Christmas Breakdown

Christmas has come and gone and it was a wonderful three day event for us! We spent Christmas Eve eating pizza and watching Christmas movies with the inlaws. Afterwards, John and I went home, made hot tea, set the TV's to the holiday music channel, and we opened our gifts to each other. We used to always open our gifts to each other on Christmas Eve because we would each go to our own families' houses on Christmas Day. Well, even though we would be spending the entire day together, we decided that in the interest of time (we had to be at J's parents early in the am for presents and breakfast, followed by my fam right afterwards), we would open our gifts the night before. It was such a sweet, cozy night! We started off by giving our lil kitties their stockings. They were on a catnip-induced high for the remainder of the evening. I was a spoiled girl, as usual. This year for Christmas, I was really hoping to get a membership to our local Yoga studio that I had heard many great things about. I have thought about joining many times for over a year now, but it's a bit pricey and I already have a gym membership. Well, John must have been paying attention to my numerous, not so subtle hints because I got that membership along with some awesome Yoga gear. Poor John was funny...after I opened my gifts he told me that he had always thought that workout related items were on a list of things to NEVER give your gf/wife as a gift. I guess that would be true, but I really wanted it so I'm a happy, un-offended camper! I started Yoga this week, and I love it! It is as wonderful as I remember it being (I did Yoga a lot back in high school/early college), although I'm sad to report that I am 0% flexible. I used to ice skate competitively, and part of that training regiment included hours of stretching and weight training, so I know that at one point in my life I was capable of being a bendy pretzel bobcat, but those days are long gone. I am anxious to get them back!
OK, back to Christmas...Christmas morning started with us dashing out of the house bright and early, making a quick stop at Starbucks (yes, I discovered last year that the Starbucks inside Vons is open x-mas day...sad for them, awesome for me!). We headed to John's parents' house to do presents and breakfast with John's bro's and parents. We had a delish early am feast then headed over to my parents to do presents with them. Afterwards, the boys played pool and the gals worked on the dinner feast. This was the point in the day where I should have said to myself "Tracie, you are about to eat a big Christmas dinner, so maybe all this snacking on appetizers is not a good idea". Alas hindsight is 20/20. John's entire fam came out to my parents' house for dinner. It was a great night...even though both John and I at different points in the night thought we were going to puke as a direct result of over-eating. It was bad.
The day after Christmas, we did nothing until about 5pm, when we ventured out of the house to good ol' Chilis so John could use his giftcard. That is seriously his fav. restaurant.
All in all, x-mas was a success! Coming up...NYE Pajama-Jam! Can't wait!

Merry Merry Merry

Well, it's Christmas Eve Eve and things are getting pretty exciting over at the Hall house. Presents are wrapped and sittin' pretty under Wilbur the 3rd (yes, we name our Christmas tree every year...and every year he ends up with the name Wilbur).

This picture does it no justice-it was taken a couple of weeks ago and now ol' Wilbur is literally overtaken by presents. We have a fun little holiday agenda. It started last Sunday when we did Christmas with my side of the family who would not be able to make it to Casa Konrad on Christmas Day. My aunt, uncle, and little cousin Zoe came over for Christmas # 1. Watching Z open her gifts made me realize how much more fun x-mas can be with little people around. She was so funny and excited while opening her gifts...but you can see for yourself-that is an expression that can only be induced by the sheer excitement of a Tangled doll!

That same weekend, my parent's had their annual holiday party. It was great fun, and Mr. Grinch even made an appearance!

This is a short week for us at work, and we wrapped up the week 1/2 day today. Tonight we are headed to the Mission Inn for dinner with the fam. It's amazing at Christmas time, and who knows, I just may bust out my old ice skates and show off my moves (assuming I still have them...). Tomorrow night will be spent at my in-laws, and Christmas will be at the parent's as usual! Can't wait to watch everyone open their goodies...don't want to brag, but John and I got good gifties for everyone this year.

Merry Christmas to All!!

Perks, Part 2

A perk to driving the same car you got at sweet 16 for 11 years is finally being able to trade up!

Meet Herman, the newest addition to my driveway. He's a Cadillac SRX and he won my heart (and my bank account) over last night.

Herman, let's hope that you are as good to me as Tommy the Toyota was. I promise to be nicer to you than I was to him.

Perks, Part 1

Turns out that one of the perks of being a responsible, working adult is being able to afford to take last minute getaways to places like Seattle. That's exactly what John and I did last weekend. One of my best girl's Jami and her bf Brett were planning a trip to Seattle (Brett's old stomping grounds) for sometime in December. John and I proceeded to invite ourselves along for the ride. Seattle at Christmastime is awesome! Of course it rained the entire time, but I would have been disappointed if it didn't because I would not have had the chance to wear these babies

John and I arrived downtown on Thu night and we explored a bit of the downtown area and had a yummy Italian dinner. Our hotel was in primo location and walking distance to everything. They were offering a special "Holiday Shopping Package" which if booked, gave you a $100.00 Macy's giftcard per night that you stayed. We stayed for three nights, so we racked up $300.00 worth of giftcards. Pretty sweet deal. You all are getting x-mas presents from Macy's this year. The package also came with a coupon for free pictures with the Macy's Santa, which is apparently a HUGE deal for young Washingtonians, because there was a line around the Macy's building the entire time we were there.

Laugh all you want but the two must-do's for me in Seattle were to visit the original Nordstrom (flagship store+rainy location=awesome selection of sweaters, coats, and boots) and to visit the o.g. Starbucks. Once we crossed those two things off the list I was game for anything else. We did the typical touristy stuff like the Space Needle and the EMP and the Public Market. At night we bar crawled for hours in the pouring rain. How I did not leave Seattle with the flu is a mystery.

Here are just a couple of pics from our trip. It was too rainy to have the camera out most of the time, but we managed to snag a few shots:

Downtown Seattle all lit up for Christmas

Proof that I was there

Jami and Brett

Space Needle Photo Opp

The EMP

We decided that we did not want to wait in line for hours in the pouring rain to take a picture with the Macy's Santa...this lil guy seemed like an appropriate substitute. However, we learned an important lesson the hard way: Outdoor Santa statues+year round inclimate weather=smelly, mil-dewy beard...

Brett's mom told us about this place by the market that sold only cheese products. They had every kind of grilled cheese sandwich you could imagine, and they also had several types off mac n cheese. It was to die for, and perfect comfort food in stormy weather.

A must have, considering I was as close to Forks as I'll ever be

All in all it was a fabulous weekend with some fabulous people. Next on our list of trips this year is Cabo, Canada, NC, and Scotland/Ireland!

I Don't Know If We're There Yet...

John and I have been together for 7.5 years. Once things moved past college and got a little more serious and grown up I thought it would be cute to send out a Christmas card from Tracie, John, and Cody the cat. I saw the color drain from John's face when I mentioned it. Mind you, were were living together at this point, but he responded with the good ol' Ross from F.R.I.E.N.D.S. line "I just don't know if we're really quite there yet". As a side note, John and I are FRIENDS freaks and we can quote just about any line from any episode. We dominate at Scene It. For those of you who aren't as FRIENDS savvy, Ross is dating a girl named Mona, and things are going really great until she innocently suggests that they turn their cute pic in front of Rockefeller center into their Christmas card for that year. Ross freaks out and tells her that he doesn't think that they are quite there yet. Chaos ensues and in an effort to prove his committment to her he ends up asking Mona to move in with him. Good times.

Well, every year I threaten to send out "family" Christmas cards, and every year John responds with "I just don't know if we're quite there yet". Well, a funny thing happened last year. John decided that it was time to take a wife. So, in my opinion, that means that we are "there". So, buya John-in your face!

Merry Christmas from the Hall's

Super cute and adorable Christmas card courtesy of 4 Leaf Boutique