Weekend Project: Deck Expansion

How was your weekend?

While I Was Away...

How was your holiday? I spent lots of time with my sisters and was lucky enough to have my friend and boyfriend join us for Christmas.  



I wish I had taken pictures of Christmas dinner. We sampled homemade hummus and crab & cucumber canapes before the meal. My dad made beef bourguinon, and we served it with chickpea fritters and roasted fingerling potatoes.  My mom had made her famous caesar salad and we never even got to it. It was a feast for 20 rather than the 8 we had!

I didn't take many pictures on Christmas, but it seems that my sisters found my phone. I glanced at it and found this lovely shot as my background. 

Got them back by sharing this flattering photo with the world!

 Kath and I made some fun holiday crafts. 

Vivi Kitty especially loved the sparkly ornaments!

                             

Chris and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather on our day off, Monday. We wandered down to the harbor for a bit. 

I didn't edit this photo at all, isn't the sky gorgeous! 

 Later in the afternoon, we made our way over to Ft. McHenry for a picnic.


Lucien, the wine director at the Wine Market (where I used to work) recommended a delicious Cabernet/Sangiovese blend for us to enjoy with our prosciutto and mozz snack. 

Chris came up with a creative  bottle holder. I forgot to bring glasses for us, so we opted for the sip sip pass method. Super classy. 

I thought the weather was relatively mild, but I didn't take into account that I had positioned Chris to block the wind. As soon as we stood up to leave, I started violently shivering. The poor guy didn't say a word about how cold he must have been the whole time! He claims that it was "a little chilly." There I was, loving that it was almost warm with the wind blocked and the sun shining on me and he was taking the brunt of the cold!

We had a great date day. Sometimes you just need a low key lazy day. We made a tasty dinner of Chilean sea bass and I successfully passed the test of cooking seafood for Chris! He's a pretty avid fisher and although I'm a pretty good cook, I was terrified of bumbling it!


One of the things my family discussed at our Christmas dinner were our best and worst moments of 2011. Last year I worked two jobs so that I could go to Bali. It was something that I really looked forward to, and with such high expectations, it could easily have let me down. Luckily, everything went beautifully. I had so much fun and got to spend time with great people. The worst moment of 2011, probably was when I broke my foot two weeks before the trip. Once again though, everything worked out really well. I was able to put weight on the foot and crutches became optional the day I left. The only things I couldn't do while I was there, were volcano hiking and surfing. 


All in all though, it's been a great year. I've made some major life changes and feel as if things are going in the right direction. Things got a bit hectic when I added school onto the two jobs, but I went back to just one job and life has calmed down significantly!


If you had to sum up your year in two sentences, best and worst moments of 2011, what would you say? I'd love to hear what your best and worst moments were.

Time to Wassail

This weekend we ventured out of the city to Pine Valley Farms. We blasted Christmas Carols the entire way there to shoo away any non-Christmastime thoughts brought on by the gorgeous high-50s weather. 

I had my heart set on a cute little baby tree, and Chris had his set on a tree grown for giants. 

 With contradictory expectations, we debated the merits of many a tree. There were so many, I got separated from him more than once! 

Finally, after almost losing hope, we saw the perfect tree. Not to big, not too little....but just right! It's not the baby tree I had originally envisioned or the gargantuan behemoth that Chris had in mind, but we were smitten. 

She's a beaut! 

No defects and it smells of Christmastime. 

Chris handled the crawling under the tree portion of the sawing, and not to be outdone, I jumped in to trim the lower branches off the fallen trunk. 

Not that anyone cares, but for the record, I don't buy jeans with holes in the knees. These jeans were bought circa early high school and they've earned their wear and tear over the years! 

Can you tell how proud we are of our tree? Chris still claims he loves that crazy big tree he cut down the best, but I'm pretty sure this one is better.

I don't think he was as thrilled about my photo documentation of our adventure as I was :) 

Terrible photo quality, but the start of my mantel decorations! I give complete inspiration credit to Aura.

Chris tackled the outdoor lighting. We used these very cool LED lights around the door. They are larger than the regular lights and look like those old school large bulbs. I added the ribbon bows and Kath contributed the wreath. It might be time to get rid of our last pumpkin. Some rabble-rousers chucked our other pumpkin into the street some time in the wee hours of Sunday morning. 

This might be my most favorite tree of all time, mostly because it's my first one I've gotten since moving out. Can you believe there are 500 lights on this baby? (Chris went a little bit light crazy as we were shopping. Even as I stood in line, he ran back to get three more boxes!!) 

This weekend was the perfect start to the holiday season. I got to see two of my favorite ladies, spent time with Chris, went on a tree adventure, and celebrated the holiday with my coworkers in DC. As cliche as it sounds, I am blessed.