Merry Christmas!

It's hard to believe that Christmas of '07 has come and gone so quickly. All of the preparation, shopping, and anticipation led up to a great Christmas celebration...and it's not over for Frank & I yet! This past Sunday, my mom, dad, and sister came to visit and the girls baked cookies all day (peanut butter snickers, chocolate chip, sugar, Hersey Kiss thumbprint, gingerbread, pecan nut, spritz...all soooo yummy!), then we headed to Georgetown for dinner at our new family favorite restaurant, Bangkok Joe's. After enjoying our delicious Thai meals, we opted to hang out in Georgetown instead of trekking over to the National Christmas Tree. The waterfront was so quiet and empty - and very festively decorated. The warm weather made for a great night in G'town.

Christmas Eve consisted of food, food, and more food! We started out with homemade cranberry scones and then the food fest started around 1:30pm - We feasted on crab stuffed mushrooms, asparagus wrapped in smoked salmon, bacon wrapped scallops, fried shrimp and calamari, antipasto, and linguine with clam sauce. Phew - I'm stuffed again just writing about it all! :) After celebrating with my dad, Frank, Laura, and I headed to Winchester to meet my mom for midnight mass. We then spent Christmas day at mom's, which was quite relaxing. I woke up first (as usual) and preceded to wake the entire house so we could open presents! We were then able to hang around and relax most of the day since mom wasn't having dinner. (Andy's sister, Carolyn, had Christmas dinner.) After dinner, we reconvened at mom's for a few rounds of "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" (which apparently, I am not!) and then watched "Heartbreak Kid" which was HILARIOUS! Unfortunately, Frank had to head back home Wednesday morning for work, but I got to hang out with mom and Laura all day - We did a little shopping to collect on those after Christmas sales. I then met up with my favorite girls, Rachel & Kristy, for our Christmas dinner and gift exchange, where Kristy revealed that her and John are expecting in August!!!! I'm so excited for those two and can't wait to become another Aunt!!

Tomorrow, Frank & I are off to NY for our Christmas celebration with his family on Saturday and my grandparents, etc on Sunday. One good thing about having family scattered all over is that the holidays aren't confined to just one day - Christmas lasts a whole week!!!

Ummm Ummm Good

Yesterday I got together with a few girls for my first cookie exchange EVER - which turned out to be quite a fabulous event - I mean, what's not to love about testing lots of delicious cookies!?!? I made my favorite chocolaty white chocolate chip cookies and oreo snowballs and in return came home with gingersnaps, spritz cookies, almond fruit bars, deeeelicious chocolate meringue bars, chocolate mint wafers, oatmeal cranberry cookies, and a few others! We had a great afternoon of sipping champagne punch, grazing on some lunch time goodies, indulging in girl talk, and of course sampling cookies!!! The afternoon got me all prepped for my upcoming weekend of Christmas baking for my family!

Basement!

Here are a few before & after pics of our basement - We're still waiting on the cabinets, granite, and sink for the wet bar and there is some cosmetic work yet to be completed. All-in-all, Frank & I love the new basement and can't wait to get furniture down there and start using it!!!

Santa will...what!?!?!?

I just came to realize today how truly traumatizing SPAM can be...Every now and then I check my gmail SPAM to make sure a random email didn't accidentally get trashed. This morning I decided to check my SPAM only to find an email promising that "Santa will make your willy longer and harder". OMG - I never want to hear Santa and willy in the same sentence again! Honestly what kind of sick people in this world wish that Santa will bring them that for Christmas???? Please tell me willies are NOT included in the same bag that Santa carries my presents in! Way to ruin the innocent image of Santa I had painted in my head...Sheez!

I'm not sure that I've ever heard of a tow truck fitting into the 12 days of Christmas, but...On Thursday night, Frank & I attended his company Christmas Party at the Clarendon Ballroom. It was extremely cold that night, and not wanting to walk too far, I assured Frank that we could park right across the street in the bank parking lot. I may have said something like "Kelly and I park here all the time and she never gets towed." Well, at the night's end, we crossed Wilson only to find an empty spot where our car once stood...DOH!!!! Luckily Frank's company handed out cab vouchers to everyone so we were easily able to catch a (free!) cab ride home - Retrieving our car from the impound was far from free, though... :(

Winter Wonderland!

The first snow of the season has fallen! As I left the gym at 7am this morning, the flurries were beginning to float in the air - It continued to snow all day and 14 hours later, the flakes have not subsided. Even though it's all only amounted to a few inches, it looks absolutely beautiful outside. Being the true Yankee that I am, I dragged Frank outside at 8:00 tonight for a walk in the winter wonderland. After a few blocks around the neighborhood, we came in and warmed up with some hot chocolate. What a perfect evening!

'Tis the Season!

I love, love, LOVE Christmas time! Ever since Frank & I lived together, we've made it a tradition to get our Christmas tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving and this year was no different. We treked out to Faquier County to walk through the Christmas tree farm and cut down our own tree. This year's is our biggest tree yet! Our ceilings are 8 feet tall and our tree is about 7'10". :) All last Sunday was spent decorating the tree and the rest of the house and this past Saturday we decorated the outside - just some simple white lights on the bushes and around the door. Although, I have to admit that I kind of wish we had gotten the big traditional, colored lights...Maybe next year! :)