2010 in review

I'm loving these 2010 overview posts that everyone's doing so I thought I'd do one too!

2010 was a truly amazing year for us.

January
We rang in the new year with my family (as usual)

Lana, mom, dad and me!

and eagerly awaited the arrival of the first baby among my besties

Best friends: Kerry, me, and Inna

February
I started blogging! Check out my very first post

How we met

and took a mini-vacation to New Hampshire for Valentine's Day

Me in New Hampshire

March
I bought my very first DSLR - Canon Rebel Xsi and started taking even more pictures

Post: Don't wake the beast

and my girlfriends and I hosted our first baby shower

Post: Our first baby!

April
Our two very good friends got married

Post: Mike and Kari's wedding

and Jon and I went on vacation with Laura and Alex

Post: Dominican Republic

Our best friends had their baby! And shh, don't tell anyone, but we decided to start trying (successfully) to have a baby!

May
We met Baby Michael

Post: Babies on the brain

and Buddy

Post: Meet Buddy

June
We prepared for my sister-in-law's wedding day

Post: Penny for your thoughts

Celebrated 5 years at our job;
and celebrated Penny and Tim's Wedding day!

Post: Wedding Day!

Side note: how gorgeous are these two? 

and, although still a secret, Jon and I were starting to get really excited about our first pregnancy

Peanut at 12 weeks

July
We started spreading the good news about our baby girl, aka Peanut

Post: how we found out about Peanut

and celebrated the end of the first trimester with a little gathering of friends

Post: 1st Trimester summation

July also meant I turned 21 for the 7th year in a row and Jon and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary

Post: Happy Anniversary

August
We started the "Nursery" project

Post: Peanut's room revamp begins

and celebrated our friends' Emily and Jordan's wedding

Post: Emily and Jordan's Wedding in Maine

September
We celebrated Eric and Michele's wedding (did I mention we had about 5 million weddings this year, give or take one?)

Post: Michele and Eric's wedding

and ate delicious cupcakes at Janelle's Bridal shower

Post: J's Bridal Shower

October
We celebrated my college roommate's Heather and Jeff's wedding

Post: Heather and Jeff's wedding

and continued working on Peanut's room

Post: Peanut's room gets some furniture

Post: Monkey decals

November
Dave and Janelle get married

Post: Dave and J's wedding

our family and friends throw us an amazing baby shower

Post: Baby shower!

and we unveil Peanut's finished room

Post: Peanut's room

December
Peanut is full term!  Alternative title: I now resemble a beached whale.

Post: 37 week update

How was your 2010?

Progressive Dinner

Jon's family has some of the coolest traditions around the Holidays.  I love being part of them!  One of the best ones, in my opinion, is the Progressive dinner.  But it only works when everyone lives in close proximity.

Basically, everyone picks a course to serve (salad, appetizer, dinner, dessert) and we all drive from house to house to look at the decorations and enjoy family and good food.  It combines my favorite things in this world - Holiday decorations, family, and good food.  I can't get enough.

One of the houses has a little farm with geese, chickens, cows, and goats.  They are so fun (although really loud).

These guys are still babies.

And here are some grown up chickens. 

This is Eli, one of Jon's cousins.  I often steal his monies.  I don't think he likes that.  I also give him wet willies.  He definitely doesn't like that.

Jon and his cousin decided to go skating in their shoes.

Which really meant that they got shoe-fulls of slush.

The end.

One of the family photos.  I love these guys.  I don't know why I didn't get a picture at every house (possibly because I was too busy eating delicious food).

Jon and his brother with Bella, attempting to take a family picture in front of the tree.

Jon's sister couldn't make it but here are the four of us in front of the tree.  4.5 really if you count Peanut.

And what kind of a photo-op would this be if Jon didn't make a face.

What are your favorite holiday traditions?

Fantasy of lights

One of the things that I love the most about the holidays is everyone's decorations.  I love driving by people's houses and looking at their bright lights and pretty displays.  This year, Jon and I took it a step further and went to check out the Fantasy of Lights in New Haven, CT.  Every year around the holidays the Easter Seals Goodwill industries put on an amazing holiday display.

You can enjoy these from the warmth of your car while listening to holiday music.

My pictures don't do them justice.  But if you have kids or just love the holiday light displays, you should definitely check it out.  The display is up from November 18th through December 31st at the Lighthouse Point Park (2 Lighthouse Road, New Haven, CT) and I'm sure there are similar displays in the area near you!

The fee is a suggested donation of $10 per car - and it's all for charity!

So if you're sitting around with nothing to do and your kids are begging to be entertained, look up a holiday display near you.

Happy Holidays

 

PS- don't forget about the Amazon gift card giveaway, ends 12/27

Do you like giving or receiving? ...Presents

 Don't forget to enter the Amazon.com gift card giveaway! 2 chances to win!

Have I ever told you how much I love presents?

The weird thing is that it's not even about the gift to me as much as it is about opening presents!  Digging under the tree to find something your name on it, ripping through the gorgeous wrapping paper and finding a surprise inside is thrilling!  My husband's family (since mine celebrates New Years) has a rule where I am not allowed to wake anyone up before 8am anymore.  If it was up to me, I'd be ready to go by 2am at the latest.

To be honest, I think I get even more of a thrill from finding and buying the perfect gifts for everyone else.  I love the look on their face when it lights up because they, unexpected, got exactly what they dreamed of.  Ahh presents.

So here's some stuff that j'adore.

I mean, don't you just LOVE these super cute Uggs?

How about these dutch ovens?  They come in all sorts of fun colors!

I've been obsessive over these Jessie Steele aprons?  How is it that I don't even own a single apron?  Even Peanut has an apron (thanks mommy-King).

I've bought one of these for many people on my list.  But mostly, I just want one.  Hello, picture-holic.  Duh.

Pancakes.  All I want in my life is pancakes.  Why do we never have eggs on Sunday mornings?

What's under your Tree this holiday season?  Do you prefer giving or receiving?

Sister sister

My sister and her boyfriend came over today to exchange gifts.

But actually I lured them here under false pretense.

Big shocker - I wanted to take some photos.

Because I realized that we don't have many photos of us.

Or these two love birds.

And this old married couple.

and some group shots.

Which they all thought were pretty funny.

And apparently my camera can do a bunch of timed shots together...which of course led to these.

Nevertheless, we were successful.