Monday, December 27, 2010

Christmas in a Nutshell

Our Christmas was great!  It was busy, too.  It started on Christmas Eve with Scott and I running some last minute errands in the snow.  Yes, we woke up Christmas Eve to snow coming down and it didn't stop till Christmas day.  I was very pleased to have a white Christmas.  My first one that I can actually remember!  Since there was snow coming down the malls were not too bad at 10AM on Christmas Eve, not good for retailers but great for us.  After our running around Scott remembered that he still had a few other gifts and was off to Best Buy and Target at 1:30, they were busy.  But I stayed home and did laundry and enjoyed not going anywhere.

Once he returned we packed up the car with presents for the Birch's and headed over to their house.  We had heard a rumor that Santa Claus was stopping by around 4 or 4:30, just before his schedule got too busy.  We got down there and helped make chocolate covered pretzels, play with the kids and even shovel some front steps for neighbors.  And in the middle of all our hanging out there was a knock at the door and Mathew was the designated door opener.  He had no clue that the other side of the door was Santa Claus.  Santa brought each kid a gift and wished Scott and I luck in our upcoming marriage and then even went through the Good or Bad list.  Somehow, Scott's name was not on the Good List (not sure how that happened).  And Andrew's name had a question mark next to it, which made all the kids laugh.  Then Santa read the Night Before Christmas and then he was gone.

On Christmas morning we woke up and hurried to get to Scott's parents house in time for breakfast, which was awesome!  After breakfast we opened all of our presents.  I ended up getting Rams vs. 49ers tickets (game on 12-26-10), a basket from Bath & Body Works, Seinfeld Season 5, a photo album of things Scott and I have done, we got a gift card to Niche, and gift card to the movies.  After we opened presents we were off to the movies to see How Do You Know? It wasn't the best chic flick.  The movie was really slow and it wasn't upbeat like a chic flick normally is.  If the editing was done better, I think the movie would have been much better.  Needless to say, 1 of the 4 who went to see it liked it.  After the movies, we had a late lunch/early dinner at Scott's parents house.  I just can't go a Christmas without Christmas ham!  Once we got home and took care of poor Reily, she got a stuffed duck for Christmas, we watched Christmas movies.

The day after Christmas Scott and I went to the Rams game (more on that later) and then we had Christmas dinner number 2 with his sister Michelle.  Since she had to work on Christmas day she invited us over and cooked for us.  She does the best job on cooking things that I would never think I would like and I give them a try and they are amazing!  She made a steak with gravy, creamed spinach, broccoli, corn, focaccia bread, mashed potato and Scott's mom made a chocolate pie.  Afterwards we opened more presents.

It truly was a great Christmas!

Friday, December 24, 2010

12-22-10

It's official, we are engaged!  Scott proposed last night right when I walked into the house and totally caught be off guard.  I believe I said "are you kidding me, what are you doing, of course, yes!" It was the perfect proposal!  And the perfect ring (even though I know he had a little help).



Who would have thought that back when we first met when we were 16 that 14 years later we would be getting married?!  Here is a picture from our first group date around New Years 1999, I was visiting St. Louis from San Antonio.



And my how things have changed and we have grown up.  Here we are 11 years later in 2010:



I'm so excited to start this new phase in our lives and start the wedding planning process!

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Catherine's Birthday

I finally was able to celebrate Catherine's birthday last night.  It was only 7 months late, but better late than never.  I had intentionally planned on taking her shopping like I did Elizabeth, however we could never find a date that fit with her busy schedule.  She is a very busy 8 year old.  And then the school year started and more soccer games on the weekends and practices during the week.  Then I came up with the idea of taking her to a hockey game since she had never been.  So I needed to find a free Friday or Saturday night to take her.  And then it was Christmas Break.

The plan was to keep her in the dark and not let her know she was going to go until close to the actual game.  Since I told her we were going shopping I went ahead and purchased a Blues shirt and brought it over to the house and told her that I went shopping for her birthday without her and she needed to open the present.  When she opened it and pulled the shirt out, I then informed her that she needed to wear that shirt on Monday night when we went to the Blues vs. Canunks game.  Her eyes got so big, she was pretty excited and pumped to go.



On Monday I picked her up and we headed down to the Scottrade Center and met up with Scott.  We got there early enough to get food and get to our seats to watch the Blues come out of the tunnel which was right across from our seats!  Catherine was engrossed in the game from the get go.  Asking questions about the plays and watching everything.  I was happy to finally let her see the plays and hear the player talking to each other live.

[caption id="attachment_930" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Catherine and I at the Blues game"][/caption]

The Blues didn't play their best, they hardly shot the puck but they did score and we only sat 2 sections away from the Towel Guy!  So that was awesome to see up close!  It was a rough game for Catherine to see the Blues take on the chin but she loved watching the hard hitting.  Of course there was some action in the parking lot when we were leaving that was even more exciting than just watching the actual hockey game.  Maybe the next game we go to the Blues will pull out a win.

All in all I think Catherine was very happy with the wait for her 8th birthday present...maybe the Blues will be playing hockey in May this season and we can do this all over again!

Monday, December 20, 2010

Weekend Before Christmas

Twas the weekend before Christmas and we were stuck in St. Louis.  We had planned to go to Chicago but the car accident and then snow in Chicago and rental car's inability to drive through snow scratched that idea.  We found plenty of things to do.  Friday I had lunch with Liz at Latitude 26 in Dogtown.  Since I hadn't seen Liz in a while we had lots to catch up on and had a 3 hour lunch!  It was well worth it!

I then met Scott at Khaldi's for a quick dinner and then headed to Ursuline, my alma mater, for Elizabeth's 7th grade basketball tournament.  She had the privilege of  playing the original UA gym!  So many memories of gym class, high school dances and of course walking in and out for field hockey practices flashed back!  Elizabeth played well, but they just couldn't hang on to win.  We then went over to the Birch house and informed Catherine that she was going to the Blues game with us on Monday night.  It will be her first ever NHL game!  Then we drove around and looked at Christmas lights.

On Saturday, after a quick trip to the gym and a meet up with Ben to get Mathew's Christmas presents safely hidden at our house.  We headed down to Crown Candy for lunch.



After a 30 minute wait outside we finally we able to sit and enjoy our lunch.  Scott was crazy enough to drink 2 chocolate shakes along with his Heart-stopping BLT!  I just managed to drink all of my shake (which rarely ever happens) and my Big Cheese.  Needless to say, we didn't eat dinner!  But it was so good!



After lunch we stopped off at Scott's new office for a quick tour!  Must be nice to view the Arch from your desk every day!  And then it was off to Soulard Market, since it's just up the street from his new office.  We managed to stock up on a few things and hear the Christmas music that was planing live.  Afterwards it was home to relax.

Saturday night we did head back into the City to go see the Fighter at the Chase Park Plaza.  The movie was based on a true story of Micky Ward and was pretty good.  Christian Bale played Dick Eklund's role well, he dropped a lot of weight to play a crack addict.

On Sunday, we watched the Rams blow a promising start to a game they could have won.  And then I baked some banana bread and my mom's no-bake cookies.  The cookies taste awesome and are reminding that it is really starting to feel like Christmas with the sugar cookies and no-bake cookies around.



Although, after all this baking I'm thinking I'm going to have to be a little more serious about keeping up with my gym schedule come first of the year.  I know I'll be there along with everyone else!  Although it's just 5 days till Christmas and I of course still need to shop, nothing like waiting till the last minute!

On a car update, it is repairable.  In fact they are currently waiting on part for my fender and suspension.  They are fixing the tire today.  I should have my car Christmas Eve or by Monday, maybe in time before I go out of town.  The best news is that I don't have to go buy a new car!  Merry Christmas to me!

Monday, December 13, 2010

My car

The jist of what happened to my car, we were driving to the Fox and driving on a 4 lane road with speeds that should be 30mph.  We got to a point where the church on the left was having a live Nativity and had animals and a spotlight.  And I noticed the white mini van almost stopped in the lane of traffic.  I was slowed down, even though there was no one else around.  When she started to veer into my lane and I tried to avoid her and then she slammed into my front passenger tire pushed us across the 2 oncoming lanes.

She immediately stopped and was getting out her information and was saying her kids distracted her.  Even when I was trying to write my information down I could see the kids fighting in the backseat of the van.

I've filed a claim with insurance and am waiting on the tow truck to come and get my car because the alignment is seriously out of whack.  The tow truck showed up tonight at 6:15 to take my car to the body shop.  I expect to hear news about what is wrong and estimates starting tomorrow, I  hope!

[caption id="attachment_888" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dent above tire"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_889" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Crack in mirror"][/caption]

Damage in rim

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Christmas Spirit

The holiday spirit has really started.  It never really feels like Christmas until there are Christmas cookies in the house and so I started making sugar cookies on Thursday and finished up on Friday.  I've been told they are great and they look awesome!

[caption id="attachment_882" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Cookies!"][/caption]

We went to the Gateway Men's Chorus Christmas concert on Friday night to really kick off the season.  Some of the songs were Jewish holiday songs and a few others that I had never heard of and then there were others that they completely changed and made their own and they were great!  I was very entertained by all the songs and everyone who had solo's had great voices!



On Saturday we had a fairly busy day.  In the morning we attended Tom's, brother Mike's memorial service at St. Dominic.  It was a nice mass and I'm happy that Scott and I both were able to go, even if we didn't know Mike it was nice to show support to Tom and his brothers and parents.   Even though I had to leave mass early, Scott stayed till the end and paid our respects.  I had to rush to an open house that was fairly busy for me.  It's nice when those are productive.

After the open house I headed home so we could cook dinner before going to see A Christmas Carol at the Fox Theater.  On our way to the Fox, a woman distracted by her kids ran into my car.  No major visible damage to my car and that's on going and I'll write more later.  We made it down to the Fox to see the show on time!  The show was great and I love that we have made this an annual event to see.

[caption id="attachment_885" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Dressed up and off to the Fox"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_883" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Santa at the Fox"][/caption]

We woke Sunday morning to a couple inches of snow!  Reily was not a fan of the early morning surprise.  But since my car was not going to allow me to go anywhere, I was not doing an open house and with the roads being iffy and it being windy, we decided that it was movie/football day.  We caught up on a couple Netflix and some football and made chili in the croc pot.  It was a great lazy, snowy day!

[caption id="attachment_886" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Reily playing in the snow"][/caption]

Monday, December 6, 2010

Christmas Time!

It's official, we have our Chritmas tree up!  It's really starting to feel like Christmas around here.  The house is decorated and I'm listening to the Christmas radio stations a little more, even Pandora's "Rockin' Christmas" station is being played while I'm doing some work!



 

Friday, December 3, 2010

Tree Cutting

We have our Christmas tree!  We drove all the way down to Festus, MO to cut it down at Meert's Christmas Tree farm.  Since we went on a Friday morning and there was no one there we were able to drive our car all the way over to the trees and park.  Normally, you have take a tractor ride over to the trees and wait for them to pick you up.  It was nice to not have to wait and stay a little warmer longer.  Also, we could really look up and down the aisles without any competition.

[caption id="attachment_866" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Our 2010 Christmas Tree"][/caption]

We searched for about 20 minutes or so before we found our tree.  After a few pictures with our tree Scott started sawing away at the tree.



Thankfully it didn't take much to get it down and just like that we were pulling it back to the car.  We stuffed it in the back of my car and I carefully drove us back so they could shake it out and so we could pay.  Then once it was tied up it was time to make the long drive back.

This was the first time I've ever driven with anything on the top of my car and thankfully the tree made it's way back without moving!

Now if we could just finish the decoration.