Giving Thanks

Kristian returned safe and sound and in one piece on Wednesday from his bear hunting adventures sans bear. He did however kill a deer which is what the boys ate on Tuesday night while in the woods. Vom. He had a great time and I too enjoyed having a few days with the house all to myself.

On Thursday we woke up and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade while I made a yummy sweet potato and pecan casserole. We headed to his parents house where we joined his sister, her boyfriend and my nieces and nephew for a fabulous dinner. Usually they have their whole extended family but this year decided to keep things small which was really nice and relaxing. I stuffed my face with the usual Thanksgiving fair and wound up on our couch later that night feeling like I was going to give birth to a food baby. So all around it was a successful day!

I only took three pictures, my in-laws took a bunch but haven't sent them to me yet so I apologize for the lack of photographic documentation of my holiday.

Our third Thanksgiving together but our first as a married couple!

 (I don't know why we were doing a prom pose)

My wonderful in-laws

 

The amazing table setup. My mother in law ranks right up there with Martha herself.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.

I better get a nice rug out of this

As I posted, yesterday was our 6 month anniversary, unfortunately we weren't able to celebrate together. Why you may ask. Well because as I type my husband is off in the George Washington National Forest with two buddies bear hunting. Yes he's hunting BEARS!

Kristian and I have very different ideas of what constitutes fun. For me, it's lounging on the couch, watching trashy reality t.v. while eating something that will contribute to my already high cholesterol and snuggling with my husband and furbabies.

For Kristian, fun is hiking miles into the wilderness with a 50 pound pack on your back to sleep in the woods for 4 days, not shower and hunt animals that could rip your face off. Yeah.

On Saturday Kristian's two buddies Matt and Bryan came to our house so they could organize all their gear, watch the VA Tech game, drink beer and assert their manliness. There was so much testosterone in our condo I was afraid I was going to grow a penis. I swear if a random person had just walked into our place they would have thought we were preparing for war, what with the numerous rifles, ammo, knives and camouflage all over the place.

They left bright and early on Sunday morning and plan to return (hopefully in one piece) Wednesday morning. In the meantime I plan to lounge on the couch, watch bad reality t.v., eat a bunch of crap and cuddle my fur-children...you know normal fun.

So if you wouldn't mind please pray that the bears don't end up hunting my husband and leave me a widow for the holidays.

6 Months

Six months ago today I said I do. Definitely the best decision I've ever made.

A Princess Bride

By now the whole world has heard about the engagement of Prince William and Kate Middleton. They are set to marry in the spring or summer of 2011. William proposed with his mother's beautiful sapphire engagement ring which is just stunning. I think they make an adorable couple and Lord knows Kate has waited a long time for this engagement.

I must admit as a lover of all things wedding I am super excited about this wedding. I cannot wait to read all the stories and see all the pictures and assuming it's televised (which is a pretty safe assumption) I will be glued to my t.v. to watch. I was only a year old when Charles and Diana got married so I can't wait to finally get to watch a royal wedding on t.v. like our parents did back then.

The big talk of course is what Kate's dress will look like. Bride's have enough pressure picking out their "perfect" dress but when your dress is going to be seen by billions of people and your wedding will be one of the most photographed and publicized weddings ever the pressure must be enormous!

It will be interesting to see if Kate wears a more conservative gown that appears to be the standard for royal weddings. I decided to dig up some pictures of past Royal weddings to check out the dresses and the overwhelming theme seems to be sleeves or at a bare minimum the shoulders are covered. Granted most of these weddings happened 20 or more years ago so I can't help but wonder if Kate will stick to tradition or wear something more modern.

Prince Charles and Princess Diana had easily the most publicized wedding of our time. I can't say I'm in love with her dress. Granted it was 1981 and puffy sleeves were all the rage but I just hate the top of her dress. It just makes the 20 year old Diana look very matronly in my opinion. I love the skirt and that train is insanity but the poof sleeves would have to go if this were my dress.

Princess Sarah Ferguson's dress is a bit more my speed though again the sleeves could be toned down a bit. I'm in love with her Cathedral length veil and the neckline is quite flattering.

Here is a picture of William's grandmother Queen Elizabeth. I actually love this dress. Would I wear it now? Probably not, but for the time period I think it's beautiful and OMG that train! Stunning!

Here is a picture of Princess Victoria of Sweden who just got married this past June. I think this is a good guide for what Kate Middleton may wear for her royal wedding. Gone are the puffy sleeves but her shoulders are still covered and she has a more modest neckline. I think this dress is very elegant and classic though I wouldn't have minded a bit more bling. Afterall she IS a princess.

And of course you can't write about royal wedding dresses without including Princess Grace of Monaco. I am IN LOVE with this dress. Despite the high neckline I think it's gorgeous and I just die over the lace which is probably obvious considering my dress was all lace. I know some brides think lace dresses are old fashioned but I think they are timeless and classic. Of all the royal brides Grace would be the one I would want to emulate the most if I were marrying a Prince.

So which of these royal dresses is your favorite? Are you excited about Prince William's wedding?

**All images via Google images**

'Tis the Season...for Holiday Cards!

I've posted before about my love for Shutterfly. I used Shutterfly for creating my wedding photo album (as well as a smaller album for my mom), I made a calendar last year for Kristian for Christmas and I already have a few other gifts up my sleeve this year courtesy of Shutterfly. So it should come as no surprise that Shutterfly is the place I'm going to for my Christmas cards this year. This is the first time we're sending out holiday cards as a married couple and I can't wait.

We will definitely be going with one of the many photo card options so that we can include a picture or two from the wedding and maybe even a few of our fur-children. Below are just a few of my favorites but I will keep the final design a surprise for my friends that read this blog.

With Love Chartreuse

Scalloped Scarlet Ribbon

Faith Hope Love

There are also a ton of Photo Gifts to choose from just in time for the holidays. Or if you're feeling more ambitious you can make a 2011 calendar. My mother-in-law makes a new calendar every year using Shutterfly.

One of the best parts of Shuttefly is that they are always offering deals and discounts. In fact they are offering an amazing deal right now to bloggers (I'm sure many of you have seen or participated in this already).  Shutterfly is offering bloggers a deal of 50 free holiday cards for writing their own post similar to this one. And at this time of year you can't really turn down a free offer now can you?? To sign up for 50 free holiday cards go HERE and they will send you instructions.

Are you sending holiday cards this year? If so, do you keep it generic with Happy Holidays or go straight for the Merry Christmas?

Clothes Adoption

When I was younger I always wished I had a big sister. To be honest I wouldn't have minded having a little sister but I really would have preferred an older sister. But alas it wasn't meant to be. I figured by having an older sister I could have ideally doubled my wardrobe by being able to adopt her hand me downs. I realize that growing up the last thing most kids want are hand me downs and had I had a sister I may have felt the same way but growing up with two older brothers I knew I wasn't get much out of them. I was able to borrow some of my mom's clothes but it's just not the same as having someone closer in age whose closet you can raid.

Well this past weekend I finally got to experience the joys of having a big sister with hand me downs. My mother-in-law called to tell me that Kristian's older sister had cleaned out her closet and she wanted me to come see if there was anything I wanted before they took it all to Goodwill. Knowing what great taste my sister in law has in clothes I couldn't wait.

My SIL and I are not the same size. First of all she's about 9 inches taller than me, so I knew I wouldn't be getting any pants out of the deal. I believe her shoe size is also several sizes bigger than mine which is a damn shame because that girl has some shoes that are TO DIE FOR!

I can't complain though because I walked away with several new tops, a cute jacket and Coach purse. Yes a COACH purse. Why she doesn't want to keep that is beyond me but hey I'll take it. I brought home a full bag's worth of clothes and after trying everything on was able to keep a little more than half. The rest either didn't fit me or didn't look good on me. Below are some pics of a few of the items I kept.

My new purse. It's a pretty plum color which is great for fall.

A really soft, lightweight sweater from Banana Republic

A F*A*N*G t-shirt

Cute lightweight jacket from the GAP.

Do you have any sisters or friends that you "adopt" clothes from?

Also, special birthday shoutout to my friend Kristen. I love you ladycakes!

ICE

My mother called me last night to invite me to join her, some girlfriends and their daughters for a little mother/daughter bonding day in early December. On the agenda will be checking out ICE 2010 at the Gaylord National Resort at the National Harbor. For those that don't feel like clicking on the link ICE 2010 is
At the Gaylord National Resort at National Harbor, visitors step inside a winter wonderland created entirely of 5,000 BLOCKS of ice weighing 2 MILLION POUNDS! hand-sculpted by 40 international artisans and kept at a chilling nine degrees Fahrenheit. Produced exclusively for Gaylord Hotels, the attraction is fully interactive, allowing guests to roam inside, around and on-top of holiday scenes. The amazing walk-through attraction will feature famous scenes from the Dr. Seuss classic storybook carved completely out of ice. ICE! will recreate these famous scenes, and more:

•The Grinch’s frozen lair

•Christmas Eve in Who-ville

•The Grinch creating his “ramshackle” sleigh, complete with “reindeer” Max

•Mount Crumpit – where visitors can climb to the mountaintop and zip down ice slides to Who-ville

•The Grinch stealing Christmas from the Who houses

•Christmas morning in Who-ville and the famous Roast-Beast Feast!

The indoor, walk-through attraction is housed in an enormous 15,000 square feet structure that is specially constructed and thickly insulated to help maintain its internal temperature of nine degrees. To stay comfortable inside, guests are loaned oversized winter coats to wear. It gets pretty chilly, so be sure to bring a hat and a pair of gloves.

 
Pretty neat huh? I can't wait! Afterwards we will head to dinner and then out to a Piano Bar that my mom and her friends like. Then we will crash inhthe rooms my mom has booked through her timeshare for one big sleepover party!

I'm so excited to get some quality girl time with my mom and her friends (including the 3 ladies that helped coordinate/setup my wedding) and see something really cool while we're at it.

If you live in the DC area I would suggest checking this out. Tickets aren't horribly expensive and it would be especially fun to take some kids too.

Back from the dead?

Back in May I posted about our new little turtle that Kristian had found. Well we still have her and she's grown quite a bit since then. Kristian created a wonderful tank for her to live in with rocks and greenery which you can see in the picture below. If you look closely you can see little Weddette on the big rock sunbathing.

Once the tank was setup Kristian decided that Weddette needed a friend so he went out a bought a little frog to add to the mix. We named the frog Herpe because of all the bumps he has. We're strange I know. Below is a picture of Herpe.

Well at some point back in June or July Herpe decided to go into hiding behind the rocks and we didn't see him again. He never came out and without going in and taking everything apart we couldn't see him. Eventually we determined that he must have died and either the turtle ate him or his little frog body was still behind the rocks. I kept telling Kristian he needed to go in there and try to find him but I think Kristian was a little scared to find a dead frog in the tank.

Cut to today and it's now been around 4 months since we've seen Herpe and Kristian calls me on the way to work to tell me that Herpe is ALIVE! He came crawling out of his hiding spot this morning for a brief minute or two before going back to his little cave. We couldn't believe. We have no idea what he's been eating this whole time or if he ever does come out of his hiding spot when we're not around.

We are both so happy that Herpe is in fact alive and well and we view this as a good sign of things to come...unless of course he's really some Zombie frog which wouldn't be quite so cool.

Plan B

Earlier this week I got an email from a friend talking about an upcoming wedding she was going to. It was going to be an outdoor ceremony and the weather was calling for cooler temperatures, like in the 30's, and there was no backup plan to account for the colder weather.

As someone who planned to have an outdoor ceremony and then had to move it inside when it started raining 30 minutes before we were about to begin my BIGGEST piece of advice for anyone planning an outdoor wedding and/or reception (or any party for that matter) is that you MUST have a back-up plan. For the love of your guests and your own sanity you have to account for mother nature who has a tendency to be a nasty bitch at times. I don't care if you live in San Diego where it's 75 degrees and sunny 360 days out of the year, if your outdoor wedding falls on one of those 5 days where it rains you're shit outta luck.

Now even though rain was what mother nature decided to toss my way you also need to account for either really hot or really cold temps, this pretty much goes for any season you get married in. Yes the months of May, June, Sept. and Oct typically have very pleasant temperatures (which is why they are such popular wedding months) but it's not that unusual for the temp to swing dramatically in either direction during those months and you need to be prepared.

A lot of people will plan ahead and have bottles of water or fans available for those hot summer days or have wraps and space heaters ready for the days that are a bit chilly and those are fine but unless you want all your guests huddling under umbrellas you can't disregard the possibility of rain. I don't know many people that like to sit out in the rain while wearing their Sunday best even if it is under an umbrella.

So please please please ladies, have a Plan B or if you want to be really anal like me even have a Plan C (we ended up having to use Plan C at my wedding). I know you may have dreamed of the perfect outdoor wedding since you were 5 years old but shit happens and the weather is the one thing you cannot control on your wedding day.  Believe me you don't want the main memory that your guests have of your wedding to be how uncomfortable they were because of the weather.

For those that have had or are planning outdoor weddings did you have a backup plan?

Two Places at Once

Now that Halloween is over and November is upon us that means only one thing....The Holidays!! Yes the big family holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah are rapidly approaching and while this can be a very fun-filled time of year it can also be a very stressful time of year especially for those that are in relationships and trying to decide which family to spend those all important days with.

In one way Kristian and I are very lucky that both of our families are basically local. His parents live 20 minutes away and my family lives about an hour away up in Maryland. I can't tell you how happy I am to be able to avoid the cluster f*ck that is the airport or train station during the holiday season. We live close enough to where we can just hop in the car the morning of and be where we need to be in an hour or less.

However, with this benefit also comes the downside of both of our families expecting us to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with them or somehow be able to split our days to see each of them. The problem with this is that both families like to eat Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner around the same time and last time I checked we can't be in two places at once. Nor do I have the stomach capacity for two big dinners, though last Christmas we had lunch with my family AND dinner with his. I thought I was going to explode.

This has made things a bit tense in the past because we both obviously want to see our families on the holidays. Last year I know my mother was upset that we weren't able to spend all of Christmas day with her and had to rush through lunch to head to his parents house for dinner.

Fortunately we've already worked out our plan for this year, since my mother and oldest brother have decided to take a cruise for Thanksgiving we are spending that day with my in-laws...pretty easy decision there. We'll be spending Christmas Eve with my in-laws, exchanging gifts and eating dinner and then on Christmas Day we'll head up to MD to open gifts and have lunch with my family. Hopefully this will make everyone happy and then next year we can switch and spend Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas Day with his.

Ideally in the future we would love to have a house that is big enough to where we could host both of our families together for the holidays. This would especially come in handy after we have kids rather than having to lug them all over MD and VA.

How do you and your significant other split the holidays with your families?

Nov 1

Who else can't believe that's it already November! Good Lord where has this year gone?! Today is a special day. Today is the my friends Ashley (aka Spanky) and Morgan's two year wedding anniversary!

Spanky and Morgan's wedding holds a special place in my heart not just because I got to watch two great friends get hitched or because I had a kickass time celebrating with some of my favorite people but also because it was the first and so far only wedding Kristian and I have attended together (besides our own of course). It was also the first time we went out of town together for a weekend and the first time he got to meet most of my friends.

I'm not gonna lie, I was a nervous wreck that weekend. What if we didn't travel well together? What if we got on each other's nerves? What if my friends hated him or vice versa?! Thankfully we had a fantastic time and he seemed to really hit it off with everyone and since my friends can be a little overwhelming and nutty when you first meet them I was very proud of him.

And even though we had only been dating for a few months at the time I remember him telling all my friends he was going to marry me. I'm sure they thought he was nuts. But hey, turns out he was right!

 *the happy couple*

 *we clean up well*

 *yeah he loves me*

*one of the professional pictures from the wedding, please excuse the text going across my face*

So today I'm fondly remembering a fantastic weekend I had with my now husband and best friends while also wishing Spanky and Morgan a very Happy Anniversary!