'tis the season

To kick off the holiday season, I left Robert in Boston and traveled long and far to the great state of Michigan.  Poor Rob, I know.  But he had to work and this was the only way I'd be able to see all of my family for a long time.  So he brought me to the airport and kindly sent me on my way.

Michigan: 

My dad makes these cookies every year.  His mom made them when he was young.  And this year I learned the art of making Santa cookies. 

It's kind of intense.

... I am responsible for Santa #1 with the out-of-place raisin eyes.  It took me a few tries to learn their proper placement.

After a few days in Michigan, we traveled to Georgia to see Jacqueline, and meet up with the rest of the family (except Andrew, who is in Chile)!  

One day we hiked to the top of Stone Mountain, which was a fun challenge (physically, and because it started raining on our way down, making the granite "mountain" very slippery.

We also took a tour of the CNN headquarters building which was really cool and interesting.  

That white thing going into the globe is the longest free standing escalator in the world (like there's no beams holding it up... its only support is at he top and the bottom).

And then lil' Lily flew into town and we all had lots and lots of fun hanging out. 

The Lovell fun ended the Thursday before Christmas (so one week ago today), and from there I have met up with Rob for a Buhler Christmas.  More to come on that...

Hope you all had a wonderful and merry Christmas!

xoxo

our thanksgiving

We had a lovely Thanksgiving this year.  Rob's parents and younger sister, Katie, came in town, and we got to spend the week with them.

Thanksgiving morn, me, Katie, and Laura made some cute table settings.  Katie had seen them on pinterest, so we thought it'd be fun to make them.

This is what they were supposed to look like.

This is what ours turned out like. hah.  Seriously ugly.  Our biggest downfall was that we forgot to buy milk dud heads... but lets be real... I don't think we ever had a chance.  Nonetheless, it was fun and we had some good laughs.

Dinner was delish.  And mom, we used the crystal glasses.  ;) 

And after dinner, we went to burn some calories by taking a walk at Lake Waban.  It was so beautiful there.  

Last time I was there to take the dog on a walk, the car keys fell out of my pocket.  :o  I didn't realize it until we completed the walk and I was back at my car and ready to go home and eat some lunch.  I had to literally drag Chalmers around the Lake again and kept my head down the entire time, trying to locate the keys.  No luck.  My knight in shining armor had to leave work to come give me spare keys.  It stunk.  But my point is, whenever I go back there, I can't help but look for the keys.  No luck on Thanksgiving.  I have a glimmer of hope, but in reality, I'm sure they're under a pile of dead leaves, never to be found again.

During the rest of the week, we also visited the Breakers in Newport, Rhode Island.  It was cool because the mansion was decorated for Christmas and made me feel a little Christmas-ey.  

So I got a new camera bag, which is handy in life, but after getting it in the mail, we decided it looks like a diaper bag.  Dang.  

After touring the mansion, we hung around Newport and did a bit of shopping.

We also went to into Boston one day and just spent the day going through all different parts of the city.  

Back at Beacon Hill. 

And lastly, we were able to see Katie fulfill one of her life long dreams... performing in a street show.  :)  She was chosen out of the audience and then a couple of people jumped/did flips over the line of audience members.  It was pretty impressive.  They were good jumpers.