La Petite Chic

Highlights of 2008

To see last year's highlights of 2007 post, click here.

The good, bad and ugly of 2008...

January:  Oh boy, there was a lot going on last January!  My Dad kicked a would-be muggers ass while trying to buy my beautiful DSLR for me.  I wore some gorgeous dresses on our annual Caribbean cruise, but was deeply saddened by the passing of my grandmother shortly after we returned home. 

February:  After growing my hair out, I cut off 9 inches and donated it to Pantene Pro-V's Beautiful Lengths campaign.  Jon and I renovated our kitchen and installed gorgeous granite countertops.  I also suffered two minor dog-related meltdowns.  Jon is so lucky to have me!

March:  Jon and I spent a weekend at the ocean celebrating a good friend's birthday.  The law finally caught up with me on my expired car registration and inspection, on my way to Target, no less! 

April:  I showed my crafty side when I made my first ever wreath for our door.  There was that whole embarrassing queefing incident in Pilates class and I was exonerated in court for my law breaking ways!  It seems this was a month of anniversaries, good and bad, as I looked back at how far I've come since graduating from college five whole years ago, celebrated my one year blogoversary and sadly marked the one year passing of my beloved dog, Holly.

 

May:  I won a bake-off at work with a simple recipe and shared a super cool picture for an Exposaroonie challenge, but really my posts this month centered around Europe, Europe, Europe!  I posted my packing list, including pictures, and I still refer back to that for all of my vacation packing needs. 

June:  We returned from Europe and I posted recaps and pictures of our time in Germany and France.  I rescued a poor, little baby goose and shared the mortifying evolution of my eyebrows with you all.  I also attended two fabulous concerts; bonded with my dad at one and bonded with tequila at the other. 

July:  Jon and I went on an ill-fated fishing trip at the shore and I became addicted to crack my new iPhone.  The highlight of July was, hands down, attending BlogHer and meeting all the wonderful women with whom I had connected over the past year.  I also shared the story behind Pleepleus, which is still one of my most Googled posts.

 

 

(stolen from Sarah)

August:  I had an encounter with the scariest bug I have ever seen and told the story of how lost I'd been in love before meeting Jon.  I got drunk at the UB40 concert, got clever with corks, celebrated my mom's birthday, had the best time at the Toby Keith concert and got to meet my dear friend's new baby!

September:  We celebrated our second anniversary in gorgeous Mexico and I love you guys so much that I even compiled an embarrassing vacation video of myself.  I celebrated my 27th birthday and my parents celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary.  Unfortunately, my dental woes also began this month.

October:  The dental woes continued with a bad outcome but even that couldn't stop me from celebrating my love's 28th birthday.  I shared my thrifty saving tips for this struggling economy and Jon and I spent a weekend installing our new bamboo floors.  The biggest news, however, was that Jon and I officially decided to stop not trying to have a baby.  This girl has been birth control free since October!

November:  I took part in probably the most exciting election that I'll ever witness and stayed up late to watch history unfold before my eyes.  We received some devastating and scary news about my dad's heart, a problem which the doctors are still trying to fix.  I also hosted a ridiculously fun Wii Fit party where I got to meet some lovely fellow D.C. bloggers and held a Wii and Wii Fit giveaway contest. 

December:  I returned to my adolescent self by wearing my retainers again and shared the story of one of my very best friends whom I got to visit in New York this month.  I sent out our Christmas card which I thought was clever, but Jon deemed corny, and I shared all of the wonderful gifts I was so lucky to receive.

Despite some of the sad and worrisome occurrences of 2008, it was definitely a brilliant year.  Looking back on it all makes me realize just how blessed I am and how thankful I am to be living this life.  Have a happy and safe new year, all, and I'll see you in 2009!

Christmas Three Ways

Whew, what a busy holiday season it has been for us! 

Ever since our very first Christmas together, Jon and I have had our own private gift exchange just for the two of us.  Since we're always on the road for Christmas, we usually do our gift exchange a night or two before we leave.  It's a nice way for us to be thankful for each other and to celebrate the little family we've made together.  The privacy is also valuable since Jon likes to surprise me with frilly panties and other packages that I would prefer not to open in front of my parents and in-laws!

In addition to that completely unexpected package linked above (eek! hee hee!), Jon completely indulged all of my wishes this year.  Most of my gifts from him were camera-related and included a much needed Crumpler bag, a fixed 50mm lens (swoon!), a gorgeous camera strap from Etsy and the most darling hostess apron, also from Etsy.  I am in love with all of my new presents and was so glad to have my camera items before Christmas so that I could take pictures of our families.  Jon adored all of his gifts as well and out of all of them, I think he loved his $17 bottle of Sam Adams Chocolate Bock the most.  Go figure!  The cool and vintage 1970's Royal Caribbean poster I found and framed for him was a close second though.

I left work early on Christmas Eve so that we could get a head start on the holiday traffic up to Pennsylvania and Jon was supposed to leave his D.C. office early as well, but as luck would have it, he got stuck in his office in a lock-down situation thanks to a suspicious package across the street!  Thankfully, everything turned out okay and he was able to leave but it put us an hour behind our travel schedule.

We eventually made it up to Bethlehem, PA and spent the next few days celebrating Christmas with Jon's side of the family.  His family does a Secret Santa exchange and one of my favorite presents was actually given to me by my Secret Santa who just so happened to be my father-in-law.  After seeing the quirky and whimsical typewriter key bracelet Kimba received for her birthday, I tucked the idea away on my wish-list and finally received my very own which spells * K A T I E *.  I adore it!  I also received some fabulous items for the kitchen, including The Congressional Club Cookbook (so cool!) and a mini food processor which I was in desperate need of, among many other fabulous gifts. 

The spoiling continued at my parent's house over the weekend where Jon and I received a joint tailgating gift, consisting of 2 Penn State folding chairs, a portable blender (amazing!) and tequila.  Those things will come in handy for games and Buffet concerts!  Do they know us or what?  I was thrilled to find a 5½ quart Le Creuset French Oven under the tree for me in the beautiful Caribbean color.  I also received another adorable hostess apron from Jessie Steele in the Pink Paris print...so La Petite Chic, oui?  My mom and sister each bought me several other Le Creuset pieces in both Caribbean and White so I think I am all set to host a dinner party.  Now, if only we had the space! 

Speaking of having the space, Jon and I also spent a lot of time house hunting while we were in Maryland.  We were pleasantly surprised to find that we can actually afford a new house in the Baltimore-DC metro area, but it's going to take a wee bit of a lifestyle change to do so.  I'll fill you guys in on all of that good stuff in my next post.  I sincerely hope you all had a lovely Christmas and Hanukkah!  I'll try to upload my Christmas pictures on Flickr tonight.

Wishing You the Merriest Christmas!

From our family to yours...

A Charlie Brown Christmas

There's nothing like sitting in rush hour traffic in the DC metro area to make you want to kick-start your new home search ASAP.  I bought tickets months ago to see David Benoit perform A Charlie Brown Christmas at one of my favorite concert venues in Annapolis and have been so darn excited for it.  I always loved watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special as a little girl and to me, the soundtrack is the best part of the show.

For a while there last night, I didn't think we were going to make it to the concert.  First, Jon got home much later than normal.  He usually carpools with his co-worker, enabling him to use the HOV lane, but his co-worker had other plans after work last night so Jon had to go a different way home.  It made him late, late, late.

Then, once we got on the road, Jon decided to use a shortcut which usually cuts a lot of time off of the ride, but after sitting and sitting in traffic for quite some time, we discovered the road was closed for no apparent reason.  Argh!!  It was at that point that I was very tempted to get out of the car (it's not like we were moving) and scream as loudly as I could.  I was so frustrated and so disappointed and tears were in my eyes and I didn't want to yell at Jon because I knew he couldn't help it, but I was just so upset with our situation.

Thank you to whomever tweeted about all of the numerous farting applications on the iPhone last night because that tweet saved us from a big fight!  Things were tense in the car; Jon thought I was blaming him for being late and stuck in traffic but I was really just sorely disappointed and sad that we were going to be late to the show.  I knew that a good (fake) fart would lighten the mood so I downloaded the app and in the midst of our mutual silent fuming, I let one rip.  It totally did the trick!

Soon we were laughing, even after Jon almost got us killed by turning down the wrong way on a 4 lane road.  "Oh my god, Jon, you're on the wrong side!!"  "Whoops!" Cue manic turn of the wheel and bumpily driving over the grass median...nobody got hurt and we were on our way.

We eventually made it to Annapolis and the performance was definitely worth all the trouble it took to get there.  There was a local children's choir singing along and even a sad, little Charlie Brown Christmas tree in front of the piano.  The music was absolutely beautiful and it brought back so many childhood memories.  I loved it!  After dealing with that traffic, though, we are so ready to move to Maryland and be done with the Capital Beltway.  Only a few more months to go and then we can list our condo and start looking!!  I'm so excited! :)

My Mike

Mike and I hated each other in 8th grade.  My family had just moved back from Germany, and while we moved back into the same house and I returned to the same school system, things were different.  The best friends I left behind as an 8 year old had found new best friends in the past 4 years, as had I.  This was before the age of e-mail and Facebook, so the only way we kept in touch was through hand-written letters, which as you can imagine, is hard to keep up with.  I was the new girl all over again and had to rebuild all of the old friendships from 3rd grade.

Mike was a skinny, red haired, freckled face kid with rubberbands stretching from the metal braces on his teeth.  Since I had been gone, he became good friends with all of my girlfriends after all of the elementary schools in our neighborhood graduated into the one middle school.  And he hated me from that very first day of 8th grade.  He hated that I, an equally awkward, skinny kid, came seemingly out of nowhere (Germany? who lives in Germany?) and infiltrated his gang of girls, his friends.

We argued and there were snubs and the mutual hatred continued on into 9th grade.  Since writing, and not math, was always each of our fortes, we were both enrolled in the "average" Algebra class while the rest of our friends were in the "above average" Geometry class.  As chance would have it, we were seated directly next to each other, and still, the only time we spoke to the other was to make a snarky comment or rude remark.  Then one seemingly innocuous day, Mike said something, something that escapes my mind now, 13 years later, which apparently infuriated me.  I, all 95 pounds of me, got out of my seat, ready to fight him.  I have always been a sparkplug, but I know my mother would have sparkplugged my ass if I got into a fight at school!  The fight never happened for a reason long forgotten and unimportant now, but surely either he retracted his statement or I sat down.  I do know that after that moment, our disdain for each other slowly evolved into a friendship that I still count as one of my best today.

Mike is the brother I never had, my comic relief, the one I turn to when I really need the honest answer to the question, "Do I look ridiculous in this?"  He's a fabulously talented writer and out of all my friends, I think he has the most potential to be a household name.  He's ambitious and loyal and still snarky to this day, and oh, how I love him for it.  Mike is also gay.  He came out to me after puking in the bathroom of Bill Bateman's on his 21st birthday in true Mikey fashion.  I believe his exact words were, "Katie, I'm a big, ol' homo!".  I always knew, of course, even when he dated my friend in high school and even when he vehemently denied the rumors. 

He was the victim of a hate crime our senior year.  He was called out of our Peer Counselor holiday party when his car was discovered with a squirrel impaled on the antenna.  A squirrel impaled on his antenna, anus to mouth.  I'll let you imagine that horrifying scene for a second.  I went with him and stood by him as he endured ridiculous questioning by the police who were more concerned with why his car was parked facing the wrong direction than with who would commit such a heinous, hateful act.  I'm not even sure if they ever caught who did it, but I do remember hugging him that day as he cried and asking myself who could ever do such a hurtful thing to another person, my friend.

Mike was Dermot Mulroney to my Julia Roberts, a la a "My Best Friend's Wedding" pact we made to each other if we weren't married by age 28.  It didn't come to that, as I married at 24 with Mike standing by me on my wedding day as an honor attendant (my fancy term for a male bridesmaid) as Jon and I exchanged our vows to love and cherish each other until death do us part.  It upsets me that he doesn't have the same right to marry the love of his life in the majority of these United States.  He and his live-in boyfriend (a doll, I must add) have been dating for as long as Jon and I did before we married, but they aren't allowed to marry in the city they love, New York City.  It's simply not fair.

We visited the two of them this weekend and I asked Mike if there were any wedding bells in his future.  He said yes and breathlessly told me about his dream ceremony location in NYC.  It sounds gorgeous and perfect and I would love nothing more than to return the favor and stand by his side at his dream wedding, but as of now, I can't.  It is my hope that this new presidency will bring change to America so that my friend's dream can become a reality.  He deserves that right and he deserves every happiness afforded to the rest of us.  And selfishly?  I know he'll throw a fabulous reception! 

The two of us dancing at my wedding reception:

 

All of us at Columbus Circle this past weekend (my camera died so all I have is this crappy photo from my iPhone, and sorry Mike, your eyes were closed in this one!):

I've Been a Bad, Bad Girl

Everyone knows that you're not supposed to shop for yourself around the holidays.  It's practically a sin when you should be buying for others and when you know very well that you'll be receiving presents soon.  That's how I was raised, anyhow, and lord knows I hate that rule.  There are so many beautiful, sparkly, on-sale items that are hard to ignore and y'all, I just couldn't ignore this dress yesterday:

I swear to God it was meant to be because as soon as I purchased this gem, it sold out.  I think I got the very last one!!  Not only was it on sale for $99.99 (which is way more than I usually spend on a dress, but it was love at first sight) down from the original price of $250.00, you also got 20% off your order and free shipping for orders over $100.  I had to add a clearance tank top to my order to make the $100, but still, this dress is so me! 

Jonathan and I are going for our annual cruise at the end of January and this will be the perfect dress to wear for one of the formal nights.  I think it can totally be dressed up or down which makes it perfect in my book.  And the color, oh, the gorgeous color!  This shade of green is perfect with my hazel-green eyes and olive skin tone.  Like I said, it was meant to be.

Now I'm just worried that J.Crew will flake out on me and tell me "Whoops, sorry, we don't have any left."  Argh...cross your fingers that won't happen!

Symptoms of (non) Pregnancy

The funny thing about not not trying to get pregnant is that you start to assume that every abnormal thing your body does must be an indicator that you're pregnant.

Forgot to put the oatmeal in the oatmeal raisin cookies you baked for the husband who has been nagging you (yes, husbands nag, too) since last Christmas to make them? 

Ding, ding, ding!!  It's pregnancy brain!  You must be with child.

Notice a mini pooch on your stomach that you swear to God wasn't there last month?

Sound the alarms...it's not fat, it's a preshus baby in there!  

Miss your period this month and last? 

It can't be amenorrhea, you've got a bun in the oven, girl!  Say goodbye to Flo and her friend Tampax for the next 9 months! 

Having crazy mood swings that rival Britney Spears and make you cry and scream all in the span of one minute? 

Honey, you're not crazy, it's just wacky pregnancy hormones!  (psst...put down the umbrella)

So tired at night that you've neglected this here lovely blog and Google Reader and the only Christmas decorations you've put out are a wreath, a doormat and a few candles?

Nah, it's not the stress of the holidays nor the busyness at work, it's the fatigue of the first trimester!

All kidding aside, if I really thought I were pregnant I would not be drinking so much wine at night and would go out and buy a pregnancy test instead.  It's just funny how your mind automatically wanders to that "could I be pregnant?" place when you're not not trying.  Or is it just my mind that does that?! 

Secret Ornament Swap

I ADORE snail mail.  I send plenty of it myself, but of course I love receiving it even more so!  That's part of the reason why I signed up to participate in Julie's Secret Ornament Swap again this year.  Not only do you get to pick out and send a fun ornament to a blogger that you most likely don't already know, but you also get one in return!  It's a great way to find some new blogs to read and add a special ornament to your tree.

I received my secret ornament in the mail this week and I would have blogged about it sooner, but as you might have noticed, I've been quite absent in the blogging world lately.  While I usually read and comment on blogs at work for a quick break, it's been so busy that I'm even finding it hard to take a bathroom break, let alone a blog break!  I promise to catch up on Google Reader soon, but I apologize in advance if I missed any of your big news. 

My secret ornament swapper completely spoiled me!  Not only did she send me the cutest little snowman ornament, but she also included some fun stuff for the kitchen because as she said, "The kitchen needs ornaments too!"  ElleBee, I couldn't agree more!  Thank you so much for my wonderful Christmas package.  Since there's not much I love in life more than entertaining, I was thrilled with all of my surprises!  And to Julie, thank you so much for organizing the swap...I can't even imagine how much work it is to put this on but I hope you know how much we all appreciate it!

My adorable snowman ornament (notice the teeny potted spruce tree!):

 

and my perfectly matching kitchen goodies!

 

Look how cute they were bundled up before I tore into them :)

Congratulations to the Wii-ner!!!

I am stunned by how many of you entered my Wii and Wii Fit Giveaway!  Thank you to everyone who participated and let me just say how glad I am I used a random number generator to pick the winner because it would have been very tough otherwise.  After compiling all of the comments, removing double entries and adding in additional entries for those of you who linked to the giveaway on your blogs, we have a winner....

Congratulations to Wishcake of Simply, Me!!  I hope this amazing prize sends a lot of holiday cheer your way!  Thank you again to Nintendo and Brand About Town for making this contest possible :)

Don't You Want to Wii-n It?

Just a reminder that my Wii and Wii Fit Giveaway contest ends at midnight EST tonight!  Comments will closed at that time.  If you haven't already done so, don't forget to enter before it's too late!  The winner will be announced on Monday...wouldn't that be a nice way to start your week?