New York recap (Part 1)

Wow, I'm exhausted. The hubs and I went up to New York for Christmas. A whole week filled with laughter, snow, wine, Wii, Guitar Hero, dogs, presents, baking and family. I don't know about you, but that sounds like a recipe for fun in my book.

Initially, the hubs and I were going to make our 5 hour trek to NY on Sunday, but a weather forecast that included snow and ice forced us to push our trip up a day early to Saturday. I must admit, the trip up was breathtakingly beautiful. The region had been hammered the day before with snow and ice and that made for some fantastic scenery to gaze upon while driving. Of course I did the driving (um, growing up in the Catskills for me vs city driving for the hubs) and the hubs slept most of the trip. I think he woke up somewhere near Hazelton for a few minutes and then woke up again for good in Scranton. I'm pretty sure when he looked out the window in Scranton and saw a BMW flipped on its roof he thought he might want to be prepared for a sudden stop. Saturday's drive was one of those days where I was incredibly happy to be driving an SUV.

Today's post is going to be dedicated to the scenery up in New York. Again, I was incredibly fortunate to grow up where I did. The hubs summed it up when I was suiting up to go for a hike in the snow, "she misses the outdoors... and snow." Every single time I peered out a window I would sigh and say, "I miss this place. Look how beautiful it is!"



See, nature makes snow balls. Mother Nature is just begging you to throw them at people!



I have a slight obsession with icicles.
Hmm, I think there might be a tad too much snow to go camping.




My absolute favorite tree in the world.

Later in the week it rained/sleet/frozen rained. Pick your own term and that's basically what came down. It was cold, slippery and wet.




Last, but certainly not least, the lake. Crazy temperature swings didn't allow for safe ice skating, but I keep hoping that one year the ice will be thick enough for a massive hockey party on Christmas. Stupid global warming!!!

I think I was demonstrating to the hubs my fantastic slap shot technique.


His idea of smiling for a photo is a bit different than what I had in mind.
Alright, that'll do.

Hopefully, next year I'll do a better job with the photos and have a better camera (wink wink).

Merry Christmas

The uncomfortable holiday encounter

I have a major fear during the holiday season: the unequal exchange. Basically, someone gives me a gift and I'm left empty handed with nothing to give in return. Or, someone sends me a Christmas card and I didn't send them one. Of course with the Christmas card embarrassment I can always send out a card the next day and cover up most of the shame.

Now, the hubs and I are leaving to visit my family tomorrow. If any more surprising Christmas cards show up between tomorrow and the 27th, then the sender is going to have to wait until next year to receive a card. Hopefully, we don't receive too many more unexpected cards. On one hand I love receiving cards, but I always feel guilty when that unexpected card shows up in the mail.

My extended family does a Secret Santa-ish type gift exchange, which is nice because I have a lot of aunts and uncles. The gift exchange system is in place to help everyone's wallets and I am not one to complain. I'm pretty confident the hubs and I won't be left red-faced this year, but I'm still nervous because three years ago one of my cousins gave us a gift and we didn't have one to give in return. Talk about being embarrassed!!! Every year I swear to buy a generic giftcard to have in my back pocket for just that very reason. Too bad every year I forget to buy the thing! Doh!!!

The hubs, of course, thinks I'm crazy when it comes to these matters. His response, "babe, who cares if someone sends us a card and we didn't send them one. No one keeps track of that stuff." He's knows some people do, but he just says these things to keep me sane (clearly, not all of them work!).

Does anyone else fret over these things or am I really crazy?

Christmas cards are out!

Woohoo, I dropped off our Christmas cards earlier today at the Post Office. We sent out 25 cards, but hopefully next year we'll send out even more. Maybe even next year I'll make cute labels or jazz up the envelopes. I had ever intention of doing that this year, but a lack of printer ink killed that idea.

Here's the card distribution breakdown:
Arizona- 1
Florida- 2
Maryland- 1
Michigan- 1
New Jersey- 8
New York- 2
North Carolina- 1
Ohio- 6
West Virginia- 3

Hmmmmm, why do we live in Maryland again? Oh that's right because the bulk of our families live in either New Jersey or Ohio. I'm sure that those four-plus hour drives will come in handy when we'd like a babysitter. Good thing we're not having kiddos for quite a few years. Maybe we can convince a few family members to relocate to the Baltimore area.

I need your help

Alright, I have an idea and I can't make a final decision. I bought a pretty frame a few weeks ago at Micheal's and I'd like to print off some type of Christmas decoration to hang for the holidays. I love Wordle and thought to myself, "well, instead of making something in Photoshop and going nuts in the process, why not just use Wordle and be done with it!"

So, I have three different Wordle creations. Which one do you think I should print and frame?

Option #1:


Option #2

Option #3

Please leave a comment and let me know which one you like the best. Thank you!!!

Christmas Card photo shoot

The hubs and I decided to send out photo Christmas cards this year. Well, I came up with the idea and he went along with it. We quickly looked over our photos from the past year and realized that we didn't have a single photo of both of us with the pups after my new haircut. Hey, when you chop almost 12 inches off of your hair, you need to use a new photo.

I set up my tripod, gave the hubs a few tennis balls (I'll get to that), and armed the 10 second timer on the camera. Our first location was quickly shut down because it was too cold outside and after a few takes the pups were shivering too much.

So here's a few photos from our little photo shoot.

The hubs looks scared. The idea was to throw a tennis ball over the camera and that would get the dogs to look at the camera. The hubs probably came close to hitting the camera on this take and was scared it was going to fall over.

Hmmmm, something is off in this photo. I swear my dogs didn't watch any crazy video tape and they haven't received any scary phone calls screaming, "seven days."

Okay, the lighting is off in this one. Plus, Jax wasn't cooperating and escaped from my death grip. (Also, we realized that the stockings in the background weren't working out.)

This was our runner up photo. It's cute, but we tried just once more to see if we could get everyone looking forward, no scary expressions and hopefully no crazy eyes.

Okay, we've got some doggy crazy eyes, but I think I can fix those in Photoshop.

Ahhh, there it is. Gotta give a shout out for The Pioneer Woman's photoshop actions (I love those bad boys).

Way to go Baltimore Sun!!!

Alright, I confess, I don't pay for the newspaper. That's a difficult thing for me to announce because when I was a teenager I read the paper every single day (and not just for the comics!!!). Thankfully, due to a little piece of technology called, "the internet," I can read the paper every morning without having to run outside and pick it up off of my sidewalk.

This morning, while I'm enjoying my bagel and chocolate milk (I'm out of Earl Grey tea!!!) I was perusing the Baltimore Sun and I found this little gem:

Gifts for Women

Of course I clicked on it. I was genuinely interested in what the Sun would suggest for women. There was, of course, the standard cooking products, cleaning stuff (I won't even go there), wine accessories and clothes. The most interesting thing I thought, the main reason for this post, was that the Sun included a few items from Etsy. I thought that was pretty awesome.


Orichette Necklace from Nina Ditoff
(ninadinoffjewelry.com) This signature necklace mimics the shape of the popular pasta. Cocktail rings, earrings and bracelets are also available in the collection. Necklace is $295. Online: etsy.com


Mod wood dangle earrings
Simple, affordable, versatile. $20. Online: etsy.com