Merry Christmas from New York City

Merry Christmas to everyone - we're so thankful for you all!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Marc and Jenn on Dexter and Maddie - Christmas 2008

Birthdays and Turkey Time

Back to trying to finish updating you all on what's been going on... Marc and Byron both celebrated their birthdays in November so we went to our favorite Texas-Style restaurant (Hill Country) and then headed over to a hole-in-the-wall for a few cocktails. Let's just say a few drinks turned into us arriving at our respective homes around 2:00am the following morning - good times although Jess says she refuses to go out with Marc again, too much peer pressure - haha!

Above is a picture of the group from our birthday night out...This is Marc with his gift from my family - it's awesome! One of those jerseys has his name on it...very cool - perfect for his office! He loved it - as you can see.

Of course, following Marc's birthday weekend came Thanksgiving and our first attempt at making an entire Thanksgiving meal, all by ourselves....i.e. no parents to help or supervise! In complete honesty, there were several calls made to both sides of the family so although maybe not here in person, they were all here in spirit - and helped us follow directions to achieving our perfect Thanksgiving meal.

Here's Marc with the turkey in marinade - we used an Emeril recipe and it turned out yummy...not too shabby for our first attempt at cooking a turkey!

Here's our bird - post oven, haha. It really turned out great - a little dry in places but we were both very proud of us as were our parents AND Byron and Jess, who had to eat the meal we cooked. We were thankful not to have to order out after all of this work! :-)

Our Resident Turkey Carver

Here's our meal all set up - ready to go! We were so excited about the food that we forgot to take any pictures of us all enjoying our day and meal. Between football and so much food we almost popped, we had a great Turkey Day!

Getting to the Good Stuff

The month of November meant the coming of three very important things: 1) a new baby nephew, 2) Marc's birthday and 3) Thanksgiving! What a busy and exciting month.... In addition, we made a trip with Byron and Jess down to see Steve and Jen in the heart of New Jersey for a quick weekend get-a-way/visit. In this post I'll cover the visit to Steve and Jen's and some updated pictures of my perfect nephew. Will wait until next time to talk about Marc's big day and Thanksgiving, of course!

We had a blast in this little-bity town...what a relaxing weekend and oh, so much food! Steve owns an Italian restaurant where he makes homemade pastas that are delicious - my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Here are a few pictures from our visit - OH, by the way, Steve and Jen have 3 indoor dogs - Coors, Bailey and Guinness. Maddie and Dexter had a BALL!

The pictures below are of a Great Dane that lives in the neighborhood...his owners stopped by and Steve let him come into the bar (yes, it's that small of a town). He's HUGE but so gentle and sweet - like a horse, it's crazy!

This is Steve and Jen feeding him his favorite treat, MEATBALLS!

OK, next part of my update - I'M AN AUNT EVERYBODY! I haven't got the chance to brag on my cute little baby nephew and he is SOOOO precious. Les, Bill and Andrew are all doing great. Andrew had another doctor's checkup today and is growing like a weed - he's already weighing in over 10 lbs and is in the 80 percentile for his height...he's going to be so big by the time I finally get to hold him! Here are some updated pictures of this sweet little boy.

One Week Old (above)

Our Little Turkey - hehe!

More to come soon everyone...

Catching Up

I know it's been too long - I've been thinking about it - taking pictures for it - making mental notes on a day by day basis...just haven't been able to get myself to actually DO it....blog, that is. So, here I am - November was a really hard month and December is looking like it might be somewhat challenging too. However, we LOVE the holidays in this family and though it's hard being away from home, we're looking forward to a Merry Christmas and a VERY Happy New Year. 2009 can't come soon enough - lol... Mom, Dad and Brother are heading up next week so I'm also really looking forward to that - can't wait to 'Kick It Up a Notch' with our NYC site-seeing during this holiday season. Though it admitedly might be so cold that it's painful outside, this New Yorker has to admit that there is something magical about being here during the Christmas season.

And so, here we go - let's start with pre-Thanksgiving activities and pictures and I'll work my way up-to-date.

First. NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK. Yes, that's right - my sweet husband, in the midst of the stress of November, surprised me with NKOTB tickets! You might think I'm crazy but I was the girl who never got to actually go to a NKOTB concert and this was finally MY CHANCE! Edna and I had a ball together at Madison Square Garden, sold out concert and an awesome show - probably the best girls night out I've had in a long time, and oh-so needed!

Check out all those cell phones...

(above) He's STILL my favorite. :-)

This was my favorite shirt of the evening...

Thought this was a great shot of The Garden...sold out with NKOTB singing in the middle on a revolving stage - LOVED IT.

Second. WVU. Yep, that's right - Marc, Byron and James are all fans of the West Virginia Mountaineers so we headed to a game watching party at The Hill NYC and had a blast. This was also our 'See Ya Later and Good Luck' to James who headed off to Iraq the next week. James is in the military and now serving through April - we're all looking forward to his safe return. Here's some pictures of our group - this is our crew here in NYC (minus Ed - we missed you)...we're lucky to have found such great friends!

Third. PUPPIES. Here's the last of the puppy pictures from the Oct/Nov timeframe that I wanted to share. These two are a constant joy - so sweet and loving. Oh to be a dog for one day - haha - if only I had the energy, never-ending happiness and fantastically humorous characteristics of our Maddie and Dexter. Hopefully these pictures will give you a laugh as they did for me and Marc.

I walked into the bathroom to find this - couldn't help but laugh, I guess Dexter just really likes his bath time. It's as if he was saying, "Hi Mom - ready for my bath!"

This is my favorite picture though - I could just see the "I didn't do it Mom" look in Maddie's eyes....haha

OK, that's enough for now - hopefully this will slowly start to catch you up, I promise to continue the updates over the next few days. I'm hoping to be back up-to-date by the time Mom and Dad and Brother get here on Thursday...keep your fingers crossed, we shall see!

Have a great week everyone. Remember to count your blessings. :-)