This week..

-- we are finally almost organized for Christmas! The beginning of December was pretty booked for our family so we've been behind the ball. Packages are arriving about as quick as we can get the cardboard to the recycling. Last year I was on-call over Christmas so we are looking forward to a more traditional holiday this year! I am on-call before and after Christmas and have quite a few babies due so it's still going to be a little crazy. Elle is enjoying all of the festive activities so far - felt Christmas Tree from Gigi, Christmas books, an advent calendar with toys, playing with the Christmas tree, a toy nativity, and lots of Christmas music! She is great at pointing out every Santa and snowman we come across and she especially enjoyed the inflatable snowman she spotted at the store! This afternoon, she said the cutest little "jeeeess-sus" when picking up the piece from the nativity. So far, we've had only one present end up prematurely unwrapped thanks to a curious toddler.. we'll see how many repeat-wraps we have between now and our celebrations!

xo,

Krista

This week..

-- we wrapped up my Holiday call and had two fabulous Christmas celebrations - first in Holdrege then in Grand Island! As you can imagine, Elle was adorable at both. There is nothing better than sharing baby giggles/cuteness with the ones you love most! I really should post more pictures but we truly have hundreds. From Mom and Dad, Elle got her first babydoll as well as some play mats. From others, she received books, clothes, an unicorn bath towel, a few toys, baby gates, and a "baby's first Christmas" ornament, however, she was most interested in the handles on the gift bags. This week, she has accomplished the coordinated crawl and has really started to pull up on furniture and climb. She's had a few tough lessons when she tries to pull up on objects that weigh less than her and tip over - like the laundry basket. It was such a gift to be home with her for the last few days!

-- our nanny also announced she will not be returning to work. Thankfully, we found a spot at a local daycare center for Elle. It was tricky looking for childcare the week between Christmas and New Years when so many are closed! We will definitely miss the conveniences of a nanny such as not having to get Elle ready in the morning and keeping her isolated from germs. But, it seems nearly impossible to find another nanny on such short notice. I suppose life would be boring if everything went according to plan..

xo,

Krista

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2018

This week..

-- was another chaotic week with Travis out of town for 24 hours and of course, I had a baby to deliver during that same time! It felt like we were simply in survival mode all week. We're both looking forward to this coming week to get the house "reset", eat some normal home-cooked meals, and start planning the details for Christmas! Don't worry, we are almost done shopping for gifts, but, we are hosting my family this year so we get to plan the menu!

-- we also had multiple company Christmas parties! Can't complain about delicious catered food! Our evenings wrap up a little earlier now that the little miss is around - but we wouldn't change a thing! It also gave Elle a great excuse to wear her new winter coat (a gift from a coworker!).

xo,

Krista

HO3-- WEEK 26

We're always having too much fun to take many pictures!

This week..

-- I should probably make this a Christmas recap! We start our celebration with T's family for Christmas Eve - but this year with the holiday on a weekend we started on Xmas Eve Eve.  It meant more time together to play games, teach soccer drills (out in the freezing cold), share good food, and most importantly - be together! T's family is always super generous so we all have plenty of goodies under the tree to enjoy as well. Every-other year we get a bonus second Christmas to include our cousin who was at his mom's during our first celebration - and this was one of those years! I think T would say the highlight was playing with the kids' hoverboard. He didn't do too bad!
-- Which means we were able to spend the evening of Christmas Eve with my extended family! We have a couple new babies in the family which are always the highlight (they are growing up so fast!). My siblings weren't in town this year so our Christmas Day celebration was simple and sweet. As always, we tried some new recipes, opened presents, video-chatted with my siblings (always the best part!) and this year we caught a movie at the theater before heading back home. We are blessed with the greatest families and love any excuse to spend time together! Hope you all had fabulous holidays as well!

xo,
Krista

HO3-- WEEK 23

This week..

-- was fairly festive! We started with a Mannheim Steamroller concert Thursday night (tickets were courtesy of T's Mom's Boss - and were in their cooperate box! Plush seats. Free Drinks. And no cost to us!) The concert was exactly as you would imagine - complex scores of mostly Christmas music with intense lights, dramatic video, extreme volume, and heavy on the harpsichord. The best part was watching the two percussionists who played an insane number of instruments in each arrangement. 

-- we also had T's Christmas Party for work (of which he was volun-told to be on the party planning committee and was in charge of the party bus!) It was at a new venue in Grand Island with drinks, hors d'oeuvres, dinner, an open bar, and entertainment including a team karaoke contest, raffle prizes, and a professional musician. We even had party favors (Christmas ornaments!). This bank definitely has more holiday cheer (and allotted budget) compared to T's last job where they had a catered lunch as their celebration! We've been total scrooges this year missing most of my work Christmas Parties and with minimal decorations at home (some are already in storage at the new house!) so these were welcomed events!

-- we can officially call the garage complete! (Aren't you glad to be done with weekly updates!) We have one bill left from the electrician and then we can finally regroup and see what we may or may not have left for any furnishings or window coverings at the new house. We can both be pretty type-A, especially when it comes to finances, so we both feel relieved to have a final invoice.

xo,

Krista

HO2-- WEEK 31-32

Major Family Christmas 2016
(we were having too much fun to remember to take any pictures with the Stoecker Family!)

These past two weeks we...

-- thoroughly enjoyed celebrating Christmas with each of our families. We were thrilled to not have to travel to meet T's family on Christmas Eve plus T's bank in Grand Island closed earlier than his previous locations in Omaha so we had probably triple the time with his family! We broke tradition and had a delicious turkey dinner (and our sweet potatoes made another appearance!) then opened packages. We especially had fun gifting a few things that weren't specifically asked for -- like the beautiful shelf T built for his grams, the smart watch for his mom, and the AeroGarden for my parents. Because of the zero-visibility fog in the forecast, we left for my family's Christmas celebration Christmas Eve and made it to Omaha in time to celebrate with my extended family. What a bonus! Christmas Day with my siblings started with buttermilk pancakes + homemade buttermilk & blueberry syrups plus quiche! (It's tradition..) We then Skype'd with my out-of-state Grandma & brother and exchanged presents. The siblings decided to anonymously exchange names (we used Elfster) for our gift exchange-- and I think everyone was genuinely excited about the gifts they received! We spent the rest of the day playing games (the voting game, exploding kittens, we didn't playtest this at all, LCR, cards, and others I'm sure I'm forgetting) and spent a significant amount of time sharing our favorite YouTube videos. The fun extended until the 26th! T and I were able to stay in Omaha an extra night since Christmas fell on a Sunday and the highlight of the day-after was stealing a few more minutes via Chinese takeout with my Aunt and Grandma! We had such a good Christmas!

xo,
Krista

HO2-- WEEK 29

working on the secret Christmas gift!

This week...

-- we traveled to Omaha for the weekend to see the Christmas Symphony and spend time with family! Growing up, we would see the Christmas Carol at the Omaha Community Playhouse every year. It was such a fun tradition! Our newest Christmas show is the Symphony at the Holland downtown. It's an incredible show! You get the Omaha Symphony PLUS singers, dancers, and a choir in the loft. They do a great mix of sentimental classics and playful pieces (a Santa kick line! dancers as reindeer with amazing headpieces! kids from the audience!) If anyone in Omaha needs some holiday cheer, I highly recommend it.
-- we worked on a Christmas gift for a very special lady! We're not typically the homemade-type but we couldn't find anything close to what we wanted- at any price point! So, we found the plans online, and decided to be ambitious! My dad was gracious to let us use his workshop and miter saw (as well as lend a couple more hands and another set of eyes!). It may have taken a couple trips to the hardware store in the ice storm to get just the right materials, but it was totally worth it! It was so fun to work together on a project again (I can say fun now that it all came together like it should!). We have just a few details to finish this week before we gift it.  Plus, it gave us an excuse to buy a Kreg Jig which I've wanted for ages (I'm really good at justifying new tools).

xo,
Krista
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HO2-- WEEK 28

This week..
-- we finished putting up Christmas lights - about time, right? We sprung for some fancy lights that are controlled by an app on your cellphone and you can pick from 140 different color + effect combinations. The pictures above aren't a very good representation of all the options but I've accepted the challenge to have a different display every night! Tonight, they are turquoise + glimmer.. last night was Valentine's Day + sparkle. We're also loving the addition of a real evergreen wreath on our door. And, if you're wondering, we have the newest Pentatonix Christmas CD on repeat.
-- well, month, I've been working with cardiology. Have we talked about this? So I just see the inpatient consults (I don't spend any time in their clinics) for all the typical cardiac issues: chest pain, fast heart rates, arrhythmia, etc. We have a cath lab so we can take care of nearly every issue except for bypass surgeries (we send them to Lincoln for those). I've always loved cardiology (the physiology is so logical!) so I'm enjoying my month. When I'm not in the hospital seeing their patients, I'm seeing patients in my own clinic or volunteering at the community clinic in town.

xo,
Krista

HO2-- WEEK 26

This week..
-- we enjoyed two Thanksgiving celebrations! We spent Thursday in Omaha with my family and Saturday with T's (love it when the two celebrations don't conflict!). We definitely at our fair share of turkey + gravy + mashed potatoes + sweet potatoes + dressing + green beans + cranberry sauce + frog-eye salad + rolls + pumpkin pie & apple pie. T was excited that the Cowboys won & my parents were excited about the Steelers. The 50+ degree weather was also welcomed - especially at T's Thanksgiving with younger kids. But the best part? Spending time with family! I think it made all of us excited for Christmas when even more of us will be together. We feel so fortunate!
-- we found a spot for our Christmas tree in our new home! We love our tree, unfortunately it is too large for this space too. With a little creative fluffing/smushing we're able to pull it snug against a wall and make it work. #worthit

xo,
Krista

HOI-- WEEK 30

1- My sister & I with the beautiful bride
2- The Major family!
3- The brothers throwing snowballs waiting for my sister's plane to land
4- The Major family (formal edition!)

This week...

-- we celebrated Christmas Eve with T's family in Grand Island (per the annual tradition!). Omaha had a dump of snow that morning and it almost seemed like traveling would be impossible, however, the snow stopped just as T got off work so our plans were not affected! We enjoyed dinner, gifts, and games before the night ended too quickly. We stuck around for a quick breakfast but then hit the road back to Omaha to snag time with my family too. T's family is always incredibly generous and this year was no different! We are so lucky.
-- Christmas Day was quite a bit different than usual with my family in Omaha! It was a slow start because half the siblings didn't get into town until dinner time but then it was fabulous! It's been a year since we've been all together! Of course we started with a great meal. Next, every person had some time to share their latest adventures. Then, we opened presents and played a few games! It went so fast. But luckily we were together again the next day!
-- one of our favorite people in the world (Aunt S) married one of our new favorite people in the world! We loved celebrating their wedding on the 26th (and especially loved having another excuse to spend time with the extended family!) It was one of those weddings that was fabulous to attend and just fit the couple perfectly! So fun!
-- we wrapped up the weekend by celebrating my brothers birthday (a few days early!). Thanks to Trader Joe's we had a delicious meal and, as always, lots of laughs. It is so fun watching R grow into the man he is today. We can't wait to see what he does after graduation this summer!

xo,
Krista

HOI-- WEEK 29

Symphony at the Holland Performing Arts Center

This week..
-- we continued our tradition of attending the Omaha Symphony Christmas Celebration! It's not only the symphony playing traditional christmas carols -- it includes fantastic singers, dancers, and modern holiday songs. My favorite piece is always when Anne Nagosky's Violin Studio plays - mostly because the toddlers are ridiculously adorable with their tiny, tiny violins!
-- we celebrated Christmas (round 1!) with T's family in Lincoln. We split our time between fighting monsters in the couch fort with the kids and a delicious meal with the adults. We love spending time with our families!
-- we aged about 70 years and became obsessed with puzzles. It all started after we watched the Huskers win the Volleyball national championship at my parents house. Following the win, we settled at the game table and totally finished a 550 piece puzzle in less than 2 hours. Can't say its the strangest thing we've ever done..
-- are looking forward to next week when we get to spend more time with family including my out-of-state siblings. We also get to be at the wedding of two of our favorite people! It's going to be a great week!

xo,
Krista

SI -- WEEK TWENTY SEVEN

It's a new month - so let's chat about my rotation! I'm back at the VA in town working on the general medicine floors. This is the same rotation I did back in September but with a different team (all men!). My schedule will be working nearly every day of the month (I'll have 4 total days off) along with an all day-->night-->day shift every 6th day. This month I'll have two different attending doctors - so I'll learn some from each of their styles of practice. The boys on my team are also a fun mix: med-peds, radiation oncology, and internal medicine. Maybe that is all gibberish to you-- but basically there will be a lot of different perspectives to bounce around when we discuss plans of care.

Before I started back to work on Friday, T and I attended a Murder Mystery Mascarade on New Years Eve. This photo is the only evidence that it really happened:

Backing up even earlier in the week.. Travis and I drove across the state to Scottsbluff for my final residency interview. It took us about 7 hours to make the trek. The drive out was beautiful! We had super blue skies and great views of the bluffs:

When we got to town, we drove around to see the sights (including where we would attend church) then grabbed dinner from a bar. We ate in bed as we watched Divergent on HBO then the newest episode of The Librarians (I highly recommend both!).

The next morning, I awoke early and spent the morning interviewing with the program director and a resident. I took a tour of both the main hospital as well as the clinic where the residents work. It wasn't the best of weather.. this was my view in the morning as I left to drive up the hill to my interview:

Besides the slosh on my suit pants.. the day went great! T and I grabbed lunch at a local mexican restaurant and then we made the trek home! The drive home was basically pure white and terribly windy:

I really enjoyed my time in Scottsbluff and I would LOVE to live in the western part of the state. The weather, views, culture -- its all so different. Hours from the mountains? Yes please! Bluffs to hike and explore in town? Sounds great! T and I haven't finalized anything, but we are still expecting to preference Grand Island. I'll keep you updated!

The final thing to include in this post is pictures from R's birthday dinner that was just a few hours ago. We had La Casa Pizza, garlic bread, and homemade Madagascar Vanilla Bean Custard. Any guess which part I helped with? :)

The "vanilla caviar" that made the custard so delicious! Mmmm.. such delicious little specks!
Sorry I neglected to take a final picture!

It was a casual get-together with plenty of "R memories" to go around (that is the family tradition -everyone shares a memory of the person that is having the birthday). The best was the one shared by E when R cut up the shorts he was wearing and tried to deny his guilt.. as he was still holding the scissors. 

R got a few new games - so of course we had to break them in! [Pictured is Ticket to Ride]

T acted as a consultant.. but he had other important business --> the Cowboy game!

FINALLY.. sorry, this has turned into a busy post.. as I was hanging some Christmas cards & family pictures on our fridge..

I remembered someone asked me to post our Christmas card! So here it is! Big thanks to Leslie Leavitt for taking our picture :)

Sorry.. pictures of pictures are notoriously terrible..

Whew! Did you follow all of that? I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and have a great week ahead! Stay warm and keep off that ice!

xo,

Krista

SI-- WEEK TWENTY SIX

We had a fabulous Christmas Eve & Christmas Day! I'll provide a little commentary.. but this post will be mostly photos/videos:

CHRISTMAS EVE

T's family is crazy-generous. The presents were stacked this high the entire circumference of the tree!

T's favorite gift: a cream sode sampler pack

The bank closed earlier this year so we made it to Grand Island a few hours before dinner. It was super nice to have a little extra time to play before the traditional chili dinner with Tom & Jerrys to drink. The adults made time for a few games of liars dice before the night ended..

CHRISTMAS DAY

After a glazed croissant (or two!) that we brought from Olson's bakery, we drove back to Omaha to spend the day with my family.  We started with a breakfast of buttermilk pancakes + buttermilk syrup + glazed croissants + egg soufflé. I helped plan the menu.. but everyone else did the work while we were driving:

Mom hinted at Thanksgiving that it would be nice to have candlesticks with some sentiment - so the siblings went together to make that happpen:

E also updated some artwork that hangs in the dinning room by painting over the generic print:

Dad's gifts were entirely consumables including Trader Joe goodies from T & I.

Don't worry, we were spoiled too:

We then had some downtime to play:

Spoons + TocToc Wood Man + The Resistance

This hysteria was from old Christmas minute-to-win-it video clips

This is how the game Resistance starts...

We had a second fabulous meal which included a few more family members:

T and I made a "tape ball" last year as a pseudo-joke of an activity -- but it was so much fun we made one again this year! This one was pretty ridiculous and included 50+ prizes and two entire rolls of tape:

Now today (Sunday) we are driving to Scottsbluff, NE so I can interview on Monday for their residency program (like I just did in Grand Island). The weather is supposed be single-digits so I'm not sure we will spend much time exploring the area... Wish us luck!

xo,

Krista

SI-- WEEK TWENTY FIVE

This week really started to feel like Christmas to me. I think it's the mild weather that is confusing.. Thursday night we attended the Christmas show put on by the Omaha Symphony. I embedded the advertisement because if you are in the area next year, you really should think about going. Not only is the Symphony incredible, but the singers and dancers are top-notch.

I think my favorite song was "Rudolph: The Real Story" by Doug Katsaros.  The story reveals Rudolph was actually only interested in dancing and that he was actually afraid of flying. The dancers wore reindeer headpieces that fit the number perfectly. Rudolph also had a very fun tap number worked in.

Different show, same headpieces

So Thursday started the Christmas mood.. but Saturday really sealed it. T and I met some of my favorite people at one of my favorite restaurants, Block 16. I ate a HUGE meal of one of the best pork sandwiches I've ever had. T tried the gansta fries which are dressed in chipotle sauce, green onion, and pork rinds. I was really tempted to try the dragon fries which have crushed fortune cookie on top. yummmmm

After lunch, T was the best sport ever and went to Village Pointe shopping center with me. You guys. We went to arguably the best shopping center in town the Saturday afternoon before Christmas. It took about three times as long to turn into the shopping center then it did to finish the errand. There were exactly zero open parking stalls!

But the best part of Saturday was the evening! Two (?) years ago, my siblings and I decided that we would rather spend a night together instead of buying each other Christmas gifts. This year, our night together started like this:

Well, it actually started with Trout Dip...
but that was engulfed in less than 60 seconds

Then, we tried to get a table at Spielbound, the board game cafe in Midtown, but it was packed. Instead, we took our games to E's apartment where we played two games: Coup and Resistance. They are both games where players have hidden identities/missions and bluffing is required. The five of us have a ton of fun trying to accuse each other of bluffing.  AND E served us fresh homemade pomegranate lemonade --> delicious! He added cloves (which I never would have thought of!) which really made it good. Here are a few candids S & I took:

T had to teach us girls how to play - but after a couple rounds we caught on!
E has (by far!) the best front. S & I do okay when we aren't giggling..

T had us all tricked with his bluffing during the last round. R & I are still shocked we didn't win it!

T caught me snapping pictures and decided to sabotage.. so I figured that deserves posting on the blog!

That was just the beginning of a destined-to-be-great Christmas break. I'm walking that tender line between catching up with friends and maintaing some down time.. such a difficult task! But I had a fabulous day today relaxing with T so I'm ready for some hectic holiday fun this coming week! We are dropping our Christmas cards in the mail tomorrow so be checking your mailbox :) We were so not organized so forgive us if we messed something up. Have a fabulous week and a Merry Christmas!

xo,
Krista

SI-- WEEK TWENTY THREE

The big event of the week was our church Christmas party on Friday. Being one of the Women's Leadership.. I was one of the (thankfully many!) people in charge of pulling off the event. Our presidency does great things on a regular basis (that may sound prideful.. but it's true. The women I work with are incredible and so willing to help others!) but I can't say we plan dinners for 150+ people on a regular basis. We were all a little stressed about the event..

We had a tight budget to work on - but we made things work. T's uncle helped us find delicious hams at a reasonable price for the main dish. It took 6 giant hams to feed our crowd:

My fridge was packed to the brim for a week!

Four of us women each (nervously!) heated a ham at our home and then transferred it to the church for the dinner. It was a miracle! All 6 turned out fabulous! I also picked up a backseat full of rolls from Rotella Bakery on Friday afternoon for super cheap. We received some coupons for free 12packs of Pepsi products - the annoying thing was you could only use one coupon per transaction. So we stopped almost daily at the grocery store to bring home a 12pk each trip so that we could offer soda within our budget. Thankfully church members signed up to bring potatoes, vegetables, and desserts to round out the meal. I'd say the whole event was a success!

(1) A peek into the party as it was getting started!
(2) My view for the majority of the party (from the prep kitchen)

And the cutest part of the party (by far!) was the children's reenactment of the nativity:

It feels so good to have some downtime with T this month! We've slept in as much as possible and caught up on a few good shows. We've been able to have people over for football & pizza multiple times (so far we've introduced our friends to Goodnights and Orsi's). We tackled our Christmas gift shopping on Saturday and we are nearly finished. I credit our efficiency to a rockstar game plan.. We took some Christmas card photos on Saturday - I'll share them here if any turn out! Then tonight, we're having my parents over for chili and the Christmas Devotional. It doesn't get better than the MoTab singing Christmas carols! Well.. the Salem Baptist Church in Omaha is also pretty legit.

Hope you are all enjoying this fabulous season (and not over-stressing!). If you need a gentle reminder of what this holiday is all about - check out this video that is getting a lot of attention:

Love you all! Have a fabulous week!

xo,
Krista