My man is 25!!!

So my hubby turned 25! Can you believe it? I can't because that means I will soon be 25..AHHH! Anyway, Joel's birthday is very close to Christmas so I always try to make his birthday extra special so it doesn't feel like a run on from the holiday. Since Joel's friend Andrew has a birthday two days before him, we often do stuff together and make it a big get together with our friends. So this year 5 or us met in Syracuse and went to a Brian Regan show. We stayed in a two bedroom suite, ate a lot, and had a really good time hanging out and reminising about college. The show was amazing. I laughed so much and so hard I was exhausted after. The weekend was great and it was super awesome to be together with friends and celebrate together.

Joel is truly amazing and I love him to pieces. He is my best friend and my rock. He makes me laugh more than anyone else I know and he is the person I want by my side through it all.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year (which was a while ago)....

Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years was wonderful. Joel and I were surrounded by family and friends and it was truly lovely. As always my mom and I cooked and baked way too much. We are still finishing off baked goods and things like that.

Thanksgiving was fun. It was our first full day back from Europe. While in Europe I was having niece and nephew withdrawal, so I was able to spend time with them just as soon as I got home. We ate so much and watched FOOTBALL (we missed Football so much while we were away)!!

Thanksgiving Pics!

Christmas eve was really nice. We had friends over for food, desserts etc. We sang carols and my dad read the Christmas story. Christmas Day was amazing as usual. It was so much fun to be with everyone and watch people open their gifts and watch the children play and fight over their gifts. :-) Our tree was stuffed (mostly for the kids)!! However, it seems that every year Joel always gets EVERYTHING from his Christmas list. I don't know how he does it. :-) We had our Christmas dinner catered by Nisa (the women who catered my bridal shower). It was incredibly YUMMY!!

Christmas Pics!

In my family, New Years Eve usually consisted of awesome snacks and watching the ball drop on TV as my mom made fun of the people who were actually in Times Square. Every year she tries to convince us that watching it at home is better than being there. Since I've never been there...I don't really have a stand on it. Last year, we had a college reunion at our place for. It was fun and exhausting. This year Joel and I stayed with the fam. We played games, watched movies, watched the ball drop, and ATE. On New Years Day all the family came over. We had a nice dinner and spent a lot of time together.

New Years Day Pics!

(my poor dog)

Well that was basically my holidays. Tons of family and food. It was awesome!!!

.....My next post...Joel's 25th Birthday...

Europe BABY!!

So I know its been forever since I posted, but my next post just had to be about Europe! Joel and I went to London, Paris, and Scotland. We had the greatest time. We were non stop tourists. We went to London first and spent our time there touring every corner. We stayed with Joel's cousins Scott and Kathy and their two boys Elijah and Caleb. It was so nice to see them and spend some time with them. We were there for about 4 days. From there we headed to Paris. We spent our 2nd Anniversary at the Eiffel tower and walked the Champs Elysse and saw the Arc de Triumpe and Louve at night. We stayed there for about 4 days then headed to Scotland. The history and castles were incredible. I think it was Joel's favorite place. While we were at one of the castles we saw Princess Anne. oooh....Royalty. We also went to Roslyn Castle. Most of you saw it in the movie The Davinci Code at the very end. It was beyond beautiful. The architecture inside and out was beyond belief. We stayed in Scotland at this nice hotel and had an amazing Scottish breakfast everyday. We were in Scotland for about 3 days. After that we went back to London for a couple more days. There is so much to talk about that we saw that it would take up the whole screen. The title of this blog is a link to all my millions of pictures :-). ENJOY!! Here are a few to start you off... (I know there are a lot, but I have so many!!!)

LONDON!!

(Buckingham Palace)

(Westminster Abbey)

(The London Eye...it was awesome)

(Piccadilly Circus)

(Us in front of one of the million museums we went to)

(Entry to the Parliament)


PARIS

(Eiffel Tower)



(Notre Dame)




(Inside Notre Dame)


(Mulin Rouge)

(The Louvre)

(An amazing sugar crepe)


(Sacre-Coeur)


(A PANINI!!!)

SCOTLAND!!


(Edinburgh Castle)

(The lady in the grey dress suit is Princess Anne...we saw royalty)

(Roslin Castle)

(On the Scaffolding of Roslin Castle)

I have a lot of catching up to do in my blog...Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Joel's birthday etc...someday I'll get around to it.

Wicked & Things to Come

I totally forget I didn’t blog about Wicked…how could I?! So any who…Joel and I had such a good time. It was amazing. I know that sometimes the critics are cheesy and call things magical or whatever. But it really was magical. The scenery hits you as soon as you go into the theatre. It is so detailed and intricate. They didn’t cut any corners. I highly recommended the play. I thought it was amazing how they tied this story in with the Wizard of Oz that we have grown up with. And the talent… OH MY! To be honest, I’m a huge fan of Kristen Chenoweth (the original Glinda), but the girl who played Glinda was phenomenal and did just as well. And whoever played Elphaba was incredible. I’m already dying to see it again!

This past weekend we had a great time watching our nieces and nephew for an overnight sleepover. It was Eliza’s first overnight from home and she did really well. We told her it was a slumber party with her cousins and that seemed to work! The kids were so cute, but needless to say we were exhausted!

Below - Eliza (with Uncle Joel's hat on), Paige, & Charlie playing outside!

On another note, Joel and I are very busy packing for our upcoming trip. We can’t wait. I am a little nervous right now just because we are getting things together. But come Wednesday we won’t be able to contain our excitement. Joel has put together a really awesome itinerary. We are totally booked with sight seeing and tours etc (And shopping …but don’t tell Joel I snuck that in). We will be gone for 2 weeks!!! We are going to London, Paris, & Scotland!! In two weeks we will have been on 5 plan rides all around Europe. We have been very blessed and fortunate to make this possible. While we are in England will be staying with Joel’s cousins who are living over there. We can’t wait to see them!

Joel and I will be coming home the day before Thanksgiving. I can’t miss my favorite holiday! I will blog about the trip when I return. So until then…I hope you all have a wonderful November and a great turkey day!!!