We've Landed

Here we are...home sweet home.  It felt oh so good to be back in our own beds Monday night / Tuesday morning.  Yes, our flight arrived at 1:20 am Tuesday morning, our bags were right there on the carousel, and we were cabbing it home.  Give us a few minutes to hunt down our house keys after they've been shuffled around, and we were snug in our own bed.  We both put in a pretty full day at work yesterday, and this chilly morning, I find myself sipping coffee and having a leisurely morning--things are so slow work wise, I'll be working from home the rest of the week!

Our trip home was great--luck seemed to be on our side, starting with even making it home (with all the crazy weather).  Weather overall for us was good, especially on traveling days.  We spent 4-5 days with Ian's family, which was really fantastic.  Just had a really good, relaxing time and a very nice Christmas--meals were good, games were fun, and playing with the puppies was...well...fun.  I also was able to get in a decadent family-style meal at Maggiano's with most of the Hippos (minus Ashley).

We spent the next 4-5 days in Virginia with my Deedahn and Jeff, seeing Mom, Gran, Gran'ma, Chip, and new baby Parker (hope you're feeling better, trace!  We missed you....).  New baby is a doll--he has the squishiest cheeks, which is a recipe for a cute baby.  Also had a night with my girls, Kris and Steph--and Kris brought her little man, Everett.

And lastly, we drove back to Raleigh, spent the night with Steph, Mark, and Riley, which was also just so comfortable and like home to me.  Monday was brunch with Carmen, we played a game, I got a massage, and we met Ian's parents for dinner before flying the friendly skies.

Yowsers.  It was packed.  And Ian and I felt pretty bad when we got home.  Just so much junk food.  We've decided a few things that we've taken for granted since being out here, and then returning back east for awhile.  Here goes:

1.  It's illegal in California to drive while talking, texting, looking at your phone, etc.  So everytime the phone rang when we were driving (or if we needed to text), we made the passenger take care of business.  It's become ingrained that it's "bad" to do all these things while driving.

2.  We become completely wasteful consumers when we go home, because North Carolina and Virginia make is SO hard to recycle.  Sheesh!  Really surprising the difference it makes when things are made easy for you--it hurt to throw things away (like wrapping paper!!!?!?!), but what else are you going to do with it?  Drive it however many miles to a recycling bin?  It's really disconcerting, and it makes me feel bad everytime we go home.  Especially when you see how much "stuff" is gone through over Christmas when family is all around.

3.  Food.  In general.  Not to say there isn't delicious food back home, but man oh man!  Maybe it was just Christmas, or that we were on the road?  We ate more crap than I care to think about.  It was drive-throughs, and Gran's house for dinner (which was a treat, albeit laced with about a pound of Crisco, butter, and sugar), doughnuts, cakes, cookies--all sorts of things that aren't a part of our normal diet.  Maybe that's why I got grossly sick on the last day (and am still trying to push it all out of my system?).  Ian made dinner last night, and we had a grilled pork chop, brown rice, broccoli, and cauliflower, and my body sighed in relief.

4.  Exercise--you have to seek it out there.  I am thankful, thankful for having to walk everywhere here.  Exercising is ingrained in daily living.  There it was moving from couch to couch, from table to table, driving, sitting, laying down.  We went out to play tennis once.  It's not that I couldn't exercise--it's just that here you have to.  There isn't a choice.  And I really missed moving around.  I actually think that if the weather holds out (rainy season is upcoming), I will walk to work in the mornings just to feel a bit better.  Because sitting around and stuffing yourself for 10 days straight=poopiness.  I think if Ian and I move somewhere, we will go on evening walks together.  Because it's a nice pasttime, and a good way to be together.

Last super fun news is that Ian went out yesterday and bought me an electric full-sized piano!  He said he enjoyed watching me play at Deedahn's house, and that I looked really happy doing it.  How exciting.  The great thing about it is that it is electric, so I can plug in headphones and not subject anyone to my crazy banging.  So, it's a fun new toy....and Ian is incredibly thoughtful.  

And so, it's New Year's Eve--not a favorite holiday of mine.  Kind of anti-climactic.  Our good friend Carrie and her new man-friend are coming over.  I think we're going to have Little Star Pizza and possibly play some board games to ring in the new year, which seems just my speed.

Have a safe and happy new year.  We miss our friends and family already, and thank you all so much for your hospitality and great company.

Pictures to follow, once we can upload them.  :)

Merry Christmas

We're out!  Leaving in about 15 minutes to fly back east.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Ah, continue the holiday spirit!

We haven't updated the blog too much in the past week or so.  Not because we're lazy, but we just don't have a lot to say.

The past couple of weeks have been pretty normal (with Christmas cheer thrown in here and there...the shopping, preparing, etc).  A shout out now to my Deedahn for ordering a large shipment from Omaha Steaks that arrived before Thanksgiving.  Ian and I have been cooking a delicious treat every night (pork chops, burgers, franks, steaks, lasagna, sole fillets....the list goes on).  So we've had some good eats at home.

Last night was my company holiday party, and a party it was.  It was our first official Microsoft holiday party, and quite the soiree.  A whole block of a building, with different rooms set to project different parts of the world by way of culinary style and music theme.

  Ian and I got all decked out, got our pictures taken prom-style, drank some top-shelf liquor, wine, and beer (you go, Microsoft!), and mingled a la corporate goodness. 

 It was interesting to be part of such a huuuuge party--I'm never good at predicting how many people attend an event, but I'd say in the low thousands for this one.  Deck the halls!

The rest of this rainy weekend (besides getting stuffed with brunch), the unprecedented happened.  Ian helped me with the Christmas cards!  I even have photos to prove it.  

And he did such a brilliant job, making cute little sketches and saying funny things.  

Much better than I could have done it, and it's so refreshing not to have to decorate (yes, it was do-it-yourself card year), write, and address all 60 Christmas cards.  Because I also have to send all my clients Christmas cards, and man is it a lot!  Anyway, thanks to Ian for being so sweet about it.  Very helpful, thank you.

And now, we have 3 busy days ahead of us (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), before flying back to the East Coast for the holidays.  Yeehaw!

In the Christmas Spirit

It's been a strange holiday season.  I'm going back and forth between feeling the Christmas spirit, and feeling like it shouldn't be Christmas yet.  Or like it's actually June and I'm pretending it's Christmas (in San Francisco, anyway, the weather is the same in December for the most part as it is in June).

I'm blaming it on the late Thanksgiving.  The fact that we had Thanksgiving, and within a matter of days (not even a week!) we were into December.  Fast forward simply a week in December, and Ian and I are flying home for Christmas in 2 weeks!  How time flies!  I still have Christmas shopping to do!  And we hadn't even decorated....

Until this weekend.

On Wednesday, we walked up to Delancey Street Christmas trees just a few blocks from our house, and picked out this awesome 3-footer.  Our trick is to pick a smaller tree then place it in our front windows on a storage container (the one we actually use to keep our holiday gear).  From the outside, it looks pretty big, but in our living room, he's a little guy.

Here's an observation about buying Christmas trees in a lot.  When I was growing up, I can't really remember a time where we had a real Christmas tree.  For as long as I can remember, we have had the same fake tree (that my Dad still uses, and I "borrowed" for a time when living in Kentucky).  So, I never realized that going to get a live tree would be such an experience.

What happens is straight out of my 2nd grade play, which was called The Littlest Christmas Tree.  Or perhaps thinking about poor Charlie Brown's tree.  Or the fact that my family consistently gives personalities to inanimate objects.  Still.  What happens is that I tend to think like my inner 8-year old self and wonder if the tree's feelings would be hurt if I don't choose it.  Or wonder if they're sad they're not big and fluffy, but kind of scrawny.  If their boughs droop when person after person pass them by, without so much as a glance.

So I find myself whispering my likes to Ian, so the trees can't hear.  How psychotic is that!  Or I'm tempted to find the most "full bough" challenged, the smallest, the crookedest tree and select that one to go home with me.

But I don't.  Within, oh--about 10 seconds, I found our little man.

  

We tagged him, grabbed some mistletoe, and were walking home with him.  Our 2nd annual tradition.

Fast forward until this weekend, and Saturday was the day!  I wrapped presents to help get me in the mood in the afternoon, drinking some wine and keeping some cheesy holiday movies on in the background.  Ian worked on a project and then played xbox live with his friend Cliff, and drank some holiday Maker's Mark.  It wasn't really holiday, but I'm sure it helped him feel the spirit.  Then we made (ok, Ian made) a wonderful dinner of filets, potato croquettes, carrots, and broccoli. We finished off by baking sugar cookies.

The fire was lit, Christmas music was on, eggnog filled my glass.  And so we decorated our little tree, who I will now name Martin.  It feels really nice to see these old ornaments that now tell the story of Ian and I as a family.  

We bring them out, talk about where they came from, how long we've had them...good times.

Oh, it's getting so close to Christmas!  We leave for NC and VA in about a week and a half.  Can't wait!  Time to watch some Christmas favorites....

fruit. round one

I really enjoy apples. I've always eaten apples, but I feel like recently, I've really been connecting with those guys. Maybe it's because I've given other varieties a try. I'm finding there are good ones out there besides the ______ delicious breed.

Honey Crisp for insistence. WOW! they have my favorite apple trait: A good pop when you bite into them. I don't know if they have these everywhere, but MAN are they good.


How have I gotten involved with the apple you ask? well, Whole foods is the reason. For lunch, if I can't decide what to eat, I walk over Whole Foods and get a "golden gate" sandwich (toasted) or a soup. Then I walk over to the apples and pick one up for my mid afternoon snack. Since they have what amounts to an apple buffet, I started branching out. I thought that for 85 cents, I can afford to make a mistake if I don't enjoy the taste.

I still don't dig baked fruit as much as raw. I don't know what it is, but still, when I see apple pie, I don't think yum. (I do think "It might be okay with ice cream" but that's a different story)

Okay, why does it smell like Indian food in here? It's 4:30. Who is eating Indian food this late in the afternoon. It'll spoil their dinner. From what I can tell, It's not going to be very good. I usually like the smell of Indian food, but whatever that is, it smells terrible. I'm going to investigate the odor.

not what I expected.

Oh, look at the time, I want to get out of here soon. I'm meeting Lori downtown. That means I have to go home first, get some things, and then jump on the train. I hope it's not too busy down there with people doing their holiday shopping.

Have a wonderful day everyone!

How Much is that Doggie in the Window? [arf, arf]

Oh, Christmastime.  I read an article in Advertising Age today praising Macy's New York for making good on their multi-decade streak of beautifully decorated shop windows for the holidays.  And I thought, yes, it's magical.

But can it compare to the shop windows of the San Francisco Macy's at Christmas?

I doubt it.

Not only do they deck the halls with style and flair (also piping holiday songs onto the street), but they do so in the name of charity.  Here's where I get in trouble (and make a lot of detours by the Macy's windows for a couple of months).

It's the SPCA annual drive.  The windows are meant to look like picturesque SF home fronts (plus the added fake snow...SF won't likely see any of the white stuff)...but, add to that scene irresistible puppies and kittens up for adoption?

  

Oh no...let the crowds draw close.  And enter me, wiggling my way to catch a glimpse of the puppies.  Oh, the puppies!