New years in Greenville

We went to Blair and Brett's for New Years again, and it was so much fun. I wish we had a stop-time button.

The night flew by. We ate a lot. Watched the ball drop. Had a champagne toast. Played games in the garage. Ate a lot, again. Hardly slept. And never wanted to leave.

Group photo right after midnight:

We left Koda home alone. We were worried she might have a party with the neighbor dogs, but she did well. (For those worried, we had a sitter let her out late at night and one super early in the morning). I bribed the early morning sitter with a Starbucks gift card to text me that Koda was still alive. 

I want to go back. Can we celebrate all over again?

Weekend in Greenville and Panthers Game

This past weekend was so much fun. The kind of weekend where someone asks "why are your eyes so puffy" on Monday morning, and you realize that you hadn't noticed how tired you were, because you were still on a high from how much fun you had. (And you also didn't notice how mean your co-workers were, until that comment.)

We went to Greenville for Saturday night. Blair organized a gift exchange (not the kind where you draw names, but the kind where you can steal) for the girls. Dan was concerned he would be bored, so he asked Brett if he could come play too. So the girls stayed in and the boys went out in Greenville. 

We drank wine.

"Blends have more fun"

We opened presents. 

We took awkward solo shots of everyone but Kelley ... wait.

We ate, drank, talked, and laughed until we cried.

I immediately regretted the ab ripper that I did earlier in the day. 

Before we knew it, it was 3 am.

Those are my kinds of nights. These girls are all within a few hours, and we don't see each other nearly often enough. And sometimes I wonder why a clean house, laundry, and errands seem more important than laughing with girlfriends until 3 am. So next time: my house. not vacuumed. amidst a pile of laundry. Blair - bring the bombshell wine.

We headed out pretty early because my Falcons were playing the Panthers in Charlotte (I don't want to talk about it) and Dan and I had plans to go to the game.

Dan wore my old Chris Chandler jersey (the QB the last time the Falcons went to the superbowl), because I thought it would be good luck. 

We paid $20 for each ticket, and had pretty good seats! Upper level, only a few rows up, on the 50 yard line. This was our view:

It would have been so much better if we had won! 11-1 and we couldn't beat Carolina! Ugh. We sat near a ton of Panthers fans, and they were giving me a hard time, but it was pretty funny. At one point, one of them said "now missy - this has all been fun and games - and we have been pretty nice to you - but if your Falcons come back and win this - we aren't going to be so nice." Haha.

The loss really is our fault. You see nachos are lucky - and we ordered them way too late in the game. I'm really sorry about that, Altanta fans. 

Dan zipped up his jacket to hide the jersey once the game was over. 

I think we will both be very tired this week, but neither of us mind one bit! We are ready for a busy rest of December, seeing family, friends, and ringing in the new year with some of our favorite people!

Our weekend in Atlanta

We packed up our dancing shoes and our furry child and headed to Atlanta around 7 pm on Friday. Because of some lovely road construction, we arrived at about 11:30 pm.

We gave tons of lovins to my mom’s dog Lily. Have you read about her? She seems to be doing better, but it is a slow process. I think she enjoyed having company!

Saturday my mom made French toast, which we topped with delicious apple butter. (We ate a whole jar while we were there). And then spent the rest of the morning drinking coffee, catching up, and touring her garden to check out what is in bloom. My parents built this beautiful stone and wood shed in their backyard (mom – can you blog about that?), and she will be in the Georgia Master Gardener’s Garden tour in May. So while she says she has a lot of work to do (and I don’t doubt that her garden is a lot of work!), for my standards, it is tour ready now!

After that, it was time to head downtown to celebrate the marriage of two wonderful people. 

Thanks mom for the picture!

The wedding was at 2:30, the shuttle from the hotel left at 4, cocktail hour started at 5, and I don’t think we left until about 10:30. This allowed for lots of time catching up with friends and celebrating the beautiful couple. I love how they did the schedule that way.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful with no detail spared. The church was gorgeous, PAIGE was gorgeous, the cocktail hour was outside in the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, baskets were filled with flip flops as dancing shoes, tea and lemonade were served prior to the bar opening, the flowers on the tables were beautiful, the food was some of the best I have had, the mother / son dance turned into a flash mob to "Staying Alive," the photobooth / guestbook made for lots of laughs, and I could go on and on.

Chihuly Fountain

Table 13:

The place card table. Blurry ... but a glimpse of how beautiful the wedding was and the details involved.

Dance moves by the groom:

He swept her off her feet (pun intended):

After the wedding, we all headed to The Ivy. Somehow, in all of downtown Atlanta, one person mentions "people are going to The Ivy" and all of us head over there. It was like an unofficial after party.

Now. The part I wish I had documented: The cajun fries. Wait. Let me back up.

It's now 3 am (which is way past my bed time, and the Matchbox 20 song is playing in my head, along with "Closing Time," because it just seems fitting .. I'm rambling). Well Brett decides that he needs something to eat. None of us thinking it is a good idea .. just yet. He asks the lady at the front desk who delivers at this hour, and she hands him the menu of a Chinese Place. 

I know. ...You are wondering where cajun fries are coming into play? We are still wondering that today. 

You see. On the menu, they had cajun fries. And, as much as it pains me to tell you this, they sounded like a wonderful idea at the time. None of the following went through our heads:

1. What non-sketchy restaurant delivers at 3 am? Exactly.
2. Oprah says not to eat past 7.
3. What Chinese place serves cajun fries? Identity crisis? Who. Are. They?

Let me tell you. These were the worst fries ever. They were clearly baked in 2002 and microwaved around midnight. Unfortunately, we ate way too many of them. Moral of the story: don't order cajun fries from a Chinese place. Oh, you never would? Well someone should have told us.

After the cajun fries and a few hours of sleep, we went back to mom's to have brunch with my Aunt and Uncle, who I hadn't seen in too long. It's always so good to see them, and I end up with wonderful recipes and other creative ideas from my Aunt. She is an awesome cook!

My mom made her Chicago Breakfast Bowls. As soon as she puts the recipe up on her blog - I'll share. If it takes too long, I'll post it myself. 

We watched the Falcons win and headed back to Charlotte just in time for bed. It was a great weekend!

PS. You now have "Closing Time" stuck in your head don't you? You don't have to go home but you can't, stay, here.

Speaking of fall bucket lists...

I got this little gem in the mail.

I love mail. And there is something about full names written in calligraphy that just makes me so happy. It just screams wedding invitation / formal event, and even though the event itself is no surprise, I get so excited to open them!

Paige and Bryan’s invitation was no exception. I went to middle school, high school, and college with the groom, and college with the bride. Dan and Bryan were in the same fraternity pledge class in college. It’s a small world, I tell you.

Cannot wait to celebrate this wonderful couple in October. Now, the biggest question: should I have the pumpkin spice latte before or after their beautiful fall wedding?

Cheers!

Here's to a wonderful coworker/friend, lime green cake pops, the day before your birthday, and not having to work on your actual birthday because that's Saturday! Cheers!

A weekend in Greenville

This is a little late, but I wanted to do a quick update on my weekend in Greenville. Friends Shelley, Grace, and Rachel were all coming to Greenville. Kylie and Blair live in Greenville. Dan was out of town, and it had been too long since I had seen these girls. And Tricia decided to leave the husband to his own accord for one night (can you say pizza?). Instant girl’s weekend.

Kylie had family in town, so we were only able to see her for brunch. But still very needed. I hadn’t seen her new bling in person, or hugged her neck since she got engaged.

We all stayed with Blair, including 4 dogs. She is crazy for saying yes super accommodating.

We had a dog there—we will call her Karen, to protect her identity. She had a non-dog name just like Karen. A few times we lost Karen, and it became the joke (I think per Rachel) that it was our drunk friend Karen who we couldn’t keep track of. “Oh no! Who let Karen outside?!” “Karen is taking a nap, she just needs to sleep it off.” “Did Karen just throw up in the bathroom?!” At one point, Brett looked at Karen and said “shots?!” and Karen went ballistic like we had said “treats?!” It made for lots of laughs.

You know those weekends where you are having so much fun, and so glad you went, but you almost wish it were ending soon, because you are exhausted, haven’t been home in a while, and just need to get stuff done?

It was nothing like that. I was exhausted, I hadn’t been home in a while, I needed to get stuff done, and I didn’t care one bit. I didn’t want the weekend to end. We went to the pool on a cloudy day, and I don’t think anyone noticed. When it started raining, we grabbed our stuff and ran under the covering. Then, one-by-one, we set our stuff down and ran back into the pool, hardly noticing the rain.

Photo courtesy of Blair .. I didn't take many pictures.

We went to some of our favorite bars from college, as well as new ones that had opened since those days. We stayed up until 4 am. We sat at brunch as long as was socially acceptable. We dragged our feet leaving Blair’s house. And secretly hoped we would be snowed in.

Unfortunately, it didn’t start snowing, and all good things must come to an end. Therefore, Sunday allowed for cleaning, unpacking, laundry, meal planning, grocery shopping, etc. And, on 2.5 hours of sleep, I think I did a pretty good job!

Thanks Blair for a wonderful weekend. So wonderful, in fact, that I might show up on your doorstep Saturday. Don’t worry. I’ll invite Karen.