Happy Birthday to Me x3

It is official...I am now 27! I am now in my "upper twenties, " but gosh do I feel good!

There were many celebrations. First with the Zeman family the night of our Christmas celebration where Mom made a great cake. Secondly was with both the Zemans and Peterson sides; we went out to Lunch before we headed back to St. Louis (homemade cupcake from the restaurant). And third... on my birthday we were in Houston and my friend Erin made me an ice cream cake (yum, with oreos!)

God has blessed me with another year of life, and for that I am thankful. Thank you all for celebrating with me. I was spoiled!

Zeman Christmas

Christmas at Mom and Dad Zeman's house was great. Considering we don't get to see the family often because of distance, Christmas was a time to celebrate Jesus' Birthday, but to also catch up with family (we miss them!). Laughter, games, food, family and gifts.

Dad and I have the tradition of making the dumplings for the Saurkraut soup and Mom prepares the rest to celebrate this meal like she used to with her family. It's a tradition that will always be close to my heart (we even had leftovers to bring back to St. Louis!).

A Peterson Christmas

We reached a new landmark in life this Christmas - I had to work Christmas Eve! I suppose this is an indication of the rest of my life...

After I preached the "Family Services" in Ellisville on Christmas Eve, Kristy and I changed clothes, jumped in the car, and drove north to Wisconsin in order to wake up to Mom Peterson's Christmas breakfast.

We made it...and it was a great Christmas. Check out the family - wow, we are a good-looking crew! It was great to spend Christmas day with the entire Peterson family.

Our Christmas Date Night

It's been our tradition to celebrate Christmas together (just us two), before celebrating with our extended families. This year we went to see Narnia, out for a romantic dinner at a German Resturant here in St. Louis, drove around town to look at lights and then back home for dessert, gifts (I guess we were both very good this year!), and time together.

Christmas Cheer

We volunteered to help a family in need find joy in the Christmas season. Our church works with the Good Samaritan Service Center for the Homeless in St. Louis and organized a Christmas party with games, Santa, food and gifts. It was great to see everyone laugh and enjoy. These are the cute children that we had the priviledge to care for during this time.

The tree fits!

Last year we cut down a new that nearly took up our whole condo. This year we find our small tree to be just right (way to go Home Depot for cutting it down for us). And the angel fit too and we didn't even need to cut off the top of our tree!

Advent by Candle Light...Girls only

Yep, it's only a girl thing. It was a night to gather us ladies to focus on Jesus, the light of the world. There were about 600 ladies in attendence (each hostest having to set a fancy table for the guests). We (myself and my good friend Aimee) decorated a table which was fun, but a lot of work (Thanks Aimee). I made a cheese cake with my new spingform pan (love it) and we also had chocolate fondue with many dippens. It was a night of prayer, music, socialization and how can we forget good dessert. I was asked to do an gather eveyone and say the opening blessing/prayer (just practice for I am a "real" pastors wife!)

KIP and PIG...what??

This is Pete! Yep, this is the guy that keeps Ryan in line at chruch (aka: supervisor). He calls me KIP (Kristy in pink), I guess my wardorbe has a couple too many pink shirts. I call him PIG (Pete in grey)...I guess that is only funny to us. This is us at the St. John Christmas party.

Busch Stadium Falls

It is true that today (Thursday, December 8th), the last piece of Busch Stadium fell to the ground. There's plenty of debris to be cleared...but there are no more arches circling the top of the stadium. Less than 4 months to Opening Day at the new Busch!

Thanksgiving in Wisconsin

Having both of our families in WI is quite convienent and fun because our 5 days are well spent with family. We spent 3 days in Door County (Mom and Dad Peterson own a condo) where we survived the best of Wisconsin Winter. Then headed back to Milwaukee for the fun filled Zeman celebration. Best of all we were able to see Bryan, our nephew who is now 8 months old and Derrick, Marissa and Noah (wow, they grow up so fast). And of course they are the cutest neices and nephews ever.

Flat Tire!!

So I am driving to my next visit and the day is going smoothly....until, thump, thump. My 60 hours per mile went to zero. I thankfully was able to get off the highway and we have All State. But that didn't help when the spare is flat, now does it? Oh, I was chuckling inside because I really needed to use the "ladies room" and well, there was nothing around...and my cell phone was almost about the die because I was trying to get the heck out of the area (yeah, not so nice of an area). Needless to say, the All State dude filled my tired 3 times and we made it to the nearest tire repair place. Yeah, it was a 6 inch bolt...not a hole that can be patched. My 8 month old tire was done. And lucky me, I now have 2 new tires to tred thru "all" the St. Louis snow.

Go Badgers!

Neither Kristy or I had been to a University of Wisconsin football game in the past couple years (we're in Big 12 country now!)...until Saturday! It was a perfect autumn day for football in Champaign, Illinois. Champaign is about three hours from St. Louis, so we decided to head east with another Badger fan (our friend Stacey) and two Illini fans (JC and Jen) to Memorial Stadium. It was an odd site...we were used to sold-out games at Camp Randall in Madison; here, we were GIVEN 5 FREE tickets into the game! No joke - people were handing us $37 tickets. I think they couldn't stand to see the massacre, so they gave tickets out before the game even started. The game was more competitive than we thought...but in the end, the Badgers prevailed and remained atop the Big 10. The real test will come next weekend at Penn State...

Anyone up for some pumpkin cheesecake?

Well if you are, you need to head to the Peterson's house. Yet, by that time, Ryan may have eaten the whole thing. (I had to hind the Halloween candy from my kid of a husband...it's a little harder to hide cheesecake). Anyways, I am on this Fall cooking kick. Yep, the chili will be stewing this weekend, the pumpkin seed roasting and the chex-mix will be enjoyed while we are at the Wisconsin vs Illinois Football game. So indeed, we are enjoying autumn in St. Louis. Get this - we brewed our first pot of coffee, just like Starbucks! (we had to add a little Baileys to make it taste better!)

On a very different note, I am watching ER...good stuff, yet it's very interesting how death is portrayed. It's like at one mintue they are alive and talking and then next minute they aren't. Now, keep in mind, this is coming from a Hospice Nurse who has been at the bedside of many deaths. I won't go into detail (honestly it's not a bad thing, I just now that it is a sensitive subject) yet, it just isn't like that. Ok, I am done. Well, maybe not...Aimee Cima knows that we can talk medical all day long, but honestly, I am always up for a talk or to spread some of my hospice knowledge. Can you believe that I wrote more about death than fall...obviously it's on my mind. Grandma Zeman passed 7 years ago...wow, I can't believe it. And please keep Jenni and Chris in your prayers for Chris' Grandfather who passed. It's a blessing to know God's promise of everlasting life. Aren't I a good vicars wife?

What do you write on your first post of your first day of your first blog? Not too sure...but we'll try anyways! Maybe it would be appropriate to thank all those friends who have blogged before us: Jamie, Tami, the Wests, and so many others. Maybe we should just jump into the recent events of our life in St. Louis. Or maybe we should leave it here and learn more about blogging so we can share pictures and more insightful thoughts in the coming days. Good idea...