Winter Wonderland

Merry Christmas from our family to ours!!! I hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday...

If we did Christmas cards, I'm pretty sure this picture might win.. we are pretty stylish.

So my Christmas began with heading down to Kansas City. I made it in Monday night and managed the obligatory Gate's BBQ stop (yummmm). Then Tuesday was cookie making at my Aunt Tara's (as has been tradition for many many years). This year we had the help of two of my littlest cousins - Gia and Kaylie. They were very... helpful. haha. But they seemed to have a great time.

Wednesday was Christmas shopping. We like to get it all knocked out in a day for all the kids and our secret santa gifts for the family. It's so much easier because then I don't have to worry about either carrying gifts with me or shipping them in advance. I'm not quite as streamlined as my Aunt Kelly. But, we managed to get everything together and buy for the 5-million some odd kids that were at our Christmas Eve bash. :) John actually got in on Wednesday night, despite the afternoon flights all being cancelled and the apparent "fog" in KC.

Thursday (Christmas Eve) is where the fun begins. Everyone gets together and opens the presents. The kids get presents from everyone, but once your 18 you start drawing names. It's a great tradition, until you turn 18.. haha.

Me and my incredibly beautiful cousins.. Love them!

John and me

This year Christmas Eve came to my grandma. We all went over there and had her open her presents and we took a plate of goodies over to her.

The family...

The fun part of the holiday was apparently getting OUT of Kansas City. When we got back from my grandma's we had a message waiting that said our flight on Christmas Day had been cancelled. KC was getting this crazy storm... we already had 1/4"-1" of SLEET accumulation. It wasn't even snowing yet... We were supposed to get something like 4"-6" of snow overnight and the airlines were kind of freaking out. So, we booked on American Airlines, hoping that somehow we would make it to Chicago on Christmas Day.

The next morning, we were awakened for Santa Claus and with a message that our American Airlines flight that we had booked was also cancelled. Grrrr... My Aunt Kelly and Uncle John were scheduled to be flying back with us too, but they decided to just stick with the "sure thing" of Saturday morning. John and I decided that we were going to try and get out of Kansas City... try our shot at standby. Here is what we woke up to:

Looking out the front door of my grandma's house....Yikes!

So, we decided to hang out at the airport... we LOVE the airport... there are like chairs..

Yaaay airports!!!

This is what made us a little nervous.. They had snowplows out there so the planes could back out of the gate... Yikes!

But, we finally made it to Chicago. We were number 3 and 4 on the standby list, and they let 5 people on. Phew. It was definitely a Christmas miracle. We escaped the "blizzard warning" and are now hanging out where the snow is coming down with a good couple of inches on the ground. Apparently we can't get away from a White Christmas this year...

A weekend in the life...

I made it through yet another busy weekend. I'm not sure where I find the stamina to make it through, but somehow I rally.. haha.

Friday night began with happy hour after work - where I got a certificate for my "perfect pint pour" of Guinness. I think I should have been a bartender in a different life (not based on my ability, only my enthusiasm)...

Then we all went out to see Molly and Sarah in the Christmas at DePaul Concert. It was as amazing as last year. They sound beautiful and they sing a lot of the classics.

Hey look, the gang's all here!

Saturday, luckily, was low key... the basic housekeeping things - laundry (alright, one load, but that's better than usual for me - domestic I am not)... grocery shopping... dominoes and 42 with our friends Truitt and Theresa. Grilling out in the pouring rain in the middle of the winter... can't beat it (or so I hear, since John and Truitt did the grilling). :)

Sunday is when the magic happened... Not only did I make a delicious, first-time pot roast (watch out Betty Crocker!!).... I also was able to make it to a Bears game.. and not just ANY game, the Bears-Packers game! John won tickets so he got to go for free, I was jealous so I bought them.. I went with Katie McD and her rooom-mate Marla. It was fantastic! Our tickets were awesome! (Only grumble was that the Bear's couldn't pull out with a win)

We were one of the first 30,000 fans - so we got scarves!!!

The first touchdown for the Bears... It gave us false hope.

Needless to say, I was pretty exhausted by Sunday night and started to doze watching Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. BUT, it was a very fun and exciting weekend. I wish I could say that I get a break, but unfortunately my week is swamped...

• Tuesday - 10 cent wings and our Tuesday Night Christmas Movie Night (it might be Fred Claus this week)....
• Wednesday - trivia, seriously can't miss that. Mullen's might be the greatest trivia bar in Chicago - maybe it's only because we rock it.
• Thursday - Happy Hour with my ASCE-YMG group where I'm the Social Director - so I have to be social
• Friday - Hair Party and birthday party (someone - not me - ruined the surprise)
• Saturday - Bad Christmas sweater party (at least we aren't hosting - we get to take a break)
• Sunday - packing for my trip to KC... trying to get some relaxation
• Monday - leaving for KC to start the Christmas festivities..

Can someone tell me when I'm supposed to rest?? I am too busy for my own good!!! At least it's all fun... that makes it a lot easier.

I hope that everyone has a safe and fun holiday season!!! I'm looking forward to hearing all of your holiday stories and seeing your pictures :)

2nd Annual Drinksgiving

We managed to make it through our 2nd Annual Drinksgiving... It was a great time. We combined it with Slapsgiving (if you've missed these How I Met Your Mother episodes, seriously, you need to watch.. AMAZING). While I don't have pictures of the slap, it was pretty good. John lost the bet between him and Ian that the Bears would cover the spread against the Viking's the week before... there was some good build up to the slap, and it was definitely worth it!


We had more food than I knew what to do with... mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes wrapped in prosciutto, cajun mac and cheese, caramel bacon bites, prosciutto crusted quiche, gingerbread cookies, butternut squash stuffing, a wonderful cheeseball, ham, and deep fried turkey... goodness, we had more... much more. We stuffed ourselves silly! It was fantastic.

The spread - on our new table!! I don't even think everything is on there yet... :) We are like real people...

The turkey in its deep fried goodness...

The tree with all the presents underneath... 21 people showed up.. awesome!

I got to use my grandma's candlewick glassware- it looked festive and it made me happy to actually USE the boxes upon boxes of candlewick I have stored...

I am certainly as exhausted as I look!

So, all in all it was very successful Drinksgiving! (And Slapsgiving... and slap bets are now being made for pretty much everything)

Next year I think we will have to work on the amount of food we have for next year because we had a LOT more leftovers this year... even with more people to eat it. Hopefully we can also get some more people to join in... I'm not sure where we can possibly PUT them as we were pretty up to our max with space, but please come and celebrate with us next year (to everyone reading.. and who is out of state.. hehe)!!!

Part 2 of Thanksgiving

Thanks for those who have read so far... haha. I feel as though I'm still stuck on HOW to write on this thing, but I'm working on it. Hopefully future posts will only get better and more relaxed!!

Just a quick note.. I want to post the picture that was taken of all of us for Thanksgiving.. Note the Chicago skyline painting in the back and the Southwestern painting to the side.. all courtesy of my very talented mother-in-law!

And here is the appropriately fall festive Thanksgiving table...the vases are from our wedding.. yaaay multi-purposing!

This Saturday we are hosting our 2nd Annual Drinksgiving... I'm pretty excited about it. Our friend Truitt is deep frying a turkey, and everyone is bringing a dish to share. I think that I'm going to give a butternut squash stuffing a shot from my "Better Homes and Gardens" magazine (I feel very Sally Homemaker)... I might even go out and purchase a dutch oven.. I feel it might be a necessary component to my kitchen...

Last year our Drinksgiving was fantastic! So I'm hoping that this year will be just as delicious and fun. We combine it with our Secret Santa/Secret Secular Gift Giving celebration... There are about 21 people that will be sharing our living room and sitting around our Christmas Tree!!

So, once again, when I think something will be short I end up getting carried away. ha. But, I will be posting pictures from our Drinksgiving eventually...maybe Sunday if I don't have too much cleaning up to do?

McDonald's and Waldo's UNITE!

John and I's second Thanksgiving and we had a "joining of the families". The Waldo/Hoyt-McDonald union for the Thanksgiving feast went off without a hitch!! My dad and I brought sweet potatoes smothered in sugary goodness and pumpkin pie... The McDonald's provided the rest (and it was delicious!).

We got to share it with the new addition to the family - Riley, Katie's new puppy.. a 12 week old Schitzu.. adorable. We wore her out!

We played Pooch for pretty much the entire weekend... a card game that's related to euchre, but makes no sense unless you have the scorecard in front of you and some people who understand the rules... My dad, staying true to his aversion to games, decided to watch Swing Vote instead...I think he enjoyed himself? :)

Saturday we met up with family from my mom's side - Jennifer, Jeff, Bob, and Candy. It was fun to catch up with them as I don't see family from that side (other than Jennifer and Jeff) very often. After lunch, the Hoyt's headed to the airport and we managed to catch a near matinee to see Pirate Radio. It was fantastic! It has all sorts of fun actors and I highly recommend it. My dad, being the radio man, seemed to really enjoy it too!

Sunday my dad hit the road after lunch at Potbelly's with me and Selena. It's great, Selena's family is close to Chicago so she gets to come out and visit more often! We hit up the Art Institute with my membership that I hadn't used yet... and exhausted ourselves with art in about 2.5 hours.

The lion at the front of the museum...

The streets look like they are shining and I should be passing these people as I walk closer..

I was totally entranced...

The "Bean" with Chicago behind...

I was able to pretend I was a tourist for about 8 hours...taking pictures all over the city...But then I had to return to "normal life" and get back to work... It was fun though.. my dad in town for 4 days... Selena in town for 1.... good food, good family, good friends. I couldn't ask for anything more and I am certainly very thankful. :)

First time blogging... cut me some slack...

So, I decided to give this a shot since a) I absolutely love reading JuliAnna's blog and b) there are some fun things coming up over the next year (like house buying hopefully?!) that I figured I should be sharing in a better forum than facebook.

Hopefully I can provide entertainment and a window into what's going on in our lives as we embark on our second year of marriage.