Weekend Update

After the heaviness of Friday, 

there are no words. 

I guess I've always felt that the show must go on. 

I hope this isnt perceived as callous, but rather a celebration of life. 

Along with a reminder that life can be cut way to short, and must be lived. 

==========That said: ===========

The last weekend of Hanukkah,

and I got a present! 

Mike came back from Brazil. 

Here's a few shots of our weekend. 

Cat Naps & Dog Naps 

Hanukkah lights & Hanukkah presents. 

 -AND-

A visit to Mecca. 

er, IKEA. 

  

Mike wouldnt let me buy ANY of these for Shiva

Finally, 

we went outside for the fruit haul, 

and made some caipirinha's!  

What we've been doing

We've been in San Jose since Friday, our stuff has been here since Monday,

and while we were living in the land of airmattresses, two bowls & two forks, and lawn chairs as our only furniture,
we still managed to do a few things..

Wanna see?

We headed downtown to start hunting for "OUR" sushi place. 

We've started buying stuff to decorate, (anyone wanna give us money?) 

You can see our awesome dining table and all our flat/stone ware here. 

We met a college friend of Mike's for dinner. 

I've started scouring for inspiration. 

We were all together as a family. 

Shiva went through her first car wash...

We had "California" food ie: add avocado to errything!

We've had beer over football..

Mike had his first self serve froyo :)

AND THEN:

THE MOVERS CAME!

AND THEN LEFT! (yes, that warrants yelling)

Now, we have our stuff, and I have goals to unpack and make a nice home for us. 

With a few trips to Ikea, Michaels, Target, West Elm and possibly BBB to go. <3

I can't wait to show you how it looks along the way and all the little nooks/crannies. 

When are you coming to visit?

Weekend Review 2-5-12

What a weekend! We stayed in Friday night, so Mike could catch up on homework, I did get a little bit crafty and made a cute wreath for Super Bowl Sunday. 

mini footballs! 

Saturday night, Mike and I went back to Wine and Design, Cary for another date night! 

via Wine and Design Cary's facebookpage

Our class's renditions of Starry Night

via Wine and Design Cary's facebookpage

blurry shot, but you can see our paintings. 

When we got home, we hung em up in the kitchen!

 Sunday, we spent the day cleaning and cooking to get the house ready for our 2nd Annual Super Bowl party. We made a few different things, but my FAVORITES were the little burgers below. 

Totally inspired by Emily. I made some plain yellow cupcakes and cut them in half after they were cool. The "burger" patty are really thin brownies. I cut a bunch out with a wine glass, then Mike scooped up the bits and made the rest. The "ketchup," "cheese," and "mayonnaise" is just white frosting with foodcoloring piped around the edges and "smushed" down. They were quite the hit and totally fun to eat. 

We also had a pretty competitive game of Commercial Bingo going on. I found a blinged out football necklace that we passed around as people got BINGO and it definitely made the game a bit more exciting.  

cupcakes and touchdowns ;)

At the end of the night to celebrate our successful party, some recent events and a general awesomeness of 2012, Mike and I popped open a bottle of champagne that'd been sitting around for a couple years. 

Success. :)

Finally saying "Peace!" to 2011

Oh, 2011. 

January: 

We drove to Charlottesville to NYE, 

we ate chicken wings

we got the plague

and won tickets to the NHL All-Star game

RBC Center

February 

we threw our First Annual Superbowl Party
we had an excellent trip to NYC
and we went the Science of Wine

Times Square

March

we had a little house guest

went to a parade

went to another Hurricanes game

we hit up HotLanta for a few days

and celebrated the 1yr anniversary of our first date.

St. Patty's day, ATL

April
we had our 6 month "for real?" anniversary
went to Raleigh Beer Fest
and tried out some of Raleigh's best food
and survived a tornado

the crew, under a rainy nasty tent

May

we introduced Mike to the cats

i had an excellent birthday

we went to Artsplosure
oh, and yeah WE WENT TO HARRY POTTER WORLD. 

what do YOU look like during Tornados?

June
we went to a Paul McCartney tribute show
plenty of brewery tours with friends
and visits to the Durham Bulls

Summer Lovin

July

i tore my knee. 

but we brewed

i painted. a lot. 
we saw Harry Potter. I died a little inside. 

and went to Cirque du Soleil

it ended



August

we went to Beer, Bourbon and BBQ
we brewed
and  started to put the house together

even on crutches, we were happy. 

September

we packed. 

we cleaned. 

we went to NY for 9/11

we saw the Jets

we moved kittens

I apparently forgot to blog. 

we managed to make it to the Science of beer

October

truth be told. this month was horrid. seeing as I never posted most of the posts I had written or even any photos, it feels like I owe it to you. (me?)

mom and dad came to the state fair

we moved all my stuff in from my old apartment.

we carved pumpkins with old friends

we ordered pumpkin lattes and raked leaves

then. 

it happened. 

I came home from work one perfectly normal Tuesday, to this:  

devastating. 

 Our front door was kicked in. Electronics, jewelry, luggage and other random things were gone. My biggest fear was realized. I fell into a deep hole that lasted most of November, with random spurts of Normalcy. One of those being our week long vacay (that I never blogged about -see deep hole-) to Vegas, Zion, and the Grand Canyon. It was nice to leave my broken home 4 days after it happened. I didn't realize how much  it to take to come back. I am back now. The house is back. The things are back. The alarm is good. All is well. 

Zion National Park

November 

we cleaned. 

we went up to NY for Mike's Family Thanksgiving. (I adore them, they're all so nice) 

we went to Charlotte (again posts lost in the deep hole)

checked out a Panthers game 

December

we celebrated the holidays

enjoyed our weekends. 

and headed out to Asheville for the New Year 

-----

Thanks 2011. You were rough, but you made me stronger. You made me appreciate who I had in my life, and grateful that the ones I didn't have anymore were finally gone. You showed me how strong I was and how weak.  You gave me adventures I'm grateful for. But, honestly? 2012? You don't have to teach me so much. We can just hang out and have fun. I'd like that.  :)

The Really Long Christmas Post

It was beginning to look a lot like Christmas (Christmakkah), 

SOON Mama and Daddy would come! 

So we put up the tree, weighed it down with weights 

and hung up all the stockings in a row! 

and BOY did they come. The tree was stuffed full of little presents and I think my mom got a kick out of looking at all the ornaments on our tree. (I still have my "baby's first ornament" up). 

We started a new tradition, of buying a new Hanukkah ornament every year for the tree, and topped it with a Star of David  

My mom also still collects my presents from Santa for me every year. Since I dont have a chimney anymore, obviously.  

I decided to cook for my family for the two days that they were here. The food, and all the treats were a hit. My mom brought me some super cute cookie cutters that I used. 

And while I cooked, Dad and Mike hung out downstairs by the football games. It was pretty hilarious, however, that when it got cold, Dad just joined me upstairs. I turned around from setting the table to see:

gotta keep warm...

So, once everyone got toasty and full, we watched a Muppet Christmas Carol.

 I only quoted the first 15 minutes. 

pinkie swear

Christmas Morning came!  

SO CUTE. Seriously, I die. 

There were tons of presents. I got glitter, books, TOMS, a new scarf set  and more. Mike wracked up a new office chair, Roger Waters tickets, a Reevis jersey and a "Beer Brewing Kit of the Month" membership (with accompanying carboy)

Fun Times. :)

But, the super awesome present. Well, It needs a bit of back story. 

Two weeks before Christmas, I went with Mike to his company holiday party, where I preceded to lose my camera. 
I looked ALL OVER the car, I called the restaurant and hotel and I couldnt find it anywhere. 

I was devastated. 

I sobbed. 

I UGLY cried. 

I bawled. 

Mike tried to console me by letting me open one of my presents "For Hanukkah," he said so I picked the one his Mom sent. (Apparently, I was supposed to pick the big one..) 

Christmas morning, Mike kept handing me presents, leaving one big, heavy, box left. I'll let you look at the progression on the pictures below..be with you in a sec. 

yeah, i cried..what of it. 

 LOOK AT THE PRETTY BABY THAT I FOUND IN THAT BIG OL' BOX. 

now, if you look closely at the bottom of the picture, you'll notice my lil point and shoot. 

turns out, I had put it in a shoe. 

yeah, a shoe. 

then I put that shoe in the closet. 

and closed the door

I then FOUND my camera weeks later before the Nutcracker. 

(Guess Mike was glad I didn't open the big box then)

 After a wonderful day (and plenty more food) the three people I love most in the world were settled into my house, sipping and munching and stressless and laughing and

 feeling -good-

And THAT, my friends is why This Christmakkah was the start of many more wonderful Chrsitmakkahs to come, and absolutely a wonderful day. 

Cheers

Who said you can't relive the holidays? Not me.