2016 is almost over!

Wow, I can't believe December is already almost over!  Crazy!!  I'm sorry I haven't posted much - This month really got away from me! We've been keeping very busy with work, Christmas activities, and lots of other stuff going on! I'll try to do a super quick summary of the month. One super fun thing that we did at the beginning of the month was we went to a concert!  If you've ever seen The Life Aquatic movie (from 2004), then you know who Seu Jorge is... He's a Brazilian musician that was hired by Wes Anderson to be in the movie and sing David Bowie songs. He does these really beautiful covers of David Bowie songs in Portuguese. He's doing a small tour right now as a tribute to David Bowie, and it was a really amazing show.  It was just Seu Jorge and his acoustic guitar on stage, singing David Bowie songs in Portuguese... It was a little bit of heaven.

Here's Seu Jorge in The Life Aquatic!

I spent about a week in California visiting friends/family in the middle of this month, and it was SO great to see everyone. The time flew by, as it always does. It was great to be there and enjoy some of the Christmas traditions with my family, and we even had a big present opening night on the 20th. On the 21st we did a big Christmas train ride, and the kiddos loved that. I left super early on the 22nd and headed back to Philly!  Here are some pictures from my time in CA! 

The fireplace at my parents' house! So darn Christmasy. 

We made a gingerbread house one night! My nieces decorated it (but I did that piping on the roof! Not too shabby eh?  Those years of decorating cakes at Baskin Robbins still comes in handy sometimes...).

Here's Maggie working on the Kong toy I got her!  She can destroy ANY toy (except for that orange one by her bed!), so every year I try to find one that she can't destroy. This one lasted a while, but she eventually started getting chunks off of it. 

This was from the Christmas train. That's Andrew (Amanda's brother), and his wife Nicole, and their adorable daughter Aria.  Oh and an "elf" is behind Aria. 

Here's Nicole and Andrew's son AJ with Santa! 

Here's Addison happily clapping, and that's Nicole and Andrew's other son Elijah... He was NOT enjoying the train ride, but he's 12... so life is tough when you're 12.  I remember not really liking much of anything when I was 12! 

There's my brother and AJ fist-bumping, and Amanda, Cassidy, and Addison! 

This was after the train ride was over!  Addison was sooo happy. And that girl in the front was from one of the skits on the train... She was way too happy...

And here's AJ and Santa again! 

This year we spent Christmas with Kevin's family, and next we're we'll be in CA with my family. Last year we tried to split the holiday, and that was a terrible idea... We were flying back to PA on Christmas Day, and that was just nutty/stressful/delay-filled and didn't work out well. This was my first Christmas away from my family though, and it was more difficult than I expected!  I kept having to try to fight off feeling down about it. McGee's family is wonderful of course and their Christmas is really fun too, but it was still really hard for me this year. 

Christmas Eve dinner was fajitas, and that night Kevin's cousin Ryan dresses up as Santa for all of the extended family's kiddos. They've asked Kevin to do it too, but he has definitely declined... haha :)  Ryan has incredible patience though, and he's done this a few years now. On Christmas night we had Cajun Christmas dinner which is a McGee Family Christmas tradition! Kevin's dad spends a LOT of time cooking up a bunch of Cajun dishes including crawfish etouffee, jambalaya, alligator nuggets, and many more!  It was quite delicious. 

Here's Ryan getting ready on Christmas Eve!

The tummy looks pretty good!  It took a lot of time (and a LOT of padding) to get it looking like Santa's belly, but we were happy with the final results. After he was all ready, we drove over to an aunt's house where all of the little kids were hanging out! 

The kiddos were so sweet and so happy to see Santa. 

Kevin's cousin Mary Eileen (everyone calls her Mare Mare) got Guinness a bow tie! It has bananas on it and attaches to his collar, and she also got him a banana chew toy that he's quite obsessed with. 

Such a dapper pup! He couldn't even tell he was wearing it, so he didn't mind it at all. Haha

Even though it was really hard to be away from my family, it was still a really fun time with Kevin's family, and it was great to be able to sleep in our own house and our own bed for Christmas! We woke up on Christmas morning and opened presents around our tree - It was lovely to spend Christmas morning with just the two of us (plus Guinness, of course) :)  

Now I've caught a bit of a cold or flu or something... So I've been fighting that off for a few days now. My throat is just insanely sore and swollen. So Kevin's been taking very good care of me and making me soup and bought me some juice that has an insane amount of vitamins (especially Vitamin C). I'm hoping it's going to go away very quickly... because tomorrow is New Year's Eve!  We always go into Philly on New Year's Day to enjoy the parade and hang out with Timmy and some other friends, so I hope I'm feeling up for that. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and I hope you all have a fun and safe New Year's Eve!! 

Wow, it's been a month!

Wow, sorry it's been a whole month since I've posted anything!  Things have been crazy... First, the election happened right after my last post, and that kinda put me in a funk for quite a while. And work has been CRAZY busy for the last month... Like I've been working a minimum of 12 hours per day... Yep, minimum.  It's total b.s.  I think things are finally (maybe... hopefully...) starting to calm down this week to where I can maybe work normal-ish hours. And McGee and I also went to California for a visit for Thanksgiving!!  It was amazing to be home and see family and friends, and it was my first time home for Thanksgiving in about 10 years. It was SO great to be with everyone, and to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner as a family again.  We also went to Apple Hill while we were there, and we explored Oakdale a bit more! Here's a few pictures from my time there:

We had some great relaxation time while we were there!  We both really needed it. 

Cassidy on the pony ride at Apple Hill! 

Addison on her pony!  She's obsessed with horses, so she was beaming the whole ride. 

The guys! We were killing some time before the Oakdale Cowboy Museum opened. We arrived like 10 minutes after it opened but like 5 minutes before any staff arrived... Haha :) 

On the topic of Fall activities, I should update you that I finished all of the Fall Bucket List items from my previous post, except that I didn't make any pumpkin goodness... I did EAT some pumpkin goodness, but I just didn't cook anything pumpkin this year.  Next year though!!

I can't believe Christmas is coming up so quickly!!  It's insanity. Kevin put the lights up on our house (and cleaned our gutters) while I worked on bagging up some more of our leaves from our yard. The lights look soooo pretty on our house (great job, Kevin!!) and we also worked on decorating inside our house too. We still have a bit more to do, but everything is looking so pretty and really putting me in the Christmas spirit.  Here are some pictures of our tree!!  I'll post pictures of other decorations (and our outdoor lights) at another time.

One view of our tree! 

An up-close picture of our amazing tree skirt that my parents sent to us!  We love it. 

Another view of the tree skirt! Amazing!! 

Here's our tree topper!!  We got an ACTUAL tree topper this year!  But we also had to throw Bumble up there like in previous years. 

Here's some of our favorite ornaments!  There are way too many favorites to take pictures of, but I thought this was a nice little group. 

Here's a few more!  That Mickey ornament is from my brother and sister-in-law when they just went to Disneyland this year! And we bought that little tiny trailer ornament on the left side of the picture, because that's definitely our dream!  We want to retire (like maybe tomorrow?  Come on Lottery...) and buy a small trailer and just travel all around! 

And here's a front view of our tree with a few presents already under it! We have a lot more wrapping to do... 

In other news, we also bought a new car last weekend!  We traded in Kevin's car and bought a Subaru Crosstrek. It's beautiful, and we're loving it.  Now we have TWO Subarus, which means we will both have All-Wheel-Drive at all times (VERY important for winters out here!). It's a relief to have that process over with! We've been looking into getting a new car for over a year.

Well guys, back to work I go!  I hope you're all having a great week and a great December so far!!

It's Election Day! AHHHHHH!!

I'm (more than) a little stressed about this Election Day!! I plan on having a lot of wine tonight. I'll be heading up to vote in about an hour and a half... I'm hoping to go at an odd time and avoid the lines. 

On to more positive things: This past weekend was great! On Saturday morning we drove up to the KOP mall, because one of my birthday gifts to Kevin was a gift card for a professional shave at The Art of Shaving, and he'd been saving it for a special occasion. So, the charity gala seemed like the perfect time! The shaver guy was seriously like a surgeon, and had some CRAZY steady hands with that straight razor (and he also had an AMAZING beard!). He did the whole hot towel thing too, and it was cool to see the whole process! Kevin left there VERY relaxed and looking amazing! 

Then we ran a few other errands, and then it was time to get ready for the gala! We had SUCH a fun time at the gala!  Einstein Hospital was celebrating its 150th anniversary, so they had a whole theme of "Through the Decades", and each room in this amazing venue was a different time period theme. I tried to take pictures of some of the rooms, but I forgot to take a picture of the BEST room, which was the 1960s-1990s where they had a live band singing AMAZING covers, and there were dancers up on stage and everything. It was a total party vibe. And an Albert Einstein impersonator was also wandering around the gala, and he was SO adorable. Kevin and I had an amazing time!! 

I had to take a picture of City Hall while we walked from the train to the venue! I love this building. 

This room was from 1866 (when Einstein Hospital was founded) to 1920. It was sooo glamorous, and they had these amazing pearl-like strands draped down from the ceiling. 

This was the Speakeasy room (1920s and 1930s)

They called this room Crooners Lounge, and it was the 1940s and 1950s. They had live music in here too (and addition to the 1960s to 1990s room... which I didn't get a picture of).

Me and Albert Einstein! He was so nice and adorable. 

 After everyone had spent a few hours wandering around the party and enjoying themselves (and the many open bars and the amazing served appetizers and food stations), then we were all asked to go to the ballroom for some dancing and a short presentation where they thanked everyone and gave a brief history of Einstein Hospital. It was very inspiring, and made me want to work for such a great organization!  We sat a table in the balcony with some really fun people that Kevin knows from work, and when the short presentation was over, it was time for the dancing!  We headed down for one dance, but then it was already after 10:30pm and time for us to go catch our train home!

The ballroom! 

Kevin!

 

Me and Kevin!

Philly already started decorating for Christmas! So pretty. 

 Sunday we were both feeling pretty exhausted, but we still managed to be semi-productive around the house (and watched a lot of football too), and we also took Guinness for a really long walk around our neighborhood! The fall leaves were looking amazing,, so I had to snap a few pictures. I hope you all had a great weekend!!

Halloween

I hope you've all had a good week!!  I am soooo happy it's Friday. I really need tonight to just relax and decompress from this week... It was a really crazy one at work. But I finished everything that I had to finish this week, so now I'm just feeling totally drained and relieved that it's Friday! And it's good I have tonight to relax, because tomorrow night McGee and I will be getting all fancied up to go to a really fancy gala for his work! It's a charity gala, but the tickets are SO expensive (like, seriously... CRAZY expensive), but this doctor at McGee's work bought tickets and now can't go, so McGee got the tickets! It should be fun! It's going to feel like we're going to prom or something... haha. I loooove my dress for it too, so I'll try to remember to have someone take a picture of me and McGee at the gala!

I hope you all had a great Halloween!!  Ours was awesome, and I am going to share some pictures of our decorations, our pumpkins, etc, and update my Fall Bucket List!  Then it's back to relaxing for the rest of the evening :)

Some of our indoor decorations (I couldn't take pics of them all!): 

Here are a few bats, Snoopy, a cute little raccoon raking leaves that I saw at Hallmark, and a cool sign! Oh and my AMAZING smelling Fall candle from Magnolia Market in Waco, TX! 

Our fireplace! 

Here's a close-up of one side! I love those little pumpkins with different faces... They all have different names on the bottom of them! 

Close-up of the other side!  

My cute Mickey candle holder... 

A new addition this year!  I saw it and had to have it. It's Hocus Pocus!! 

And this year we put some decorations in our downstairs den too! And this table was my Grandma's, and my mom and dad re-finished it and I looooove it. 

I put these cute pillows in our downstairs den! Guinness liked them. 

And we put a few random cut-outs on the wall, and those are mummy lights! 

And now here's our few outdoor decorations: 

Our front window! Those lights are bats, even though you can't tell in this picture... 

And here's our front door! Guinness did NOT like this. 

And here's our set-up for Halloween night!  And our neighbor sat across the street, and we drank beers (and I had some cider too) and talked all night while we gave candy to the kiddos! 

This was my pumpkin! 

And here's Kevin's!!  It's Frankenstein. Oh and we had to put that cardboard underneath one side because our hill is too steep and the poor little guy would roll down the hill! 

And now the Fall Bucket List update: 

We've been pretty darn successful! The apple orchard was a fail, even though we DID go to one... as I told you about in the previous blog post. But everything else is going well except that I haven't made any pumpkin or apple goodness yet! I think I'm going to make an apple crisp tomorrow morning though... That counts as breakfast food, right?  Yes? No?  Maybe? It has fruit in it... and oatmeal... That's gotta be better than a lot of breakfast options, right?  No?  Hmm... I feel like it should count... 

Well guys, I think that's all for me!  I'm going to get back to relaxing.  Love you guys!