CAST YOUR VOTES

Happy 1st anniversary to the Oplinger Family Blog!

Thank you all for being so committed to this endeavor. I, for one, feel closer to family and felt so much joy this past year sharing our lives. To celebrate our family and our creativity, we'll award some lucky blogger(s) "best video post" and "best photographic post". Winner(s) will be awarded with an all expenses paid (that's room & board... he, he) Maine vacation! Wow! Please email Mary at maryoplinger@gmail.com with your nominations by January 15, 2010. I will reveal the top 6 nominated posts and will ask you again to vote for THE BEST in each of the above categories. Get researching (or posting... there's one day left) and vote!

Love to all, Mary

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! Below are some nice family shots we took tonight. Ashley and Mikey have a new addition: Nali (Avatar?). Cally loved Nali as you can see below as she was holding and kissing her.

Christmas Eve at the Mascelli's

We enjoyed a delicious Christmas Eve dinner at Aunt Linda and Uncle Pete's last night. Uncle Pete made a mouth watering lasagna (nothern Italy style). This was then followed by a tasty rum cake made by Aunt Linda. After eating all of this, it was very hard to keep our eyes open at the 9:00 pm mass!

Due to an overly large Sergio Christmas Production..all will have to wait until I figure this out!

cookie catastrophies...

Heating a peanut butter blossom cookie and getting the hershey's kiss all gooey is the best, but how long is too long to put in the microwave? My mom found out first hand Tuesday night when she didn't notice how long she put the cookies in the microwave and then proceeded to have a conversation with me...when she realized the microwave had been going a while she quick opened the door. The cookies came out smoking and the sugar they were rolled in before they were baked was carmalized and burning!

Last night she was making wreaths (yea I had one as my lunch today!) and my dad and I were making Spritz cookies. I put a tray into the 400 degree oven and went on the other side of the kitchen to make some more dough. A few seconds later my mom realizes that I closed her apron in the oven door!!! She looked at my dad and I and yelled 'you guys!' (like we did it on purpose?) and then when she opens the door realizes that her apron is actually stuck and starts yelling 'OH SHIT!' Luckily it came loose she didn't catch on fire!

If it were me, I would definately think twice about letting her near your cookies this holiday season!!

Buddies

Couldn't resist... caught this today... good thing I have my little camera around because I never seem to have the big video camera handy!

One for Me, One for You

Cally is not shy when it comes to sharing food with Otis - even when Mommy and Daddy tell her no. This was a first sharing food with Otis with a spoon! Yuck!

Happy Holidays!

When you look at these faces, you know this is what Christmas is all about.

Love you all!

Cally and the Dancing Penguins

My dad took this video earlier today and wanted to share! Cally perfected pushing the button this weekend. She usually dances. Here, you see her not letting the penguins jingle their bells on their own. :)

Stubborn Rottweiler

Ruger likes to play his game called "which door do I want to enter." We are always calling and calling and when he doesn't come, we know to check the rest of the doors in the house. Sure enough, he is always standing at another door....waiting and only willing to enter through that door that he has chosen.

Grandma's Deer Watching for Santa at Brownstone Drive

How much did my dad have to drink??

We stopped for gas on the way home, and when my dad was done and got back in the car I commented how the guy next to us dropped his gas cap twice. Dad's response was 'He's probably more loaded than I am!' haha

After we got home from the party...he is telling me how comfortable my new bed is!

What were you drawing?

Chain saw:

Lock jaw:

2009 Holiday Get Together

Last night Sal and I held a little get together at the house while Aunt Mary and Uncle Charlie were here in Pottstown visiting for the weekend. The combination of good food, family, drinks....and a little competitiveness always leads to a good time.

As usual for a typical Oplinger party...most of the time was spent congregating around the food!! We had hardly any leftovers.

We can't have a party without playing a game! Pictionary was this year's game. This game has always proven to create good memories in the past and this year was no different. We had yelling, screaming and even an accidental "punch" in the jaw!! The teams were broken down between the cousins vs. the Aunts and Uncles.

Below are the last two plays before the Aunts and Uncles needed to take a break to get some food and drinks. Ultimately, this game never resumed....therefore, the cousins won. There was a second game started later, which was just as exciting and ended with with Uncle Charlie, Alex, Mike (Shauna) and Mikey (Ashley) beating Kelli, Shauna, Ashley, Stacy and Aunt Linda in a very close ending.

The first video is my dad drawing for the Aunts and Uncles team. I think next year we need to go through the rules again.... He started out writing 1K for Grand Canyon....

The second video is an all play with Aunt Linda and Alex.

Choose Your Winners

Calling all Bloggers to pick your favorite 2009 posts from the Oplinger Family Blog. Some of my favorites are: "Henry's New Jacket", 'Sergio Franchi & Mrs. Franchi", "Up on Santa Claus Mountain", "I'm a Big Girl Now", "Mary Needs to Stop Knitting", "Good Morning!!!", "Officer Sal", "Sunset", "Fan-tasia", "Don't You Cry... Baby", "Malmquists in Maine", "Cally's Easy Button", "One Woman Baby Band", "Keeping Cool", "Packing Heat", ""Monster Mash", and "Lost Video from the First Thanksgiving". And then there's Linda's cryptic "Getting Camera Ready... 24 days to wait". Will her post trump all? Now is the time to reacquaint yourselves with our first year of posts and submit your last 2009 posts. Frankly, I'm having a hard time deciding. You'll be emailing Mary O with your picks. Deadline is January 15th.

First snowfall in Pottsown

It snowed here yesterday in Pottstown. We got about 4-5 inches at our house. The boys love running around out there!!

Apple Bathroom

Here are some pics of my new apple bathroom. This room was by far the hardest room to paint in the house due to the wallpaper they super glued on!! This is it for the painting for a while. Hope to do our bedroom early next year!

New rooms

Hey fellow painting crew members...just wanted to give you a quick update on the rooms. First off thanks for your help! I would have been lost if I had to do all that by myself! I finished the trim and around the windows Monday and Tuesday. The guy came to measure the carpet Wednesday and he will be installing that the 11th. Dad finally got his butt into gear and painted the other room (tonight!) He still has the flooring to do and promises it'll get done this weekend (we'll see...). Mom has finally stopped complaining about all of the stuff on one side of the fireplace! And my furniture is coming the 12th. Hopefully it comes early so I can get down to the party ASAP!!! I'm saving pictures for when it's all completed!

Kelli, where's your apple bathroom?? I can't wait to see it! Hope everyone has a good weekend. 1 more week and we can all hang out!!

Getting camera ready...24 days to wait!