New Years Weekend 2011-2012

First, here is a photo of our Christmas tree - we both like the look of solid color light strands - we picked white this year because we got a bunch of hand-me-down Christmas stuff and there happened to be enough white to do our tree:

Next, moving on to New Years Eve weekend -
Wednesday night of last week, Steve started to feel like he was coming down with something, sure as shit, on Thursday (his birthday) he came home from work, sick.  Needless to say, we needed to rethink our wild weekend for something with less alcohol and more sleep.
We went out for Steve's birthday on Thursday, with Jeff and Linnea, to Benihana - for those not familiar, it's a hibachi style restaurant, where they cook the food in front of you.  Good stuff I tell ya.
Then Friday, we went out for my aunt's retirement, to Osaka, another hibachi restaurant.  Another night of good food, but not a lot of drinking and not a late night.

Saturday, we went to Olive Garden with Steve's parents, to celebrate his birthday... more eating!  ugh.  By Saturday I was sick of meat and pretty sick of chewing.
This was also New Years Eve - we decided to NOT attend my cousin's party and opted to stay home, just the two of us instead.  It was a pretty chill night.  Around 10pm, we turned on the TV to start watching ball dropping coverage, but the news was on and they were talking about a snowstorm moving through.  We promptly look outside to see it's snowing and had been snowing for quite some time.  It was beautiful snow too... the kind that photos are made of.  It was our first snow in weeks - we've been brown for the entire month of December.
I may have dozed off on the couch before midnight, but Steve was on the ball and woke me up to see the ball drop.  We were fast asleep by 12:20.

Sunday, we woke up with ambition ... breakfast ambition.  I really wanted to tackle Eggs Benedict, so we did.  For our first time, it wasn't bad, but I'd want to make it again knowing a few things we can do to make it better.
Sunday afternoon/dinner time we went over to Jeff and Linnea's for more food.  They made a pork roast in the crockpot - plus a bunch of different crack dips - so again, more eating!

On Monday we woke up and ate a light breakfast and then went to meet Jeff and Linnea for lunch at Pittsburgh Blue.  I got Sea Scallops Benedict- Oh yum!  We then went to an outlet mall in the area looking for winter boots at a good price.  We found a pair but, as usual, they didn't have my size - so I arrived back home with no boots.

I feel like the weekend was full of eating, full of Jeff and Linnea (hopefully they don't end up with Steve's bug), full of movies, and full of relaxation.

Movie's watched this weekend:
Red
The Sound of Music
Lethal Weapon 3
Big Fish
Avatar

Photos from the weekend:

Boomer was more than happy to have us home all weekend.  He normally hates when things are on top of him, but I took the blanket out of the dryer and laid it on him, he looked up at me and then snuggled in and fell right back asleep.  He LOVES to be warm.

As I type this on Tuesday evening, Steve is still a bit congested but he said it feels like it's finally starting to drain, which means in a short matter of time, he'll be all better.  Stay tuned next week for when I'm sick and blogging about what an amazing job Steve is doing taking care of me (payback, the good kind).


In other news, I'm hoping for some positive thoughts, prayers, whatever you have to offer.
Two things going on right now - one of my cousins has melanoma, they've been working to get rid of it by removing skin and lumps, it was going well... but over the weekend I found out it's spread to her lungs, liver, armpit, shoulder, and her thigh.  She's 25.  How incredibly awful.
In addition to that, Steve's mom has been making several trips to the Mayo clinic here in MN - I don't want to get into great detail about that as it's Steve's personal life and not mine, but his mother is an amazing person and she could use thoughts and prayers as well.
We're hoping to keep our family around for all of 2012.  Thanks to all in advance.