Do you know how excited I am about this?!?

Baby's first Christmas!! It's going to be the utmost of adorableness, even though Holden will probably just be really confused. And while I'm late to the game on getting personalized Etsy awesomeness I was planning on for Christmas gifts ("no longer accepting holiday orders"...oops, I should have started these projects before Thanksgiving), I was totally on the ball with ordering Holden a really cute first Christmas ornament. Now it just needs the perfect spot on the tree.

Wrap it up

I genuinely LOVE wrapping presents.  Using excessive amounts of tape (although I think I've really toned it down in recent years - people were actually able to open their gifts this year without using pocketknives or excessive amounts of force) and folding corners and making all the shiny things go together just gives me great joy.  Most of this wrapping has been destroyed by now, but fortunately I have just a little more wrapping to do tonight for friend festivities tomorrow night - yay!  Shiny shiny shiny...

Yes, I'm insane and ridiculous and who actually enjoys spending hours wrapping presents?  This girl!!

A little culture and a lot of chicken tenders

Not together or at the same time at all...but I think that could be a cultural experience!  Just think of all those chicken tenders that also give you a glimpse into a piece of regional Americana - Babe's...Raising Cane's...Dairy Queen...although as a kiddo I was always partial to the steak finger basket at good ol' Dairy Queen.

errrrmahgawd!!  I just checked out the Dairy Queen menu and THERE IS NO STEAK FINGER BASKET.  What happened??

Ok, back to the culture part.  A few weekends ago I got together with Kami, Carolyn, and Eva for brunch (where we did not eat chicken tenders) and then a first for us - a trip to the symphony! They were doing a Mozart extravaganza, so we figured it would as good a time as any to get our culture on.

View from the cheap seats

A few tips for your trip to the symphony:

• Even though brunch beforehand is a wonderful idea, maybe skip any adult beverages as they tend to induce sleepiness during soothing classical music moments.
• If you're taking your kids...just make sure they might actually appreciate the experience.  Otherwise you're wasting way too much money.
• Observe enthusiastic clapping lady and just follow her lead.
• Watch out for Jaap van Zweden - I don't think I'd want to meet him in a dark alley after the performance.  His intensity could laser beam you to the ground.

Admit it, even with the baton...a little intimidating

Back to the chicken tenders - we had a small army of people over for the Super Bowl, which meant we obviously needed a small army of food.  I'm actually proud of us for not going as overboard as usual, but there was one new addition to the food mix that almost completely disappeared due to its awesomeness - homemade chicken tenders.  Deep fried, of course.  I wanted to bake them, Craig rolled his eyes at me, and deep fried won.  Deep fried deliciousness indeed.

No pictures of not-very-photogenic chicken tenders, or really anything from the Super Bowl, because we were just having fun.  Imagine it.

Next time I'm eating chicken tenders before we go to the symphony.  And yes, I know pairing culture and chicken tenders is a stretch.  Just imagine it, too.

The babies turned one!! You know, months and months ago...

So my awesome friends have these really cute babies that graced us with their presence in the fall/winter of 2010, and this was originally intended to talk about celebrating all of their first birthdays...yeah, so those babies are now closer to two than one, but I'd already put cute pictures in a draft post so I'm just going to go with it.  Adorable is always timely.

Gracie's party!!  Diana let me decorate cupcakes because it makes me so happy. =) And Gracie, you just rock.

So full of cuteness AND deliciousness!!  Adorable little fabric flags = Pinterest inspiration.  Obsessed.

The sweet birthday girl and her momma

Allllll the kiddos - trust me, this was really the best we could do at containing them for a picture.

The backyard is definitely the best place to have cake explosion adventures.  Especially when Trinity is involved.

Ahhhh, that milk tastes goooooooooood

The return of THE BOOK.  The reaction was priceless.

And yeah, Taylor is waaaaaaay past one, too, but I made her some cute stuff and wanted to show you.  I'm so behind it's not even funny.  We're making this happen.

Cutesy clothes, both for now and for later

Pink and green girl fest extravaganza!!  I did animal appliques onto onesies and a little jacket, then some fabric flowers on onesies.  It was too much fun.

Birthday girl and her momma, showing off those walking moves

Make a wish!

Sweet baby Rhett is way past one, too!  AND now he lives all the way back in the motherland of Louisiana, and I miss his little antics, but it's kinda nice to remember him in this tinier state.

Sweet baby and his momma chillaxin at Taylor's par-tay

Every little boy needs a pirate bag, right?  Absolutely.  So I made him one.

And he could probably also use a stuffed turtle.  Which was just easy and fun to make.  So cute!

And a tie for when he needs to dress up. =)

While these babies were busy turning one, two BRAND NEW AWESOME BABIES also came around - yay for the no longer quite as new new additions to the Stewart and Holmes families!!  Reese Elizabeth Stewart made her way into the world on November 16, followed shortly by Mr. Liam Rex Holmes on November 22.  These two new mommies are two of the most wonderful people I met while doing that DC thing, and I'm so, so happy for both of them.  Yay for cute babies!

They will occasionally burst into song and dance

I love artsy stuff.  Especially when it involves people far more talented than I singing and dancing on a stage.  So when fellow enjoyer of artsy stuff Diana and I lined ourselves up for a rather art-tastic week (also, after two years in DC, very much a treat to see Diana THREE TIMES in one week), I was pretty pumped about it.  Brief recap to follow.

Billy Elliot at the Winspear Opera House - angry tap dancing is awesome, and the Winspear has one of the coolest light fixtures ever.  It was a little unfortunate that we bought tickets for this show WAY in advance and had no idea that the Mavs would be playing for the NBA championship that night...and WINNING...but at least it was better than when we went for Rock of Ages and were surrounded by tornadoes.

Oh, and not really artsy, but the boys met us for dinner beforehand, and Craig had his FIRST Lone Star beer.  We're getting him integrated, Texans.

Next up - Ben Folds playing with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which is by far one of the coolest concerts I've ever been to.  I LOVE this man's music, and he is such a great performer - his impromptu composition of a new song (never to be released due to its ridiculousness, I'm sure) on stage was just freakin' cool.

We closed things out with a performance of Next to Normal put on by the Uptown Players at the Kalita Humphreys Theater - Diana and I were a little intrigued by the crowd for this particular show (the demographic was heavily skewed in the loving man-couple direction, which we couldn't figure out...was it a connection with one of the actors?  the location of the theater?  the musical itself?  anyway, lots of fabulous shoes for us to admire...), and the subject matter was pretty heavy, but we both really enjoyed it.

To cap it all off, last week I caught the Spazmatics (80's cover band!) with Jenny and Molly at the Arboretum as part of their concert series.  It's such a great setting - right by the lake, bring your own blanket and cooler, enjoy.  Plus it's just fun to bust out some of your favorite 80's tunes.  Loudly.

TONS of fun, although I think I'll be more excited about the fall shows when I can hopefully avoid rivers of sweat.

Now, if my State of the Arts license plate would just show up...

Capturing moments

We had engagement pictures taken a couple of weeks ago by our FANTASTIC all-things-wedding-related photographers, Sara & Rocky, and I'm so excited to share some of the shots with you guys.  I 1000x love our photographers, and I can't wait to see what they capture on our wedding day (142 days to go!).  If you want to see many, many, MANY more pictures, just let me know and I'll send you the password to our share site.

Deep Ellum first, White Rock Lake second.  We had a fantastic time, even if it was a touch on the hot side.  I love that we'll have these moments captured forever.  And yes, photo overload to follow shortly after these words.

Here we come a-caroling

Still playing catch-up on the blog, so hope you guys enjoy all of these holiday-themed posts.  At least they're making an appearance in January instead of May or something.  Phew.

My D.C. time is coming to a close rather rapidly, and did you know that while I have done A LOT over the last couple of years, there are still plenty of things that just aren't going to happen?  The week before Christmas, though, I got to check one more thing off the list - a visit to Ford's Theatre.  Now, while I missed the "live historic interpretations by professional actors and National Park Service Rangers" that go on during the day (here's hoping the actors do the acting while the Park Rangers provide info and not the other way around), I did get to do something pretty cool - see "A Christmas Carol" in all of its Christmas wonder. 

Craig and I braved the freeeeeezing temperatures and brutal wind for the short walk from my place to our wonderful pre-theater dinner at Poste, a nifty restaurant located in the original 1841 General Post Office.  We warmed up with some ridiculous French onion soup and other tasty things, then took a quick stroll through the lobby of Hotel Monaco to soak up a little Christmas cheer.

Christmas cheer in place!  Also, bundled up to face the elements

We froze our way over to Ford's Theater a couple of blocks away, where I managed to take my gloves off long enough to snap just a couple of pictures before my fingers froze and crumbled to the sidewalk in a pile of frozen finger dust.  Ok, I still have my fingers, or else these incredible robotic fingers that are fairly nimble when it comes to typing.

One of the randomly cool things you come across in D.C. - old call boxes all over the city that have been painted to reflect something of historical significance in the neighborhood.  It's a pretty cool project!  Obviously, Mr. Lincoln and his untimely end pretty much dominate this block of 10th Street NW.

We got there just in time to sneak in and unbundle ourselves before the show started, so I snapped a few pictures at intermission - the stage all decked out all 1840s London-style and the box where Lincoln was shot:

Just another night at the theater!  Oh, in a theater of great historical significance while being filled with Christmas spirit.  Pretty cool night.  Actually, it was very cold.  But you know what I mean.

Ponies, ponies everywhere

Amarillo is covered up in horses.  Plenty of real ones, yes, but there's also a herd of fiberglass quarter horses.  Center City of Amarillo and the American Quarter Horse Association (headquartered here in A-town) have teamed up for "Hoof Prints of the American Quarter Horse - America's Horse," a city-wide public art display featuring fiberglass horses outside local businesses that have been painted by local artists.  We are allllll about the horses here, and there are some really cute ones around town!  Also some odd ones here and there, but we'll focus on some cute ones for now.

Last night we had a need to get out of the house after spending the day in a bit of a Thanksgiving coma, so we drove around a bit and laughed at the people standing in lines during sub-freezing temperatures, just waiting to snag their bargains.  We also checked out a couple of ponies I hadn't seen before...it's Amarillo and there's not just a whooooole lot to do.  This one is "Reflections of Love" outside the Amarillo Children's Hospital.  Isn't it sweet with the mommy horse and the baby horse??  Plus they're shiny, which is just awesome.

But I think I was most amused by the sign accompanying the horses...

Outside the Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, there's none other than a black horse (looks just like the Masked Rider, except...you know...minus the rider) complete with a Double T:

One of my favorites is the horse outside Hooters - it's sporting the traditional Hooters waitress attire along with a bright red set of lips.  It's delightfully tacky.  And that's how we do it here in Amarillo.

Autumn light

Museum hopping? Not so much, says Mother Nature

Last Sunday I set out with grand plans to fully explore the Dupont Kalorama Museum Walk and hit up some of the museums that I didn't see last year on this same freebie weekend.*  I mapped out my plan of attack (literally - pulled up the map online and figured out my best walking path since I didn't want to deal with waiting in shuttle lines), which involved Anderson House - The Society of the Cincinnati, Dumbarton House, Fondo del Sol, and possibly another stop at my favorite from last year, the Phillips Collection.  Operation Do-Something-Kinda-Cool-Instead-of-Wasting-Away-the-Weekend is a go!

However, I got a bad feeling when I popped out of the Dupont Metro stop and was greeted with a sky that looked something like this**:

 

Hmmm...looming stormclouds don't exactly bode well for going from museum to museum.  Spending time inside a museum, yes, but I really didn't want to do more than quickish stops at each one - this was not going to be some Louvre experience.***

 

I had just made my way to Anderson House, headquarters of the Society of the Cincinnati, when the first raindrops began to attack.  I did at least have my umbrella, but flip-flopping around wet sidewalks, getting caught in errant rainstorms, and admiring beautiful gardens from indoors wasn't exactly what I had in mind.  So...I made the most of Anderson House.

Minor history lesson:  The Society of the Cincinnati was founded at the close of the Revolutionary War by the American officers and their French counterparts basically as a reason to get together every now and then and hang out to preserve the rights and liberties for which they had fought and to foster the bonds of friendship that had been formed among them during the long years of war.  At some point along the line they needed a fancy headquarters, and Anderson House, a Beaux-Arts mansion that was originally the winter home**** of an American diplomat (and member of the Society of the Cincinnati) and his wife, fit the bill in 1938.

Some additional tidbits for you:

• George Washington was elected the Society's first president general, a position he held until his death in 1799.
• The Society of the Cincinnati is the oldest private patriotic organization in the United States.
• Anderson House is filled with all kinds of crazy-cool art, including four hundred year old tapestries they're restoring, a large collection of Asian art, and painting of every shape and size, including a particularly impressive in scale painting by José Villegas - The Triumph of the Dogaressa Maria Foscari - depicting a fifteenth-century coronation in Venice.  I was in awe.*****

• Want to join?  You'd better be an eligible descendant of commissioned officers of the Continental army and navy and the French army and navy who served in the Revolutionary War. 

Oh, and you know what I realized after the fact?  Anderson House is always free.  Too bad I didn't get my freebie's worth on the typical $8 admission to the Dumbarton Oaks gardens or weekend $10-12 (free - with suggested donation - during the week!) at the Phillips Collection.  But I did get to see a pretty old house! 

The raindrops persisted, so I treated myself to a BGR burger (burgers are known to cure many ailments, including rainy day blues) and Metro'd home to watch the raindrops instead of walk in them.

* Why is it that we're drawn to things when they're advertised as "free free FREE!!" even though we wouldn't mind shelling out the $10 or so for what would likely be a more enjoyable experience since said experience would likely be less filled with all those other people who came just because it was free?  Just a thought.

** Ok, it didn't look something like that - it looked exactly like that.  Isn't that one reason to haul the camera around?  This way I don't have to come home and draw pictures and get out watercolors to approximate storm clouds.  Geez.

*** And, with a slightly ironic twist, my adventures in the Louvre with Carrie and Jason a couple of summers ago...extended by a rainstorm!  If it hadn't been for that rainstorm inspiring us to stay indoors just a little while longer, we might have missed the Code of Hammurabi and cool Egyptian things.

**** Again with the irony - a winter home in Washington.  What's wrong with Key West??  Oh, fine, you're a diplomat and need to hit up the hot social scene in the nation's capital between New Year's and Easter and host people like Winston Churchill and a couple of presidents.  Gotcha.

***** In case you can't tell what I'm in awe of, it's that giant painting behind my head.  It really was very impressive.  Here's a closer shot of the middle that my head is actually blocking:

Those empire waists really do wonders for the lower body!