A Very Thankful Thanksgiving

We had the most wonderful family-filled Thanksgiving break.  We started our holiday by driving to see Abby and Papi.  Genevieve was eager to give Abby her birthday gift.  A new Gonia, as I call them!

She relaxed and read with Papi.

She modeled her Winter Wonderland coat and outfit that Abby gave her.

We ate our Thanksgiving lunch at Woodford Reserve.  We simply cannot get enough of the bourbon distilleries.  We seem like such booze hounds.

The lunch was so delicious, and G and I split a sweet potato cupcake with cream cheese frosting.  

The only thing better than the cupcake was G's seatbelt-free ride on the Woodford Reserve shuttle bus that took us to the building where we ate our lunch.

That is a grin of freedom.

Speaking of breaking the law, G also went seatbeltless when we toured the Kentucky Horse Park's light display.

She clapped and was thrilled to see the sparkles.

They had random camel and pony rides.  Our gal is still a tad too small for such foolishness, but Papi got her close enough for a possible spitting.

They escaped unscathed.

On Saturday we visited Nashville and our beloved Opryland Hotel.  Trinity and Genevieve rode on a miniature Polar Express.  The woman behind them clearly thought the ride was too fast and tried to make her great escape, mid-choo.

I'm kidding.

The ride was over.

YaYa, Bob and Sister Katie's crew joined us for the festivities.

G never met a hair she didn't pull.

My favorite part of the weekend was Genevieve's hugging on command.  Caroline would request a hug and my li'l Squish would just run right over and fling her arms around her.

My caption for this photo is

"Look away, look away, look away, Dixieland" in my best Elvis voice.

We posed with this guitar laden zebra in honor of our initial meeting at a bar in Opryland on December 8, 2007.

Yep, that was the day my life forever changed.

That sounded dramatic.

We wrapped up the weekend with a trip to Santa.

Nothing fazes Lady G.

G's First Birthday Pictures

Genevieve had her first birthday pictures taken almost 2 months after she turned one.  Kathy, photographer extraordinaire, is quite busy.  Plus, I'm not very organized.

We took them in my parents' back yard.

My mother and I were her trusty assistants.

Prepping a toddler for photo shooting can be a task.

I've included my favorites.

This one was snapped seconds before I let her fall in the mud.

After some coddling, Puff consumption and a quick clean up, she was reading for a close up.

Things got hairy over by the shed.

For the record, I'm aware that given a mask and a fedora, my child would be a dead ringer for the Hamburglar in that ensemble.

I still love it.

Showing off all 3 1/2 teeth and some attitude.

We also took some family pictures after a brief wardrobe change.

I love the sun and all of that greenery behind them.  

They are glowing.

They sort of look like Hobbits in the Shire.

G would totally be Frodo.

My weekend started off splendidly with a little movie viewing.  My good pal Corrie and I attended the 4:10 IMAX showing of Catching Fire.  We jetted out of school and straight to the theatre.  I had purchased  Effie dark chocolate bars from Vosges Chocolate when I was in Chicago last weekend.  Yes, I purchased two $8 candy bars.

Actually, they were "tablets of chocolate."  

They were fancy.

I felt better when I discovered AMC was selling gummy bears for $4.50.

What a rip off!

Corrie has the memory of an elephant.

I have the memory of a baboon.  I'm assuming they have bad memories.

I read the books a few years ago and can remember like zero details.

Corrie goes to the bathroom and comes back and is all like, "Did they show how Peta painted Rue?"

I'm all like, "I know who Katniss is."

It was awesome.

So was the rest of our weekend.

Saturday was cold, cold, cold.

Sometimes I pretend I'm Nanny from Eloise and say things three times.

Genevieve snacked on grapes on Saturday afternoon, while chilling on the floor with Camilla, her talking chicken.

Between bites she tore up my Anthropologie catalog.

My girl is a multi-tasker.

On Sunday I ran my first 5K.  I completed the Couch to 5K program a few weeks ago, so I figured it was time to hone my racing skills.

We registered earlier in the week for the Ugly Sweater Run.  

I was all pumped until it was 23 degrees on Sunday morning.

Then I was scared.

I was not to be deterred, though.

I didn't have to peruse the Goodwill for our sweaters.  My elementary school working environment provided a plethora of options.  Thank you, teacher friends.

G cheered us on and stayed with Uncle Robby and Aunt Meghan.

We arrived to discover lots of other runners in tacky sweaters.

Especially these two.

Walker and Mark were ready to roll in their handmade glue gunned felt sweaters made by my BFF Marinda.

Or should I say ex-BFF?

Her 10 year old son, Walker, has the propensity to tell the truth.  He clapped when he saw me and informed me that he had just won a $10 bet with his mother that I wouldn't show.  Marinda said I would probably go to Starbucks instead.

Touche!

With friends like Marinda, who needs enemies?

I texted her that exact quote.

She replied she was proud of me.

I have since forgiven her.

I was amazed at how great it felt once we started running.  I was thrilled that I ran the whole thing and passed a lot of people.

Sure, they may have been pushing strollers or walking Chihuahuas, but I still passed them!

We finished up in the beer garden.  

It was great!

Kate Gets Married!

My tiniest pal joined in holy matrimony with her true love this past weekend in Chicago.  YaYa and Bob were gracious enough to come to our house for the weekend, so we hauled tail on Friday morning to enjoy a G-free weekend in the Windy City.

First stop:

Sprinkles Cupcakes!

Duh!

I giddily gobbled down my pumpkin cupcake.

So seasonal, and so delicious.

We visited all of my favorite spots.  I had received an email for 25% off at Kate Spade to kick off holiday shopping, along with "fun refreshments."

Trinity used the deal to snag an early and not so surprise Christmas gift for me.

I was anticipating another cupcake or some macarons.  Instead I got tiny bottles of Coca-Cola, Perrier water and fortune cookies.

Perrier may be the only sparkling thing on the planet that I don't like.

Oh, Mrs. Spade.  Fortune cookies does not a fun refreshment make.  Geesh!

I did enjoy the striped straws, though.

T begrudgingly posed with his refreshment, but drew the line at holding the bag.

We browsed more shops and then napped at our swanky room at the Hotel Palomar before attending the rehearsal dinner.

You know what's so awesome about that?

I didn't even have to rehearse.

Best rehearsal dinner ever!

Kate invited us simply because we were in from out of town.

We even sat with the bride and groom.

Without having to rehearse:)

It doesn't get much better than that.

Seriously, there goes Kate again with her flawless photos.

Scott had just finished telling me how much he enjoys public speaking.

Not really.

Kate, me, Meg and Liz with her 5 month baby belly.

I was a wet blanket as usual and called it quits by 10.  On Saturday morning we had breakfast at the hotel restaurant, Sable.

I highly recommend that joint.

Trinity had pigs in a blanket, which came all fried like corn dogs at the fair.  

I may have spent the majority of the day at Nordstrom.  This can be neither confirmed nor denied.

I also watched football in the room with T.

A reprieve from Genevieve chasing was delightful.

Kate and Scott were married at St. James church.  Ryan and Megan were all dudded up.

So were Liz and Zach.

AND BOOM!

Look at those happy faces!

They were glowing!

So were we!

The reception was stunning in the ballroom of our hotel.

I had a few Mortinis, named after Morty, Kate and Scott's bulldog. 

Morty would have been proud that I kept myself composed.  

My favorite part of the reception was when the man of honor, Kate's brother Jesse, gave his toast.

He brought some props to let everyone know more about his sister.  He pulled out a framed picture of Ronald Reagan and said, "some of you might not know that my sister had this picture in her bedroom for about 15 years.  I thought that was important for you to know about her."

I nearly died.

They are funny people, I tell you!

We danced until the final moment.  I had so much fun that I didn't even register any fatigue.  That is rare for me.

The following morning we enjoyed brunch hosted by Kate's parents before departing for home.

We had such a memorable weekend.

Now I'm back to work.  This week I'm working with my kindergarten teachers on some more phonemic awareness activities.  I have a puppet to help me named Miss Kitty.

I think I'm Sherry Lewis.

They don't think I'm strange at all.