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"