Christmas #4 - The Christmas We'll Never Forget

Friday AM, the real Christmas day, we woke up to what sounded like gunshots ringing throughout the mountains. We soon realized it was just giant tree branches heavy with solid ice snapping and falling throughout the woods around Boone. We each got one cup of coffee/tea and a toasted bagel before we lost all power at about 9AM.



Not yet chilled to the bone, we had a wonderful Christmas morning, sans Christmas music, classic Christmas movies and electricity to charge our new gadgets (Amazon Kindle for me - thanks Jimmy - and digital camera for my mom)! Though we remained hopeful all day, we finally conceded at about 4:30pm that we better plan to not have power all night, so we built a great fire, gathered lanterns and candles and headed out to probably the only restaurant open on Christmas day - Hunan, the local Chinese restaurant. We felt like the family from A Christmas Story resorting to Chinese as our plan B Christmas day meal. Games and libations by the fireplace got us through the rest of the evening. Surprisingly, it was actually really fun and festive!



Saturday we got up, still no power at our house, but the local outlet mall had been restored so we dragged Jimmy along to hang in the car while us girls shopped. The positive energy proved effective because when we returned to the house, the Christmas tree was twinkling, the TV was blaring, clocks were flickering - we were back in business! My mom and I quickly pulled together her belated Christmas Day meal, Beef Wellington, which we enjoyed in the company of my dad and grandparents. What a wonderful two Christmases we had in Boone!



Per the usual, we feel so spoiled and loved by both our families! We're finally home now, relaxing and getting ready for reality again.

Christmas # 3 - The Calm Before the Storm

Tuesday AM we got up early to start our trek to North Carolina. The first stop, Newland, NC to visit with my pops. 81 was horrific in terms of truck traffic, but otherwise it was a smooth trip. When we got there about 4pm we simply took a load off, hung with my dad and waited for Ali to get into town from Chapel Hill so we could go to dinner. After stuffing ourselves with delicious mountain Mexican food, we called it a night. Wednesday we took all our pups for a nice hike and then Grandma and Grandpa got into town from Ohio that afternoon. It's always so great to catch up!



Thursday AM we did our Christmas morning with my dad and Grandparents. The dinner we had Thursday early evening is perhaps my favorite meal of the year - Christmas Eve Fondue. It's been a tradition in my family for a long time and something I will definitely carry on when I host the holidays someday...



Thursday after dinner, Ali, Jimmy and I headed to Boone to start Christmas #4 with my mom. Sometime in the middle of the night, the crazy ice storm started...

Christmas #2 - Year of the Snuggies

The Sunday before Christmas the roads were finally cleared off enough to venture to Dan and Marisol's. We had a wonderful brunch complete with bloody marys, mimosas, Maryland crab soup, chicken salad, the works! Kelsey and Austin enjoyed the snow and entertained us by sledding and snowboarding.



Poor Kevin and Stefanie continued to have a hard time getting home due to poor road conditions on 81, so we had to play the annual Grab Bag game without them. Below is a picture of the most popular grab bag gift this year, snuggies, modeled by the lucky recipients!



Kevin finally got into town late Sunday evening. We opened presents together. One for Kevin (and Jimmy, let's be honest) was Redskins vs. Giants tickets for the next day. Kevin graciously invited me to tag along with he, Jimmy and Dan. The seats were great - 9 rows back from the 50 yard line - and we had Loge tickets for an endless buffet, bar service and warmth. Sadly the Redskins lost, but it was fun nonetheless.

Thanks O'Connor's for yet another wonderful Christmas!

Christmas #1 - Great Success!

Jimmy and I got to Columbia, MD yesterday to celebrate Christmas with Martha at about 3pm on Friday. The plan for the night was an ugly Christmas sweater cocktail party. Below is a picture of the tackiness. Jimmy also had Christmas spirit - he dressed up like Uncle Eddie from Christmas vacation.



We got here just in time as at about 9pm Friday night, we started getting dumped on with snow. Kevin unfortunately couldn't get up here because the snow came quicker in Blacksburg. He's here with us in spirit. We're hunkering down and eating, drinking and being merry.



A tradition at Martha's is hiding the Christmas pickle ornament on the tree. Whoever finds the ornament, get's a prize. After destroying the tree to find the ornament, Kelly finally came up as the big winner. The prize was custom built and painted Redskins cornhole boards. Jimmy only had to hide his jealousy for a second, because Martha quickly announced we're all getting a set! Ron spent weeks making these for us. Seriously one of the best presents ever. We'll use these and think of Ron for many, many years to come!



Next up is Dan and Marisol's for Christmas #2 as soon as the roads are somewhat cleared.

Celebration

We've had a couple exciting things happen in the O'Connor household in the last couple days. 1) Jimmy got a new job working for Castle Branch, the company I work for! The position requires Jimmy to utilize his years of sales experience, but also involves a lot of business development. It's a really great opportunity and something that I believe Jimmy is going to really enjoy and be really successful at. 2) Jimmy took the GMATs today. He's been studying his tail off and finally took the test today and nailed it! Next step is the formal application process. Fingers crossed he gets accepted to the program starting May 2010. Regardless, I couldn't be more proud of him. He never ceases to amaze me...

Christmas Parties

This weekend was both my office Christmas party and our first Couples Christmas party with some friends in the area. I wasn't feeling especially camera happy, so I don't have a lot of footage, but it was all very fun!

Me, Brittany and Jenny at our office party at the Hilton in downtown Wilmington:



High school friends at Couples Christmas party. Would have been a much cuter picture if 1) my teeth were not purple from red wine and 2) if we had Lauren's daughter, Bailey, as a prop!



The tradition with the Couples Christmas party is that everyone brings a Christmas ornament with your names and date on the ornament. At the end of the night, we drew numbers and swapped ornaments. We got Holly and Ronnie's ornament this year. Very cute!



Only four more days of work and then we're off to MD to start our Christmas celebrations with our families. Yay for having two families - double the fun!

Update on Miss Lucy & Her Library Quilt

An adorable picture of Lucy at the hospital. She is so freakin' cute!



Below is Lucy's Library Quilt from all the women who love Amie and who now love Lucy too. I've been dying to post my quilt square, nothing impressive, but still took me a while, but I didn't want to blow the surprise for Amie. That is little Lucy in the middle of the quilt. How tiny is she?



I chose the book "Paper Bag Princess" because it was always one of my favorites and I think it has a good message, especially for little girls. It's not about what you wear or how you look. Prince Ronald learns it the hard way!

Congrats Ben and Amie!

Congrats to Ben and Amie on the arrival of their baby girl! Lucy Amalia Lucas came into this world yesterday, Dec. 8th, at about 4pm PST weighing 6lbs 14oz. Ben says Lucy and Amie are both doing great. I'll post a picture as soon as I get a hold of one myself. So happy for them!

Carolina Beach Christmas Spirit

Here are some fun pictures of what Carolina Beach has going on for Christmas. Enjoy!



Float in the CB Christmas parade:


Local kayak and bike rental joint by summer turned tree lot in the winter:


Boat in the Holiday Flotilla:


Some random town of Carolina Beach decoration around the lake and elsewhere:


Finally, some modest decorating around our house:


Gotta love Christmas time!

surf report, "If you were G.I. Joe..."

This morning's surf report is classic.
"A small shorebreak wave once in a while. Not much size but some great form. Incoming tide most of the morning so maybe it will get more of a push. If you were GI Joe it would be perfect."

4.1 miles down the road (and recorded by an iphone!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mnoL8sAeao

http://kehayaphoto.com/

Word- this IS a blog here, so tell me what you think about the work of my friend Julian Kehaya! http://kehayaphoto.com/
Julian was one of my first roommates in Chapel Hill and his brother James wrestled with us. They are both amazing people. Julian and I also spent time together when I lived out west and now we both reside here in his hometown of Wilmington!

It's Booties Season!

After being hounded by the family over the holidays for not participating in this blog I've finally decided to pitch in. As I sit here and type, Malloy is laying on my feet having his usual afternoon snack consisting of Twizzlers and Natural Light. Normally I would shoo him away b/c his large and bony frame takes a toll on my metatarsus, however, I welcome his warm butt today b/c I just got out of the 62 degree surf. We've been wearing full wetsuits for at least a month and now it's finally booties season as the water temp will soon drop into the 50's. Long gone are the days of boardshorts and springsuits. My toes are slowly thawing out from today's adventure -and if my Secret Santa is reading this please note that I could really use a new pair of surf booties this year.

Anyways, I hope everyone else is enjoying their day as much as I am. It was nice to take a break from studying and paddle out. There are some head high sets, its sunny and the sky is clear, there is a Thursday night football game and Kaylie is making Chicken Stir-fry- you can't ask for much more than that.

Jimmy

Congrats Erin & Eli!

I am very excited to announce the engagement of Erin and Eli! Erin has been a great friend since high school, we were roommates in college and Erin recently traveled from Steamboat Springs, CO to be a bridesmaid in our wedding. So excited for she and Eli! Looking forward to making our way out to Colorado for their big day...

Gobble, Gobble

Just got back from a fun-filled and eventful Thanksgiving in Maryland. The weekend was complete with two great Thanksgiving celebrations on Thursday, a BIG birthday celebration on Friday for Martha, two P90X workouts (ouch!), wonderful pasta dinner thanks to Marisol and games on Saturday and lots of shenanigans in between.

Cousins Joshua and Hannah Shouse in their traditional pilgrim costumes:


Cousin Alyssa Shouse, a.k.a future American Idol winner:


All the girl cousins (sans Kristen) at the Shouse & Thompson family Thanksgiving:


Thanksgiving evening the O'Connor family festivities kicked off with the traditional family football game. I somehow managed to talk my way out of the humiliation in years past, but this year I wasn't so lucky. I got a mouthful of Austin's fingers and missed simple passes that anyone with even a little coordination could have caught. Oh well! It was fun nonetheless...


Future Mr. and Mrs. Long:


Uncle Jamie, Jimmy, Kevin and Stephanie:


Cousins Kelsey and Austin O'Connor:


Friday was our BIG birthday celebration for Martha. The theme was a Mexican fiesta so we had Mexican beer, tacos, enchiladas, guacamole and tequila!



The birthday girl with four of her favorite people - her three kids and boyfriend, Ron:


Tequila shots!


Brothers battling at Guitar Hero:


Happy Birthday Martha! Thanks to everyone for a wonderful Thanksgiving. Looking forward to Christmas together!

On the Road Again...

Heading up to Maryland after work today for Thanksgiving with the O'Connor's and Shouse's and I'm very excited. Maybe it's because I'm young and have never had to travel for work, but I love, love, love road trips! There is something warm, fuzzy and family-oriented feeling about packing up the car and heading out onto the open road.

I'm, of course, also really looking forward to spending time with family. Though I've long felt like an honorary sister, cousin, niece and daughter, something about it being official just makes it feel different this time around. I already got Grandma O'Connor's chocolate chip cookie recipe as a wonderful gift at our wedding. Do you think the fam could have been holding anything else out on me? Perhaps a secret family handshake. I doubt it, they're really too sweet, but we shall see...

Early Thanksgiving Celebration

This past weekend we went to Boone to kick-off our Thanksgiving festivities with good food and fun. Friday was our Thanksgiving dinner with my family and arguably even more exciting, the night we went to see New Moon. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am now so excited for Eclipse, the movie. I hope they get on it, so I don't have to wait too long!

House full of dogs (not pictured: Mikey - he's older and doesn't like to be around the crazy pups!)




On the agenda for Saturday was an Appalachian State University football game, another great dinner and an evening of family games.



Blame it on hours of tailgating and mixed drinks during the game, but our Saturday dinner of my mom's spaghetti and meatballs was just too delicious looking/smelling/tasting not to capture. In the spirit of Thanksgiving, let me say that I am thankful for my cooking genes. If I'm half as good of a cook when I have children as my mom, it will be really be something for both me and my family to be thankful for year after year...