New York, New York

Well, I can't believe it's been three weeks since the big trip to NYC. We had a FABULOUS time and were in for a HUGE surprise when we landed.

The drive to DIA was extremely nerve-wracking due to a good snowstorm that left the highway a parking lot. Mom was sitting in the front seat and seemed really nervous. So nervous she couldn't talk and was so worried we'd miss our flight. Well...the real reason for her concern was that she and Aunt Kay worked up quite the plan to surprise Bec and I. Aunt Kay flew into JFK 2-hours earlier than us and waited for us down at baggage claim. Imagine our surprise when Bec and I saw Aunt Kay patiently waiting for us to get our luggage. It was so fun to have the two sets of sisters together. My mom and Aunt Kay are so fun to be around, they had us laughing the whole trip. It's hard to say what the highlight was but I'd say it was seeing the Rockettes and our last dinner at La Bonne Soup!

Me, Mom, Aunt Kay & Bec

Times Square

Saks Fifth Avenue Dancing Snowflakes

Bloomingdales

Macy's Herald Square

Lord & Taylor

Top of the Empire State Building

Lunch at Thalia

I don't know if I'll ever be able to thank my mom for this Christmas gift. No words will describe how much I'll cherish these memories. I also know that we'll have to go to NYC again since we didn't see everything on our wish list. The fact that Aunt Kay was able to join us really put it over the top. Thank you Mom, it was better than I could imagined. Love you!

Dear Nuggets

We need to have a talk. You are disappointing me time and again as we enter 2010. I had great seats last Sunday when I watched the Dallas Mavericks bench score 50 on you. 50?!?!?! How does that happen? I'll tell you:

1 - You don't play defense. Your best defender is Arron Afflalo and your bigs are a non-issue for the opposition.

2 - JR thinks he's the PG and the shooting guard.

3 - We need Chauncey back...fast.

4 - Nene is the weakest big man I've seen. What big man drives to the lane for a lay-up? A lay-up? I hate to say it this way but, man up and play with some presence.

5 - Groom Ty Lawson and allow him to use his speed for good. (This is the most painful thing to say as a die-hard Blue Devil but he's fast.)

I hope that when Chauncey returns he'll take care of the offense and run it like a well oiled machine. As for Nene, trade JR for a real big, someone who has an inside presence. That's all for now, here's hoping 2010 starts off on a good note to carry us strong into the all-star break.

Thanks Jess for treating Corey, Jeremy and I to the game. We had a great time as usual!

Brunch with the Ladies

I had brunch with Jess and Kelli before Christmas in honor of Jessica's visit home. We went to Rootdown and it was phenomenal. If you have not been, I highly recommend the fried egg sandwich for brunch. It was great catching up and I'm thrilled to say that Kel and I are going to see each other before Jessica's next visit. I'm headed to her girl's nigh next weekend. This is a record for us!

Kelli, Me, Jessica

I'm so lucky to know these ladies, especially since I've known Jessica for 25 years. It is mind blowing when I think back to us in elementary school. This photo shows that I never caught up to her in height but it is much better than when she was inches taller than me as kids.

Christmas 2009

This Christmas was a complete departure for us from years past. For starters, we had Christmas Eve dinner at LoHi Steakbar before we headed to mass. (We'll be headed back there for another meal - it was great.) Then on Christmas Day, Jeremy and I agreed not to exchange gifts and we didn't have any children with us on Christmas Day.

So knowing this wouldn't be a "traditional" holiday, Bec and I planned a mystery dinner for our loved ones. I say "loved" ones since they weren't thrilled when they saw what we had in store for them. Here's our dinner menu Bec prepared:

We had perfect numbers to sit our guests in the dining room, all 8 would be contained for the festivities while Jeremy, John, Bec and I served dinner from the kitchen. The highlight was really watching everyone eat their very traditional meal (roast, ham, baked potato soup, sweet potato souffle, corn casserole, fruit salad, spinach salad, roasted carrots and potatoes and rolls) with limited use of a fork, spoon, knife, napkin, toothpick or straw. It really did shake up the typical dinner and had us laughing really hard. I don't know if I'll be hosting Christmas for a while, this may have been a good scare tactic.

Impressive use of the spoon and straw by Mom.

Corey - the big cheater of the night - kept unloading forks from his pocket. Here he's stuck with the straw & knife and doing just fine.

Grandpa did great with his toothpick, although we did let him borrow a knife for the roast and ham.

Grandma & Grandma Josie were a real team, helping each other all night.

After dinner we did stockings, unwrapped gifts, then watched the Hangover and played some board games. It was so relaxing and was great to have the grandparents at the house. I still say Mom does the best stockings ever. I also have to say that my new apron from J is wonderful. It's the perfect apron for this girl! I know it sure beats the one her son gave me for our first Christmas 10-years ago. Yep - Jeremy gave me an apron for my first Christmas gift and it didn't even scare me off;)

There's some more of that Grandma teamwork!

Grandpa & Grandma

Our guys with the new beer coozies - courtesy of Mom.

I hope you all had as memorable of a Christmas as we did here.

Where oh where has Katie Lady gone?

A quick note to say that:

1 - Yes I am alive and well.

2 - I took my first true vacation in 11 months from the office. It was a great feeling to really leave work at the office. (I'll share photos of our NYC trip later this week - BEST GIFT EVER!)

3 - I had the worst week of work in years when I returned from vacation. (The vacation was still completely worth the pain of returning to the office.)

4 - All of my free time is spent doing pilates and keeping up with the house. (I'm not exaggerating this either, I'm at the studio Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. It's a good thing I have a caring and VERY tolerant husband.)

5 - I'm trying to get this Christmas stuff together. (Your cards may be late this year but you'll get them.)


Something pretty to leave you with from the one and only Martha - I'll post more later this week! Only 10-days until Christmas!

Gratitude!

First and foremost - a very Happy Belated Birthday to my dear brother! You deserve a year of true happiness!
Secondly, a very Happy Thanksgiving wish to all. Looking back on the year, Jeremy and I have so much to be thankful for. We're both healthy, have a lovely home, are gainfully employed and are blessed with great parents and siblings. I hope you all have a healthy holiday weekend spent with those that you love.

I'll be baking shortbread and a spinach-asiago gratin for tomorrow's dinner. The gratin is a new recipe so if it is good, I'll share it after we eat. The shortbread is a great dessert that is the perfect amount of sweetness. This may be my cookie to share for this season, you really can't go wrong when you add your finishing sugars!

November, already?

I can't tell you what I did in October or the first part of November. Time needs to slow down and I'm definitely not ready for Christmas decorations or the new year. It's a mixed bag over here at Casa Ross. Here's something pretty to look at in November that would be a great centerpiece courtesy of Martha Stewart.

-I hate the weatherman's eager use of the word "upslope". But at least this morning Jeremy and I could work together in shoveling the driveway in record time. And, I'm glad the snow fell on a weekend and not Monday morning. Jeremy rewarded me with a Starbucks Peppermint Mocha - yummy!

-I actually did some scrapbooking yesterday; haven't done that in years. I was able to finish our vacation photos from 2003 and 2005. (I'm a little late on this stuff but at least I made some progress.)

-I'm trying to find a good purse to use in New York. It has to work well while we walk or take the subway, it must fit over my coat and it has to be one I'll use again. (Jeremy doesn't understand this but I think I've narrowed it down to a few choices. Hopefully there are some good sales around Thanksgiving to give me a break on price.)

-I'm making a large pot of sauce for dinner so we can try out the sausage from the hog Jeremy bought. (The half a hog has been his best purchase in a long time. We had some bacon for breakfast and it's incredible - little fat and great flavor!)

-I have some knitting projects to finish up in these next few weeks, so a few more snow days will help further this endeavor along.

-I'm looking forward to seeing The Blind Side with Jeremy for our Friday date.

-Finally, the BIG news for the house. I'm now in my pre-certification phase for becoming a full-fledged pilates instructor. This is exciting and scary at the same time. It's been some mixed emotions but has me so eager to finish my certification this summer. Not a full-fledged career change but it is something that has me rejuvenated.

Have a good week, start planning those Thanksgiving dinners and remember to stock your neighborhood food bank! (We'll be making our donation to Jeffco Action Center.)

Christmas 2009

It may seem a little early to be posting anything about Christmas but this year will be a year unlike any other.

Photo courtesy of Rockefeller Center

In one short month I'm headed to New York City with my mom and sister! I can't wait for this trip, it really will be the trip of a lifetime. I'm still so excited that my mom thought of this for Bec and I. We've always talked about going there during the Christmas season to see the store fronts, Rockefeller Center, and sip hot chocolate at Serendipity that this has me down right giddy. If you have any must-see places, please pass them along. I haven't been to NY in 11 years and I know it has changed. We actually may be able to make it see the lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center - wouldn't that be great?

A Must Post

Disclaimer: I have to post this so I don't forget 2 months or even 2 weeks from now when the snow falls again the pain of shoveling a driveway.

Last week was the first big storm of the season, a good dumping of 2' in 48 hours. What's a girl to do while her husband is in Florida? I'll tell you:

I took the truck to work at 5 AM on Wednesday to miss the traffic then hightailed it home at 3 that afternoon. I had every intention of shoveling the driveway, which is the longest on the block, Wednesday afternoon/evening. After working for an hour it was apparent that it was a futile effort and simply not worth my time. So, by the grace of a very sweet neighbor, my driveway received a quick visit from the snow blower. I thought to myself at midnight, this is great, I can get up early Thursday and head into the office. (After all, I have two conference calls and I have to get to Jeremy at DIA Thursday night.) The plan sounded good in my head but didn't take into account that the snow kept falling and the City snowplow came up the street and boxed in the driveways. So Thursday morning at 5 AM it became very apparent that I'd be working from home and putting in a serious workout to clear the driveway. I couldn't tell the difference between the lawn and driveway and it was a long ways out to the street from the cul-de-sac. So after my calls I got to work at 11:30 AM shoveling. 3 HOURS LATER AND IT WAS COMPLETELY CLEAR!

A shot I sent Jeremy at 5 AM

The accumulation by 3 PM Wednesday.

After 30 minutes of shoveling on Wednesday - I gave up shortly after this shot!

It wasn't worth the effort, I couldn't keep up with the falling snow.

I love the snow drifts we get off of the front porch - they are gorgeous at night.

1-hour into my Thursday shoveling efforts.

3-HOURS LATER AND IT'S DONE!

I successfully had a clear driveway at 3:30 Thursday and was ready to head to DIA to retrieve the hubby. The drive out there was not fun (took 2-hours) and in the process of changing seats with Jeremy I lost my work phone in a snow bank. Big oops! After I realized it was at the airport we were too far into the drive home to turn around.

I was thrilled to see the snow melted on Friday from the street but I sure felt jilted from my efforts. Next time, I'm just going to wait for the snow to melt.

Confession Time

#1
Since the new year, Jeremy and I have been very good at going to the gym at least three days a week for a good cardio session.

9 times out of 10 I listen to the Bangles, INXS or Pat Benatar.

Don't judge, you know you love the 80s too.

#2
Last weekend was the first time in our 10-years together that Jeremy and I did something for Halloween. We didn't try very hard...dressed up as Duke and KU basketball fans. At least we had a good time at Bec and John's party complete with pork tenderloin and pumpkin cupcakes!

I hate Halloween. And someone please tell me why children who don't dress up still come to the door to trick or treat? It was good weather this year, no excuses not to have a costume.

10 Things to Love

1. A "Halloween" batch of gorp! It really is so much better with the candy corn added to the mix and it makes a great gift!

2. The Restoration Hardware Clearance Center, where I scored the large prismatic pendant for the kitchen at 70% off!

3. A big batch of white bean chili on the stove. This will keep me warm tonight. (Jeremy actually complained of the heat and humidity this morning when he called after the first session... unreal!)

4. These amazing products from Aveda: Pure Abundance Hair Potion and Volumizing Tonic. They really do make a difference in my flat, straight, fine hair. I'm hooked for life!

5. The best moisturizer for the dry Colorado fall and winter. Dermalogica's Intensive Moisture Balance is the best I've used.

6. Warm pumpkin bread on a cold day.

7. These boots at Target are a fraction of the cost of the Frye's boots.

8. The start of basketball season. I can't wait for the Nuggets season opener!

9. The use of pumpkins for your October/November decor. Love these images from Sunset.

10. "Winterizing" the house with decor changes. Now if only I can figure out the window covering for the dining room bay window.

-I love the simple sentiment on these pillows-