Wishing Everyone a.......

And....go Jackets! Good luck tonight in the Chick-fil-A Bowl against LSU!

Chris and I spent a very relaxing New Year's Eve with a few friends. It was a far cry from the wild and crazy night that we had last year. Several people were heading out of town on New Year's Day and Chris and I personally didn't want to go all out this New Year's. We started our evening at The Reeds' place, who hosted an extremely nice pre-party with champagne and lots of good things to nibble on. We made our way to Harvard Square around 9:30 to eat a late dinner at The Redhouse. The Redhouse just so happens to be right next door to where we spent last New Year's. We three of our four course meal before heading down to countdown to 2009. After the countdown, we made our way back upstairs to our own private room to have dessert. After dessert, we all made our way home in the freezing (we're talking feels like less than 0, brrr) cold. Needless to say, it was a very relaxing evening. Happy New Year everyone!

Ryan, Irina, Meredith and Matt

Michael, Erin and Jen

Jen and Josh

A Georgia Christmas

After a few days settling back into being at home and back to work (even though I have yet to unpack), it is time to write about the wonderful Christmas that Chris and I had with our families.

The Friday before Christmas Chris and I were extremely lucky to change our late afternoon flight to an early morning flight so that we could miss the 10-12 inches of snow that was dumped on Boston later in the day. We ended up having to connect in Baltimore and made it to Atlanta by 12pm…..before the snow even started to come down in Boston. Who knows if we would’ve made it out or not had we not changed our flight?!?! It was so nice to be at home without the travel woes of flying out in the snow.

We did some relaxing on Friday prior to our very busy day on Saturday. Saturday morning, we met with our Jessica Reichart who is going to help us find a home in Atlanta. On a side note, I know this home buying thing is going to be so overwhelming, especially since we are both so picky. After meeting with Jess, we headed to the mall to do most of our Christmas shopping. It’s unfortunate to live so far away that you have to wait until the last minute to shop. We can't wait until we live in the same state as all of our families next year! After a long day of shopping, we made our way over to the Perimeter mall to meet Adam and Elizabeth for dinner. It was so great to see and hang out with them around Christmastime. This will be the first year in a few years that we haven’t spent New Year’s with them, so we were just happy to be able to get together.

Sunday consisted of a lot of relaxation and wrapping of the gifts that we had purchased the previous day. It would be our last day without a Christmas party for the next 4 days. Monday night we had Christmas at my dad’s parents’ house with my Aunt and cousins. My grandparents hosted our small family gathering this year that consists of everyone stuffing themselves with barbecue, shrimp and salad with my grandmother’s homemade blue cheese salad dressing. After opening gifts, there is always a little bit of cheap champagne that goes around. I am not sure how this eating and drinking tradition was started, but I love it. It wouldn’t feel like Christmas without it.

Kallan, Grandmother and Marin

Dad with Grandmother and Granddaddy

Kallan was very excited to get the Pictionary Man.

Tuesday night we had Christmas with Chris’ parents, brothers, sisters-in-law, niece and nephews. Everyone received tons of great gifts and all the kids were extremely happy with their loot.

Jared and Sandi

Gavin trying to do the River Dance.

Griffin

Gavin, excited about his new toy.

After opening every gift Griffin said "this is what I wanted". So cute!

Jake

Karlie

Jared

Chris and I

Wednesday was probably our busiest day out of the Christmas party days. At lunch, we went to Chris’ mom’s parents’ house and enjoyed yummy appetizers with all of the Hayes extended family. That evening, we had Christmas with my mom’s parents. This is a very small Christmas get together and it is always one of my favorites. It doesn’t include all the hustle and bustle of the larger get togethers. It is just a good time with good company.

Most of crew cram-packed into MawMaw and PawPaw's living room.

PawPaw and MawMaw

Karlie and I

Jo modeling the sweater we bought her.

PawPaw enjoying his gift, a hunter's hearing aid which he is going to use to hear the TV. LOL!

After opening gifts with my grandparents, we opened gifts with my parents. As always, they got us WAY too much! Although, I do appreciate and love all of it. Chris was especially excited about his new ski mittens and I love my new purse and bag to carry to work. We got so many wonderful gifts over the Christmas season. I can’t wait until Chris has a job next year and we can return the generosity to our families that they have bestowed upon us for so many years.

Chris enjoying his new mittens.

I love my new purse!

Marc with his indoor golf practice mat.

Mom with her new North Face jacket.

Dad and Marc

Our Christmas was rounded off by my family’s extended family gathering together at my parents’ house and munching on all of the classic foods, dressing, turkey, cranberry sauce, homemade mac and cheese, etc. It wouldn’t be Christmas without having lunch with all the people in my family who I usually only see on Thanksgiving and Christmas. We spent Christmas evening at Chris’ parents’ house feasting on another yummy meal. We are so incredibly grateful for our loving friends and family and couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas!

Sydney

Emma (I love my new camera!)

Grandmother with Sydney and Emma

My mom and I went shopping the day after Christmas to find lighter than normal crowds. I guess the economy really isn’t doing so hot right now. I always go shopping the day after Christmas and I was shocked this year to not see the huge return lines that usually accompany the day after Christmas shopping. Maybe everyone was happy with what they got this year? We flew back to Boston on Saturday night so that I could have one day at home prior to going back to work. It was very sad to leave our families in Georgia, but it was so fun while it lasted. We will be back soon enough! Love you all!

Follow Up to Yesterday's Post

Beyonce/Arianna split screen! You have to check it out here.

Single Babies?

I just saw this video posted on Perez Hilton's website and laughed until I cried. It is a must watch. The first video is Beyonce's video for 'Single Ladies' and the second video is this little girl's take on Beyonce's choreography. Too awesome!

Why has it been so long?

I am going to have to say that it is just pure laziness that has kept me from posting in a few weeks. Since I have failed to post in a while, below is a recap of things that have been going on in our lives since my last post.

- Four Christmases – No, I am not referring to the many upcoming Christmas parties that Chris and I will attend; I am referring to the very cute movie starring Reese Witherspoon and Vince Vaughn. Chris and I truly love both of these actors, Reese because she is fabulous and Vince because he was in Chris’ favorite movie, Wedding Crashers, so we knew we had to check out their holiday film. I thought it was a very cute movie while Chris found it hilarious. All in all I would recommend that you check out the movie. It isn’t the best Christmas movie that I have ever seen, but it has its funny parts.

- We attended our second installment of Mobile Monkeys. We played Cranium and a newly made-up game that proved to be very entertaining.

- Holiday Pops – The HBS Partners’ Club organized an event that got us into the Holiday Pops for half price this year. Holiday Pops is the Boston Pops, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, for of a Christmas spectacular. We had a great time listening to the Boston Pops play all of our favorite Christmas songs as well as hearing the accompanying choir sing. I think it was a great way to get our Christmas kicked off. We also heard the best rendition of the Twelve Days of Christmas! Check out a portion of it in the video below.

- Progressive Holiday Cocktails – This past weekend we, along with 5 other couples, hosted a progressive holiday cocktail party at each of our homes. We limited each stop to approximately an hour. It was such a fun night! Each house had lots of goodies to eat as well as yummy cocktails. Chris and I made Positively Warm Apple Pie as our drink of the evening and I think it turned out really well. We stayed up entirely too late hanging out and dancing, but it was well worth it. We had a great time celebrating the holidays with some of our best friends here in Boston. See below for some pics of the festivities.

The Girls (Erin, Laren, Alisha, Ginny, Abbey and Me)

The Guys (Michael, Luke, Ryan, Teal, Will and Chris)

Luke picked out 40s with meaning, lol, for each guy.

Abbey hates to have her picture taken, but I think I got a good one.

Teal, enjoying the Apple Pie drink.

Erin and Alisha

Alisha wearing our santa hat atop our Christmas tree.

Laren getting snapped mid-talk.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I recently purchased the camera that I had been eyeing for quite some time, a Canon XSI. I am so excited and overwhelmed at the same time. I am seriously interested in photography as a career but I have so much to learn. This camera does more than I could ever imagine figuring out. I have to get myself in gear and dedicate the time to understand all of its features. Wish me luck! Some of the pictures from the progressive holiday cocktails were taken with the new camera…you can definitely tell a difference. Below is a picture I took of Chris with the new camera. He is going to get so sick of me taking pictures of him, lol!

I Feel Privileged to Watch this Show

Oh, how I love the new TV show Privileged! It is truly a highlight of all my TV watching during the week. Chris loves it too! I am not sure if it is because of the cute girl or the actual show, but at least I know that he will take time out to watch it with me. The show basically revolves around the life and times of a former/current writer, Megan, who has taken a job in Palm Beach, FL, her hometown, as a tutor for two somewhat spoiled teenage girls. It is a light-hearted show without the extreme drama of most shows. It makes me happy when I watch it and I don’t find the need to worry about what is going to happen next week. I just look forward to seeing another episode. Chris mentioned last night that it reminds him of Gilmore Girls, which I have to agree with. All of the nonsensical banter that accompanied Gilmore Girls is also featured in this show. We love it! I think everyone should give this show a shot….I think you will like it! See below for a preview of next week's episode.

The actress playing Megan was on the TV show Reba as Reba’s daughter. I have to agree with Chris that she has only gotten cuter (Chris says it should say hotter.).