The Year in Review

Our year started off with a new niece, Emily (she missed being a New Year's baby by 1 day)

Our baby had to have surgery on his head to remove a cyst that ruptured and got infected

(when I first saw him after his surgery it was one of the saddest days of my life)

We started working on our wood paneled bedroom



I turned 30

But that didn't stop me from swinging on the swing above the bar!


We celebrated Beth turning 30 again


Mary and Chuck shared their "free" tickets with us to see Citifield for the first time


Went to Citifield again with Mike and Jaira; best seats I've ever sat in to see the Mets



I started sewing


Dave grew some really nice grass


We installed an electric fence for the Roxy and Oliver


Celebrated Pirrello turning 30


Dave turned 30

We had a huge party at our house on 4th of July celebrating both or our birthdays


Watched our nieces grow


I got to spend a VIP night in NYC with the girls


I reconnected with some old friends from St. James


Got to visit Citifield again with family


Started creating the man cave


I climbed Mt. Greylock (the highest peak in MA) with Cary and Summit


Watched Oliver grow from a timid puppy into a fearless dog


And put some meat on his bones

He never did grow into his ears

Trained the dogs on the electric fence


I taught myself to wood burn


Were supposed to go skydiving but the weather didn't cooperate


So I psyched myself up for another week and we actually went; I had a great time and can't wait to go again


Celebrated Jen and Joe's engagement


I tried a furniture re-do and am now hooked

Celebrated Caroline turning 3


And our 3 year anniversary

Celebrated the marriage of Cary and James


Dave installed some new lights

Went to the Big E and I got to try fried pickles


Celebrated my cousin Tiffany's wedding

And went on a cruise to Bermuda with the bride and groom and some family


Got in our first moped accident

(before the accident)

Explored Bermuda


Celebrated Halloween


Had some fall fun


Our tv broke so Dave finally got his flat screen


Which motivated us to re-do the "pink room"


We attempted a Thanksgivings dinner again

and succeeded


We snuck in a weekend getaway to Vermont to celebrate Joe and Monique's marriage




Got home just in time to play in all the snow we missed while we were gone



Upgraded our bed


Had a wonderful Christmas


And we ended the year with a bang: Dave started taking down the wall paper in the 3rd bedroom

It no longer looks anything like Christmas but...

So Christmas came and went in the blink of an eye and I've been so busy I haven't had any time to document it but so much work goes into the holiday I can't let it slip by unspoken of. Especially since I worked really hard to make a few things, I want to share.

Since I took my sewing class in the fall I've gotten really into sewing and we were in need of a tree skirt for our Christmas tree so I found a pattern for tree skirts and stockings. So the weeks leading up to Christmas I was really busy sewing the 4 of us new stockings to match the tree skirt I made.

We ended up with a really nice tree again. We're 2 for 2! And an added bonus - we made it home with the tree still in tact on the roof of "ghetto Gary". [Last year we got our tree around the corner from where we live and we didn't make it a quarter mile before the twine broke and Dave had to stick his arm out the window to hold on to it while I drove realllllly slowly home.]

Our tree skirt and new stocking


Our poor angel had a sore neck after 3 weeks of being stuffed on top of the tree.


Our Christmas table runner I sewed

And the most tedious of all the projects that I didn't finish until Christmas eve, eve was our new wreath made out of ornaments. I had seen similar type wreaths for sale in the stores for $30-50 and then after seeing people were making their own on a couple of the crafty blogs I follow I decided to try myself. Lots of glitter and a hot glue blister later:

At least next year I won't be so busy making decorations and I can put more of that energy into making a few more gifts.

We were even lucky enough to have snow on the ground for Christmas this year.

Some of our other decorations around the house:

This year I got to put up the village my dad gave me for Christmas last year.

We got to enjoy the holiday with our families. As always we were super spoiled! Dave got his much wanted tool chest and lawn spreader and I got my steam mop (which I'm addicted to) and fabric steamer and much needed socks;

I realize admitting these things really ages me or makes me seem really lame but that's just who I am! I got a ton of painting supplies so I can start working on my next hobby! And a new set of plates I've been coveting for the past 6 months that no one knew about, MIL is just THAT good! And we got a model sail boat for our bay window which we've wanted for a loooong time (before we even had a bay window)! Among many other wonderful things! Jen and I agreed to exchange mostly handmade gifts. She made me some really nice jewelry and a fancy crocheted scarf and tube scarf and hat! And I made her a bag and necklace.

I even made Dave a handmade gift:

I don't think anyone loves Christmas more than Roxy and Ollie, all the visitors and new stash of bones & treats = heaven!

Weekend away

This weekend we went up to Vermont to celebrate Joe (Dave's friend from college) and his wife, Monique's marriage. Last year they got married in South Africa (where Monique and her family are from) and unfortunately we (and many others) weren't able to make it. So for their 1 year anniversary their parents had a wedding reception for them at The Vermont Inn.

I was just beside myself with how incredibly adorable the Inn is! I couldn't get enough of it! It made being in Vermont in the middle of winter with the freezing weather and all the snow tolerable.

The Inn


Our view

The Inn is now owned and run by the Duffy family including their dog Sassy (a bonus in my book) and when we arrived Jennifer, showed us around. Since not many people were checked in yet we got to take a peak at a lot of the other rooms. Every room was different! I immediately fell in love! Some even had their own fireplaces.

Our room


Mike next door in his pink room
He wasn't a big fan of the Inn. Being over 6 feet tall he was really close to hitting his head on a lot of the ceilings! But the pink room is actually the most popular room at the Inn due to it's charm and price.

After we settled in we decided to check out The Greenbrier Inn store that we passed coming in. MOST ADORABLE store I've ever been too! It was an Inn that was converter into a gift shop so while there were many little rooms set up with a theme it was an open floor plan. So you go from room to room and each one has a zillion of it's own cute-sie things for sale. We easily spent and hour there. I found so many things I'd love to have and a tons of things I wanted to get for others but had no occasion in mind for which I could get them. And since we'd just finished buying all our Christmas presents I really didn't want to buy anything to store away for some future gift. Although I did buy a couple small things and got some good ideas for a couple things to make. Definitely a store we'll visit again next time we are in the area. I'm hoping for a fall trip in the next couple years!

The Greenbrier Inn Store

After our shopping adventure we headed back to the Inn to find home baked cookies and hot cider! How much cuter can this place get??!

Later that night was the wedding reception. It was so nice to celebrate with Joe, Monique and their families and catch up with everyone from the VT 251 crew that was able to make it (Morgan, Emily, Val, Jeff, & Mike) and those who couldn't make it were missed.

And of course I didn't take a single picture at the reception dinner so I have to wait for Morgan to post all of hers!

Aladar

Aladar (our bearded dragon that I bought myself when I was 22) just recently turned 8!!

Because Al is contained in his 40 gallon tank he doesn't get in any trouble and he's such low maintenance he doesn't require much attention. He's fed and I keep his tank clean but other than a hundred passing by's a day, a few licks on the glass from his buddy Oliver, and a visit now and again from the little girls that live next to us he's sort of left to entertain himself. And frankly he doesn't even like to be held anymore, which is completely my fault since I stopped handling him when he was still pretty young due to his fascination with fleeing from my hands. He'd always run to a hiding place that was IMPOSSIBLE for me to get to and I would have to sit and wait and entice him with a bowl of meal worms until he decided to come back out. Well that was fine and dandy when I lived in a room at my dad's but once I moved out to my own apartment his days of freedom slowly came to an end. And it only got worse for Aladar once he and I added Dave to our family and adopted his younger sister Roxy who it turned out was not his biggest fan! And that's just through the glass.

And [this is so embarrassing] earlier this year I thought he was dead and Dave and I went as far as turning off all his lights and heaters for a couple days and it wasn't until I went to take him out to bury him that I realized he was just in a VERY deep sleep (in my defense: he's been known to "hibernate" for a couple days but not so deep that you couldn't wake him up out of it)! I've thought about giving him to someone that may be able to offer him a more exciting life but it just wouldn't be the same without him around and frankly I wouldn't be able to sleep at night thinking about how he was. And I know that feeling would never go away. And Oliver would miss him.

I wish we could get him a lady friend (if I put another male in the tank there would be a fight to the death). But unfortunately it's hard to come by adult dragons (and when you do they're expensive) and you can't tell whether a young dragon will be a male or female for a year or 2.
I'm not even sure he'd appreciate having to share his tank, I was never a big fan of sharing my room with my sister! And who knows, maybe one day we'll have a fearless son (or daughter) and they'll be the best of friends!

Giving Thanks

I can't believe it been over a week since Thanksgiving! Between being in charge of our big move at work during the day and my nights being consumed with all the things I need to make in time for Christmas, time is FLYIN'! And since Thanksgiving is my 2nd favorite holiday (St. Patrick's Day being my 1st) AND this is our first year with a successful turkey dinner I couldn't let it pass without a posting (even if it's over a week late).

We had our guinea pigs (my dad, Jen and Joe) over for an afternoon lunch again. We tried this last year and it was a total disaster so we figured we owed it to them. Really we just needed to prove to ourselves we could make a delicious dinner and since they were such good sports about the raw turkey last year we figured anything would be an improvement for them! And in our defense we had no control over the turkey being raw. We had NO idea one of the heating coils in our stove was going to blow on such a crucial day! Which really just screwed everything up because I did my best to time it so the sides would be ready when the turkey was supposed to be ready. So not only did we have raw turkey, we had cold sides! TERRIBLE!! Absolutely terrible! Good thing it was just the 5 of us and everyone had a better meal waiting for them later in the day, except my poor dad!

So really there's no where to go but up after that experience! I even made a nervous joke about how there was the chance the 2nd heating coil could blow this year. Knock on wood they both made it through the whole 4 hours we needed them to.

Dave made a delicious turkey; the little red thingy even popped up (yes that was the most exciting part of the entire day)! I can't take any credit for that though, he even cleaned it! But I must say I impressed myself with my side dishes (I don't normally toot my own horn but I thought they were delicious). I was even brave enough to try and make my own apple crumb and pumpkin pie (I know neither are trivial but my scar from last year is still healing and I've never made a pie before, maybe next year I'll get really crazy and even try making my own pie shells!)

And since I knew I had to go into work on Thanksgiving I baked the pies and prepared all my sides the night before so all I had to do was bake them for 30 min., which I did while Dave was preparing the turkey for dinner. So the timing couldn't have worked out any better and it made everything stress free.

I even decided to be a little fancy now that our dining table is set up. Dave bought some flowers and I sewed a fall table runner. I even pulled out the china for it's first time use! I was a little weary (I'm super paranoid about breaking anything) but then I thought, what the hell do I have it for if it's going to sit in it's plastic storage cases for all of eternity?!!

I even got to use the claddagh napkin rings Jen got us for our first anniversary.