Merry Christmas!

From our home to yours!

Annual Friends Party

Rob is very fortunate to have a close group of friends from high school who hang out throughout the year. Once we all moved out on our own we decided to have an annual holiday party and rotate who hosts it each year. This year it was at our home and we hope everyone had a great time!

The gang!

Wesley, Joey, Jacki and Chrissy during dinner

Shaun, Kristen, Katie, Ella Grace and Lauren

Group shot

Ella Grace and Bella enjoying a tea party

Any time we all get together we always have plenty of delicious food, but the dessert spread this year was one for the books!

Joey and Bella

Wesley, Buster and Jacki relaxing

After all that prep work, Buster was tuckered out midway through the party. Thanks to Ella Grace for lending Buster her new Princess sleep mask

Celebrating December Birthdays

Special shout out to a few December birthdays we celebrated recently:

My great Aunt Jay's 85th Birthday:

My mother-in-law and nephews birthdays:

And my very good friend Lisa and her husband Dave had their first child - little Matthew Alexander - on December 1st.

There were several other birthdays in December but I wasn't able to get photos for them. Happy 25th Birthday to my brother, Dominick, and to my mom who is celebrating her birthday at the end of December. We love you all!!

Our Florida Getaway

Things have been hectic lately as we try to prepare for Christmas so I'm going to quickly recap our trip to Florida, which we took back in November.

The main purpose of the trip was to see my good friend Lisa, who was pregnant with her first baby (she just had Matthew on Thursday, Dec. 1). She moved to Florida and that's where they were having the baby shower. Since I wanted to go see her anyway and it was a few weeks before our fourth anniversary, Rob and I took a few extra days for ourselves and had a nice little getaway - our first one alone since we went to Europe back in 2009.

We didn't do anything too exciting the first few days which was perfect since all we wanted to do was have a rest and relaxation trip. We woke up early to a beautiful sunrise from our balcony, hit the gym, ate breakfast and then vegged by the pool or on the beach until it was time for dinner. Since we don't mind walking we explored the area and found some really nice restaurants, including Houstons -- Rob LOVED their ribs and I had a yummy salad.

Although the first few days were very relaxing, we were excited to get our rental car on Thursday and get out of the general area. We hit up Miami Beach druing the day, South Beach at night and also got to visit my great aunt who lives in that area before heading to West Palm Beach for the baby shower. All in all it was a quick trip (aren't they always?) but we came back relaxed and ready to tackle the holidays.

Below are a few photos from the trip:

Sunrise shot

Pretty rainbow on the beach following a brief shower

Daytime view from our balcony

South Beach, Florida sunset

Cool shot in South Beach

Nightlife in South Beach

Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream

These last few years Disney on Ice has come to our area the weekend after Thanksgiving. Although I was not crazy about seeing Elmo at 9am, Rob was able to get tickets to Disney's Dare to Dream on Saturday night, which works much better for me. I'm also a Disney Princess fan so I didn't mind seeing this as much.

The event started off with a performance about "The Princess and the Frog," a movie I was not familiar with -- at all. I perked up with the next skit, "Cinderella," which is one of my all-time favorites, and then they ended with "Tangled," complete with intense acrobatics. In the end, all of the princesses and their prince charmings made an appearance which caused me to act like a five year old yelling out the names of every character as they skated out.

All in all it was a fun show but the next time we go I'm going to have to brush up on the new movies so I know who's being shown.

Cinderella's Carriage looked beautiful all lit up 

The end with all of the characters around the castle

An overview of the set, complete with the floating lights from "Tangled"

Cuddle Time

We both like to cuddle with Buster but I think I'm a little more gentle than Rob. Here's his idea of cuddling with our precious pooch:

Talk about a headlock!

My First Flat

As a lover of high heels, I wish I could say this post was about my first pair of flat shoes. But alas, it's about my first flat tire, which I got the day before we were supposed to leave for our trip to Florida. Luckily, Rob came to my rescue to put on the donut and drive me to Firestone where they fixed it.

Among his many comments that day, he asked how I didn't know I was riding on a flat. Here's my reasoning:

1. This was my first flat tire. I didn't know what it was supposed to feel like but I knew something was wrong so I made an appointment at the dealership for the first available appointment - that Saturday 
2. I don't walk around the car and check my tires
3. Taking care of the cars is supposed to be Rob's responsibility (I can get away with that one since I have been good about making his favorite foods lately, including rice balls and onion rolls)
4. We were going on five days with a black-out and getting ready for a trip. I had more on my mind than checking my tires
5. I clearly need to review my owner's manual. I had a light go on in my car, and naturally I thought it was my check engine light so I called the dealership for an appointment. At least now I know what the tire light is supposed to look like, which is clearly nothing like the check engine light.

I'm chalking this up as a learning experience.