A Practical Christmas For All

We never complain when receiving gifts, but nothing beats giving gifts. Jay and I have an ongoing system of gift giving -- practical gifts for him and non-practical for me always seem to work. This season practical gifts seemed to be our mantra. Jay and I were busy before the 12 days of pages and Christmas countdown creating a much overdue wedding album. 164 pages and countless gruelling hours staring at a monitor later we completed the task. From the sounds of things our parents couldn't be happier. We were so pleased to give them a final gift to thank them for everything they did to make our wedding a reality. We had a blast creating the album thanks to the wonderful images our photographers and friends, Enna and Matt Graizer, shot during the event. Thanks to their amazing photography, I was even able to surprise Jay with an album I designed from our engagement shoot.

Since we can't share the books with you here, the least we can do is show you the covers of each of the albums.

Street View

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Now the holidays have gone by, I've found some time to work on my own. One of the drawbacks happens to be how easily I find myself getting distracted while in front of the computer all day. One of the most impressive finds Jay and I made over this week has to have been our very own house captured by Google's Street View. I guess no one will have an excuses now if they can't get to our house on time!

Deck the Halls

We had a blast helping Mom and Sammy get her house ready for the 25th. After a hard day's work, I must say the house couldn't look better. Between her gorgeous tree, nutcrackers, endless ornaments, and of course a good dose of Irving Berlin's White Christmas we are ready for the holidays. Here are a few photos of us decking the halls. Mom, thanks for a wonderful day. We love you!

Greater Portland

This weekend, Sara and I packed up the car one more time to jump up to Maine. It took all of our effort to roll out early in order to get Sydney to a new kennel (Palmer Kennels of Acton MA - which got an 5 star from us as well as Sydney) and I would like to take this opportunity to credit Sara on a new found skill of packing her things the night before to easy the morning departure.

We arrived in time to see Mom before she returned from Gorham to Bethesda. We got to see her new rug which looks terrific - so soft! She had to leave just hours after we arrived so we helped out for a few moments, winterizing the house, lowering storm windows, and pretending to be helpful.

Just down the street we did find time to relax and catch-up over delicious food and ale at the Sebago Brewing Company. With a great list of not your average beers, there was something for everyone. Northern Light - a light beer for Sara, Slick Nick, SBC's holiday ale, and I skipped the soup de jour to partake in 16oz of Lake Trout Stout - wow.

After hugs and kisses, Mom was off to the skies and we were off to Cumberland to see the Bezansons and Plettes. We found the whole crew - Sandy, Andre, Laurel, Jennifer, Nick, Nicole, Alex and even Gary to boot!

Kristin and Tim Grannell arrived soon after to drop off Perrin which brought out a total number to 11. It was quite a raiding party for that evenings dining at Thai Garden in Freeport. As usual, I found room to put in another meal within three hours.

We stayed in at the Plettes after that - playing pool and staying up late to play Axis and Allies - which Nick lead a surgical strike against Gary (who had only played once before).

Oh, and Nicole made whoopie pies. I had two. That's probably why I had no problem staying up late.

The next morning we found it tough to say goodbye. (Nick, Nicole, and Alex fly back to Okanowa, Japan next weekend). We will miss you.