Merry Christmas friends!

Sitting here on the other side of Christmas, presents opened, tree taken down and decorations put away, I'm thinking back at this 2013 year.  My goodness what a whirlwind it has been.  New job, lots of work travel, some fun personal travel, buying and selling a house and moving...it's almost a blur!

Before we look at 2014, I want to enjoy the holidays for just a little bit longer.  We have a had a great week celebrating Christmas with friends and family, and here's a little peek.

M's mother came up and spent a couple of days with us before Christmas.  We did some shopping, went to Christmas Eve service, had a big Christmas Eve dinner and opened presents on Christmas morning.  Then she went to visit some friends while we headed over to Maryland to see my cousins, aunt and uncle, and parents! 

The minute we walked in, my cousin Kris and her husband called us into another room for a minute to ask us a very important question.  They asked M and me to be Godparents for their adorable little boy!  M and I are so touched and honored, and of course said yes.  Happy to introduce our new Godson, Ryder!

Since we have several photos of the cousins from various different weddings and get togethers, we thought we should finally get one with the spouses, too.

And one of the kids!

This was the end of an era, and the last year that my aunt will be hosting Christmas.  We have gone there for Christmas almost every year since I was 10.  The host for next year is still up in the air, but it'll either be Kris or me!

We took every opportunity we got to snuggle with the giggling baby! 

After a wonderful Christmas day, on our way back to NoVa, we met up with some close friends from Elon for lunch, who happened to be driving north to visit their family. 

Once we got home, my parents arrived shortly after to spend a couple of days at our house.  We opened presents, poked around the new house looking at all of the new things since they'd last visited, went out to eat and enjoyed a couple of days together.

They left Saturday afternoon, and by the time we went to bed that night, Christmas was over and the decorations were packed up tight until next year.  While the holidays can be such a hectic time, I love that we have a week to celebrate and enjoy the season with friends and family. 

I hope yours was as nice as ours.  One of my goals for 2014 is to get back to the blog more often.  I've missed it!  So stay tuned...enjoy the last few hours of 2013!

Weekend snapshots

Time is flying, I can't believe it's December 10 already!  Luckily we were in town this weekend and able to get some good Christmas decorating done!

Friday night we hung around our area - first we met some friends for a happy hour to celebrate one girlfriend's completion of grad school - wooo!  That's such a huge accomplishment, especially to do it while working and having a life!  Then we headed to Dogfish to have a couple of yummy beers and dinner.

Saturday morning we lounged a bit, ran errands, and headed out to Christmas tree hunt.  We decided to try a new place this year, Joe's in Chantilly.

We had a bit of a challenge finding a tall tree - having a 6'1" husband is a good judge when looking for a big tree!  We finally found one, and while M was cutting it down, I happened to notice what looked like a birds nest or something inside.  So once it was on it's side, I reached in to get the ball of leaves out.  As soon as I moved the first handful, I saw these 2 beady eyes staring back at me!  ANIMALS!!  After a little scream and getting my courage up, I looked back in at a little mama mouse protecting her 2 babies.  I felt awful that we'd disturbed their home!  After a little encouragement (and some light shaking) we got them out of the tree, and they scampered off to another one.  Wow, am I glad we found them in the field rather than our living room!!  

 

Sunday morning bright and early we headed downtown to meet some coworkers for the Jingle All the Way 8k.  Somehow I keep getting talked into doing these races!  My coworker Nichole is very persuasive :)  Despite the cold, rainy morning, we had a good time at the race.  Well, all but the running part!  It was fun to see all of the costumes that people came up with - Santas, a full nativity scene complete with 'Jesus in the manger stroller,' all of the reindeer connected pulling a sleigh, and even a guy playing Christmas carols on a tuba! 

It was the longest race I've done, and happy to say I didn't do too bad...maybe I will run a bit more before the next race and do even better!  But that requires more running...so we'll have to see about that part.

Back home Sunday afternoon to watch the REDSKINS beat up on barely squeak by the Ravens!  Then we turned on some Christmas music, poured some wine and got into the holiday spirit...and actually decorated the tree.  

Cady supervised...and then was forced to join in the fun!  Although...not sure she'd consider this fun, but we sure did, and I know Grandma enjoyed receiving all of the photos of our little reindeer!

Christmas family celebrations

It has been a crazy, fun whirlwind of a few days!  I can't believe that we're sitting on this side of Christmas - it seems to happen faster and faster every year.  We look so forward to it for months and spend so much time decorating, shopping and wrapping and planning and then it seems like it's over in a flash!  Here's a little recap of our Christmas weekend.


Friday afternoon my mother in law Carolyn arrived from Richmond.  I made a big dinner and we had a nice evening in.  Saturday was a relatively relaxing day.  I spent a good part of the day in the kitchen making an apple pie, Nutella bites and biscotti to take for Christmas day at my aunt's house while they went shopping and did some gift wrapping. 


That afternoon, we loaded into the car and headed downtown to the National Cathedral.  After being on the waiting list to get tickets for a couple of weeks, they finally arrived a few days earlier.  We arrived right around 5:10, and the line was already really long.  Luckily it moved pretty quickly, and we found seats about halfway back.  The place was packed!  

The Carols by Candlelight service was very nice.  They paired some favorite Christmas carols with the Christmas story.  Just before we sang Silent Night, they came around and lit the candles that everyone was holding.  It was really a touching service.

Sunday morning was full of presents and breakfast casserole.  We spent the morning together opening presents from Carolyn and we opened a couple from each other.  Cady got a special present too!

Impatiently waiting to open her present.

Christmas morning - finally!

We said goodbye to M's mom, packed everyone up and headed across the river to Maryland to my Aunt Carol's house, where my parents already were.  We've been spending Christmases together for almost as long as I can remember, and it has been at her house every year for a long time except last year when I hosted.  It's one of my favorite family traditions, and one that I'm holding onto dearly as our family grows and changes.

This year we had a few new additions - my cousin Jason's new bride Lauren, her daughter Paige and mother joined us!  Because of the huge crowd, it was the first time ever that we did buffet style!  We put all of the dishes in the dining room and everyone just sat wherever they could! 

It's always such a great time when we get together - lots of stories and laughter!

Monday afternoon we headed back to VA and my parents followed shortly after.  We went out to a nice dinner canceled our reservations and I made a bunch of appetizers, opened a bottle of Cava and a bottle of wine and turned on some Christmas music.  We hung out in the family room for the rest of the evening, talking and opening presents.  Everyone got some great things - clothes, jewelry, crystal glasses, electronics, an espresso machine, perfume, and so much more.  


My parents stayed around until this morning when they headed back to Richmond.  We spent yesterday hanging around, going to lunch, doing a bit of shopping - the boys even had a movie date to see A Girl with a Dragon Tattoo.  We went out to a nice dinner canceled our reservations again and ate leftover appetizers on while watching The Layover (one of my new favorite shows) and playing Apples and Apples.  


It was a great Christmas holiday for M and me.  It was the perfect combination of his mom, big crazy family dinner, and my parents.  As we went to bed on Tuesday night, we couldn't help but feel so happy, and we said that it was really just a great Christmas!


Christmas is such a special time of year with so many wonderful traditions and blessings!  I hope you and your family had a great holiday weekend.

The girls celebrate Christmas

A couple of weekends ago I had 2 awesome holiday events with different girlfriends.

First I headed downtown to the Madarin Oriental for afternoon tea with a couple of my favorite girls.  It was really lovely.  We spent all afternoon (literally, we were there for hours) sipping champagne and tea and enjoying the wonderful spread of sweets and treats they had.

They have 16 different types of tea plus numerous coffees and martinis on the menu.  The place was full with mostly women - groups of girlfriends and families, celebrating the beautiful Sunday afternoon together.

We chatted so much, I forgot to take any pictures until it was almost too dark and they were putting everything away!  We had a great afternoon - I highly recommend the hotel for afternoon tea.  It's such a nice time away from the hustle and bustle, whether it's the holiday season or any time of the year!

After saying goodbye to the girls, I raced back to Reston for Christmas dinner with another group of girlfriends.  We went to Il Fornaio, one of my favorites in the Town Center.  We laughed and talked and ate their wonderful food.  We also did a white elephant gift exchange, which was very fun.  And I came home with a big box of Godiva chocolates!

The holidays can be stressful and hectic, but it's so important to take time out to celebrate with friends and family.

Did you do any fun things this month with your girlfriends?

Oh Christmas Tree

*With all of the attention this post got today, I felt that the iPhone, lazy photo of the final product didn't do it justice...so I've added a few more pictures!*

Going to get our Christmas tree is quite the family affair.  

When M and I got married, one of our first compromises was about the Christmas tree.  He used to get the 'fluffy ones' - I have no idea what kind of tree it was, but it was fluffy...not very good for hanging ornaments.  And to that point, the only ornaments he had on the tree was gold and red balls.  Not very creative...

And I would go to the easiest, closest tree stand and just pick one up that wasn't too big or too tall.

So our first Christmas together, I wasn't into the fluffy trees and he wasn't into just picking one up on the side of the street....

Enter Snickers Gap.

Each year, we take a weekend day early in December, bundle up and head west.  About an hour from our house, on Rt 7 just before you go across the mountain is Snickers Gap.  This family owned farm has been growing Christmas trees for over 30 years.  

Cady of course goes, and loves racing around through the trees.  She's a good helper! 

Once we've found a good one and determined that it will fit in the living room, it's time to cut it down! 

The we strap the pup up and she helps M pull it down the hill to the barn!  Everyone gets a big kick out of this, because she's really into helping pull it. 

Once we got the tree home and in the living room, we got right to it took us a week to get around to decorating it. Finally the following weekend, at about 11pm Saturday night, we poured ourselves a glass of wine and turned on the Pandora Christmas stations.  We got out the garland and all of our favorite ornaments...including some gold and red balls.  

While I hem and haw over driving so far to get our tree, I do have to admit (M, paying attention?) that it's a fun tradition.  And one that I'm sure we will continue for years to come!

Christmas cards

Today I'm linking up with Faith at Walk With Me  for her annual Christmas Card Carousel! 




One of my absolute favorite parts of the holidays is getting so many fantastic Christmas cards!  I race inside when I get home at night to see what new ones have arrived that day.  I of course especially love the photo cards - and am so amazed at how many babies and kids there are on our cards now!  I love watching them grow year after year.  I proudly display them around the doorway to the kitchen and so enjoy looking at them all through the month.

I also really enjoy sending out our own cards.  We have quite a list that we mail cards to - this year I sent almost 100!!

We snapped this cute picture while we were in Richmond over Thanksgiving!  Cady was a great model and loved her bow!

Since we buy everything at Costco, I figured why go elsewhere for our Christmas cards.  They are so reasonably priced, you really can't beat it - $25 for 100!  Some of the other popular card and photo sites that I looked at were going to be well over $100, and I just couldn't justify that.  And that's even before the stamps!  Plus they're ready the next day - so great.

I also send a little family update letter to our family and close family friends who I might not see that often.  This year...I can't believe it, but the letter was a full page.  Dear God.  I can't imagine when we have kids...

Now go link up and share your Christmas card!  

Favorite Ornaments

As the Christmas season comes to an end and we pack up all of our holiday directions, I wanted to take a few moments to share with you a few of my favorite ornaments.  My parents stopped putting up a tree years ago since I'm never in town for the holidays and it's so much work.  I'd love to go through the ornaments that Mom has a bring a few here, but that will probably not happen any time soon.  I do have several that I have collected myself over the years which I just love.  I'm sure we all have those few very special ones that we love to unpack each year.

 My mom, aunt and I all have the German pickle ornament to remember our German heritage

 This is the Home Alone turtle dove - see the box below?  One of my childhood friends gave it to me, and she has the other - this is the original box it came in :)

 These are my cousin's little kids at the boys' first Christmas.

 Anyone from Richmond will recognize this.  It's a beautiful pewter ornament that is about Bruce the Spruce and the Legendary Santa (the real one).  Both Matt and I used to go to visit the same Santa when we were kids.

 I was good friends with some guys in college and we played golf several Fridays a month - I gave them each one of these for Christmas my senior year.  Reminds me of all the laughs we shared.

When I was a little girl, I had an advent calendar that was an ornament a day to decorate a little tree.  This is one of the only ornaments that I still have.

These are my new new ones from this year.  The one on the left is a silver champagne glass - it has 2 others in the group, a champagne bottle and wine glass.  They fit well with our wine hobby!  Mom brought me the beautiful acorn.  My college's symbol is an acorn and I love being able to have a pretty acorn on my tree!

The holidays sure flew by for us this year.  They were very special as we were lucky to spend some great times with our family and friends.  I sure hope yours were as wonderful as ours were.

Happy New Year to you and yours - I'm very excited to see what 2011 will bring, and I look forward to sharing it with you!