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!!