Merry Christmas!

Not that anything ever goes as planned, but this holiday certainly was interesting! Cam and I headed North to spend Christmas in Mass. The trip started off great...we left one night after work and stopped outside of D.C. to spend the night at breast's. We ate at this AMAZING cheese and wine bar...it was fabulous!  Sarah's roommate Colleen joined us and we had a great night exchanging gifts and hanging out.  The next day we tried to get an early start...but you know me and that rarely happens :-)  But we ate a good breakfast at IHOP and headed on our way.....

We should have been at my parents house that night...but I had a bug of some sort and was so so so sick that Cam and I had to pull over for the night in Conn.  But we finally made it to Mass on Thursday...yay!

Christmas Eve is always an event...first there is church at 430.  Which of course by the time we arrived was packed!  And naturally we left late so we stood for the entire hour plus for mass and the pageant.  But it is a tradition I enjoy.  Next we headed home to open some gifts were we had left my brother since he had waited until the last minute to finish his final for his online class.  Then the tradition of visiting began....off to vova and vovo's...then to my cousin's house - Laurie, Jerry and Cassie......and lastly to my aunts!  Cam was a bit overwhelmed to say the least.

Christmas Day was a lot of fun...waking up early and opening all the presents under the tree!  And then a big family lunch at my parents house.  Then the snow came!!  Not exactly a white Christmas but pretty close.  And as a result we ended up spending an extra day in Mass.

Since we've been home Cam and I have already enjoyed some of our new toys: a Wii Fit and Michael Jackson's experience.  Thanks mom!  :-)

Holiday Party

Last night was Cam's Christmas Party and our night of 'Mandatory Fun' for the night.  Cam was the EMC for the night and he did a great job keeping things moving.  And lets be honest....he is a big ham and so he loved it too!  And although it did snow all morning long here in Virginia....it turned to rain and the roads weren't too bad so we made it.  Unfortunately, Cam did not do a very good job at making sure we left with a prize...but its ok I guess. :-)

Unfortunately it does not look like we'll be going to a Christmas party for me this year.  With such a small department and working from home...it just wasn't in the cards.  :-(


On a happier note I finally got all our Christmas cards out this week.  I felt as though I was never going to get them out!  Especially since Cam and I really tried to take a 'family' photo...with Sneaky.  Although he did not completely love his collar with bells that we bought him specifically for this photo.  He was more pissed at having to be held against his will for 5 minutes while we tried to take the shots.  Needless to say none of them came out nicely at all.  Yesterday I even tried to put the collar on him and take a picture so you can see his Holiday Spirit.....but he's just got too much fur!

O Christmas Time

Now that the holidays are here its time to decorate,entertain and enjoy!  I think I have grown to enjoy the holiday season more as I've gotten older.  Especially getting our tree and decorating it.  I think that is by far my favorite.  Last year getting our tree was certainly an adventure.  We had to tie it to the top of the Limo (for those of you familiar with my little white sable, you know she can handle it ;-).  Well the tree stayed on top of the roof long enough to make the 2 mile trip back to our apartment parking lot...before it slide off!

But this year...we smartened up and just stuck it in the trunk!  What a sight, but luckily this year we were even closer to our home.

So this is a lovely picture of our tree all setup and decorated.  The mantle with our stockings, even Sneaky our urban panther has one.  And you will probably notice the monstrosity of a TV we have....that would be Cam's Christmas present. 

Here are some other touches we put on our home.  Mind you only the downstairs...the upstairs....still a work in progress :-)

Hard to see here but here is my real wreath and a beautiful bow that my friend Leigh Anne helped with.  We all know I'm no Martha!

An overview of our dinning room.  And the beginning of all the Christmas cards. :-)

My advent wreath and notice the delicate touches.  Snowmen salt and pepper shakers, a vase with cinnamon (image it) scented pine cones and gold accent pieces with real cranberries.  Are you proud mother?

This was really the pride and joy...lets be honest.  Nothing says Happy Holidays like a well stocked house.  Oh ya, and I'm pretty proud of my candle/vase setup.

Don't mind the dishes.  But look there is the panther!!  Its feeding time.

The only thing missing is the snow.  Cam and I tried to decorate the outside of the house, but got discouraged when we could not find an exterior outlet.  Not to mention without the snow...I think the decorations outside look silly.  Hopefully when we head to Mass for Christmas we'll get a little snow.

So that's basically what we've been up to.  I'm enjoying being home for a little while before I head out again after the holidays.  We've been decorating, going to parties and hanging out with friends.  Here is a picture of Cam and his two roommates on the ship at our little Christmas cocktail party last weekend.

There is a lot of love there.  (Austin, Wilson & Cami)  Notice how we wives stayed out of the picture ;-)

Las Vegas

So I am 'working' in Las Vegas this week at the Autodesk University conference.  Having never been to Vegas I was pretty psyched to hear they were going to send me along for the ride.  I arrived late on Monday and so I met up with my co-workers later for a drink out in the casino.  I have to admit that I'm not sure what my expectations were, but I can tell you they have fallen a little short.  Although the lights and strip are pretty impressive with some cool architectural accents.  The volume of people however...I feel like I am in a ghost town.  And for what I have heard talking to people who work here, and visit, this is really unusual even for this time of year (the slow season).

Here is a view of the strip as I passed over from the Luxor (where I'm staying) to New York New York.

Here is an art installation in the atrium of one of the high end shopping areas.

So I am here for work and this is where the archie side comes out :-)  There have been some pretty cool exhibits showcasing Autodesks involvement in movie making, science, architecture, manufacturing and many other topics.  During the opening keynote lecture there was a great variety of projects.  Some of my favorite were Project H - a non-profit organization that brings design/build to a rural town in NC to improve the quality of life for the community and providing opportunities for the high school students.  Check out the site: http://projecthdesign.org/  Also the Seattle Washington project to rebuild the viaduct along the waterway.  http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/projects/viaduct  What was so cool about this project was the level and quality of the rendering and details of the options available for the state to make the best decision for a replacement.  Anyway, I won't say any more but you can check out the other projects like the electric car company Tesla and the movie Tron at http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=au2010_general_session_keynote

This was a model in the exhibit hall.  I took a minute to stop and stare :-)  Made me miss school for a minute.

Thanksgiving

This year Cam and I decided not to travel for thanksgiving.  Instead we did our own turkey and invited over a couple of friends.  Cam had his heart set on deep frying a turkey...so a couple of days before thanksgiving we headed over to Home Depot and came home with an 'oil less' deep fryer...???  Yes, oil less.  It cooked the bird with infrared (apparently its all the rage with newer grills).  But it was certainly just as juicy and delicious as if it had been deep fried...and much better for us too!

We even got to use our new china and silverware!  Just like grown-ups!  And in the back you can see some pretty flowers Cam sent me :-D  And don't worry our little sneaky cat enjoyed some turkey as well!

Then of course I went shopping on Black Friday.  Seeing as my family is crazy and have done it forever!  I can not let such a tradition die - so I went!  It was productive and not actually as crazy as I remember it being.  I had no problems finding a place to park and the deals were great!

To end the Thanksgiving events, we played some touch football on Saturday with the Miles and their family and the Gages.  It was a blast!

New to the neighborhood

Recently I had been thinking that since we had moved into our new place on a quiet dead end street.  I should get to know (at least the names of) our neighbors.  So today, in honor of the fall season I baked some delicious pumpkin bread...its yummy.  I also created these little tags to place on top of the wrapped up bread with our name and address.  Because lets be honest when you meet new people you never remember their names or anything that will help you communicate with them in the future.  So as I went around on this Sunday afternoon it was disappointing to get no response from ringing several doorbells.  But by far the best response to my pumpkin bread was the neighbor across the street...

Cam and I had met his wife the first week we moved in.  She came over introduced herself and we chatted for a few minutes.  Lovely lady.  Well as I had my basket full of pumpkin bread and rang her door bell.  Her husband came to the door and all I managed to get out of my mouth was, "I'm the neighbor.  Its free."  As he immediately started talking over me and telling me they didn't want any and preceded to slam the door on my face.  Nice.

Needless to say no Christmas cookies for them :-p