Moments 01 25 :: Week 03

It was Mr. Van Duke's 4th birthday! He brings us so much love and joy. It's ridiculous how much we adore him. 

To celebrate, we took a walk to the beach. It's captivating, even in the winter. 

Bon Appetit's Bake Club recipe of the month - Incredibly Good Pizza. I'm usually not the pizza maker, but it turned out pretty decent!

The Briar Club  -- my first book completed in the new year. I loved the idea of this book, it had interesting characters and am a sucker for historical fiction, but was a little bored by this. Towards the end I couldn't stop reading, but it definitely took awhile to get into it. Some parts were more intriguing than others, that's for sure. 3.5/5

Forest friends we saw on one of our walks. 

Boop. Missing from this photo is the amount of whining she was doing to get my attention. She's such a sweetie. 

Moments 01 25 :: Week 02

Gretel is such a sweet bean in her older years. Love this little girl.

Sometimes, I look up and still am in awe that we live in this house. It's something special. And our new kitchen has made so much of a difference. It's gorgeous.

Took Cole and Zoe out for a fish fry last week. It's been so much fun hanging out with these two over break.

Swinging Door is just so good. I had the cod/perch/shrimp and carrots. Yum yum. 

Bright and early on Saturday, Brian and Cole met the Bayview "workout crew" to dismantle the Polar Bear Plunge torii gate. 

Cole wasn't very happy about it, but ended up getting a total kick out of the situation. 

Especially when a caravan of cars and trucks arrived to our house to deliver it. The plan is, there will be a torii raising come spring. Still not sure where it's going exactly, but knowing this group of men, they will figure it out. 

Witnessed a murder of a stuffed animal. Van will nibble toys and carry them around, but Gretel just mutilates them. She's ruthless. 

Finished our good luck pork and sauerkraut, and moved on to black-eyed peas. This is with coconut milk and berbere. Using our Super Lucky 2025 Black Eyed Peas from Rancho Gordo. It was absolutely delicious. 

Sunday we took Cole back to school. That sure went by quick, and I felt pretty sad on Monday about the boys having come and gone already. Them leaving does get easier, but there's still always a few days where it stings a bit. Before we left, we took him out for an Italian dinner.  On the way back, we were staying on top of the NCAA DIII Football National Championships. NCC made it, and won! Kind of a big deal and very exciting.

The village flooded the ice rink again this year. It's been awhile since they have been able to do that. It was still freezing when I took this photo, but is going to be in full swing this weekend. So fun. Maybe Brian and I will need to head over. He's just getting back from Las Vegas tonight. I've had a week to myself, and if you know me at all, you know how much I've enjoyed that. I'm looking forward to getting him back, but I also crave alone time so it's nice once in awhile. He works from home, so that doesn't happen often. I'm feeling refreshed. 

Cole got a new pet. Hopefully his new larger fish bowl arrived by now, because this poor goldfish is enormous. 

Moments 01 25 :: Week 01

During the holiday break, we joined the E3 at the 3rd Street Market Hall for dinner before playing some darts. 

We were supposed to play for an hour and kept on extending it. We were just having so much fun. By the way, yes, Cole is holding up his middle finger. He does that for basically every photo if you haven't noticed. 

Zoe and her family got a new dog! A chocolate lab named Frankie. She's adorable. I got to meet her at the Polar Bear Plunge and they are lucky I didn't steal her. 

We went on our first pheasant hunt of the year. This guy was so happy. It was a gorgeous 42 degree day. Maybe a little warm for Van, but perfect for me. 

Can you see the bald eagle? I still get so excited when I see them.

Kind of gross since it's dead, but it's hard to imagine a more beautiful bird. The colors on the male feathers are incredible. I

The hunting crew. Yes, my parents got to join us too! My mom and I just walked the field with Brian and my dad. We were pretty useless, but had a great time catching up.

The Lodge was still decorated for Christmas. Love the crazy wild tree they put up this year.

It's been fun spending time with this guy over the holiday break.

And great to see my parents before they head south to Florida for the winter. I don't blame them. It's freezing out today, and not supposed to be better for awhile. 

My favorite Italian nougat candies -- in pistachio. Couldn't resist getting them.

Polar Bear Plunge 2025

We did it! Again! We Polar Bear Plunged. This was my second time. I wish I could say it gets easier each year, but it was absolutely freezing, with water temperatures of 41 degrees. Thankfully, there is always a huge bonfire at the one we go to. Within a minute, you feel back to normal. And, a bunch of our friends are there which is a blast. The idea of jumping in this water is insane to me, but honestly, it's such a great way to kick off the new year. Fireball shots don't hurt of course, so if you want to do Dry January, the Polar Bear Plunge might not be the day to start that. Just saying. This crew also always builds structure to run through. We decided to stay closer to our towels so didn't make our way under it to do the plunge, but it sounds like this said structure is making it's way to our back yard tomorrow. Minus the snake. Should be interesting. Anyhow, this is definitely turning into a fun tradition. Happy New Year!

New Years Eve 24

Happy New Year! We rang in 2025 with Mel + Leif, eating fancy foods in casual clothing. It was so fun -- and really delicious. Martinis, oysters, cheese olives, caviar (a special treat from our guests), surf + turf, potato stacks, salad, and hot buttered rum pudding. 2024 was pretty good for the P4. There were milestones (Hudson graduated from college!), lots amazing moments with friends and family, travel (Florida, Porto, California, Oaxaca) and a major kitchen renovation that makes our house feel 100 times more comfortable. This year is going to be hard to beat, but I have high hopes 2025 will bring it. Here's to health, love, and happiness in the coming year. 

Moments 12 24 :: Week 04

Morning sparkles. 

I went on a cookie baking extravaganza last weekend. I'm still figuring our oven out, so wasn't totally thrilled with the results (the bottoms are cooking too fast) but they still taste pretty good. Clockwise from top left: Marzipan Sprinkle Hamantaschen, Molly Yeh | Passion Fruit Thumbprint Cookies, Cup of Jo | Buche de Noel Cookies | Speculoos Buttons | Lemon-Turmeric Crinkle Cookies | Rum-Buttered Almond Cookies

I talked Hudson into going for a walk to the Lake. It's so beautiful no matter the season.

A sandy snowman.

Boxing Day soccer watching. Unfortunately, our team stinks this year, but at least we were in good company.

Me and my guys. 

A foggy walk. There's something about this weather I absolutely love. Although, the dogs feet are always dirty.