It's official! Save the date - Sunday, May 24, 2009!

Huzzah!!! Todd and I have officially set the date for our wedding. We will be exchanging our vows on Sunday, May 24, 2009 at The Fox Hill Inn!
This past Sunday we signed our contract and made our deposit for the reception hall. Now we just need to work on the rest of the details....

Open Season on Wedding Planning!

We have had a busy couple of months as we get ready to tie the knot! We've been going at the complicated project of planning a wedding from lots of angles all at once.

On a whim I took a trip to David's Bridal, armed with a huge bridal magazine (a Christmas present from my mom and just about the only thing that she managed to fit into my Christmas stocking!). Despite torturing my mother and sister by making them help me into and out of dozens of dresses, it was a successful trip and the wedding dress was the first thing I got picked out. On the chance that I'd been getting off easy I agreed to do a second trip to try on more dresses just in case and on that visit I came home with not only the dress I'd had my eye on before, but shoes, a veil and a pretty good idea of the bridesmaids dresses.

We then started in earnest to figure out what we needed to figure out - and by spending three hours sitting on the floor at Borders pouring through wedding planning books (I did anyway, Todd was at work). I found a few that were possible candidates, but for Tres Reyes Mica gave me not only a much better book than I'd been able to find on my own but two books - one was a binder in fact. More invaluably Mica provided me with a cheat sheet of the comparable sections of both books.

With wedding book and binder in hand Todd and I set out to explore and evaluate Unitarian Universalist churches. We decided that although neither of us is currently involved in a particular church, we wanted to find someone who would say something meaningful to us at our wedding and to convey a sense of seriousness to the proceedings. Starting with the nearest sizable church according to the UU online directory we spent a few weeks attending two services a Sunday. After visiting the Unitarian Universalist Church in Westport (http://www.uuwestport.org/) and hearing the Rev. Frank Hall give two sermons we knew we had found what we were looking for.

After that we had sort of a chicken and the egg problem regarding a reception hall and a date. After some deliberation (and some apparent deafness when we asked a friend for unavailable dates) we tentatively set the date as Sunday, May 24th, 2009.

From there we started with reception halls near the church and work our way through a list of 33 possible locations. We actually visited 8 places in one weekend and had it narrowed down to two that same weekend. The difficulty came in deciding if we wanted a place with character or a place with a beautiful setting. In the end we managed to find an elegant old mansion that fit the bill: The Fox Hill Inn (http://www.thefoxhillinn.com/index.cfm).

Tasty New Year's Snacks

Every year for New Year's Eve we try to think up something fun and different to do.  This year we differently found a winner!  We did a beer pairing menu!  Todd, Sofia, Clint and I came up with some tasty recipes and beers and whipped up four tasty courses.

Christmas in Harlem

This year for the holidays we spent Christmas day with my family in Harlem. I was very excited to give my family the knitted gifts that I'd made and they were a success.

I had the idea for this scarf right when I bought the yarn, but had trouble getting something to take shape. I finally decided to go with simple ribbing and leaf beads. Doesn't the result look nice on my mom?

For my Dad and brother I decided to make them each a pair of felted wool slippers.

I was so excited that they fit right!

Esteban in particular was excited about the slippers and that was fun. My dad opened his present first so when Esteban unwrapped a box labeled "ladies mary janes" he was a little skeptical.

And then when he actually opened up the box, Esteban was pleasantly surprised when he opened his box and got a pair too.

I hope they're both still as excited about them as they look in these pictures

For Sofia I decided to go with something nice and fuzzy so I made her some beaded mohair wrist warmers. They don't quite match her little hat with ears from last year, but I think they came out well.

I got Todd a book by John Irving. I know Todd likes John Irving and this particular one caught my attention while I was in a local book store so I decided to support them and get it there. Until I Find You is a book that John Irving wrote in 2005 and during an interview segment the author said that he wanted his research to be authentic and so he actually got two tattoos.

Christmas was an adventure for nearly whole family as we brought Buddy and Firenze. Ginger, the antisocial kitty got to stay home. Here, Buddy and Oliver commiserate about only being allowed out once every 5 minutes.

For Christmas lately we've been switching it up a little from the usual holiday turkey and this year for the main course we had a delicious lamb roast. This new tradition is a favorite of mine and this year it did not disappoint.

And for dessert we had some extremely tasty key lime pie thanks to Esteban's hard work. Man, those little key limes are a pain to juice!

Pre-Christmas in Kent

Lately we've been doing most of our driving early in the morning.  Our trip to Kent to spend time with Todd's family before Christmas fell right into that pattern.  We bundled Firenze and Buddy into the car.  Ginger always stays home.  It's better that way.  She's not really very friendly.  She only tolerates the dog and terrorizes strangers and strange animals.  And by terrorize I mean bites and scratches and makes awful noises.  She is much happier at home, so unless we're gone for more than a few days, we empty the kitty litter, fill up the food and water dishes and make sure the emergency pet alert sticker is firmly adhered to the window.  

Firenze got to come with us because we decided that he was too little to stay by himself.  We got him situated in the cute new little cat carrier and he promptly threw up.  Then he got spend the rest of the ride comfortably ensconced in my coat.  

One of the reasons we headed out early was so that we could make it to Borders before I needed to be on a conference call.  I stayed in the car while Todd went in and as I was sitting there with the car-sick cat, I was thinking it would be really nice if I had a cup of coffee.  Conveniently Todd came back with two delicious lattes - one peppermint mocha and one gingerbread.  The gingerbread one had the cutest tiny little gingerbread cookie in it!  

When we finally got to Todd's mom's house we were greeted by an interestingly wrapped present in the shape of a giraffe - complete with purple tongue and red horns!

Firenze immediately figured out that cats belong under the couch.  That's Twoie on the left, in matching orange.

Eventually he came out to sit with the dog. 

And to have some shrimp with all the other cats.

And he warmed up to Melissa quickly.

We had a great time in Kent, but that will have to wait until I can get the other pictures off the camera.