A Very Full Christmas!

I returned from New York City eaaarrrrrly Tuesday morning.  Stephen made his arrival on Wednesday evening.  He continued to go into his last day of work for 2010 on Thursday.  He had gotten the week after Christmas off so on Friday we headed on our marathon adventure...

This is the overview of our entire trip - it gets a little detailed in KY but I'll share that later...

Chicago-->Pittsburgh-->Columbus-->Louisville-->Bowling Green-->Louisville-->Lexington

-->Louisville-->Chicago...Shew!

On Friday morning (Christmas Eve) we loaded up our car with TONS of stuff (all our Christmas gifts - ALL of them, laundry and enough clothes to last us 10 days as that is about how many days we'd need to be clothed) and headed to Pittsburgh to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Stephen's extended family.  We scored with great weather and empty roads on our 9 hour drive to Pittsburgh.

This is us on Christmas Day with Stephen's Nana, sister and her husband.  Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got of us in Pittsburgh.  

On Christmas Day we participated in the 38th annual Corsi Family Christmas Progressive Dinner.  From 3pm-10pm we traveled to 4 different houses to enjoy tons of appetizers, salads, main dishes and desserts as well as quality time with everyone you could imagine in Stephen's extended family.

On Sunday, December 26th we packed up the car, stopped by the Rehabilitation center to visit Nana and then headed off to Columbus, OH to stop and enjoy lunch with Stephen's Aunt Cathy and her husband, Jerry.  This was a 4 hour drive - we're keeping track - we're up to 13 hours so far in the car.  After a wonderful lunch and time with family, we got back in the car and made the 3ish hour drive to Louisville to enjoy Christmas with my family.  Now we're up to 16 hours.

In Louisville we proceeded to torture our dogs with horrible Christmas canine attire...

Here is Rosie the Elf and Patty the Reindeer...

Don't they look just SO happy to be sporting their Christmas Costumes!?!?!

and here is Moses, my sister's Santa.  Unfortunately, Santa doesn't get along with the Elf and the Reindeer as he likes to play and the smaller two snarl at him the entire time so a picture with all three sitting side-by-side will have to be left up to your imagination.  Let me tell you how fun this activity was - we were all belly laughing.  Especially when Moses' head got stuck inside his Santa hat and he proceeded to try and back out of it, only to be unsuccessful because it was actually stuck on his face.  He continued to try and back out of it until he backed into furniture - tears and silent laughs were being enjoyed by all!

Unfortunately, these are the only pictures I have from my family as we seem to struggle with taking pictures together - this has got to change!

We also celebrated Christmas with Stephen's immediate family as Stephen's older brother, Nathan and his family were sick on Christmas and couldn't enjoy Christmas with us in Pittsburgh:

Check out all those gifts under that tree - we had A LOT of fun opening them :)

Here are all the grandchildren (and great grandkids) with Noni.

Once we got to Kentucky, here's what our time looked like:

On Tuesday we traveled 2.5 hours to Bowling Green to visit my Grandma, Aunt and Uncle since we missed out on Christmas with my family when they went on Sunday.  Total time for this trip was 5 hours (to and from).  Add that to our 16 hours so far and we've hit 21 hours we spent in the car. 

On Wednesday, we traveled a little closer to Lexington to spend time with all my friends for the evening.  We enjoyed YUMMY Cheddar's cuisine and then enjoyed time at my old house, the home of my bestie, Doni.  The total time for this trip (to and from) is 2 hours - add that to our 21 and then we're up to 23 hours.  

My Aunt Shirley and Uncle Gene came to Louisville to celebrate Christmas and New Years so this sums up what we did our last couple of days in KY.  We then traveled our 5 hours back to Chicago giving us a grand total of 28 hours of driving.  SERIOUSLY - we drove an entire day and a good nap.  That is NUTS!  But, it was TOTALLY worth it and I'd do it all over if I had the chance!  I loved being able to see so many people in our family and some great friends - I look forward to all our visits with them again soon!

I'm playing "catch-up" with my posts so my New Years Resolutions are soon to come as well as some posts involving handmade Christmas gifts from 2010.  I hope you guys are having a great beginning to your 2011!

An Adventure to the REALLY Big City!

Stephen was sent to New York City 2 different times in 2010 for a week plus for training and I decided to make the most of it.  His last trip to NYC was for about a week and a half right before Christmas.  Last year, when he was sent, I went with him for a short weekend but found myself a little overwhelmed and lonely as he had to work a lot.  This year, I decided to bring some trouble along with me, and so I invited 3 of my best friends and only 2 could join me (dang it, Donielle!).  So, December 16-20th, Katie, Laura and myself ventured to the Big Apple and we packed a lot of fun into a few days!  It was so fun to be there with them and to see the city all decked out for Christmas.  Below you'll find a chronological list of all the fun we embarked upon as well as some pictures to please your eyes :).

We arrived on Thursday evening and took a cab to our hotel in downtown Manhattan.  There's nothing like walking outside your door and seeing the Statue of Liberty!  We walked around to get food with Stephen because he had not yet eaten dinner.

On Friday morning we were up and at 'em venturing to Central Park, 5th Avenue, and all the streets of shopping that surround that area.  Our good friends Matt and Mandy were also enjoying a trip to NYC so we met up with them for lunch:

After lunch we stuck around that part of the city and hung out at Tiffanys, checked out Dylan's Candy bar as well as went into every ALDO (basically one on every street corner) looking for a pair of brown boots on clearance for me :).  We also made sure we were incredible tourists by checking out the Plaza, Bloomingdales, Saks 5th Avenue and any other well known building in that part of the city.  We hit up St. Patrick's Cathedral, Rockefeller Center to see the tree, went to Times Square and saw Mr. 2011 and then went to Little Italy (which I LOVED) to enjoy a wonderful pasta dinner at La Nonna's.  It was a fun filled day!

Saturday started out with Stephen and I venturing to Chinatown to enjoy some Dim Sum with his manager while Katie and Laura frolicked on their own.  We then met up with them in Soho, walked around that area of town and tried our hands at some bargaining in Chinatown.  After scoring tons of scarves, pashminas, perfumes and coach wallets, we headed over to the Village to enjoy dinner at Jon's Pizzeria per a recommendation from my friend, Jenn.  Unfortunately the line was going out the door at Jon's and so we walked to another restaurant and enjoyed a great dinner and good company.  After dinner we headed over to Magnolia's and enjoyed some cupcakes and banana pudding....YUM!

Sunday came and we started the day off by heading over to Macy's to meet up with my friend from high school and college, Liz.  It was great seeing her; we never get to see each other except for when Stephen's job sends him (and I get to tag along) to NYC but when we're together, it feels as if no time has passed!  We braved the crowd that seems to live at Macys, walked down to Grand Central Station and then enjoyed Rockefeller Center again.  We were able to enjoy church at Redeemer on Sunday night hearing a great Christmas message from Tim Keller.  Needless to say, we were WIPED out by the end of Sunday.

By Monday, we were dragging!  But, that didn't stop us from heading to the Today Show, over to Chelsea to enjoy some yummy New York bagels.  We then caught the subway back to Central Park to see more of the wonderful scenery at the Park as well as the Drake which was the home of John Lennon and the site where he was killed.  We ended our time in New York with a trip back to Chinatown for some more bargaining purchases!

We headed out of town on Monday night.  Unfortunately, Katie and Laura were heading back to Lexington and I was headed to Chicago so we weren't in the same terminals at the airport.  My flight got delayed and I didn't make it home until 2am - fun times!  No matter what time I got home, the trip was completely worth it and TONS of fun!  I am looking forward to the next time I get to go on another Big Apple adventure!!!  And now that I've finished typing out what we did on our trip, I need to go and take a nap! :)

Magnificent Mondays: Magnificent Blogs 45

Lindsay is chalked full of wonderful sewing and craft ideas that are sure to make their way into your archive folder as you gear up to make gifts for Christmas, 2011....what?  You're not already starting to make your Christmas present for the new year?!  Yeah, me neither...but if you wanted to, here are some great ideas!

I'm ALL about these!  Cheap, beautiful and practical...I'm planning on making these as gifts of some sort this year!

A perfect handmade gift for your techie friend!

And some great ideas on how to use fabric as a beautiful, inexpensive decorating tool.

Head on over to The Cottage Home and check out all the great ideas that Lindsay has to offer!

Happy Blogging!

Goodbye 2010, Hello 2011!

Sorry for my MIA-ness!  Things have been crazy fun around here, and don't worry, I'll fill you in with all the comings and goings.  But first, I'm going to look at 2010 in review....

January
I discovered my love for my Crock-Pot as well as enjoyed a wonderful first visit to my new apartment by my best friends, Donielle and Laura.

February
I gave up Diet Coke for what I thought would be for the season of Lent, which actually led to me giving it up for what seems like for good!  I realized I had an unhealthy curiosity for ABC's the Bachelor and I started featuring magnificent blogs on Magnificent Mondays.

March
Stephen and I ventured to D.C. to visit good friends during their crazy snowstorm as well as to Louisville to surprise Dad C. on his 60th birthday. I shared my favorite haircut of all time and we also booked our trip to Alaska.  March proved to be a big blogging month for me as I went from posting 7-9 posts a month to 24!

April
My desire to learn to sew increased which led me to purchase my new machine.  We went home for Easter and my sister, Melissa joined us on our return.  I was at my height of running (only to be led to me not running now months later).  Stephen and I contemplated getting a dog (which we ended up not doing just yet) and I learned a lot about candy from him :).

May
I almost wore a dress to a wedding that would've been the exact same dress as the bridesmaids - horrifying!!!  I ventured to D.C. again, this time with my old school and as a chaperone on the 5th grade class trip.  My car got towed and I realized it when I was supposed to be on my way to my sewing class to learn how to use my new machine :).  Stephen's sister and her husband came and visited us on Memorial Day weekend and I finished reading a great Francine Rivers book.

June
I started the summer off right by using our new ice cream maker to make peanut buttercup icecream.  I started my summer grad school classes which consisted of me sitting in class 4 nights a week from 4:30-8:30.

July
Stephen and I made an unexpected trip to Pittsburgh to visit his Nana who was in the hospital and not doing so well.  My pillow fetish began as I made my first fancy pillow.  My summer craftiness was kicked into high gear with the etching of glass, sewing of pillows, and the sewing of kitchen towels.  I finished up summer classes and my mama came to town to visit me!

August
With my mama in town I made my first set of burp cloths, baby blankets and even a reversible apron!  She's handy to have around!  Vacation time!  Stephen and I went on a week long cruise to Alaska with his sister and her husband as well as a week long vacation to our old Kentucky home!

September
We got to spend Labor Day weekend in Johnson City, TN with my wonderful Aunt, Uncle and cousins.  My old roomie and good friend, Traci came and visited for a fun filled weekend! I completed my first entire lamp renovation as well as my first table runner and place mats.

October
Stephen and I celebrated our first year of being married by going on a wonderful trip to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.  I also found out about receiving my research assistantship, and traveled to Rome, GA for my cousin's wedding (no pictures - sorry!) - what a full month!

November
I realized that my husband could, indeed sleep anywhere.  My obsession with pillows continued and my wonderful friends, Anne, Derek and Sarah spent a great weekend with us here in the city.

December
Our apartment received a wonderful Christmas facelift, Stephen's sister and her husband came and visited and we ventured to NYC, Pittsburgh, Columbus, Louisville, Lexington and Bowling Green, KY (no post on these trips yet...you just wait!).

What a full year!  I realized as I was doing this year in review that there are a lot of things I did that somehow didn't end up on my blog.  My resolution for my blog this year is to fill you guys in more on the ins and outs of everyday living here in the big city :)...I hope I don't bore you!

Thanks for letting me have this little corner of the universe to share my thoughts and creations - I am thankful for you and your friendship!