Christmas in Michigan

Looks like we only broke out the camera to capture Jack in action. Typical. Jack wasn't so sure about opening presents but he did love his new rocking horse (which Ryan proceeded to get stuck in) and bike trailer. He also enjoyed being stuffed into his stocking.

Nicole and Stephanie came out to Detroit for lunch which was a great way to end our very short trip to Michigan.

Mom's Visit

My Mom finally got out to New York the weekend before Christmas. She was very excited to see all the holiday decorations and we both really enjoyed her Christmas present from me - two tickets to see the new Broadway revival of Godspell! The show was excellent and we both loved the updated jokes and more rock less folk to the music. Sean and I also enjoyed showing her around to our favorite places in Astoria and making sure she had a whole wheat everything bagel.
Thanks for visiting, Mom! And thanks for being the first follower of my blog!

Through the years
We all will be together,
If the fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
And have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Favorite holiday songs

John Lennon, Happy Xmas (War is Over)

Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24, Trans-Siberian Orchestra

Christmas Lights, Coldplay

I Pray on Christmas, Harry Connick Jr.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, Judy Garland, classic

Christmas is All Around, Billy Mack/Love Actually Soundtrack

Of course, Amy Grant's Home for Christmas album is always my favorite, but youtube doesn't have a good selection of videos for those songs...

Real Life

Sean (singing softly to self): I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know...all I want for Christmas is Ruth, Ruthhhhh baby

Christmas Tree

Last year, in an attempt to be festive without taking up a lot of space, I let Sean talk me into buying a tiny fake Christmas tree from a bargain store nearby. I bet this tree is pretty toxic and flammable, and I hope that we can upgrade in a few years, or actually get a real tree, at which point I will probably find out I am allergic to Christmas trees.


Anyway, last week we got out our tiny tree and boxes of ornaments which is always a fun moment. Last year our parents gifted us with ornaments from their trees that "belonged" to us. Sean has more than one Cinderella ornament. I have a collection of embarrassing school photos in mini frames.


This year, we placed our tree on a box to make it a little taller. As you can see from the photo, it's now as tall as me when you include the horrible angel that I won as a Thanksgiving family Bingo prize last year.


Right now, nothing can replace the trees we grew up with which were always a normal size and covered with lights and ornaments, but I'm looking forward to building up our own holiday decoration collection more each year so that when we someday find ourselves spending Christmas morning in our own home, the tree will be covered with memorable, tacky, and ridiculous ornaments that can rival the "naked baby" on my Mom's tree.

Shopping Local

Sean and I are big fans of the "shopping local" trend. This includes buying groceries that are from the area, eating at restaurants that emphasis local foods and shopping at small independent stores. We don't get to do as much of the last one as we'd like so I'm thrilled that we just made our first trip to SITE on 34th Ave. in Astoria. They had so many unique and cute items that would make perfect gifts, including an adorable baby selection and very nice jewelery. There were also plenty of New York and Astoria themed products. We bought a few Christmas gifts and will definitely be back!

The Real Christmas List

New passport with my real name on it without filling out any paperwork

1 bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side

Plants that will stay alive in our apartment

A new dresser that fits all our clothes without leaving wood chips on them

Immersion blender*

A new workout/yoga wardrobe and gym bag to support me actually wanting to visit a gym

More time in the day to make sleeping 8 hours, working out and cooking healthy meals easier

Perfume in a scent I like

A vacation and the days off required to take one

Never having to call an insurance company again





*Ok this one is on my actual list, I want one so bad!!

Things I learned from my Mother-in-law part 2

Family and the relationships you have with your family members are important and worth investing in, more so than any other relationships in your life.

Both myself and Sean make an effort to prioritize our families. This often means traveling for family events when we'd rather spend the money and vacation time on something fun for ourselves. Or it means only having a little or no time at all to see friends around the holidays. It's not always easy but I doubt that we will ever regret the choices we make to value our families, including our own little family of two, and I'm very glad to have learned this lesson early in my life.

Thanksgiving

Sean and I just spent a whirlwind few days in Michigan seeing family (and one friend! victory!). There was a lot of overindulging in food and wine. Yum.

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday because it's always been the time when my Mom's extended family gets together. There are always extra mashed potatoes, not a sweet potato or cranberry in site, a plethora of pies for dessert, singing courtesy of the "crazy aunts" and best of all, BINGO.


While in Michigan, we also had time to do some shopping and Sean picked up his recently ordered Macbook Pro. He's been talking about getting a new computer for about 1.5 years so I'm happy he finally has one and that he will hopefully now be an Apple convert. We used it to take a few pictures with Jack while we were in Detroit since we forgot a real camera. How does he get cuter every time we see him??

Late Fall Playlist

Before the endless Christmas music playing begins (and it already has in stores all around us...) I want to share some of the best songs I've been listening to this fall.

Florence and the Machine-Shake it Out

Band of Horses-On My Way Back Home

Arcade Fire-Wake Up

Coldplay-Us Against the World

James Taylor-Hard Times Come Again No More

Kathryn's Visit

Kathryn, one of my good friends from college, came to visit the first weekend in November. She had never been to New York City and we enjoyed showing her around. We also took her to two places that I'd never been. The Cloisters, an offshoot of the Met that's all the way in upper Manhattan, and the World Trade Center's recently opened September 11th Memorial all the way downtown. In one day.

It's always nice to have visitors give you an excuse to do more on the weekend than drink coffee, cook and hide out in your own neighborhood.

Apple Chronicles

After purchasing 24 pounds of apples at an orchard, we were faced with the question of what to do with so many apples! Obviously there would be pie involved, but pies only use 3 or 4 apples. The best solution was to make applesauce. We literally filled our crock pot with apple slices, added cinnamon, cloves, and maple syrup and let it cook for 3 hours. The result was really delicious. This is the first time I've tried homemade applesauce, and as someone who really doesn't ever eat applesauce, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.



The apples were also baked into an apple crisp that Sean took to work. They were used for two pies and my pie baking skills are improving as a result. Now we still have about 6 apples left. And are tired of eating apples.

Not having TV

Sometimes when I tell people I don't get any TV channels they look at me like I must be lying. Last fall when we moved to New York and looked at prices for cable, we decided it wasn't something we could afford. Now, even though we could afford it, I avoid buying it. TV shows can become very distracting and its easy to turn on the tv in the morning and at night with nothing particular in mind to watch. When I have a hard time feeling motivated to wash dishes or get out the door on time for work, I don't need another obstacle.

I like to think that without the distraction of cable, Sean and I spend more time doing things together and talking. But of course, a large TV takes up a lot of space in our living room and we have a well used netflix account. When a show we want to watch becomes available on watch instantly watch out, we will be watching at least 2 episodes a night! Recent favorites have been Parks and Recreation, Mad Men and Parenthood. Next up: Friday Night Lights.

(By the way, how awful was it to live in the world before the option of watching tv shows episode after episode without commercials?)

First Snow

Sean's eyes lit up like a little kid on Christmas when it started snowing and continued to snow all day yesterday.

My reaction was to not leave the apartment, clean, and watch endless episodes of "Parenthood" on Netflix.

Sean is definitely going to be the fun parent in the future. I'll be the one saying "wash those dishes and put away the laundry. Now."

Apple Picking

This Saturday we took the Metro North to Poughkeepsie with Jocelyn and Cory to meet up with a friend from MSU, Amy, who has been living in upstate NY for the past year. Saturday was also Sean's birthday and he was very excited to spend it getting some fresh air, picking apples, eating cider donuts and seeing some fall foliage.


We stopped in Rhinebeck for lunch which had an adorable downtown and then went a little further north to Red Hook. We picked a ton of apples (over 60 pounds all together between the 6 of us) at the first orchard we visited, and then found another orchard that also had cider and donuts. We also took a break at a coffee house to play a board game. Was this Sean's perfect day or what?


Most of the ripe apples were way up at the top so we used pickers.

The Jonagold apples were HUGE.


A required photo-op at any orchard!


They also had raspberries which was a surprise. I had no idea raspberries were available in the fall. Picking them was a little tedious, but worth it. They're super delicious and were only 2 dollars for a little box. The yellow ones are my favorite.

We headed back to Rhinebeck for dinner and found a very crowded Italian restaurant that just happened to have a table available for 6. The food was great and we were all very full and happy when we got back on the last train to Grand Central.

Now Sean and I have 24 pounds of fresh apples to get creative with. Some of them are going to be good for just eating as snacks. The orchard had Macoun apples which we'd never heard of but they tasted great. Others are destined for pie, applesauce and maybe an apple crisp and if we're feeling really adventurous, apple butter!

Falling Together

About a week ago there was a post on one of my favorite blogs, A Practical Wedding, about a couple who had lost a premature baby in their first year of marriage. The post was about the grief they experienced and how the handled it as husband and wife. Even though it was about about the death of a child, the message was really appropriate for getting through any challenges together.

"There is a saying about how we don’t tend to trip on boulders, but pebbles give us a hell of a time... I think it applies to marriages also. We got through the hospital stay and the funeral and swallowed “the big picture” whole. It’s been the fallout post-funeral... pebbles in comparison and we’re tripping all over ourselves. Fumbling as we may be, we are living our vows. We are partners. We keep reaching for one another and while that sounds sort of duh, I’m reminded constantly of my previous marriage in which that wasn’t the case. Jared and I might be falling, but we are falling together. As we look towards the future, we are building together.

So much of marriage is simply a negotiation of each other’s baggage. Sometimes it is messy and we peer warily at it around corners, one eye squeezed shut. Sometimes it strikes out like Medusa and turns those we love into stone. Our baggage has marched loudly across our bed this first year; a cacophony of timpanis pounding, horns cascading, flutes parading and our only recourse is living honestly and the willingness to keep reaching for one another."

So true.

Grandma's Wedding

It was front page news for Jackson but I really didn't think it was that wierd that my Grandma was getting re-married. After 57 years of marriage, you kinda get used to it! Plus, since my mom has worked at one for years, I know that retirement communities are likely places for elderly romance. I've received many funny looks and laughs when I tell people that my 80+ Grandma was marrying a 90 year old man, but if she's happy, we're all happy. We had a great time celebrating their wedding this weekend and watching the Spartans beat UofM!

Check out the Jackson Citizen Patriot article here.

Things I learned from my Mother-in-law Part 1

It's ok to get what you want, just because you want it and especially if it's your birthday. Even if it's a $75 dollar sweater shrug that you think might be a little over priced.

I try to apply this idea often. Going from having no money as a college student to someone with a small but reasonable amount to spend on myself, sometimes I need reminding that it's ok not to save that extra money in exchange for a little extravagance. Especially when you have something to celebrate.

Sean is also a big fan of the "getting what you want just for fun" concept. His mom taught him well!

New Job Essentials

In just a few weeks (not quite two actually) I will be finished working at the American Red Cross in Greater New York and will be immediately starting a new and exciting position. More on that later!

As I look around my desk now and think about packing everything up, I see how items have slowly collected over time to reach a point where I always have what I need while at work. How nice would it be to have all those things right away on a new desk at a new job? I plan on making an effort to make sure all these items are on hand within the first few weeks, instead of fumbling around later really wishing I had that motrin or an extra umbrella.

Here's what would be in my "new job" care package:

A box of kleenex
Excedrin and/or motrin
Tums
Gum and mints

Floss
Tide pen
Hand sanitizer
Jif natural creamy Peanut butter
Spoon
Extra chapstick
Band-aids
Umbrella

Flip flops
Extra pair of contacts

(and with the cold and flu season coming up)

cough drops
alka seltzer

Am I missing anything?

Beaver Island Trip

1st Anniversary

It's been 10 days since my last post. Oops! I've been busy.

Sean and I (actually just Sean) forgot to take a camera with us for our anniversary celebration. Therefore, no great photos of the fun weekend we had in NYC.

Since we don't have vacation time left and we are both sick of the airport, we decided that for our anniversary we should just stay in a nice hotel and relax. We stayed at the W Hotel in Union Square and Sean got us a nice room on the 20th floor with a great view of downtown. The room was actually very large which is always nice for New York hotel rooms. I made Sean keep the price a secret from me. There are some things I would rather not know, even if the money is all coming from the same place.

We had a delicious dinner Friday night at the Union Square Cafe which is apparently a NYC institution that we knew nothing about. The food was delicious, our server helped us pick a great bottle of wine and after the salad and pasta we even had room for dessert. I'd love to come back!


Saturday we took a long walk to the west side to try a brunch place recommended by a coworker, Cookshop. The food was great (I had the hueavos rancheros) but the best part was the bloody mary. I am always wary of ordering them in restaurants because they can't compare to the homemade version, but these were perfect. After brunch, we took a walk along the High Line park which Sean has been begging me to do for ages. It's a park that's been made out of an abandoned above ground railroad and it was actually quite nice. I've heard it can get crowded though so the fact that it was a cloudy/threatening to rain day probably made it more enjoyable.


On Saturday we also enjoyed some TV marathons and a shoe shopping trip, then had dinner in the jazz room at the Blue Water Grill. I'd been wanting to try it for a while and it did not dissapoint. The food, from the suhsi to the sea bass to the chocolate chip cookies to go was excellent and the jazz room in the basement provided a romantic space with live music where the tables were not crowded together and you could hear yourself talking. We enjoyed some champagne and a wonderful evening. I'd love to come back, Sean not so much considering the focus is seafood, but he's coming around to different fishes.


(Are kissing photos no longer cute after you're married? Sorry!)

Sunday night thanks to a gift from Mom, we went out and bought some champagne, ordered thai and watched Mad Men on Netflix. It's our latest obsession and we're now on Season 4. The photos are all from then, when I decided we couldn't have our first anniversary without photos!