Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve is spent with Jack's side of the family for a day of family and traditions.
We start the day off with brunch at Granddad's house with Jack's Mom's side of the family - she's 1 of 5 children, which means there's lots of cousins and it's a fun time! All the cousins college age and beyond (which is now all but 2) participate in a Secret Santa exchange. This is such a helpful way for a big family to still participate in gift giving! Jack and I still like to have a little something for everyone, but it's not as much pressure, which makes it fun and something we enjoy doing.

4 Generations

The pictures above are with Kailey enjoying her 1st train ride on the "famous" train that Granddad housed in his basement. It was actually a gift that Jack's Father's Dad gave and it ended up at Granddad's house for all the grandkids to enjoy. Many memories were made with that train, so it was special for Kailey to start making her memories with it. It hadn't been out for quite a few years, but Granddad got a new battery for it and set it all up for Kailey - so special!

All the girl cousins

This year Kailey helped Aunt Michelle open her gifts and found a favorite...a new infinity scarf that was so soft and fuzzy and perfect for little Kailey! Eventually we switched her over to Grandma Ang's scarf, which she loved just as much!!

Uncle Greg as Santa for Kailey...let's just say from the tears she's not ready, hehe!

Jack's parents started a tradition quite a few years ago with Jack and Maggie of going to Oakbrook, finishing up the Christmas shopping and then having dinner at Maggiano's. This tradition has continued on when Joe and I came into the picture and now continues on with Kailey. Last year we were sick for Christmas Eve/Christmas with the flu (Joe, Jack's Mom and I) so we didn't make it to Maggiano's. This year was Kailey's 1st Christmas Eve Maggiano's dinner. It was a great, tasty time!!

Pinstripes Tradition

The past, now, 4 years we've made it a tradition of going to Pinstripes 2 days before Christmas. By this point Maggie and Joe have made it in town from Boston and we're ready to kick off the Christmas "craziness"!! We do 2 games of bowling and enjoy it on the leather couches with drinks, appetizers and dinner. I'm telling you - bowling at Pinstripes is the way every bowling ally should be, haha - so classy!! This year Kailey was not in the car seat like last year, she was up and very mobile! It was so fun to watch her bowl for the first time. Since we're many states apart, we miss out on most of Kailey's "1st's" but to be there for one of her "1st's" was very special and fun for Jack and me!! She's such a delight, always smiling, loves to dip her food in sauces (which is hilariously cute to watch), has a new dance move she only does really well for Uncle Jack, and she is just at such a fun age!!

We loved our time with Kailey and wish the times together didn't have to end so quickly!

Sadie's 2nd Birthday

Happy Birthday Sadie!!!

This December we celebrated Sadie's 2nd Birthday! She is the sweetest, funniest, most loving little joy we could have asked for! She's brought so much love and fun to our lives and holy cow has she taught us A LOT!! I truly believe having a dog before kids is one of the best things a couple can do, especially a young couple who went from their parent's homes to a home of their own. I mean, within the first hour of having her we cleaned up more puke than we thought was possible to come out of such a tiny little thing! Over our time with her we've cleaned up more poop, pee and puke, but what she's really taught us is how to work together as a couple on a totally different level that we couldn't have prepared ourselves for without having a dog. It's great practice, we didn't screw up with her, but we learned a lot about each other and us as a family so we feel much more prepared to one day have kids.

ANYWAYS...Sadie's Birthday was of course done-up special just for her! We, of course, took out her birthday hat and toy (we only let her play with it on her b-day) and we made her special dog-peanut butter flavored-cupcakes. I tried to create a paw, but the mini-cup cakes just made it a little more difficult. We sang and gave gifts and she shared it for the 2nd time with both her grandparents and her "Uncle" Spenser - Jack's parent's Lab.

3rd Annual November Wine Trail

This November we went on our 3rd annual November wine trail - a blast, as usual! We have been on a total of 5 wine trials, but 3 years ago we started the tradition of going in November to the Michigan wineries. We LOVE Michigan wineries, and really we just love Michigan in general (at least Jack and I do...we've actually both grown up with different, special connections and reasons to love Michigan, so the wine trailing memories we're making make it even more special!) Our 1st year we stayed mainly on the west side of Michigan by the lake, last year we went all the way up to the peninsula (which was my favorite....so beautiful, and soo many great wineries!), and this year we stayed closer to where we were our 1st year. The good thing about this year was we really knew a lot of the wineries and knew which ones we "needed" to return to, as well as which ones we'd never been to that we wanted to add in. We also added in a few breweries this year, which we'd never really done before and it was equally as great! Another addition to this year's trail was the addition of about 10 more people...which brought us to just about 20 people. Yes, close your mouth, I know your jaw dropped like mine when I found this out for the first time! While there were so many people, which brought it's ups & downs, it was an overall great time!!! I do have to boast, but by the last few wineries we did not have the amount of bodies we started with...not everyone can handle 10+ wineries in 2 days like us "Pro's" can!! (Which is actually less than we've done in the past 2 years)

Here's a little re-cap of the fun times we had!

And in case you're interested in some great wineries that we went to in 2011:

Day 1
Tabor Hill
Round Barn
White Pine Winery / Lunch
McIntosh Orchard
Fenn Valley
Sagatuck Brewing
Cascade Winery / Brewery
Dinner at www.twentyfivegr.com/

Day 2
Cody Kresta
Warner
St. Julian
Karma Vista
Contessa or The Livery Brewing Co.
Founders Wine Celler
Greenbush Brewing