xmas numero dos

the next morning we had our traditional christmas at my mom's house.  like usual, my mom spoiled us rotten and we all got a bunch of great gifts.  here are some of the highlights...

typical isaacson christmas tree... fatter than it is tall.  and i love it.

awww pretty mama :)

an ornament my mom got tommie.  if you can't read it, it says 'we interrupt this marriage for hunting season.'  haha.

isaacson tradition: everyone gets booze as a gift

my booze :)

missy's first isaacson christmas.  i think she enjoyed herself.

the super cool brewers artwork that my mom got tommie.

a red tea kettle.  yay!

the fam comes to visit

ok so admittedly i'm a little behind on my blogging again.  so let's travel back about a month in time to begin catching up...

the weekend after christmas my brother and his wife missy were in town so my aunt, cousins and first cousins once-removed (aka my cousin's kids) came to visit at my mom's house.  

we ate, drank and were merry :)

in order of appearance (aka left to right): my aunt barbie, missy, paul, my mom & my cousin stephanie

my cousin chad, his girlfriend marissa & my handsome hubby <3

paul & missy... so cute :))))

stephanie's sons christian and bennett.  i love them.  so frickin' cute.

this is what happens when you give tommie a baby.  i'm slightly concerned about the well-being of our future children...

christmas day

christmas morning tommie and i quickly opened our stockings before heading out for another jam packed day of family activities.  as many of you know, last year tommie failed miserably at stuffing my stocking.  i'm happy to report that this year he did much better :)

our first stop of the day was at tommie's parents' house where we enjoyed brunch & gift opening.

nothing like a screwdriver to start the day off right!

gifts for everyone :)

our next stop was to fall river for my mom's extended family gathering.  the festivities included a visit from santa (played by one of my cousins), eating, drinking and of course card playing.  i must have been too busy to take pics.  the highlight for me was when my mom and i whooped my cousin and his girlfriend in a couple games of euchre.

on the road again...

our final stop of the day was back to our house to watch the packers game with my mom and dad.  go pack go!  a perfect way to end the christmas weekend :)

my brother even got in on the party thanks to the modern marvel of skype :)

christmas eve

christmas eve was jammed packed for us as usual, but it was worth it for all the fun family time.  the evening started out with church at tommie's grandparents' church downtown madison.  after church, the entire piller/rittman clan went back to his grandparents' house for dinner and gift exchange.

family pic in front of our christmas tree before church <3

tommie with his mom and aunt gretty

tommie's bro dave and his cousins kalley & hannah

tommie's uncle greg & aunt kit

tommie's grandpa bill opening a leg lamp (a la A Christmas Story)

after we finished at his grandparents' house, we went back to my dad's house to open stockings and gifts.  i got some great gifts including foldable, red ray ban sunglasses from tommie and a green bay packers stock and some clothes from my dad.

my super awesome sunglasses.  i'm obsessed.

i'm an official owner of the green bay packers!

tommie also got some awesome gifts including an automatic tinting welding helmet and some other tool thing that i can't remember from my dad and a foosball table from me (which unfortunately now means that i'm going to have to learn how to play).   

looking good...

tommie and i got my dad some clothes from l.l. bean, a new badger hat and a beard trimmer (exciting, huh?).

my dad modeling his new sweater

a hat that fits his giant head... it's a miracle!

scoops or daggers??

does anyone else agree that eating tostitos scoops is really painful?  don't get me wrong, they're great for picking up salsa or queso dip, but i can't help but feel like daggers are stabbing the roof of my mouth every time i take a bite.  major FAIL.

jenna's joy of the day

i'm not sure if you love amazon.com as much as i do, but today i discovered something AMAZING.  not only do they sell groceries, but you can set up automatic delivery for items  that you eat all the time.  there's FREE shipping and you get a 15% DISCOUNT for signing up for the automatic delivery.  so now every 6 months i'll get a pack of 6 boxes of my Kashi cereal for under $16 (roughly $2.65 per box).  at Copp's it costs me $4-$5 per box.  if that's not awesome, i don't know what is.

an interesting mix of spicy & sweet

So I was browsing Crate & Barrel's website when I should have been working this morning and I stumbled upon this... Jalapeño Lemonade Mix.  I love jalapeños and I enjoy a cold glass of lemonade every now and then, but this does NOT sound good to me.  Would YOU try this?!?