Happy Birthday, Will!

This weekend, Will's parents took us to Medieval Times to celebrate his birthday. He always wanted to go, so this was his year! We had a great time eating with our hands and cheering on the yellow knight.

Dinner:

Tomato Bisque (Dragon Blood Soup)

Roasted Chicken (Baby Dragon)

Spare Rib (Dragon Brain)

Pastry of the Castle

Two rounds of Coke products

As the waitress was passing out the items and explaining the dragon-related names, someone down the way asked what she called the bread item. She curtly answered, "Its garlic bread!"

There were sword fights, jousting and Andalusians on parade. Also, there was a pretty elaborate dressage demonstration.

Tonight, we are celebrating Will's birthday by getting snowed in, it seems. Most of the commutes are over two hours now, so home seems good! I made a butter cake with German Chocolate icing, so the kitchen smells great and it seems like the perfect night to read or crochet.

Also, Happy Birthday to Elisa tomorrow!

Giant tree in the Great Hall (a.k.a. giftshop stocked with swords).
Cool ceiling decor.
Will and his parents.
The MC.

Will enjoying his frozen margarita out of his souvenir stein.

The King and Princess aloft.

Last year, I was very proud to show Will the wreath I made. He said, " Since when are we Jewish?" It hadn't even crossed my mind then I picked out the materials at the craft store.
...and it begins.

'Tis the Season

The past week and a half flew by! We hosted Thanksgiving at our house for the first time. Will's parents and grandparents joined us for our feast. Will and I made the whole spread, incorporating things from both of our families. We had a great time in the kitchen together and felt proud that we pulled the whole thing off with no snafus. However, we have a better understanding of all the stresses the mom's used to go through around the holidays that we didn't always understand as children.

Also, we decorated the house for Christmas. We are still building our stash of holiday stuff, so it didn't take us more than an hour to trim the tree. Over the past several years I've made some holiday ornaments, so its fun to display them and see the collection grow.

We are eagerly anticipating several things in the next few weeks. Will and his mother, Elisa, have birthdays coming up (Dec. 16 & 17 respectively) and Sarah is due to have the baby any time. I live in mortal fear that when she calls saying she is in labor, I will have no clean clothes, it will be snowing like hell, the car will get a flat tire, etc. You see where I'm going with this. I think the whole family will be happy when the baby arrives so we can quick stressing and begin enjoying the new love of all our lives.

Everyone enjoy the Christmas shopping, partying and decorations. Its a great time of year (minus the weather).


Our Thanksgiving table, complete with wedding china, baking items, etc.
Will polishing off my apple pie.

Our pretty Christmas tree.
Looking tired, but happy.

Happy Thursday!

This past weekend was busy busy busy!

Friday, we celebrated Mike's birthday with dinner at our house on Friday night. Will cooked an amazing spread, including pork schnitzel with dill sauce, German carrots and sweet potato and apple casserole. I made a mediocre chocolate cake with white frosting. It was nice to break out all of our new Fiesta ware and cooking/baking supplies and put them to good use. Mike and his father, Grandpa Bill, share their birthday on Nov. 13, while my dad's is on Nov. 15. Happy November Birthdays, Dads!

Saturday, I caught up with some high school friends for a girls' night out in Chicago. We went to a great loung-y restaurant called The Bar Celona in Wrigleyville.. They have amazingly inexpensive food and sangria specials. Needless to say, Mel and I have been before. After dinner, we caught a cab to the Hancock and had martinis on the 95th in the lounge. Following cocktails, we headed to the Second City. Surprisingly, Kirsten's second cousin is one of the comediennes! It was hilarious and really cool to be in a place that is such an intrinsic part of comedy in the past 30 years. Thanks to Mel for putting our evening together!

Kirsten Aslaksen, Rachel Ford, Lori Kasarsky and Photographer Melanie Beinlich at the Second City and the view from the ladies room at the Hancock.

Really, I was pretty sick by Saturday night, and its only gotten worse. I took Monday off from work to lay on the couch and now Will has The Sickness. Battling the germies is pretty much consuming our lives this week.

I've finally finished uploading photos to Facebook and Myspace. I'm sure seeing wedding photos has become completely obnoxious to everyone else, but I don't think I'll ever get tired of going through them. However, I am becoming more selective, as it has been time consuming. One of my favorites for fun:

..AND Will with no beard. He grew it back and he no longer startles me when rounding the corner.

Wedding Photos

Wedding photos are posted and available:

www.jfimagedesign.com/920

Register to access the album. Kudos to our photographer and friend, Jeremy Fenelon, for outstanding photos and major patience. If any one is interested, there are also engagement photos available. Some of my favorites are below.

Hope everyone had a great Wednesday. Now, the downward roll to the weekend!

Why another blog?

It recently dawned on me that Will and I both have Myspace and Facebook accounts. However, there are many family and friends who do not, and thus miss out on pictures and happenings in our lives that are relegated to blogs on the aforementioned websites. In answer to this problem, I shall (attempt) to update you on our lives at this location, a universally accessible site. Please comment and refer back to see what's new in our lives!

Soooo.......the update!

Since the Sept. 20th party, we've been extraordinarily busy. I fooled myself back in August when I said, "if only I can make it though the wedding, then I can relax." We spent almost a week of bliss in Hawaii lying on the beach, site seeing and eating (and then trying to figure out how we could sell our possessions as to not return to the mainland). Alas, we returned to real life, chilly weather and more things to accomplish.

The first on the list was wedding thank you notes; hopefully, you all received them and if not, let me know- I'll write you another! Next, was sending invitations and planning Sarah's baby shower on November 8th. We had a great turnout (almost 40 people) and enjoyed some female bonding. Now, we are planning for Thanksgiving, and then a trip home around Christmas. With any luck, there will be a new niece or nephew to cuddle.

Will is working at Dave & Buster's in the special events department and I am still at Thresholds. I will have my one year anniversary on December 10th. We've been busy hanging out with friends, new and old, and spending lots of time with family.

We love being married. Before September, I thought nothing would change after the wedding. However, it does feel a little different, in a very good way. Its a new experience for both of us and its really awesome that we can share it together. We're looking forward to the new experiences to come.

I've included pictures from Sarah's baby shower last weekend. Enjoy!




"Guess the Gerber"



Aunt Mae and Sarah


The McCoy table

Aunt Molly and my mother-in-law Elisa

Sarah and Patty

Me, Sarah/Belly and Mom