Rapid Pride Runs Deep

For those of you who follow my blog, you will remember my 10 year high school reunion was this past fall. It was great to reconnect with everyone and to see how we have all changed over the years.......... My good friend Beth wasn't able to make it so she started an email chain and coordinated a girls weekend at our friend Shelley's river house. It was such a fantastic girls weekend. We did all the typical girly things like fixing dinner, catching up on stories, watching girly movies, visiting a winery, eating at a fantastic restaurant and stopping by the local 7-11 ;-) Except for my Sunday morning in and out of bed session from 3am-7am due to some type of food borne illness, it was a wonderful weekend and a tradition that I hope we continue!

Callie's walking

Well, she actually has been for the past 2 months. I'm just horrible about blogging and am finally getting around to putting up the pics and the news. I promise to get better about updating, especially since I may be far far away within the next year.......(to be explained in a later post). If I could make up my mind about a laptop, then maybe I would blog while I watched one of my 8 shows I DVR weekly. It's so boring sitting here in my office, at least the sun is shining in today!!!!!

Callie now gets free reign of the house and is good about what she gets into. I know this may change with time as she gets taller and more curious, but right now she loves walking back and forth from living room to bedrooms. She likes to climb in and out of the laundry basket, climb on top of you if you lay on the floor, and she is an incredible eater!

I just had to include this photo becuase it is so adorable. I have it as my computers background and it makes me smile everytime I sit down. Amanda painted for a cats and dog themed artshow and she dressed up Callie to go with the theme :-)

Meeting Liam Gallagher

I was able to take a trip up to Northern VA before the crazy blizzards hit to stay with Krista and Kevin and meet Liam. Jen and Lauren came over to Krista's on Friday night and we were all able to catch up and have a relaxing dinner courtesy of Jen :-) Saturday, Krista and I went shopping in the morning and went to dinner with Lauren at Eventide in Clarendon. I got up Sunday morning and went to Breakfast at Jen's and was able to spend time with Aidan and Reagan who are the most adorable kids. It is so amazing to see my friends lives and families grow and to see loves ability to get even bigger and deeper within marriages and for their kids. Snuggle time Saturday afternoon with Liam

Houston (January 2nd-4th)

After an all day drive from Atlanta, with a stop at Crawfishtown USA along Interstate 10 for dinner, we arrived at Scott's Uncle Phil and Aunt Linda's home in Houston. The next morning we got up, went to church, had a wonderful lunch at a mexican restaurant and toured Houston with Phil. We went to Discovery Green, the medical center, the location where the battle of San Jacinto occurred, and the water wall by the galleria mall. After a fun day of sightseeing, we arrived home and Linda had made an amazing dinner of crablegs, crabcakes, and homemade tomato soup. Phil made homemade tartar sauce and cocktail sauce, which I hope Scott learned how to do while he was there because it was really yummy! We also made Happy Birthday videos to send to Scott Cousin Kara and his Grandfather who were both having birthday's the following week. I'm sure they wondered who the random girl in the video was since they have never met me, but I was honored to be a party of the Birthday wishes! I left for an all day flight back to Virginia on Monday morning and spent a chunk of my day reading "Captivating" and exploring the Atlanta airport.

New Years in "Hot"lanta

Now that Scott has arrived back in Virginia with his camera, I can update the blog properly. I spent New Years Eve as Scott's copilot on the way to Houston. We decided to stop in Altanta since the Hokies were there for the bowl game and it was a good midway place to stop. Unfortunately, we decided not to splurge on tickets to the game and rather to spend the money on a nice New Years dinner at the Ritz. We got into Altanta around 5:30 and got a phone call from my Uncle David (who was suppose to be the head referee for the bowl game, but had to decline the offer since the one team he can't ref for is Tech). He had 2 tickets to the game if Scott and I changed our minds. Our dinner reservation was at 6:30 and we couldn't have possibly made it to the game so we sadly turned down the 4th row behind the VT players tickets (we had no idea at the time!)..... Dinner, however, was amazing and I'm so glad we made the decision that we did. Scott had Lobster, I had Filet, and the dessert and other 3 courses of ahi tuna, fried oyster with wasabi cucumber shooter, and potato leek soup with caviar were out of this world. I should also mention that while we were at dinner, I sent out a few Happy New Years texts to friends. However, the most exciting response back that I received was from Krista to tell me that she had given birth to Liam that morning around 6am :-) What a wonderful way to spend New Years Eve (the snuggly new baby part, not the giving birth part). After dinner we went to the "Official Bar of the ACC" for a private showing of the game. Scott and I each had our own personal bartender. Everyone was at the game! People started arriving after the game and we all rand in 2010 together. The next day we went to the Coca-Cola factory, toured CNN, visited Centennial Olympic Park, Had lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe, and enjoyed another nice dinner at Ray's in the City.

Christmas in Staunton

Saturday after Christmas I got up and packed my things to head to Staunton to spend some Christmas time with Scott's family. We had a wonderful day catching up with his mom, playing with Millie, and doing an all evening tour of Staunton. We started the day out with The Santaland Diaries at Blackfriars Theater. It was a monologue of a homosexual male who gets a holiday job working as one of Santas elves at Macy's in NYC. It was hilarious and amazing that someone can stand on stage for an hour and never break character. Then we went to a local theater in Downtown Staunton and saw The Blind Side....AMAZING movie! Next was dinner at an italian restaurant down the street. After dinner, we met up with Jim and Brandon, Scott's friends from Fort Defiance High School, to have a few drinks and catch up. Scott's good friend Courtney was home for the holidays, but wasn't able to come out since she and her fiance Mark were doing wedding planning until the late hours, sooooooo, at midnight when the bar closed we decided to go visit Courtney. I was so excited to meet her since I had heard so much about her. The next day we woke up, went to Church, had a wonderful lunch at his house, and watched some football before starting our journey back to the beach. The holidays this year were not traditional, and I missed being with the Blacksburg side of the family, but the days were relaxing and it was priceless to be with Callie on her first Christmas.

Christmas Day

Dad's Christmas Tie "Christmas without Callie, I don't think so."

Christmas day this year started with waking up to fix homemade cinnamon rolls, which were so worth the interrupted sleep, plus I was anxious to see what Santa brought me ;-) Mom made sausage and grits casseroles and we headed over to Matt and Amanda's. When we got there, Callie had already opened a few presents and Don and Donna (Amanda's parents) had arrived. The day was spent eating, watching movings, and opening presents in between Callies naps. I could post a million pictures of Callie unwrapping presents because that was by far her favorite part of her first Christmas. My personal favorites were my earrings from Matt and Amanda, the Glee CD, Snuggies and travel scrabble, Red Door Spa gift card from dad, my bracelet and pendant from Scott, some fabulous tops from mom, and shoe and laptop money once I decide what I want. It was a wonderfully relaxing day spent with the people I love most.