Catch Up

Somehow time got away from me between my birthday, our trip to NY, and Thanksgiving and three weeks have flown past since my last blog. I think this might be the longest stretch I've gone without posting anything. To briefly catch everyone up, here's what's happened since my last posting:

1. I turned 30! Yes, hard to believe, but I'm now what some may refer to as 'over-the-hill'. At first I wanted a big birthday bash to celebrate my milestone, but then as the day grew closer, I decided that I wanted a simple dinner party. Well, I really didn't get either (don't get me started), but none-the-less, I did enjoy my birthday celebrations - a mini party with my family in NY, a dinner and spa day with my mom, and a delicious Melting Pot dinner with Frank on my actual bday. Guess I can't complain too much! ;)
2. Frank and I spent a long overdue weekend on Long Island visiting our families. We made the trip to NY for the baptism of Keith & Deaneen's baby, Thomas, but also got to spend QT with both of our families. I love this picture of Frank & Kate from the weekend:

She's getting so big and is a blast to hang out with! We can't wait for her little sister to get here!
3. We celebrated Thanksgiving at my mom's house in Winchester for the first time in several (I think 3) years. Typically we've been spending Thanksgiving in NY, but this year we've swapped and are doing Christmas in NY. I headed out to Winchester Wednesday afternoon and spent the day baking and prepping with my mom and sister. Frank joined us later that evening since he had to put in a full day at work. After stuffing ourselves silly, Laura & I decided to help the economy by hitting the Hagerstown Outlets when they opened Thanskgiving evening. We shopped from about 10pm to 2:30am Thursday night into Friday morning. I have to say, I was surprised at how awake we were although Laura did get a little grumpy towards the end. ;) All in all, I didn't think the sales were that great - I definitely have had better luck in the past with the outlets on Long Island. We still made out with some good deals and most importantly, got to spent sisterly QT together! After a few hours of sleep, I was able to hang out with my mom all day on Friday - We actually did a bit more shopping and a lot more relaxing at home!
4. Yesterday, Frank & I made our annual trip out to Chantilly (or maybe it's Haymarket) to chop down our Christmas tree. This is the 5th year and it's become somewhat of a tradition now. We typically get our tree on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but since the forecast was calling for rain on Sunday, we decided to push it up a day, so our house is all decked out for the holidays a day early! I'll post some pictures later.

That about sums up the last few weeks - We have Frank's mom coming to visit this weekend, so we're mapping out some fun Christmas things to do around DC. Then our Christmas party is the following weekend...Phew - Looks like December's going to be another busy month for us!

Two Bday Celebrations in One Weekend

Friday was Dad's Bday, so to properly celebrate, my fam came to visit on Saturday. We hit the National Archives for a peak at some of our country's most important documents and then stayed in for the evening - Frank & I made dinner for the crew. (Yes, you read correctly - Frank helped by making the antipasto appetizer!) The main course consisted of red snapper, veggies, and stuffed tomatoes, followed (of course!) by homemade chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting (my new fav). Somehow dinner and dessert took us late into the evening - We stayed up to chat for a bit longer before turning in at almost midnight.

After breakfast (which my sister convinced me to make versus my original plan of just buying bagels), Mom, Laura, and I metro’ed into DC for the Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show. (For Mom’s Bday back in August, Laura and I got her tickets to the convention and to the Paula Deen show.) We had a great time sampling countless dips, spreads, sauces, drinks, etc and I was literally in tears from laughter during the Paula show. Her sous chef was a hilarious English gent so between both of their accents, they couldn’t understand one another. I guess you had to be there! ;) Bobby Flay even made a guest appearance during our showing. Another great day – and overall great weekend with the family!

Red Light, Green Light

This past Saturday can be summed up in three words: MEAT, MEAT, MEAT! We celebrated Mike's bday at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse...which means we gorged ourselves on red meat - The gauchos run (literally) around with swords of various meat cuts (filet, sirloin, sausage, bacon wrapped anything, ribs, ribeye, etc etc etc) and serve them at your request. I ate more red meat on Saturday night than I have all year! After the meat fest, we headed to Fado’s to continue the party; however, it didn’t last too long – We were all pretty spent after such a huge dinner! Here’s a pic of the birthday boy along with his GF who organized the whole evening:



This weekend, the November bday celebrations continue with my dad’s birthday. My family is coming into town Saturday afternoon to do some touristy things and wish my dad a very Happy Birthday! More to come on that post weekend…

Happy Halloween!

A bit belated, but Happy Halloween Everyone! Once again, the residents of Pocomoke Street didn't have too many treat-or-treaters. For what has seemingly become tradition, most of the neighbors within a few blocks of our house all gathered for our street's Halloweenie Roast. As the name would suggest, lots of hot dogs are cooked, but the menu also consists of Guinness Meatballs, various kinds of chili, and countless side dishes. It's a great excuse for the 'grown ups' to get together before leading the children around to trick-or-treat. Once dusk settles upon us, at least one person from every residence heads home to man their candy bowls. Frank & I both headed back to the house this year to hand out candy to the neighborhood kids. After the first wave of kids from the Roast, the goblins and ghosts were few and far between, so we headed back to the Roast to enjoy a few more drinks and goodies. A pretty uneventful Halloween, but fun none-the-less!