Christmas-time (was) here.

Christmas has come and gone. my first married Christmas. it was bittersweet. it was good. it was a busy, full day of family and presents and good food and fun. there are pictures. (not many, cuz i found that i was enjoying myself too much to actually stop and take pictures of the day itself) (in later years, i might regret having so few pictures of our first married Christmas) but i will share with you the pictures that i did manage to snap in order to document the milestone.

 we figured that getting married and buying a house and moving to Maryland was plenty of excitement for one year, so instead of having a real live Christmas tree we opted to just pull out the itty bitty skinny Charlie Brown tree that was given to me by a friend from work to grace my apartment last year. the branches only go down about three quarters of the way, leaving the rest of the tree's trunk exposed. this makes it wonderful for fitting presents under, but then the big pile of presents under it makes it look even smaller and more ridiculous. we love it. we also learned this year that the fake snow on it that so wonderfully and festively sheds all over is called flocking. Mark now insists that our tree is indeed flocked up.

  to decorate our flocking tree, i pulled out all the ornaments that i have gotten every year (except that one) since i was born. and then we added some fun new ones this year...

the trifecta of cow ornaments from my mom was (finally!) completed to remind Mark of that one ice skating date we went on, and the adorable bride and groom couple is my reminder that 2010 was the year we got married!

 Mark's aunt got him a snowman ornament for his birthday for 'Our 1st Christmas Together' and the adorable birdhouse came from his mom for our 'New Home'

 as is customary christmas eve tradition we each opened one gift early and got two more ornaments :) our little amphibian bride and groom are keeping the ornament tradition alive and well, since mom already told me she's not buying me any more. and we even started our own tradition of spending Christmas Eve snuggled up in a blanket on the couch, sipping some hot chocolate in front of the fire.

on Christmas morning we woke up cuz "you gotta get up, You Gotta Get Up, YOU GOTTA GET UP!!! ITS CHRISTMAS MOOOORRRNING!!!" of course. Santa was apparently not very hungry by the time he got to our house, but we left him cookies on our kick-butt Santa tray anyway.

we opened our stockings first, and by then breakfast was ready: Cinnamon rolls for me, and eggs and cereal for the husband.

and that is where my documentation stops. for serious. you will note a severe lack of photos of presents and people, not that there werent any, (there were actually a lot) but just for the fact that i did not take my camera out of my purse for the rest of the day. oops. but Christmas isnt really over yet - maybe i'll make up for it tonight and snap a few pics when we go for make-up Christmas with Mark's dad's family, (because we missed the real one for the Lane family Christmas) and i'll try and remember to take pics when the sisters come this weekend for Christmas/New Years, or maybe i'll just keep the streak alive and just put my camera back into my purse and forget that its there until next year.

survived.

one of the things that i was most dreading about being married to my husband is our severe football rivalry. honestly it is what brought us together, but because of open hours in college, and games being scheduled over holidays, and things like our wedding we never seemed to be able to watch our teams play each other.  so since our year has been so very full of important milestones, we figured it couldnt hurt to throw one more in there: the first Steelers v. Ravens game that we have EVER watched together.

and to just make it a little more exciting, why dont we watch our first game together live in Baltimore?

i would have to say that it went pretty well overall (especially considering the outcome of the game!) we only had to put up with some minor taunting, were still able to move our fingers and toes, and we were still speaking to each other at the end of the game, so i would have to call this a major success!

now we just have to wait and see how well we behave ourselves when we're watching together in our own home...

Spoiler Alert!

i was really planning on keeping the final design of my Christmas cards a secret until i got them sent out, but they turned out so well and i'm so excited about them that i just had to share!!!

the rains came down...

...and the floods came up. yesterday afternoon. in my office building. about twenty feet from where i was sitting.

there was a long, loud sound that was like a lot of rushing air, kind of like someone pulled the plug on an air compressor.
then the fire alarm started going off in all of its piercing, annoying, screeching glory.

and then the waterfall started.

we spent the next half an hour or so standing outside, freezing cold, just waiting to hear what happened while five fire trucks, an ambulance, and several police cars filled our parking lot. we could see water was pouring down into the office below ours, and even coming out the tops of the downstairs windows.

apparently a pipe burst in the ceiling, which proceeded to leave one half of our office (the half i work on) under up to 2 inches of water in some places.

by some sort of miracle (or maybe just a bunch of IT people staying at the office til 2am) the servers were brought back online, an emergency plan was put into effect, and we were all able to come into work this morning - almost just like normal. it looks like a warzone on our side of the building. there are big fans and dehumidifiers everywhere, piles of wet plans, a big dumpster outside, ladders, down ceiling tiles, an awful stench, and oh yeah a big hole in the ceiling in the Structures Department.

we all put our personal effects in a box (it felt oddly like getting fired) and moved to our new homes for the next few weeks and/or months. they have us all set up at temporary work stations, mostly on the other side of the office which was untouched and still dry. i'm currently set up in the lunch room, and i actually kind of like it. can you say floor-to-ceiling window seat? oh yeah. i might actually be a little sad when they get everything gutted and rebuilt to the point where we can go back to normal for real and i'm back in my lonely no-view cubicle... but for now the big question around the office is "what about the Christmas party?"

domestic goddess.

please - try and hold your applause until all accomplishments have been listed. (but if one or two YAY!'s slip out prematurely, i wont be upset)

this being my first holiday season as a wife and a homeowner, i've been feeling an odd sort of pressure to really do everything "right" as far as the holidays go - cause after all, its the FIRST TIME we're doing all this as a couple. and like in any good marriage, it hasnt been exactly a cakewalk, but i'm pretty proud of the things we've accomplished.

1. i made a pot roast. in my crock pot. while wearing an apron.

2. i also made the sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving with Mark's family this year. you know, Gramma Rita's recipe. the good kind with the crunchies, not the weird kind with the marshmallows. it turned out fantastically and was complimented by all. i made a lot. we still have leftovers. (the pic is of the egg that did NOT break on my floor when it tried to run away as soon as i turned my back)


3. we put up our skinny little Christmas tree and decorated it! i felt a little bad since most of the ornaments on it are mine, but Mark added the two we've gotten so far already, and (top ten things i never thought i'd say) even Wolverine has his very own place on our tree. our fireplace room has never looked so festive.

4. we put lights on our porch!!! YAY for those last-minute wedding lights that i just HAD to have! i probably have enough left over to decorate all the porches in the neighborhood, because our porch isnt all that big, but maybe we'll just save those for when we get really ambitious in years to come and decide to line our entire roofline!!!



5. Mark painted our bathroom and hung up our new accessories (towel bar, toilet paper holder, hand towel ring, hook on the door) its just about ready to become useable, as soon as we get the blinds and clean all the construction related mess out of the shower.

6. we cleaned and organized our entire house to the point that it was ready to invite our small group over for a pre-late-night-bowling party last weekend. its still not quite ready for the family to descend en mass, but have no fear - painting and re-hanging all the doors is next on the to-do list.

i'm a little bit nervous that we're overdoing it - that we're setting the bar too high too soon, and we are only going to be disappointed with everything from here on out... but hey if thats the case and the awesomeness of these few months is just setting the stage for a major letdown, then at least we will have the satisfaction of knowing that we came close to getting it right at least once!

time flies.

its a little bit shocking to me that it is December already. i mean sure i put up my Christmas tree last Saturday and its already decorated and there are lights in my window and my brain has been exploding with Christmas music and gift ideas and wondering when its finally going to start snowing since about noon on Thanksgiving Day (i tried really hard to make it to the day after but the music was just in me!) but i was expecting November to be a little longer and im not quite sure i'm ready for December. and just guessing from the weather this morning, (60 degrees and rainy) i'm not even sure Mother Nature is ready for it to be December yet either!