Christmas and Birthday!

What a whirlwind week!  On Christmas Eve Kevin and I (and the puppies) headed up to Medina to my parents house.  Before we left our house, I had to get some pictures of our Christmas tree with all the gifts underneath.  (I took these at 6:30 AM, since our dogs have no concept of sleeping in :-))

After relaxing for a bit, Kevin and I got cleaned up and packed the car (well...Kevin packed the car).  With dogs in tow, off to Medina we went!  When we got there, we just sat around chit-chatting, watched "It's a Wonderful Life", and headed off to dinner in downtown Cleveland.  We go to the same place every year called San Souci, which is in the Renaissance Hotel.  We had such a great meal!!  (My dad took lots of pictures, but I don't have any yet to post!)

The next morning we woke up, unwrapped gifts, and headed to Pittsburgh around 1 PM.  It was pouring during the entire drive.  Kevin and I were both thankful it wasn't snow!  That would have been a mess!  We had a great Christmas there and headed back to Columbus on Saturday afternoon. 

Here's Mullen with a pretty bow!

Bono is tired!

Yesterday was my Birthday.  Unfortunately, I had to work...but fortunately, I have a wonderful husband who spoils me rotten!  Kevin came to work yesterday at lunch and brought me a veggie wrap and we had lunch together.  Then when I got home, he took me out for sushi (my favorite!).  We went to Benihana, which is one of our favorite places to get sushi.  We sat at the sushi bar, and the chef (Chang) was the same one we had last time we were there.  Kevin told him that it was my birthday, and jokingly said that he needed to make a sushi cake, and he did!

Here's my sushi "cake"

He also made me a rose.  The rose was made out of tuna and had wasabi leaves!  So pretty!

When we got home, Kevin gave me my birthday gifts.  He got me a pair of Ugg boots, Disney "Earth" on Blu-Ray, and of course Jelly Bellys!  But the best gift were the "tickets" he gave me:

These tickets are good for a birthday shopping spree at one (or more) of the places listed above.  I was cracking up!  The text at the bottom states:

"Transportation will leave at 9:30AM on Wednesday, December 30, 2009.  After breakfast at Mimi's Cafe on Polaris Parkway, you will re-board the shopping shuttle and present your driver with any combination of these three shopping spree tickets which will then determine your destination(s) for shopping.  Enjoy!

I thought this was the cutest and most creative gift ever.  I have the best hubby! :)  Can't wait to shop tomorrow!!

Torture!

....is the perfect way to describe the three days of work before the Christmas holiday.  Unfortunately, I have somehow burned through all my PTO this year and have had to work the 21st, 22nd, and part of the day on the 23rd.  What makes it even worse, is I work in an office of about 40 people, and I believe right now there are less than 10 of us here.  It makes for a REALLY, REALLY long day, especially when my job is largely based on other people submitting work to me.  There is not a whole lot for me to do when no one is here to give me work!

And another thing, I have been racking my brain on how exactly I went through three weeks of vacation time this year!  Note to self for next year, taking a half-day here and a day there really adds up.  What all did I use it on you ask?  I have to take inventory myself :)

Well, I do actually keep a calendar of every day I have off, so I can at least narrow it down somewhat...
in early May I took two sick days due to a monstrous sinus infection. :-)

One day in May to go to Cedar Point with my favorite hubby!

Yes, and we actually did ride the big coaster (Top Thrill Dragster).  It's 17 seconds of pure terror and excitement!  It's truly something else to be looking straight down from 400 feet up in the air!

I took July 13th off as a precautionary measure.  I was in my friend Gail's wedding this year, and she had her bachelorette party the 10th-12th in Put-In-Bay.  Basically it was a weekend of going out, having drinks, hanging out with the girls, and having fun!  Due to the amount of fun we were planning on having, I wasn't sure whether I would be up to making it to work on Monday.  I would have been :), but it was really nice to have the day off regardless...

Here is the bride and bridesmaids starting the party off right!

Here are the Ohio University girls before we went out on Saturday night!  (It was definitely more tame for me due to the fact I got SO burned that day!)

The next day I took off was the Friday before Gail's wedding.  Well, I of course needed time to get a mani-pedi, and get up to Cleveland for the rehearsal dinner!  It was a perfect weekend, a little warm, but sunny and beautiful!  The church was in my hometown of Olmsted Falls, OH.  Kevin and I got to the church a little early the night of the rehearsal, so we could walk down and see the house I grew up in.  It brought back so many memories!  What a great weekend :)

Brian and Gail at the church - just hitched!

The Bride and Bridesmaid's at the reception

(no...I wasn't actually drinking out of the bottle, the bartender was just too slow to fill my drink! :))

Kevin, me and my parents at the reception!

The next time I took off was the entire week for Kevin and my anniversary trip to Disney World!  What a blast!  Kevin and I both agreed, hands down, that it was the best vacation we ever had!

All details on this trip are located at: http://kevandmarion.blogspot.com/2009/10/walt-disney-world-anniversary-trip.html!

Of course, when we returned from Orlando, I got my customary horrendous sinus infection.  This time it was coupled with stomach issues!  Ugh...another day wasted on being sick :(

I also had to take off a day for our trip to Tampa and St. Pete to see U2!  What a fabulous trip!  We loved western Florida, and are hoping to return for another visit soon!

Well, that was a brief run-down of time off for this year.  Actually, it was nice to have a little year in review! :)  We did a ton in 2009!  Now we're looking forward to a fun 2010! :-)

The Holiday Season has officially arrived!

We have been so super busy!  We had Thanksgiving at our house this year.  My parents came down to see how well we (well, Kevin) could cook a turkey.  It came out awesome (from what I was told!!)  The sides were great too.  We had the typical Thanksgiving side dishes, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry jello, green bean casserole, and fresh baked rolls.  Yes, this is the first time I have made rolls from scratch and they came out pretty good.

Here's my table, that seems more like Christmas than Thanksgiving...Oh well!

The day after Thanksgiving was Kevin's birthday.  It also happened to be my friend Gail's husband's birthday, and our friend Helen's on Saturday. Everyone came down to visit and we had planned to go out to a Japanese restaurant and celebrate.  It was so much fun!  We went to Benihana and had a great time.  It was so good to see everyone.

Our Chef!

Our group, Andy, Helen, Brian, Gail, Ashley, Kevin, and me!

Kevin and I :)

Last night we decided to really get into the Christmas spirit and went to Wildlights at the Columbus Zoo.  It was COLD, but beautiful.  It's so nice to be able to walk around outside under all the lights, and you can even go inside some of the buildings (definitely a nice break from the cold!)

Love the lights!

Kevin and I...yep, it was cold!!

Santa was feeding the fish :)

This is Kevin and my favorite animal at the zoo....the manatee!

Kevin nicknamed this guy Crush.  He was hilarious to watch!

Yeah, I wouldn't be anywhere near that snake if there wasn't solid glass between him and I!!

Still have Christmas shopping to do and cookies to bake!  It's going to be a busy couple weeks :)

Christmas Card Rejects

I haven't written an entry in a while, and I have so many new fun things to tell.  I promise I will write a new one this weekend!!

I just had to share these few pictures.  We just ordered our Christmas Cards (photo cards like we always do.)  Here are a few that didn't make the cut, but are hilarious...well at least hilarious in my opinion!

Here's Bono looking like he's about to complain about taking too many pictures....

I hate this!!!!

Can you tell we were enticing the fat cat with treats?!?!?

We got some good pictures, and hopefully our cards will come in with enough time to send them out before Christmas!

On another note, my wonderful hubby just turned the big 3-2 last week!  Happy Birthday Babe!  I love you :)

Hmmm...wonder who got him that nice sweater... ;-)