Christmas Up in Hurr...

What better way to spend the Sunday after Thanksgiving than decorating the tree? Sarah and I put on some Christmas carols and emptied boxes and scattered Christmas throughout the house.  

NYC!

Flex-day Fridays are the best, especially when they allow me to take a quick weekend trip to NYC with my twincousin Emily!

After an early lunch with my parents, where we got to catch up on all the family news, Em and I hopped on the bus and arrived in NYC just in time to drop our bags and walk to RedFarm for a dumpling dinner that was only a little short of perfection (seriously - dreampt of them that night!). 

Then we headed back to our super swanky hotel because we had some serious pampering to do before going to bed. We swam in the "grotto", where Sven made sure we had warmed towels, and basked in the steam room so long they finally had to kick us out. And then up to the room where we cleaned out the complimentary candy, snacks and drinks and gossiped late into the night.

before

after

Saturday, after luxuriating for awhile in our robes and slippers, we headed to SoHo for some shopping. The beautiful things in some of those boutiques tempted my usually frugal soul. We continued uptown to the MOMA, to see an exhibit of Matisse "cut-outs". Looking at the shapes that Matisse cut out and arranged and re-arranged and re-arranged again, I was struck by how beautiful and deceptively simple the finished products were. 

it's true, men are the worst

After a quick look at the Christmas decorations along 5th Avenue, we headed to ride stand-by on the next bus back to DC (our original bus had left a few hours earlier). We arrived at the stop only to find mass confusion. I'm not exactly proud of this but our choice was to either join the crowd of 200 people milling around aimlessly wondering what was going on OR cut in front of that entire crowd and sweet talk our way on the next bus. And that's how we found ourselves in the last two seats out of town. 

Can't wait for our next trip Em!!

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Thanksgiving is about good food and good company and this year I was lucky enough to have both. 

After spending the morning exchanging festive snapchats with my sisters and making some killer cranberry sauce, I headed over to a friends house for a dinner that was a testament to the powers of the potluck. Every single item on the plate made me want to cry out of sheer gustatory happiness.

 

A Visit to Pocatello

A combination of lots of frequent flyer miles and a chance to spend time with my siblings took me to Pocatello, Idaho this weekend.

Susan had volunteered to help out with the Festival of Tree's charity auction ("Season's Readings!) and to host a table at the "Princess Tea Party" for disadvantaged young girls (she got "The Princess and the Frog"). Given both events required a lot of crafting, Katie and I drove up to Pocatello, channelled our best Martha Stewart, and helped out. 

Susan designed all the ornaments for the charity auction tree and we made them out of the pages of an old psychology book (learned a lot about Freud's theories on human sexuality while cutting/pasting). She also designed takeaway favors for the 20 little girls participating in the princess tea party, Princess Tiana crowns and firefly necklaces. We spent most of Friday cutting up, gluing, mod-podging, glittering, be-ribboning and assembling ornaments and crowns, with assistance from Susan, Matt, Kasey and various of the dogs.

Chauncey, hiding from crafting

After finishing things up Saturday morning with the help of Pocatello's finest "Spudnuts" (potato flour donuts), we decided to have some fun and headed over to the number one attraction on TripAdvisor's list for Pocatello, the Museum of Clean. The museum founder gave us a personalized tour (bless his heart, we could NOT shake him) and we nodded our heads as we looked at vacuum cleaners and brooms galore. We went home to a dinner of pizza and chicken wings (planned and cooked by the boys, obviously) and finished the evening out with a random movie marathon that included Guardians of the Galaxy, World War Z, and Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.

our true feelings about Pokie's #1 attraction

"hey - I want some pizza too?"

All in all, a fantastic weekend with some of my favorite people.

"Season's Readings"

Totino's Pizza Rolls

WHY ARE THEY SO DELICIOUS?

Girls Weekend!

Sometimes you just need to spend an evening eating cookies, watching dance movies, and learning how to do smokey eyes.

After our night of debauchery, we headed to Baltimore.  Our first stop was the Canton neighborhood, where Sarah led us on a guided tour of Baltimore's painted screens (the tradition of painting window screens began with William Oktavec in 1913 and I am seriously considering bringing it to NAUCK). 

 

From there, we headed over to Miss Shirley's for a brunch that was indescribably delicious and left me unable to eat for a good 24 hours.  Then we stopped into Edgar Allen Poe's Baltimore-era home and visited his grave.  

Our last stop was a quick drive-by of Leakin aka Murder Park where we stepped out of the car and right back in, as we got a little nervous about either finding a body or becoming bodies buried in shallow graves (Serial, it's so hot right now).  

We ended the evening at our ward Thanksgiving potluck.  This was my contribution - so proud of myself for extracting this from the can with surgical precision.

Backyard Beauty

From a weedy wasteland springs...a path (a path!). Which leads to a patio! 

Now I just need a shrubbery. And perhaps another one, placed beside it, only slightly higher...

When I get rich...

...I plan to hire someone to do my hair everyday.  Try as I might, I can never reproduce the stylist's magic when I get home.

  

Remembering

Beautiful at any time, I find Arlington National Cemetery an especially profound and peaceful place to visit on a day when we remember those who served, and sometimes died, for our country.  In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson said:

"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations."

I look forward to a future of greater peace and justice.

Sunday Gameday

Sarah introduced me to Carcassone and now I can add it to my growing collection of German boardgames.  

I think one of the reasons I like these games so much is that what I do on the board doesn't completely destroy the strategy or chances for success for the other players.  I am very competitive but I also like everyone to have a good time - this way we can all have fun trying to win together.

Voting!

I have never voted in person, always by absentee ballot.  I've been out of the country or in the wrong state or not properly registered to vote (I know - I'm a terrible person).  So I was pretty excited to leave work two hours early today and head to the elementary school around the corner to vote.

lucky for me, the line only took 45 minutes

All Soul's Day

After last night's double feature of Ghostbusters and World War Z, I had a little trouble sleeping (I might have woken up a few times worried that Gozer was in my room).  So the Halloween concert put on by the Naval Academy Music Department was the perfect non-scary antidote.  

Sarah, who has done some preservation work up at the campus, graciously gave us a tour.  I mostly paid attention, although it was a struggle given there were so very many handsome mid-shipmen walking past us on campus.  After our tour, we wandered through historic Anapolis, where we found a fantastic restaurant, the Iron Rooster.  

Then we headed back to the Chapel for our concert.  It started out strong and very Halloween-ey.  The Phantom of the Opera, the Sorcerer's Apprentice and the Harry Potter crew all made appearances.  We heard the Ride of the Valkyries and Night on Bald Mountain.

Then things got a little weird.  Inspector Javert came on and sang "Stars".  We witnessed an epic light saber battle.  There was an extended Mary Poppins sequence.  Then SpongeBob SquarePants showed up?  After a long "trip around the world" (My Irish Rose and the Mexican Hat Dance at a Halloween concert? Really?), we finished up with a reading from the gospels and a lighting of a candle for those lost to us. 

Despite a few very weird moments, a fun time was had by all.  Many thanks to Sarah for hooking us up!!