This past Saturday Justin and I offered our house up to our friend, and my brother's girlfriend, Agata for a day of Italian fun. She is from Sicily and has been living in the US for just over a year now. It is always a lot of fun to get together and hear all her stories of home. Since all of our gatherings typically revolve around American fare we thought it would be fun to have one dedicated to Agata and her Italian roots. 
The pizza process started early Saturday. First we had to make the dough so that it had time to rise..
While we waited Kurt handled the Parmesan...we needed quite a bit since there were going to be six pizzas in our future. 
When the dough was finally ready we all had a chance to get involved with making the crust. We made it into a little competition and I have to say that mine was definitely the best.
Once the crusts where ready we loaded on the toppings. 
At first I was a little worried that I might have bitten off more than I could chew since her chosen toppings included anchovies, artichokes, and potatoes. Let's just say not my favorite ingredients. However, after a brief 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, I reminded myself that it is a new year and I am going to be more open minded. Good thing cause the pizzas were delicious!!
Potato & onion, ham & artichoke, and tomato & anchovy. They were all spectacular even though I have to admit I picked off the anchovies. Open mindedness has it limitations. He he.
We finished off the evening burning calories to hit songs like Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and I Like to Move It Move It (our lives are consumed by the Wii these days).
All in all it was a wonderful day and one we will talk about for quite a while. Thanks everyone for joining in the fun and helping to eat all the pizza. Now lets start the badgering for lasagna.
Grazie Agata!
Our holiday was full of wrapping paper, tissue, good food, family, and colds. We are recovering nicely.
We spent the whole week in Nebraska just hanging out and spending time with family. I wish Haley could be around her Nebraska cousins more since she had such a wonderful time playing with them (actually she just sat a stared mostly). Haley got to celebrate her first round of Christmas gifts. She got a interactive house from her Grandma and Grandpa that I really loved. She really loved the wrapping paper! Justin went on two of the best pheasant hunting trips of his life. I think over the course of the week they got over 30 pheasant. I even got a chance to pick out several new quilt projects which I hope to start soon. 
When Saturday rolled around my husband some how convinced me to pack up again (a more full vehicle this time around) and attempt the 20 hour road trip again without an overnight stop. Around 2:00 am we were both rethinking our choice but somehow found the strength to push through. We arrived back in Houston Sunday morning with non-alcohol induced hangovers. I was recovering for an entire week. It is always nice to be home but sad to know it will be several months till we see our Nebraska family again.
