Christmas 2012

I hope everyone had a GREAT Christmas and Happy Holiday! 

We traveled the whole state of Kentucky and Ohio, and even through in a visit to Nashville all within 5 days. Busy busy holiday for us! Now it's time to relax and hang out at home for a few days!

On Saturday, we went down to Glasgow to see Ben's family. Ben had just got back from traveling for work LATE Friday night. Poor thing wasn't even home 12 hours before we got on the road Saturday morning. 

Ben's family went to the Western Kentucky - Louisville basketball game in Nashville, so we decided to go and spend the day in Nashville as well. We went to the hospital to visit Ben's family friend who had a bad accident in early December. Luckily, he is doing much better and gets to go home Monday!!!

Sunday, we celebrated Christmas with Ben's side of the family. We went to church and then had "Christmas" lunch. 

 

Perry liked to help everyone open their gifts. And use the ribbons for a bow!

After opening gifts, we went to get some drinks with some friends who were also in town!

Monday morning, we got up early and came back to Lexington to unpack from Glasgow, and pack for Columbus. Quick trip home, and back in the car!

We got to my sisters in time to change and get ready for Christmas Eve dinner at my aunts house! 

  

My sweet little niece was the gift passer outer :) 

Quick picture with the little Elf :)

Annual Sissy antler pic 

Daddio

Mom and I <3

My Uncle had 100 year old bourbon. Obviously a hit with the men in the family!

My sister framed an art piece of mine from 2nd grade! Such a cool gift! 

Family Pic!

We had a great time spending Christmas Eve at my Aunt's house!

Next, it was time for all of the Christmas day activities. 

We woke up early and went to mass. Ben survived Christmas service at the catholic church :)

 Attempted a family picture with Perry, ha!

It was a busy busy day and weekend/week, but we had lots of fun and I'm so glad we were able to spend time with both families! 

Ben drove back Christmas night because he had to work on Wednesday. My mom and I were planning on leaving WEdnesday morning to hit the outlets and Ikea in Cincinnati, and then back to Lexington. Then the snow storm that was supposed to hit changed over to an ICE storm, followed by more snow. The roads were AWFUL so we delayed our departure back to Lexington by one more day. I was perfectly okay with this because it meant I could go to my favorite restaurant, Figlio!

Early birthday drink and gluten free Chicken Diablo. I couldn't ask for a better birthday dinner 3 days early :) 

We left early Thursday morning to head back to Lexington. 

The roads were only bad in Columbus (and getting out of my sisters driveway/alley)! Then once we hit the Interstate, the roads were perfectly clear. Shew, what a trip!

We had a GREAT Christmas but I'm so glad we are back home now and can unpack and unwind :)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!

It's Christmas Time!

I can't believe Christmas is already here!

This year has flown by. 

We had Christmas parties the past two weekends and finally Christmas festivities with family this weekend. Where has December gone?!

Our last day of school was on Tuesday and it was a crazy busy, and fun-filled day! I love seeing the kids so happy when they open their gifts and have holiday parties with their classmates. Not to mention,  how much I loved just seeing their sparkling eyes Monday morning after the horrific events in Connecticut. Makes you appreciate all the little moments in the classroom... 

I have spent the last two days running errands ALL over Lexington doing some last minute Christmas shopping. I LOVE getting gifts for others, but sometimes the stress wears me out of whether or not they will like the gifts!!! That's when I end up going out to buy a gift card. Anyone else love getting gift cards to places you know they will use- like Starbucks! I mean who wouldn't love a Starbucks gift card?!

While I've been busy shopping, Perry's been at daycare. They gave me this picture yesterday when I picked him up and I about died. How precious is this?!?!

(I'm not quite sure where his ears are... ha!)

Beats our picture we had with Santa last weekend... 

I woke up this morning and took Perry out and realized it FINALLY snowed AND was sticking to the ground. I love when it snows, and what a great way to kick off Christmas weekend :)

Our Christmas festivities start tomorrow morning, so I'm off to finish wrapping gifts and meet some friends for a lunch date. My other favorite thing about breaks from school - lunch dates!!! 

Is It Spring Yet??

I love snow and I love snow days, BUT there comes a time when there has been TOO much snow and way too many snow days. If I could have it my way I would want one BIG snow storm that shuts down the city for several days. And then no more snow the rest of winter! Wouldn't that be nice. 

Reality is, that's most definitely not the case! In fact, I feel like the snow started earlier this year! We had 5 snow days before the holiday break. We now have 12 total snow days, which puts the last day of school to June 9th... And we still have the month of February. Not to mention the storm that's supposed to hit this week.

(via lex18.com)

Enough with all the winter and snow talk. I was LOVING the warm(er) weather this weekend! 

It was almost 50 degrees this weekend! I had to take a picture of the temperature because I knew it would be too good to last. Oh well, at least it was nice for the 2 days that I didn't have work or anything to do but enjoy the weather and run errands with Ben! 

Oh what I would do to be in Charleston right now. I sometimes consider removing it from my weather locations, but I like the know what kind of weather my mom is getting compared to ours and vice versa. 

I can't wait until I can go somewhere warm for Spring Break. Defintely one of the perks of being a teacher... still getting a SB! Now I just have to figure out where Ben and I are going. Charleston, Florida or cruise.... Hmm. 

No matter where we go, it is going to be warm, which means I can start looking at spring clothes! Some current spring loves I have:

Some Lilly favorites.... Thinking this dress would be perfect for Keeneland!

 Shauna Tunic Dress Twill

Penelope Tunic Short

Victoria's Secret Cobalt Paisley Suit

and of course a little pink nail polish!

OPI Strawberry Margarita

In the new OPI Axxium/Gelish nail polish of course! I LOVE these new gel nails. I was so hesitant to first get the gel nails but after my boyfriends mom insisted I get them when we got our nails done on Christmas Eve, i couldn't say no, and I haven't been able to get a regular nail polish manicure since! They really do last for at least 2 weeks with no chips. However, I wish there were more color choices available. My favorite salon in Lexington is doing them now and have more color selections! Free glass of wine + a 2 week no-chip manicure is worth it!!! 

Here's looking forward to spring. And hoping that Old Man Winter is on his way out of town soon!!!

Sad UK Sports Weekend

This Saturday was a jammed packed schedule for the Big Blue Nation. Unfortunately it wasn't the outcome we were hoping for from either sport.... 

Saturday afternoon the UK football team traveled down to Birmingham, Alabama for the BBVA Compass bowl game.

I considered going down to this game because I've always wanted to go to Alabama, but it would have been too hard to travel Friday after my first week of teaching. And the boyfriend had to travel to Canada for business on Sunday. So that was a no-go on the bowl game trip. Sad :(

I'm thankful that we didn't end up going to the game after the final outcome. We did not play well, and I hate admitting it, but I think we needed Mr. Mike Hartline on the field for one last game. Hopefully Joker had a good 1st year learning experience, and UK football will be even better next fall!!

After the football loss, we changed the channel to watch the basketball game against Georgia. The first half wasn't bad and I thought we would be able to pull out a win. But once again, no such luck. Josh Harrellson, "Jorts," is still my favorite bball player this year, ha! (I think it's mostly bc of his ridiculous nickname!)

(via http://blog.kentuckysportsradio.com)

It was not a good weekend for UK sports fans!! Oh well, moving on to the big game this week, the National Championship! Of course, I will be cheering for the SEC team!

WAR EAGLE!

Tomorrow night, my friend is having some people over to watch the game. Hate that it's a late game, BUT we have a snow storm coming tomorrow, so I'm thinking (and hoping) we will have a snow day on Tuesday!! For now, I will be following KY Weather Center  and my favorite, Bill Meck at LEX 18 hourly to track the upcoming storm! 

Hope everyone as a good workweek!!

(all images via google unless otherwise cited)

Ice Ice Baby

So last night in Lexington, we had a little snow turned to ice storm! I LOVE LOVE snow, but ice.... NO THANK YOU! We were supposed to get 2-4" of snow and 0.25" of ice, but woke up to only about 1" of snow and 0.25" of ice. It was still enough to throw the city of Lexington into a whirlwind this morning!

 I dont mind the ice like this! I think it makes the ugly bare branches actually look pretty!

Even the horse farms look pretty with the white snow. I LOVE babysitting on the farm when it snows because you just see a big white open area with horses everywhere!

What I do NOT enjoy is using this little ice scraper to scrape the sheet of ice of my car!!! 

Thankfully, we had a snow day today so I didn't have to wake up early and deal with the mess outside! In fact, I lounged around all day today. I didn't even get out of bed until noon, ha! It was the best snow/lazy day ever and exactly what I needed!!!

The news keeps saying this is just the beginning of what the weather is going to be like this year. It's not technically winter yet, either! I can only imagine how many more snow and lazy days will come in January and February....