A Year In Review

This year our clever cousins sent a Christmas card with monthly highlights inspired by their digital picture "journal." It made me giggle (that was personality leaking through in the writing style) and then it inspired me to scroll through our picture "journal." Now as 2009 winds down and we head into a new decade, I'm going to post some monthly highlights.

January-- Jason perfected enchiladas and we ate a lot of them early in the year. Obviously we did not start 2009 on healthy New Year's diets.
February-- Valentine's Day was spent enjoying delicious burgers here....
March-- We decided to start documenting Jason's morning hair. I can't help but laugh when I look over at his hair sticking up in various directions and refusing to be smoothed without a shower and proper washing.

April-- A much needed trip to the Magic Kingdom with the Gardners. I even spotted my hero...Rhino.
More to come...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

twenty-six years ago today, my life changed forever.
i was no longer the baby of the nicolai family and noelle's arrival guaranteed my life would never be boring.this sassy little thing has never been boring! she's intense, clever, a devoted friend, crafty, smart, always on the go, full of ideas (some better than others but she tried them all), and a wonderful little sister (i didn't always think so but i KNOW better now).
i was going to look for a (as in one) cute picture of her but i found so many...so here's a little tribute.




HAPPY BIRTHDAY NOELLE!

remember that amazing pillow i mentioned...

i leapt as soon as it was out of the box! even matt couldn't resist trying it out.
'tis the season!

One Week and Counting

In honor of the seven days remaining until Christmas, I decided to list 7 of the things that have made my happy this season (thus far and in no particular order)...

1. receiving the most amazing pregnancy pillow ever--i'll probably sleep with it for the rest of my life
2. my new, and most favorite, ornament and our first family tree

3. the Nicolai family Christmas party. as usual, i slacked on the pictures but did get this one of my mom's delicious, huge snowball cake
4. these two triumphantly returning for a holiday visit and the adventures that followed
5. making Christmas treats with Jason--even if it wasn't the "1, 2, done" process we envisioned and we were forced to abandon the project midway. as you can see, it wasn't for lack of thoughtful preparation...

6. two weeks off from school two. weeks. off.
7. meeting peter! the steak was as magical as legends imply and the broccoli, creamed spinach and onion rings weren't bad either.

3:00 Snack(s)

I had one of those afternoons.
Love.
Impulse.
Craving.
And a snack isn't complete without...

Black Friday

So we didn't get up at 4 am to fight crowds or score major deals, but we have a little Black Friday adventure. We looked into registering for Bun. It was a reasonably sized store so my heart didn't start racing as we walked in. Cindy was calming and offered sound advice. Jason was great. He had researched specific products, investigated what babies need, and had an idea of what we wanted. All I wanted to look at was bedding...

Isn't this sweet? The only problem is that we weren't planning on getting a crib. Now I want one so I can look at those sheets!
And shoes....

Darling! But I promised Jason we'd never spend $60 on baby crocodile-embossed moccasins. I'm hoping Target has some knock offs.

On The Run

We moved to our current apartment in May. One major draw was the 4 big windows facing Marcus Garvey park. We look out over a baseball field and heard little-leaguers all summer, and see enough tress to allow us to imagine that we live in suburbs. And as it turns out, in Novemeber, we get to watch the NYC marathoners trot by.
The leading women and men. Can you imagine looking this relaxed at the 22nd mile? And they were still booking it!