Nursery

Pat and his Dad (and Mom too) did a lot of work on the nursery over the holidays.  A couple coats of ceiling paint, some taping,

a couple coats of some nice light green Benjamin Moore wall paint called West Coast,

 and ripping out the old pink carpet and...Voila

I really like the color we selected.  The room only has one window so we wanted to keep it from being too dark.  And I also think it's very neutral so it could work for a girl's room down the road if you throw in some pink.

And painting the trim white, new white outlet covers too.  Next up is to get these hard wood floors refinished (they are working on it right now, woohoo!) and pick out an area rug (going shopping today).

We're getting there! :o)

NYC under snow

That was a long and tough commute...and so many sidewalks are still
not cleared. But this is a pretty site atleast.

Snow Day!

The snow started early yesterday afternoon and just kept on coming!  I was thrilled to receive an email from my supervisor last night saying to use my best judgement about going to work this morning.  Can you guess what I decided?  I'm at home.  Pat did have to commute and it took him over two hours.  The buses aren't running and the trains are on a reduced schedule. 

I haven't ventured outside because I'm too afraid of slipping and falling.  Oh, it's trash day - do you see the old carpet rolled up?  That's nursery progress!  Normally we don't even fill up one trash can in a week, promise.

Kate

Sure looks pretty outside. 

Now I'm going to go cuddle up with a heating pad for my leg (terrible calf cramp in the middle of the night, OUCH)  Happy Monday!

Christmas Dinner and Pictures

Treats for a Nice Kitty (thank you Kate for making sure Winnie got some treats)

 Lots of hanging by the fire in the living room.

The boys: Pat, Paul, Mike.  Pat and Mike received red corduroy pants for Christmas, so the three of them looked pretty festive!

 

The girls: Suzanne, Kate, Maura

Our tree shot where we completey blocked out the tree.  :o)

Maura and Mike

Paul and Kate

Time to eat!

Pat grilled beef tenderloin.

Kate made twice baked potatoes.

I made asparagus roll ups.

Winnie kept her post by the fire.

What a lovely day and night! 

The snow started to fall about an hour ago and they say we might get over a foot.  Oh my!

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!
We've had a great day so far...got a call from my parents and sister, watched a little A Christmas Story, had some delicious french toast made by Maura, lounged by the fire in PJs, and opened presents.  I think we might bundle up for a walk soon. 

I had a couple pictures to upload, but I got a little Christmas present from Google just now: I'm out of storage space for photos.  I guess I should take it as a compliment - I'm a real blogger now!  So I spent $5 and I should be all set for a year, but it could take up to a day to process.  I'll try and check in later with a few photos.

xoxo 

Christmas Cards 2010

Even though I have not done a holiday card this year pretty much ever, I treasure the ones we receive.  December mail is by far the best of the year!  Here's what we have so far:

If you sent me one - THANK YOU.  And if you ever need my address, I'm happy to provide it.  ;-)  This is my promise to the blog world that next year we'll send a card!  In fact we are already compiling a list of addresses now.

You can see a shot of last year's cards here.

In My Future

Sitting by a fire in the living room. 
Sounds pretty good!

 Wood delivery today:

For all those travelers this holiday season, be careful, be patient, stay safe.

Cheers

Congrats to my cousin Sam and his beautiful bride Lorena. They tied the knot on Dec. 18th (same day as our Turkey Fry) down in Buenos Aires, Argentina. My sister was in attendance - lucky! Hopefully Sarah doesn't mind me posting a few photos that she emailed.

 What a lovely family! 

 Evidently the dancing went very late into the night - 5AM?!

Best Wishes! Love you!

Pictures by Sarah W. :)

And here is one more photo from my Uncle Robert:

Bump Update

Baby belly is still growing!


Here I am at 7 months:

And to compare to last month (wowsers!):

6 months vs. 7 months

Turkey Fry!

Yesterday we hosted our second annual turkey fry.  At around 3PM we had guests arriving by car and train from NY and NJ.  I think we had learned something from the previous year and this time we didn't run out of turkey (we still did 3 birds, but had more sides this time).  I didn't even step foot out back into Pat's turkey zone; I was doing a shuttle from the train station and keeping things going in the kitchen and house.    Everyone really chipped in by bringing food and drink and also offering to help. 

Here's Jeremy and Kacey working on some crescent rolls and biscuits:

 One of our three birds, nice and crispy skin, moist meat inside.

Girls hanging by the fire: Lacie, Laurisa, Sarah, Devon, Leigh Ann:

Pat made a nice little toast/speech and then it was time to eat! 
The Menu: turkey (did I mention turkey?), dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, noodle koogle, bread, cranberry sauce. 

Before we even had the meal at around 6PM, we had tons of great dips that people brought: a couple different spinach dips, a spicy pumpkin dip, buffalo chicken dip, taco dip, Rotel queso, turkey meatballs, and Pat served a pork butt as an appetizer as well - it cooked for 18 hours on his Big Green Egg, delish!

Here is Mike, Mark, Scott, Gina, Erin, Lisa, Brett, Laurisa:

Jeremy and Kacey - our only overnight guests (it's a long way to Brooklyn at 5AM...)

Andy and Devon:

 My mom makes a frozen cranberry salad each Thanksgiving and this was my first time making it, at Pat's request.  I think they turned out great.

Erin, Brett, Simone, Raj:

Desserts: Build your own Cannoli's.  And TONS of cupcakes, cookies, banana pudding, and Oreo pie.

Having a fire going is just so comforting. 

Evan, Elysa, Dave, Dia:

Pat and Me :o)

And Rob being goofy with one of the arm rest covers.

To make sure I remember - all our guests:
Sean M., Krista, Baby Connor, Lisa, Mike, Mark, Carlo, Lacie, Neil, Leigh Ann, Josh, Sarah, Laurisa, Rob, Devon, Andy, Michelle M., Evan, Elysa, Scott, Gina, Patrick, Michelle C., Sean F., Brian, Liz, Kacey, Jeremy, Brett, Erin, Simone, Raj, Dave, Dia, Denis, Ryan, Anne, Jay, Lisa, Warren, Alyssa, Rob, Craig,
Plus the two of us: 45!

We think this is a great tradition in the making and we're so glad our friends were here to join us.  xo

TGIF

Those 4 letters excite me more than any others. 

It's been a busy week...
Monday night was my office holiday dinner at The Park.
Tuesday night we had a Dr. appointment.  (I do love hearing Charlie's heartbeat!)
Last night we had dinner with friends Sean and Mary Clare at La Sirene (yes, we went back to this tiny/cozy/delicious French place after having had a date there just a few weeks ago)
Tonight we are getting a Christmas Tree and prepping for our big Turkey Fry party tomorrow! 

Speaking of Christmas trees... interesting article from New York Times regarding the real vs. fake debate here.

Have a great weekend.  More blog love soon.  (monthly belly picture coming up on Sunday!)

1st Snow of Season

Nashville has a lot more for once.

Cookie Party

My book club had it's Third Annual Cookie Decorating Party yesterday. (second annual pictures here)  Needless to say, this is my favorite book club gathering of the year! Devon and Elizabeth made up all the sugar cookies in advance and Devon had tons of frosting and little sprinkles, really everything you could possibly need.  I know I am "eating for two" but I had my fair share of cookies and then easily doubled that...oh well, on to the pictures!

Do you see that gingerbread man on the top right?  Isn't it a shame when your cookie breaks and you have to eat it??

Simone

Erin

I think this is one Andrea was working on:

Some of mine...I have clearly learned nothing in 3 years of doing this...but it's still fun!

Devon, Simone, Sarah, Elizabeth, Erin, Lacie, and Andrea

 And some more of mine...

Simone, Sarah, Elizabeth

Lacie and me

Ginny, sorry that the weather kept you away - we missed you!