Goodbye, 2012!

We've wrapped up another year of city life, and it has been full of great memories with a few challenges thrown in to keep us on our toes. We've shared our 2012 with you here on the ole blog, so thanks for joining us. :)

We're thankful to have had another happy year together...and here's to an even better one to come!

Over the River & Through the Woods

To quote the opening of a great American film series:

"I found out long ago...
It's a long way down the holiday road."
:)

We are back and settled from our Christmas Tour de Georgia 2012, and despite spending quite a few hours in the car, we had a great time! (And we know that also means we have lots of people to see and spend the holiday with, so we are thankful for that!)

We both worked through the end of last week before having a much-anticipated A&W Christmas on Friday night. We went a little overboard...

 
But what a great way to start Christmas vacation! Our first stop outside of Atlanta was Peachtree City on Saturday morning for cookie and tree decorating. This was my first year to participate in cookie decorating, although I have enjoyed them after Christmas for quite a few years. After the decor was done, we had lunch and admired our handiwork!

Next, it was on to the Boro for a couple of days. We just relaxed on Saturday night/Sunday morning, and then we headed to Nevils for Christmas with my dad's side of the family. And with Nevils Christmas comes the annual oyster roast!

 
As you can see, one of us is a fan and one of us is a bystander. :)

Of course there was plenty of other food for the non-oyster eaters, as well as a toasty fire, presents for the littles and the grandparents, and envelopes for everyone else. Always a great gift!

On Christmas Eve, we had a few last minute Boro-specific gifts to pick up. We stopped at Sugar Magnolia for breakfast and then made it to seven different places (making purchases at all of them) in about an hour and a half. Maybe that seems normal, but in Atlanta time...that about equals getting to Lenox and parking...

That night, it turned rainy and yucky, so we decided to just stay in for drinks, appetizers, and a viewing of A Christmas Story on TBS. Toby, Rocco, and Koda joined us for the movie, and let's just say it felt like we had our own version of the Bumpuses' dogs! They were quite...active. But we made it through the movie and headed to bed to wait for Santa!

On Christmas morning, we had our traditional brunch (and mimosas) with my mom's side of the family. After that, there were presents (and traditional scratch-off tickets) for all.

We were very happy with our "loot" (which included our own little piece of the famous Sanford Stadium hedges!) but also very happy to get to be there for all the holiday happenings.

Around lunchtime, we packed up again and made our way back to Peachtree City. It was a rainy drive but thankfully uneventful. Andrew's mom was hosting a Christmas dinner for friends, and we arrived just in time to unload, change, and join the guests as they arrived.

It was a potluck, so we had lots of food and other goodies -- including a plum pudding for dessert! We hear this is a Christmas tradition, and we were brave enough to sample it. Not too bad! Especially with brandy sauce. :)

After everyone went home, we had yet another round of present unwrapping with Andrew's mom, grandma, and brother, and we were excited to receive even more great gifts! We were pretty tired after our long day, so we went on to bed after that. And maybe slept in a little the next day. But we both had Wednesday off of work, so we were able to spend most of the day in Peachtree City just visiting before we had to get back on the road to ATL.

Hope you had yourself a merry little Christmas! We sure did.

Merry Christmas!

Last night, Andrew's mom treated us to a storytelling performance of A Christmas Carol at the Shakespeare Tavern, and tonight we're opening our presents from each other. The holiday candles are all lit, and we're ready to celebrate! So, from our house to yours...

Something Old, Something New {Holiday Edition}

Yesterday turned out to be our only free, no-obligation Saturday of the holiday season, and we had two must-do activities on our list! We wanted to continue one of our holiday traditions (something old) and try an activity we've never gotten around to doing before (something new).

For the last four or five years, we have gone Christmas shopping at the Mall of Georgia! Sometimes we have a lot left on our lists to buy, and other times we mostly go to window shop and enjoy the festive decorations. And we always go early in the morning, which allows for up-front parking and a few hours of strolling before the crowds really move in. (Yesterday, by the time we left, people were parked in the grass around the outside of the parking lots!)

We also always start out the shopping trip with a holiday beverage from Starbucks. And what better to pair it with than a Cinnabon??

This year, we didn't have too much we actually needed to buy, so we just made a few laps around the mall. A friend at work had told me about a Christmas promotion JCPenney was doing in which you get holiday buttons (with prize codes) from the register. I saw all the cute designs (trees, Santa, peppermint swirls, gifts, snowmen, etc.) and decided that even if we didn't win anything, they would be cute to have. We got two:

lol

We always end the mall trip by splitting up so we can get any last surprises we need. Then Andrew goes to the car, puts anything in the trunk, and I come out when it's safe. Then I put my stuff in the back seat, and we manage to maintain the surprise! We carried on that tradition this year too and then had lunch before heading back to Atlanta.

Then our "new" holiday activity was going to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens for Garden Lights, Holiday Nights! We have wanted to do this since we moved to Atlanta but just somehow hadn't gotten around to it yet.

There are more than a million lights, and we thought it was amazing! It was in the 50s, so we had a touch of holiday chilliness but weren't uncomfortably cold. We enjoyed the different themed displays, walkways covered by trees filled with lights, the "orchestral orbs" giving a Christmas concert, poinsettias inside the orchid center, and maybe a hot beverage or two from the Glow Bar. :)

If you live in Atlanta and haven't been to the light display, you should go! It was well-worth the price of the tickets (plus parking, ahem).

On the way home, we picked up some soup and fixins from Panera to eat while we watched Love Actually -- which is only one of the best holiday movies out there. But given recent events, it seemed even more heart-tugging than usual.

“Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion’s starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don’t see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it’s always there – fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge – they were all messages of love.
If you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around.”

Menu Tuesday

Oven-Baked Frito Pie

This meal will lose any nutritional (or photo) contest it enters. But...you should make it at least once in your life! I used leftover chili from the freezer, so I can't speak for the meat mixture in the actual recipe. But you can really use any chili you like. I won't tell you how much we ate!

{Recipe Here}

Over the weekend, we went through my highly collectible stack of old Real Simple and Food Network magazines to look for recipes we might have missed in the first read-through. We came up with quite a few that we wanted to try, and I pinned them all here -- if you're interested. Sorry to those of you who may have been pin-spammed in the process! ;)

Holly Jolly

We've had a holly jolly weekend! We went up to Buckhead yesterday to do some Christmas shopping, and let me tell ya...it's Christmas time in the city! It was absolutely packed, but we got most of what we needed. And then we had Andrew's work holiday party last night. Here we are before we left. :)

Hope you had a good weekend! Only two more before Christmas!

How about a Menu Monday?!

I haven't posted a Menu Monday in awhile because I've just been repeating old and easy recipes. But this week, we have two old recipes (worth repeating) and a couple of new ones that look promising! Apparently the theme is P - pesto, pies, and potatoes... :)

This Week's Menu:

Pesto Pasta with Sausage, Green Beans & Peas

Oven-Baked Frito Pie

Baked Sweet Potatoes Stuffed with Apples, Bacon & Cheddar (#42)

Chicken Tamale Pie with Black Beans & Guacamole

J + L in ATL

Not too long ago, we celebrated MacKenzie and Ryan's wedding in Savannah. And last weekend, we had another wedding to celebrate here in Atlanta. Jason and Laura are married! :)

Andrew was a groomsman, so we got to enjoy even more of the wedding weekend than usual. The rehearsal was in Decatur, followed by a dinner at the Georgian Terrace in town. The hotel was already decorated for Christmas. So pretty!

I just so happened to dress like the carpet in the room... Can you tell where my shirt ends and the carpet begins?

We left the happy couple to their last night as singles and rested up for their big day. On Saturday, I Santa did some Christmas shopping while Andrew went into groomsman mode. I picked up MacKenzie before the ceremony, and we headed back to Decatur for the blessed event!

Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. S! 

After the ceremony, we went a little ways up Ponce to the Callanwolde Fine Arts Center. It was like a mini Biltmore House inside and so pretty in the early evening!

 
Laura had told me before the wedding that they were determined to have awesome food, and it certainly did not disappoint! Sun in My Belly catered a delicious dinner. It went alongside the specially-brewed beer Jason & Laura commissioned for the occasion. :)

We enjoyed a cake buffet and lots of dancing before sending the new couple off into the cold in a shower of bubbles.

 

Thanks for letting us be a part of your day, guys -- we're so happy for you!