2006: Year-End Blogger Review

To celebrate the end of 2006, let's countdown the top 15 best, worst, most controversial, and most surprising posts to make their way through our little blogger community.

15. Lt. Stack tries to throw an already wounded John Kerry under the bus again while he is halfway across the world in Korea. http://jasonstack.blogspot.com/2006/11/dear-senator-kerry.html

14. At number 14, we have the Doc's only post of 2006, Things that have happened since November 25th. http://gotsprue.blogspot.com/2006/02/things-that-have-happened-since.html

13. At number 13, in let this be a lesson, Stack describes the drunk driving accident that happened right in his own driveway! http://brianstack.blogspot.com/2006/03/let-this-be-lesson.html

12. At number 12, we all rejoiced with Princess Buttercup when she was able to recover some of her Hawaii pictures. http://christellize.blogspot.com/2006/05/aloha-again.html

11. We thought P. Sophie was going to give us a post on American Idol, but if you go back and look at it now, its just a bunch of porn!!! http://legendofme.blogspot.com/2006/04/ai-post.html

10. The "Master" explains to us in October why he's been a very bad blogger lately. http://whosthemaster.blogspot.com/2006/10/ive-been-very-bad-blogger.html

9. IA has reason to celebrate, as he was accepted into the NYU LLM program! http://iyazakhtar.blogspot.com/2006/06/you-have-reason-to-celebrate.html

8. In a comical look at the life of a pregnant chick, P. Sophie tells a great story about craving some chocolate cake. http://legendofme.blogspot.com/2006/05/p-sophies-baby-story-chocolate-cake.html

7. The Stack's introduce BradyVision, an interactive look at the life and times of Brady Stack. http://brianstack.blogspot.com/2006/07/brady-vision-2006.html

6. IA tries to make us all believe that someone offered him money for his blogger site name in this April Fools Day prank. http://iyazakhtar.blogspot.com/2006/04/theyre-trying-to-buy-me-out.html

5. P. Sophie announces the beginning of her nine-month journey through pregnancy in this January post. http://legendofme.blogspot.com/2006/01/miracle-of-life.html

4. Stack talks about his own version of Mouse Hunt as he tries for two weeks to catch an ellusive rodent in his house. http://brianstack.blogspot.com/2006/11/there-is-mouse-in-my-house.html

3. In another funny post, P. Sophie talks about her woes of motherhood in "Stretch Marks and Stupid People." http://legendofme.blogspot.com/2006/06/stretch-marks-and-stupid-people.html

2. Princess Buttercup makes us all want to cry in her romantic post about the joys of marriage o her anniversary. http://christellize.blogspot.com/2006/09/une-bonne-anniversaire.html

1. And the best post of 2006? Why none other than David Wick's famous dating video! http://legendofme.blogspot.com/2006/12/davids-dating-video.html

RIP: My Office

My office has been moved to the finished basement to make way for Brady. Yep, he has too many toys, and they have consumed our living room. So, we decided to convert the office space into a new room for him. We got lucky at Building 19 by finding a nice big area rug for him for only $40. I'm refinishing an old basketball lamp I had when I was a kid for the room too. Now, we just need to find a piece of furnature so that we can store all the bins of toys! I might make one...if Erica and I can decide on what we want. More to come on that later...

Home Renovations

In an attempt to make our kitchen look a little bigger, and to improve the traffic flow when we host parties, I decided to put a big hole in the wall that separates our kitchen and living room. You can see the before and after pictures below. All I have left to do is to paint all the new trim white. I was a little worried this morning when I started that there would be pipes or wires to contend with when I opened up the wall, but lucky for me, there was nothing there. The only thing I really had to do was move the telephone jack and install one new outlet. Other than that, it was a piece of cake!

Too Many Toys

Erica and I have decided to move my office downstairs and turn that space into Brady's toy room. (OK, This was Erica's idea, but I've conceeded that she is right) As you can see, Brady has too many toys to keep in the living room!

Merry Christmas 2006!

Oh Fudge!!!!

I know what you are thinking...are the Stack's planning to eat 18 pounds of fudge this Christmas? No way! But we did make 18 pounds of fudge and filled them into 18 Christmas tins, to give out to co-workers, neighbors, etc. In case you are wondering, there are seven varieties: Oreo, Andies mint candy, chocolate walnut, dark chocolate coconut, butterscoth, candy cane, and peanut butter. I would have to say my favorite was the dark chocolate coconut, which tasted just like having a mounds bar. If you are interested, I've included Erica's fudge recipe below (for the Oreo fudge...for the others, use your imagination!)

Erica’s Holiday Fudge
18 oz. package of white chocolate chips
14 oz. can of sweetened condensed milk
1/8 teaspoon of salt
20 Oreo cookies, crushed finely
1 8x8 fudge pan, lined with parchment paper

Melt the chocolate chips with the condensed milk in a saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until melted. Add the salt and cookies and stir to combine. Remove the pan from the heat, and pour the mixture into the fudge pan. Chill in the refrigerator until firm.

Be creative! Substitute the cookies and white chocolate with other ingredients to make your own fudge flavors. My favorites include peanut butter chips, chocolate mint chips, and even English toffee pieces.

Christmas Update, by Brady Stack

Hi guys, its me, Brady Stack. I just wanted to give you guys in cyber space an update on how things are going at ye 'ole Stack shack.

Well, Christmas is almost here. Mama and Dada said Santa is bringing me lots of toys this year. Mama wants to get Dada to move his office upstairs so I can have his office as my new playroom, but he's not convinced I need it yet. Maybe he will be after Christmas!

Dada went on a business trip to Nashville Tennessee last week. I was so excited when he got home, I hadn't been away from him for that long ever!

Dada keeps talking about how he's changing the living room around over Christmas vacation. He told me how is going to put the TV on the opposite wall, and cut a huge hole in the wall that connects the living room with the kitchen. He says something about it making the kitchen look bigger!

Next week, Auntie Pam and Uncle Charlie are bringing my friend David Wicks over to play. I get to see Auntie Christel and Uncle Scott as well. I can't wait for that!

Friday night, Dada, Mama, and I went to cheer on the Sanborn girls basketball team. I was so excited to see them play that when Dada put me down, I decided to run right for the court. I run pretty fast now. I have too....if I don't run, Mama and Dada will catch me and pick me up. That's no fun. Too bad they caught me at the game before I got to the ball. That would have made the referees very mad. But I wanted the ball. Did I mention that I know how to say ball?

Well, that's all for now! I'll give another report after Christmas next week, and I'll tell you guys all about the toys I got!

Welcome to the Opryland Resort!

Known to be the largest non-casino hotel in the country, the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville boasts three large glass-enclosed attriums, covering an area of 54 acres! As you can see from the pictures, these attriums are completely filled with plants, flowers, trees, and even a river, complete with a working boat tour.

At Christmas, every square inch of the hotel is decorated. They say the only place with more Christmas decorations is Disney World itself!

Greetings From Nashville Tennessee!

This past week, I have been at a national conference for school leaders in Nashville Tennessee. It has been a lot of fun, and very informative. The entire conference is being held at the Opryland Resort, which is the largest non-casino hotel in the country, and the second most decorated place in America for Christmas, second only of course to Disney World. If you looked at the hotel from a plane, you'd likely describe it to look like one big "donut" shape, with a large glass-enclosed attrium in the middle. How large? They say ten foot ball fields, but that doesn't seem to do it justice. I'll have to post some pictures of it when I get home so you can get a sense of how beautiful it was in the attrium, which was completely landscaped with palm trees, flowers, even a river! It really was a spectacular sight.