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!

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?