Bring on the new year!

Hard to believe it's already 2014. Christmas was great this year - spent a lot of time with my family, which I'm sure Truss loved! If I haven't said it before, Christmas Eve is much more exciting to Truss than Christmas day. He grew up having lobsters and steak on Christmas Eve, which is something we have done for the past couple of years. We had my parents over and cooked steak, twice baked potatoes and asparagus. I also made this great "Charleston cheese dip" recipe! Having my parents over gave me a great excuse to whip out our wedding china, crystal and nice linens. Sharyn Blond, who owns Sharyn Blond Linens (also where my sister works), gave us a set of hand embroidered linens for a wedding gift - they are absolutely beautiful! I was afraid to use them, but my sister, who is a pro with the linens, assured me I can wash them in the washing machine and lay them flat to dry. Here's a pic of my 'tablescape' and linens up close.

It was really fun to watch Patrick open gifts this year. All he asked Santa for was one drum (not two, just one). Well Santa brought him a drum set, harmonica and trumpet! As you can see in this pic, the entire family got into the rhythm...

New Year's Eve is not a favorite night of mine - it's so overrated and, to me, just feels like another night out. We keep saying we'll go out of town for NYE one of these years, but it hasn't happened. We got together with a few friends and went to Garozzo's for dinner. We had a 9 p.m. reservation, but didn't end up getting seated until 10:30. I don't mind waiting for a table, but there wasn't much else to do besides have cocktails before we got seated. Here's a pic from the end of the night - we actually celebrated midnight at the restaurant. Truss thinks our eyes look glassy...probably all those cocktails
 before dinner!

Happy 2014!

Truss and I made a list of things we want to accomplish in the new year. It's a pretty long list, but includes not so exciting things like painting the guest room and fixing an oil leak in my car. I also included a very ambitious goal (for me) of running a 5k. I've been wanting a treadmill for a while now, and we're going to Nebraska Furniture Mart this weekend to check them out. That will hopefully get me on my way to running that distance. Truss has already committed to running a marathon in the spring, so he'll be able to use the treadmill as well.

Our first few months of the year are shaping up to be busy. We probably won't log as many travel miles as we did last year, but have a few trips planned. I'm super jeally of truss who gets to go to Miami for a work trip next week. Temps here are colder than cold. As of today, Miami has a high of 83...I'll regret my decision of not going, I know. He's staying at the chic Mandarin Oriental, I told him to take lots of pics while he's there!

We are going to Dallas later this month to visit Truss' brother, Matt and his family. Surely Dallas will be warmer than here!

Auntie x 2!

Disclaimer - this is a delayed post...I have many drafts I've started, but have yet to actually publish. (New Year's resolution, perhaps - once I start a draft, I need to publish it!)

From Dec. 11-ish
My twin sister, Courtney, gave birth to her second child on Monday! I couldn't be more excited to have a niece. Leigh Lawrence Gray arrived December 9 at 10:19 a.m., weighed 7 lbs 4 oz and 20.5" long.

 Patrick, Courtney and Brett's first child will be three in February. We weren't sure how he would do 'sharing' his mommy with another child, but seems to be doing really well! He absolutely loves his baby sister.

Baby Leigh on Christmas

Leigh (2 weeks) on the left, Patrick (1 month) on the right. They look so much alike!

My sister made having a baby look so completely easy. First off, she's completely tiny (I'm envious!) and looked so compact (no swelling, all baby!) her entire pregnancy. Not only did she have Leigh on her due date, she went into the hospital at 6 a.m. and had the baby that same morning!

I must say, she's a cutie and looks so much like her big brother Patrick. Patrick, who seemed like a little guy at almost three years old, but now seems about 6! It's amazing how that changes when another baby comes into the picture.