the next day to fly home on the shuttle, but not before we threw a couple of huge parties, Hoboken style.

Like this one at the park, where we lasted about half an hour because it was bone-chillingly cold outside.

So worth it! Hoboken is beautiful -- frozen or not!

Thank you, my dearest friends, for traveling and hosting and planning and entertaining and cooking and cleaning so that we could all be together again for a few days! Midland has dibs on the next reunion!

Try Something New: Week 4

January 22 -- Matt and I made our own vanilla extract. Or at least started the process. All you do is slice a bunch of vanilla beans in half, scrape out the insides, and stuff everything into a bottle of vodka. Then you let it work its magic on the shelf for a few months. By definition, vanilla extract has to be at least 35% alcohol, so this vodka worked perfectly at 40%.

January 23 --  Used my black crackle nail polish that I got for Christmas. Love it! You just paint the black over another color and it slowly separates to make a cracked look. Your paint job can look messy but it's okay because that's how it's supposed to look! Oh, and don't mind the gross feet. I don't get pedicures often. Just focus on the polish and love me anyway!

January 24 -- Used my brand new tupperware set. We have never had a real tupperware set the whole time we've been married. This one is good and solid and varied and seals well and makes my leftovers look all perdy in the fridge. Money well spent, finally!

January 25 --  Took one of those vanilla beans and made creme brulee! Recipe from Alton Brown. Creme brulee is just a fancy overpriced dessert that really isn't difficult to make. It only calls for five ingredients. (I guess six, if you count the blow torch.) BUT, it is super fun to say and has a delicious texture. We couldn't eat them that night because they had to chill for a few hours, so we enjoyed them over the weekend.

  

January 26 -- Cooked with fresh fennel. It's kind of like the texture of celery but has a unique flavor, a little like black licorice. Made a really delicious mushroom fennel soup that night. (Sorry, it seems like this week has revolved around new food. I'll try to branch out a little next week.)

January 27 --  Met some new neighbors. Hung out with them twice in one day, actually. You know the high you get when you meet someone and think...Hey, we kind of click. We could be really good friends if I don't mess this up with my weirdness. That was the feeling I came home with. One that I've had many times since we moved here, but one that is compounded by the fact that they live only a few houses down. It's such a relief to know that there are a handful of people I can call right on my street if I need anything...a cup of sugar, some adult conversation, playmates for my kids (theirs are the same ages). We hit the jackpot with this neighborhood.

January 28 -- Used a blow torch for the first time. Those things are scary powerful! If I wasn't afraid of Josh getting his hands on it, I might start keeping it under my bed for protection against home intruders. This time I just used it to toast the sugar on my creme brulee. Can you now see why my husband wanted to make this? A great excuse to buy a blow torch. (And that's about the only thing he did to help.)

Christmas #2: Arizona

This Christmas, we headed down to the land of warm winters and spent about twelve days with Matt's wonderful family. All the siblings were home together, the sun was always shining, and there was Mexican food everywhere you looked. Perfection!

Jude spent the break working on his pirate face. I think he's got it down, but he should probably lose the preppy sweater vest if he wants to be taken seriously.

Steph brought her boyfriend Kevin home for Christmas since his parents are away on a mission. If you can't tell by his expression here, he fit in right away.

Per tradition, we all decorated the tree together. It was Matt's year to put up the star.

Josh spent a lot of time moving presents around, stacking them just right and wondering out loud what was inside each one. He was a little confused why none of the presents said his name. There are always code names on the presents in the Snow home. Cheri chooses a theme each year and assigns a character to each person, not to be revealed until Christmas day so no one can guess their gifts prematurely. We've been the Ninja Turtles, the Simpsons, and this year we were Snow White's seven dwarfs. 

Our time in Arizona was filled with lots of tickling...

lots of delicious home-cooking...

and lots of baby-snuggling.

Even though there's usually plenty of couch space, this is how we like to sit.

All the sibs dressed up one day so Matt could introduce them to the delectable Capital Grille. Mmmm...yesss.  If you can't tell, Matt is trying to be taller than everyone else. He feels really self conscious when he has to look up at people because it doesn't happen very much unless he's home. This is my shrimpy life in the Snow household. I am actually wearing heels here and I still feel like a dwarf. 

This little one was so tuckered out by all fun he was having that he would pass out randomly. Michelle was good enough to let him sleep on her, apparently not fearing one little bit that he'd sleep-pee all over her lap and/or laptop.

These two -- joined at the hip.

On Christmas Eve the Snows had their traditional dinner of Swiss steak and buche de noel cake, with a bunch of guests and a talent program. After everyone went home, we opened our Christmas jammies!  Michelle and Andrew would like me to mention that although they are matching, they are not a couple. Just in case you were confused.

As usual, there were feats of manly strength going on around every corner.

On Christmas morning we woke up early to open stockings before church. 

We all had to beat church early for choir, and most of us played in a last minute bell choir as well. It was actually pretty fun! Wish I had gotten some pictures wearing those sweet gloves.

Jude sacked out during church on the ward baby whisperer, brother Greer. Merry Christmas to everyone! He never naps at church when he's supposed to!

Hooray for our first decent family photo! Must have been Christmas magic. 

After church, we came home and jumped right back into our jammies to open presents. Josh found the Christmas carrot, so he got to open the first gift. Look at that proud face!

Jude was proud of himself for climbing up on the presents. He kept doing it over and over again, even after falling every which way.

Somebody had to help Grandpa sort all the presents.

And somebody should tell Kevin never to make that face again. At least not on Christmas. We could hear children screaming in fright from miles away.

Josh's favorite gift was probably this airplane set that shoots little dart things, which he calls cannon balls.

Traintastic Cargo was a close second, though. We have already played it 4,000 times. He also became obsessed with the game "Sorry" on this trip. The family was so nice to take turns playing it with him.

Rolling around in the Christmas loot!

Everyone got a card game in their stocking, so we got to play a few different versions of Flux. Here we're playing Zombie Flux. It's important to look like actual zombies during the game. Play hard or go home.

Kevin taught us another card game called Durak. It means "idiot" in Russian, so whoever loses has to do something stupid, like shove a grape up their nose or eat a pine needle from the Christmas tree. As you can see, I totally dominated.... I mean was dominated.

We really had a fun time. Before I left with the boys for California, Cheri wanted a picture of me next to the puzzle I helped with. It was actually Steph and Kevin's project, but I kind of invited myself in by super-gluing my pants to the couch until it was finished. I can't help it. Christmas isn't Christmas without a good puzzle.

And off we went to Redding to spend New Years with my family! That post coming soon, I hope. Last time I went home there were so many pictures that I just didn't post any of them and acted like the trip never happened. That was July.