Christmas in michigan

since luke & i became luke & i, we've been alternating Christmases between his family and mine. we've started a new tradition of celebrating our little Christmas together afterwards, and this year, we celebrated after our trip on december 30th.

we started out by making dinner - garlic shrimp with penne pasta & asparagus, plus french bread and olive oil for dipping. (and a cocktail for luke and a shirley temple for me).

after dinner, we read the Christmas story from Bible. my grandpa smith, and then my dad used read this every Christmas eve. it's a tradition we definitely want to keep up.

afterward, we snacked on peanut brittle and egg nog while we began to open our gifts. we saved all of the gifts that were sent to us for this night - from my parents, sister, grandparents, our phoenix families and each other.


thank you everyone for your cards and gifts and thoughts and generosity. we are so blessed to have you in our lives.

Christmas in chicago

we've just returned from a fabulous week with the p/k family in chicago. 11 people under one roof - sleeping, snacking, playing, resting, laughing. ann (luke's mom) and her husband bill hosted the four brothers and their families. they were amazing. andrew came from new york, mark and his wife paloma plus their two little ones, laura & john, flew in from england, brian and his girlfriend ashlei came in from seattle, and luke and i drove in from michigan. here are some of the memories we made.

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we started the week by picking up brother andrew at the detroit airport. the three of us went to buddy's pizzeria - a famous detroit restaurant who supposedly made the first square pizza. not only is it famous around the nation, but it was a local favoite for luke's parents when they lived in detroit over 30 years ago.

after the six hour drive through snow and ice and sleet, we finally arrived in chicago. the fun began immediately. here's ann:

the past few years have taught me that whenever the plonskys get together, some type of mask or fake teeth always show up on someone. here's laura and paloma with this year's costume:

mark & paloma:

and sweet little johnny:

brother brian playing with the little ones:

laura trying a lemon:

brother mark and his little one:

paloma taught me how to make a traditional spanish flan - sooo0 yummy (and easier than i expected):

laura, playing in the snow:

and sledding:

ann and her first grandson:

brother andrew playing a bit:

luke reading bilingual laura the little red riding hood in spanish:

luke and i made his famous guacamole for everyone - it was a huge hit and disappeared in about 10 minutes:

andrew sleeping in the middle of the post-Christmas madness:

cranberries being prepared for ann's famous cranberry sauce:

brian & laura, being cozy:

mark, after slaving over the Christmas turkey and making his special spanish marinated roasted vegetables:

bill & ann:

luke & i:

tiny Christmas feet:

a charlie brown Christmas movie:

paloma & ashlei with their oragami flowers:

homemade whip cream on pumpkin pie:

a trip to the city for a walk around the zoo and then a ska show at the metro (luke and his brothers used to be in a ska band back in high school):

we stopped in wrigleyville on our way out of town for a walk around the city and some pretty great mexican food at el jardin:

handmade gifting

at the last minute we realized our goal of homemaking all of our gifts for luke's family. it was harder than i expected, and took more time and money than i anticipated, but we're really happy with the results. here are a few of the things we gave:

a little skirt and purse for our three year old niece:

here they are being modeled on Christmas morning:

a pair of kitchen towels for bill & ann:

andrew's nyc/brooklyn skyline pillow:

brian's seattle skyline pillow:

ashlei's skirt:

mark's apron:

Merry Christmas!

it's 6 degrees outside (with the wind chill that's an enjoyable -18) and we are finishing up the last of our hectic to-do list before leaving for the holidays. laundry, car wash, packing, unica, wrapping, haircuts, computer back-ups, Christmas cookies...

tomorrow morning we leave for a week in chicago at luke's mother's house. all of his three brothers and their families are joining us from different parts of the world so it should be a great family Christmas with lots of yummy food and fun and laughter (his brothers are some of the funniest people we've ever met). my favorite holidays are the ones where the whole family is together and sleeping under one roof, like this one.

we may or may not have internet access while we are there, so we wish everyone a wonderful holiday week and a Merry Christmas! we will be back on monday just before the new year.

merry Christmas, love, and blessings,
ldp & pssp

free food for a year!

it all started a month or so ago...

we saw a new pizza and sub place opening down the street with the following sign:


so we put the date in our calendar - dec 20th, 10:30 am. we discussed strategy - college town, lots of students have gone home, freezing weather, would we need to camp out?

since all of our camping equipment is in storage, we decided to risk it and leave the house at 6am. we put on all the layers that we could creatively conceive and arrived to a line of tents and campers and couches and drinkers. imagine complete darkness and 10 degree weather and a line of college students waiting for free food. the rumors ran that we were the 30th-60th people in line, so basically no one had any idea. we set up our chairs on the packed snow.

we stuck it out together for an hour or so before i realized that i hadn't felt my toes in awhile. my heroic hubby then sent my pregnant and freezing self home. he stuck it out for the both of us - he's such a trooper. i still don't know how he actually survived. i went home and (after a long, hot shower) came back at 10:30. the mood had definitely changed since the sun had come up, and they had just passed out the free food certificates. i couldn't believe it - check out what number luke was:

number 50! he was the last person to get the free food for a year! we were so so so excited and happy and in shock and thanking God. this blessing is not only fun for us, but will be such a nice treat each week for our stomachs and budget.


the local news and radio stations were there. one gave us movie tickets which was super sweet since luke and i never, ever spend money on movies.


we eventually got inside and they gave us a coupon book for a certain free item each week (pizza, subs, a ton of breadsticks). we were so happy to see that there was no catch.


this last shot is of the first person in line - they gave her a cape and a crown and maybe it was the cold or the early morning or just delirium but it made us laugh.

overall - a success! thanks to luke who is amazing to me and so tough to sit there alone in the cold. and thanks to God for taking care of us once again. :)

this week

- 9 inches of snow in one day


- average of 15 degrees (or less) at any moment


- luke did some neighborly car pushing


- we had the classic "how can anyone actually ever live here?" conversation again