Mother Nature is Kicking our Ass!!

So, this is how my Christmas started...we had family gathered, and presents piled. Santa was very good to us, and at both my mom's side and my dad's side it was great to see everyone, most of whom I hadn't seen since last Christmas.

...However, that's as far as the gaiety could take us...because then mother Nature kicked into high gear and dumped about 3 feet of snow on the streets and all over us. I haven't seen a plow since there was only a half inch on the ground and they couldn't help yet, and it's been 3 days. There are 15 of us staying at my grandparents' house, and as you can imagine, after 3 days of being literally stuck inside the house together...it gets a little difficult.

This is the first year in 25 Christmases that I haven't seen the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, and I'm not happy about it. Manhattan is going without a lot of my hard earned dollars because I can't get to stores. But the only silver lining I could find was ...I did get some good pictures.....

It's That Time of Year!

Ok, so I know that the holiday season is busy every year, but I think that this year has topped all of my previous ones on the busy-meter.

Last week:

Tuesday night: Food shopping for 2 hours to supply my house for a party planned for Friday.

Wednesday: drove 45 minutes north to have dinner with a friend in Billerica MA. A dinner might I mention, that lasted 4 hours through chatting and pictures and occasionally a bite of food, and that didn't get me home until 11 that night.

Thursday: The Company Holiday party at Smith & Wollensky's in Boston! The steak at this shindig was worth the traffic to get there, and the camaraderie was priceless, but it was nonetheless another late night out.

Friday: The day of previously mentioned party. Bryan and I spent the early evening preparing everything and cleaning the house and the fun didn't stop until 1am!

Saturday morning: Into Boston to see the Rockettes!!! (Which was amazing by the way) and then home to pack up half of our lives and head to the cape for Christmas!

Sunday morning!: Presents and then all day playing with those presents and Watching the Jets game! Then inevitably Sunday night held a drive back to Boston in the snow.

Monday: Unpack/straighten/laundry/re-pack night, because...

Tuesday: Go to work, stay late for our company Yankee swap, and then drive 4 hours to Brooklyn NY for more Holiday fun!!

You know what the craziest part of this whole scenario is...?

I wouldn't change a thing!! :)

I Love Discounts

When I moved to Boston, my goal was to get my hotmail email address onto as many mailing lists as I could so that I would find out about as many goings-on as possible. Well, in the 3 years that I have lived here, I'm sure that there are many things that have gone on without my knowing about them, and certainly without me being able to afford them, however, some of those email lists have bared great fruits for me.

The favorite of my emailing lists are the Daily discount emails that I receive. Bostonians are known for being very Internet inclined when it comes to things like Craigslist for shopping and Apartment hunting, so it is no Surprise that daily Internet deals are a huge part of Boston Culture. I am a member of Living Social, Buy With Me, and Groupon.com.
Let me start by saying that I do not understand how these sites can make any money, but they have huge discounts on both Boston & non-Boston things, and they offer a different discount Every Day! One of the best things about these sites is that sometimes they will offer a coupon to a restaurant that you've never been to, or a show that you didn't know was in town, and it broadens the horizons a bit.

Groupon.com has been my friend this past year, and I'm pretty sure that a good percentage of my Monthly Paychecks have gone to that site this year. I've gotten discounts on everything from $40 to my favorite restaurant up the street for $20, to a $125 massage for $50, to $30 for a $60 One Hour Segway tour of Boston's Harbor Walk, to a $30 sail around Boston Harbor for $15.

Today's deal may be my favorite yet, and this one came from LivingSocial.com.
Because of this great discount site I am now the proud owner of Tickets to see The Rockettes, in Boston! on Saturday! and I got them for just $34/person!! These are 50% off, and I didn't have to pay any of those obnoxious "convenience charges" that normally double the price of tickets that are purchased online.

At 11am Saturday, Bryan, Myself, and a friend will be sitting down to watch the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular, and I could not possibly be more excited!! I haven't seen the show in years, and Bryan and his friend have Never seen it. It's going to be a great weekend folks.

Photo Courtesy of jahikim.com

And it Begins...

This was the first of our Christmas parties for the season...and it was a great start.
We had a great time with all of the Nauset Crew. Good food, lots of drinks, and a good old fashion Yankee Swap, what more can a girl ask for?

In case you were wondering, the 4 of us, Suck at couples pool games!

The girls got a little silly while the boys weren't around.

We made sure to grab a quiet moment for our pic though :)

Reality Check

There are quite a few times in everyone's lives where I think a Reality Check comes into play. After a vacation is definitely one of those times for me, especially a tropical relaxing vacation.

First let me start by saying that Cancun was Awesome!! Bryan and I had a great time laying in the sun, drinking from our personal insulated mugs, and playing in the ocean waves. We took time out of our busy relaxing schedule on Saturday to take a ride on ATVs and go Jet Skiing! And as part of my totally planned and perfectly executed plan **cough cough** to leave my mark on Cancun, I made sure to crash really hard into a tree with my ATV! So there Cancun!
Although this little project of mine did cause Bryan to have a small heart attack when he realized that I was no longer behind him riding, I am fine, and that tree will forever remember me, so mission accomplished! :)
We had perfect weather of clear skies and 80 degrees for both Saturday and Sunday, and enjoyed every minute of it.

Ok, so that will bring me to the reality check part, which usually hits hard when you return home! We were in such a state of bliss all weekend, that coming back to the land of time and airports and finding that our connecting flight in Baltimore was Delayed over an hour was the first wake-up call. The second was when we realized that even though we are now getting home an hour and a half later than planned, we still have to go to work the next day at the same time. But the real kicker came when we stepped off that plane and Boston was at a clear and crisp 28 DEGREES at 11:45pm that night!

The moral of the story here is that our vacation was awesome, and even though coming back to a shell-shocking temperature was not the optimal finish to the weekend, it was totally worth it.

Now that we have this amazing memory in our banks, it is time to look forward to the holiday season of parties and Yankee swaps and exchanging presents. I can't believe it's that time of year already, but I'm excited nonetheless.

Vacations

Bryan has never been on vacation!!
Can we all just take a minute to let that sink in. It's still somewhat unbelievable for me, and I've known this fact for years.

Well, after this weekend, this fact will become a thing of the past!

Tomorrow morning, at 4am (Thanks David) we will be headed to the airport on our way to sunny Cancun Mexico for a temporary hiatus from the real world. We will spend 4 glorious days sipping our all inclusive daiquiris by the ocean, eating a ridiculous amount of gourmet food in fancy restaurants, and not drinking the water!

I have never been to the hotel we're staying at, so I can't vouch for how wonderful it will be, but I can vouch for how excited I am and how much I am looking forward to being able to share Bryan's first vacation. He even got a passport just for the trip :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

I am currently at my parents' house on the Cape with my boyfriend, parents, brother, and 9 members of Dad's side of my family. We are all looking forward to a day of cooking and playing with the younger cousins. We anticipate being hungry before the actual Thanksgiving meal is ready, and later regretting having eaten anything other than the amazing meal that my parents have planned for us. Then as the day turns into night we will be enjoying some wonderful Jets Football and, as mentioned in a previous post, Chocolate Chip Cookies!


Today is a day to be Thankful for all of the wonderful people in your life, to stop and smell the crisp cool air indicative of this time of year, and to stuff your face as if you'll never eat again!!

I wish you all a well-accompanied, cool and clear sky, gut-bustin' Thanksgiving!!

(Photo Courtesy of Google Images)

Overlapping

I think this is my word for this time of year.

Everything happens at once, and there's too much going on to do everything and see everyone. However, the good thing about all of this is it also means that no matter which road is chosen, friends will be sharing merry times, and there will be fun times galore.

This past weekend was all about prepping for the socializing and holiday activities that are to come, and a big part of that meant Baking!! Bryan and I made 2 Huge batches of amazing chocolate chip cookies on Sunday in between Jets' first downs and touchdowns. (Go Mike!!) They will be just a small piece of the massive amounts of food that will be shared among family and friends in the coming week.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Parker Colorado

is a very beautiful place!

Well, Parker itself is kind of "eh," but what's IN Parker is what makes it really special...LIZ!!!


I finally made the trek out to CO to visit her, and the weekend was amazing.
First, her professors at her 24/7 medical school decided that they'd give her a weekend off from studying from her normal 18 exams on Monday mornings so that we could spend quality time together. Then, she told me I should fly all the way across the country for a 48 hour visit, and lastly I said "Hells Yea!!"

Liz was an amazing host all weekend. The first order of business was to see her school where she spends approximately 85 hours a day working in labs or lectures or studying. Then over the 2 days I was there we shopped on the promenade, we drove to the top of a mountain where the wind chill put us at about -15 degrees F, climbed on gigantic Red Rocks, had friends over and enjoyed a lovely dinner that Liz & I made, watched crazy people participating in a work-out boot-camp at a natural amphitheater, had a leisurely dinner of excellent Sushi, and of course took lots and lots of pictures!

Everywhere we went I was impressed by the expanse that is the landscape in that part of the country. The roads are bigger, the stores are bigger, the landscape is bigger, and the air is clearer. From the top of Pike's Peak Mountain you can see 4 different states! That's how clear the air is (and how high up we went, and yes it was scary!).

Colorado is very different from anywhere that I have seen before in its landscape and general atmosphere, however, I'm definitely an ocean girl! :)

At the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.

The top of Pike's Peak. "I can't feel my face!"

Yes we drove on that road!

Liz, Sammy, and Bayla, aren't they just so cute?

I Love Weekends

This weekend's adventure is a first for me, so I look forward to enjoying every minute of it and updating you all when I return.

Meanwhile I hear that the weather in MA is supposed to be quite nice for Saturday so I hope everyone gets outside to enjoy the sunshine.

ta ta for now....

A Weekend on the Cape

Sometimes it's nice to just hang out with someone that you love and do nothing all weekend, and this past weekend was one of those times for me.


Bryan and I did a lot of staying indoors out of the wind, cooking & eating good food, and just for good measure we threw in a few hours hanging out with a good friend. I was run down by the typical fall-time cold, and the weather on the Cape was not ideal for outdoor activities so there was a lot of time to just sit around and be cozy at home.


Sunday we did manage to make it to my parents' house. We made a really nice chicken salad for lunch and then watched the Jets game on the big screen. And thanks to the Morrises who were kind enough to lend us their oyster shucking knife, we had some lovely baked oysters for a half-time snack.


The highlight of our Sunday was definitely Chocolate Chip Cookies that I made from a new recipe. They were better than store-bought, and for being made by a Ferro, they came out pretty darn good.

I Can't Count High Enough...

...to tell you how many people were on the National Mall on Saturday! I can tell you that it was A LOT!! And I don't believe that I have ever seen so many people in one place.

So, while Ashley and I planned our trip many weeks before Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced that they were going to be joining us there, we went to their Rally anyway. In between all of our museum going, history fact discovering, and site seeing, we managed to participate in a Wave that took approximately 5 hours to get from the front of the crowd to the back.

All in all, Ashley and I had a great weekend in our Nation's Capital. Ashley got to see both of the American Meccas, the National Archives, and The American history Smithsonian. And I got to visit the major war memorials and tour Arlington Cemetery for the first time.

The thing about being in DC is that it makes me realize how much I really didn't pay attention in history class! And let me tell you, if you are like me and have had this feeling about DC on previous occasions, going with your History Teacher friend is not going to help this little complex!! Ashley impressed me with her history knowledge, while simultaneously creating in me the desire to buy out entire bookstores worth of history books in an attempt to catch up.

Here are a few images that aptly depict our weekend....

Halloween is Approaching

After the age of 13, my policy on Halloween has been to lock my door and avoid the hectic craziness that surrounds the streets, the people, and the general atmosphere. At college dorms Halloween was always a dangerous time, and after college it was filled with many drunken people on the roads with their eyesight hindered by a mask of some sort.

This year however, I am breaking my own mold and venturing out on Halloween. Not only am venturing out of the house, I'm venturing out of the State...to Washington DC!! Maybe Obama can keep me safe on Halloween...ha!

Ashley and I are headed for an American History-filled weekend in our Nation's Capital and I couldn't be more excited! Short flight, great friend, free museums, a date with Jon Stewart and 10,000 of his closest friends, and a Friday off from work! What more can a girl ask for on Halloween?

I'm definitely in for a Treat! :-)
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Bye Bye Stratus, Hello Nissan

As you may know, I'm not so great with the big decisions in life. I'm always looking for the best deal, and then comparing it to someone else's great deal. I'm frugal and very rational, so big spending events usually create some indecision and uncertainty for me. However, this weekend marked the end of an era! After a little bit of research, two test drives, lots of questions, many signatures, and a whole lot of writing big checks, there is a new car in my parking spot!!

My Dodge Stratus and I had been together for 7 great years. We've had some great times together, and managed to stay in one piece and never get into any accidents throughout our relationship. We made it through many weekend journeys home from 2 different colleges, and 2 different homes after college. We moved many times, and have gone to many a happy place with friends and by ourselves. It was very sad to say goodbye to my Stratus, but the time had come.

I now am the proud owner of a Nissan Altima, and we will make new memories together.

Life is Good

There are some moments in life when the world reveals how amazing it truely is and makes you stop and think about how incredibly small we are in the grand scheme of the universe. As I stepped out of Stop and Shop tonight on a relatively mundane task of buying groceries to make dinner for myself tonight I literally stopped in my tracks as I was overwhemed by the amazing Sunset in front of me. The array of colors in the sky put the saying "Red Sky at Night Sailor's Delight" in the forefront in my mind, and it only served to remind me that there is yet another delightful day ahead of me.

Hopefully this blog will grow to be an outlet for me to share with you the more delightful moments in my life.