And the Winners Are...

So we kinda forgot to post the winner of our trivia contest. No real good excuse. Just forgot. Guess we need to now, considering we're 8 days late...

We have heard from multiple people that you didn't even want to try after reading Lucy's answers. Because one brave soul was good enough to attempt, we have decided to crown not one, but 2 winners this year! Both Lucy & Maudie (Connie) will receive the fabulous prize of... (we're still trying to think of one, but we'll let you know when we do). Good job to our winners! The correct answers are below:

1. What do both Angie & Jessica cuddle up with in bed at night?

Blankets- Jess from when she was a baby, and Ang from early childhood. Both are getting threadbare. And yes, we're not afraid to admit we sleep with blankets. It's perfectly normal and healthy for a 25 year old to have one.

2. Where are you most likely to find them on a Friday night?

Two choices here: Acting like an old married couple who have run out of things to say so they sit across from each other in a restaurant reading the newspaper OR Sitting at home with takeout watching something from Netflix.

3. How many countries have they each been to? Bonus: name them

Jess: Canada, Slovakia, Poland, Austria, Czech Republic, Ukraine, England, France
Ang: Canada (I feel like that's a big duh), Austria, Germany (I could name places with layovers but that feels like cheating)

4. What are their individual meals of choice?

Jess: Eggplant Parmesan, Ang: the ultimate comfort food of rice, egg, onion, and corn... basically I only make it for myself because no one else appreciates it the way I do

5. What is the name of Angie's "boyfriend" that grew to full size in only 3 days?

Hans. A good burly boyfriend name.

6. What character did each of them dress up as at the Storybook Tea Party?

Jess: Ferdinand the Bull
Ang: CinderEdna (Cinderella's practical counterpart)

1T

Family Christmas Letter 2007

***Read to the end for a chance to win a fabulous prize!***

Dear Family & Friends,

If you are reading this, that means that you either got our Christmas letter or you are one of our faithful readers who jumped the gun a bit. Don’t worry, your card is coming soon (despite a snafu that you can read about here). This year we have left our life of spy drama and are now enjoying a more relaxed, less-themed world. Our real stuffed coyote, Henry, still guards us through every season and change of clothing we can stuff him into. We are still living in our gorgeous apartment and are continuing our pledge to be heterosexual life partners. Six years and counting! If you recall the Family Christmas Letter of ’02, you may remember that applications for future spouses were being accepted. Let’s just say that the positions have yet to be filled.

Jessica continues to teach K-5 Special Ed Resource at a local elementary school. When not trying to coax children out from under tables and sanitizing the said tables from booger smears, she spends her time bike riding in hopes of doing the upcoming STP (Seattle to Portland) bike ride with her sister Bekah. They hope to have the following mini license plates: NMBUNZ & TNDRCHX. Over the summer she used her time of to take the youth group from her parents’ church to Florida for the week long National Youth Gathering.

Angie is still working for a heating and cooling company and loves her job! She is also involved with her church’s youth group and absolutely adores hanging out with her group. Some of you have been following the journey of the non-profit that she is a board member of, and you will be happy to know that as of the beginning of this month, the café is up and running. Angie also loves to provide personal catering for her roommate and is helped with her endeavors by a new food processor & stand mixer. (Insert a big giant WOOHOO here for the full effect of her joy).

Thanks for caring and sharing in our lives. Below you will find a 5-minute slideshow of us this past year. You will also find a trivia game. Answer the questions in the comment section of this post and you could have the chance to win a prize from us! The answers don’t have to be correct, just creative. The person that has the best responses will receive an absolutely fabulous gift. The winner (and answers) will be announced on this blog sometime between Christmas and New Year’s.

Love,

Jess & Ang

Trivia Game (cheating is allowed, but make it funny)

1. What do both Angie & Jessica cuddle up with in bed at night?
2. Where are you most likely to find them on a Friday night?
3. How many countries have they each been to? Bonus: name them
4. What are their individual meals of choice?
5. What is the name of Angie's "boyfriend" that grew to full size in only 3 days?
6. What character did each of them dress up as at the Storybook Tea Party?

1.

Amen!

God has 4,235,843 friends on MySpace

Uh, We Lied...

Know how we just got done saying that we had the best Christmas Card idea ever? Well, we were wrong. It looked good online and sounded hilarious when we discussed it, but once we received it, we saw how completely awful the product was. Now that I have just mailed the box back and you won't be getting them, I'll just come out and tell you that they were.... whoopee cushions. That's right people, whoopee cushions! Tell me that's not a genuinely funny idea, especially with our message on it:

I personally was holding out to put "Merry Christm-ass" (please tell me you get that) as the greeting, but Jess vetoed the idea. Granted, I also think some of my relatives might have a coronary if they saw it, so I had to reluctantly agree. But you have to admit it was a brilliant play on words.

So why did we return them you ask? For several reasons, one of them being the size of the writing on the cushions:

Uh, yeah. We could barely read it too (and we have young eyes). We would have had to supply magnifying glasses with our cushions and that would have gotten even more pricey. However, they did come in a nice assortment of colors that were pleasing to look at.

Still, the bold and bright colors did nothing to add to the actual function of the cushions. In fact, not much would. At times when you sat on an inflated cushion, nothing would happen. It was just a hard nobbin of air underneath you. At other times, a gigantic rip-roaring blast would erupt that sounded absolutely un-human. Seriously, if someone emitted a sound such as the one produced by this cushion, I would be afraid that they had just torn apart their butt. Let me tell you... this was no "Bronx Cheer"...

Now we just have to figure out what to do instead. Sigh.

Home Group Girls Sleepover

Last night my Home Group (youth group) girls came to my place for a sleepover. We had a ton of fun with the Photo Scavenger Hunt and the String Game! Check out my pictures of the night at my Picasa photo page. Click on "Home Group Girls Sleepover". If you've never experienced the String Game then you need to look at these pics! Seriously fun.

Christmas Cards Coming Soon

Know how Jess and I always do a "Family Christmas Letter"? Last year we thought we were clever by making you hold it up to a mirror to read it. While a pinnacle of brilliance, that letter was only a small peak next to the Matterhorn that is this year's idea. Jess and I have a history of making ridiculous decisions after 9pm (remember the hideous collage bulletin board?) so when we erupted in gales of laughter and cracked pun upon pun after I voiced my brilliant idea well past our cut off time, we decided to hold off until the next day to see if it still sounded as genius. I have to tell you, it certainly did. It has been ordered and we await it's arrival in a week or two. Let's just say that this year's letter is more interactive than normal and should be more fun than any others you may get. Stay tuned for more updates...

Shopping!

I hate shopping, but I love these sites. I'll take one of those, and those, and those...

One Good Bumblebee. Vintage shopping experiences that are amazingly cute. Check out my wishlist for my favorites.

The Modish Holiday Gift Guide. An online directory of such cool stores. I want to just spend hours looking at these places.

Homemade Julz. Gorgeous graphic design rings and necklaces.

BAGS, BAGS, BAGS

If I were to have a single typical female vice, it would be bags. Not purses mind you, but bags. Criteria: large, colorful, and able to hold at least one book. These sites were nothing but pure sugar for me.

Mod Cloth. Who wouldn't love the Paper Airplane Bag, the Lovebirds Tote, or the Owl Messenger Bag.

Gerbera Designs. Sweet messenger bags.

Anne Taintor. AWESOME ironic vintage bags... "Honey, you couldn't handle half of me"