Happy Easter!

We celebrated Easter by making the rounds.
I feel like that's always the way on holidays.
But I don't mind it at all.

At my parent's house, we not only celebrated Easter but we also celebrated my grandmother's birthday.
I won't mention her age (I hear that's rude to do), although the candles on the cake give it away.
It was a beautiful day -- warm weather, great company and yummy food.
Here are some photos.

Happy Easter. :)

Merry Christmas!

This year we ordered our Christmas cards from Shutterfly. We had big intentions and high hopes for the photos. We were decked out in Christmas gear (aprons, sweaters, vests). We had props. We made cookies for the shoot. We had spatulas, and oven mitts and santa hats. We had our fancy-dancy camera with a self-timer mode. We had a perfect idea and a clear vision of what would happen.

We also had Apollo. Who made it impossible to fully carry out our vision with the cookies, the spatulas, the oven mitts, and so on.

For an hour and a half we tried to hold her close without getting scratched. For an hour and a half we laughed until tears poured out of our eyes at her ability to run away from us as fast as possible. For an hour a half we bribed her with cat treats, and tried to smile even though we were getting mauled and bitten. Yes, we have a biter.

She was jumping out of my arms.

She was wondering why she was squished between us.

She wanted to eat the cookies.

But eventually, after a long time, lots of laughs, a few scratches here and there, we ended with this:

:) Enjoy your day.

Show me Christmas: week 3!

Today, I'm linking up with Becky: From Mrs. to Mama for Show me Christmas: week 3.

Last week I showed off "my" decorations!

And now, we're talking Christmas Traditions: past, present and future.

I've been talking to my mom the last few days about how things are changing now that I'm married. It seems like Sean and I haven't really started "traditions". We're still working things out and I think that once we have a house of our own it'll be easier and more concrete to start some of our own rituals. But for now -- we sort of shuffle around Christmas day to make sure we get to see everyone. 

But since I don't have pictures to show of us shuffling... I thought I'd show off a tradition (that doesn't involve Christmas Day) that was just started last year!

Our annual Cookie Swap! (Last year's is here)

Sunday was the second annual cookie swap and it's so much fun that I see it as something that I would like to continue for a long time. :)

We make sure to have everyone email their recipes ahead of time and put a little recipe book together! And we have a cookie tin decorating station because who doesn't like glittery stickers and shiny ribbon?

This year we had 14 different kinds of cookies which meant that everyone could take 5 of each kind of cookie.

This year we had a silver/white/snowflake theme and even the chairs were decorated with silver sequins!

After the cookies are swapped and packaged they look BEAUTIFUL! :)

 

I'm sure you, too, have traditions! Be sure to go link up with From Mrs. to Mama!

It's been a while?

I took some time off from blogging (2 weeks?!) not even because I was particularly busy but I'm trying this whole "not being obsessed with my laptop" thing. And so, my computer has been stuffed inside a bag for over a week now. It's easy to stay away from it when it's packed away. Even now, I'm using Sean's computer. But I thought it's probably time for an update (& to read the 1000 blog posts in my Google reader).

So, me? Well, I wish I was better at the whole taking pictures of things that I do that way it'd be easier (& more interesting) to write a recap of my 2 week blogging hiatus. But, I'll try it anyway.

Oh really, 3 photos from over 2 weeks of time? And, I own an iPhone (4s) no less.

If I mesh my time together... this is what's happened (in no particular order):

Sean and I spent Thanksgiving morning watching Beauty and the Beast and Snow White on the Disney channel. I spent 3 days away at a seminar. I made a wish at 11:11 on 11/11/11. I used my Facetime chat for the first time. I saw The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1... not once BUT twice and fully intend on seeing it for a third time. I spent Black Friday shopping for 12 hours and basically bought 6 items. I got my hair cut. I bought a Breaking Dawn collector's edition cup at the movie theater. We've been watching LIVE TV rather than anxiously catching up with DVR (I guess that's what happens when I put down the computer). I celebrated my first "real" holiday as a wife. I made my husband his favorite pie for Thanksgiving.

See? The 3 pictures basically sum up my time spent: my husband, the two of us, and the one thing that takes me away from him -- Twilight. :)

Marriage Monday: Date Nights.

Sean and I had a date night this past weekend. We went to the jack o' lantern spectacular festival at the Roger Williams Zoo in Providence. It was so much fun and the jack o' lanterns were very impressive. It was also really great to be at the zoo at night... occasionally you could hear the animals but it was a little scary not being able to SEE them.

Basically, the festival included thousands, maybe even hundreds of thousands, of pumpkins that people had carved. They fall into a theme by continent and they also have some carved of famous people. Very cool!

I highly recommend going. It's a fun night. We heard about it through friends and didn't really know what to expect but we've decided to make it a tradition! Next year, we've already agreed that we'll buy hot chocolates to keep our hands warm!