Our Holiday Adventures

We went up to Petoskey on Christmas Eve to celebrate with my family.  While we were there, we:

went on a long walk outside with our pup, Greg, Nina, and their pup.  The snow was glistening like diamonds in the areas where no one had walked.  It was absolutely gorgeous. 

I wore SYT in the Ergo and within the first 20 minutes of the walk, he was sleeping soundly and cuddled up to stay warm. 

He was certainly cute enough in his little snowsuit!

The river starting to ice over

Christmas Eve we had dinner with B's aunt, uncle, cousin, and grandma before church.  We left SYT sleeping at their house while we attended mass with my family.  It was a wonderful service, and I love singing all the Christmas carols.  It makes my heart so happy!

Christmas day we woke up slowly, played with Spencer and opened gifts with my family.  My grandma hosts for Christmas dinner, and there were 17 of us this year.  We had a great meal, got to sing more carols, and played Catch Phrase.  We normally play Scattergories, but this year we switched it up and played Catch Phrase.  It was really fun, and SYT charmed the family with his crawling and his constant smile.

SYT with my uncle Jon

Santa Claus smocked outfit- he looked adorable!

With his mimi (my mom)

Singing Christmas carols while Gram plays the piano.

The next night we went to my aunt and uncles house for dinner and to celebrate Nina's birthday.

Happy Birthday Nina! 

Monday we skiied while my mom watched Spencer.  It was chilly, but the snow was perfect and we all had fun.  I would have loved to ski a few more days, but we had to pack up that afternoon and come home to work for the rest of the week.

For NYE we went over to B's cousin's house and hung out with some of his family that came into town.  We had a lot of fun just hanging out.  Lots of champagne was consumed- too much for some people!!!  Nursing makes me toe the line pretty well ;)

No, I am NOT naked.  I just have a strapless top on.  Should have been a little more aware of this when taking the pic though!

N&K dancing with Spencer.  She's the one who is due in March with their first baby.  They're going to be wonderful parents- they are incredible with Spencer.

Ready for 2011!!

It's been wonderful reading about your holidays with your families, and it was a really nice year for us as well.  I'm ready for 2011 to begin and see how the year unfolds.  I'll be praying for a wonderful one for all of you!!

Fall Colors!

We had a great weekend up north.  We hiked the ski hills with my mom, Ralph, their new dog and Junebug, took lots of long walks, raked Gram's huge yard (raking is my favorite outdoor "chore"), ate great meals, and enjoyed time with the fam.  Today was a LONG car ride home (over 7 hours- normally 6), but worth it for such a great weekend.  B is out tonight at the Wilco concert with some of his friends- he's going to be a tired boy in the morning :) 

Here are some pics we took while we were up there- enjoy!!

I have zero photoshop skillz, so these are (obviously) untouched, but still give you a sense of how gorgeous it was!  I hope you all had a great fall weekend as well!!

Working for the weekend!

Tunnel of Trees in Harbor Springs

Today is day three of three at the hospital, and I'm so glad that in 10 hours I'll be done for the week! Tomorrow after B gets home from work, we're hopping in the car for our annual fall weekend up north. The leaves are at their peak right now, and it's not supposed to rain at all, so it should be beautiful up there! Bestie, S, is riding along with us to see her parents for the weekend as well. Even though we won't arrive until after midnight tomorrow, it's so worth it to wake up Friday morning knowing we have the whole day.

Some of our weekend plans include:
*Meeting mom and Ralph's new dog, Orion (they got him from the shelter last week after walking dogs at the shelter for 2 months. They totally fell in love with him!)
*Hiking the ski hills at Nubs Nob with the dogs- great exercise for us and the dogs (hopefully some good photo ops too)!
*Eating Boston Cream Pie for dessert on Friday night while celebrating my birthday. (Doesn't this look delish? I can't wait to try it!)
*Golf (for B and my brother at  Crooked Tree.  Simply fabulous fall colors on this course.)
*Either shopping downtown or heading into Bay Harbor for the Harvest Festival
*Lunch at at least one of my favorite restaurants (Gurney's, Flatiron Deli, or Roast and Toast)
*Running with S on Sat morning to burn off the cake from the night before
*Champagne toast to celebrate B's marathon victory (hey, he placed 18,000 and something out of 33,000 runners- that's definitely not last place, so it's a huge victory!)
*Etc,etc,etc........

The high the weekend is only 52 (and that's the day we leave!).  BRRRRRR!  It's going to be chilly!  I'll just have to pack warm clothes, heavy socks, and a cute scarf to keep me warm!  I'm not going to let it bother me on bit though!  We'll just have to exercise a bunch to stay warm and snuggle with the pups when we're indoors! 

Tell me about your weekend plans- pumpkin patch, apple picking, decorating the house for Halloween, baking, shopping for layers or new boots???  Keeping up in blogland will be tough after Thursday afternoon, so lay it out for me now!