Christmas Parties Galore...

Christmas came and went like a whirlwind this year! What happened? I'm not sure, but it was a lot of fun! James and I feel so blessed to have so much family located in one central place. It does call for a lot of party hopping, but Christmas is the perfect time of year to be party animals, right? We started off Christmas Eve at my aunt and uncles house; we did a "Lessons and Carols" session with some scripture and carols sung. My little cousin Aleah decided her role would be the angel, and she took this position very seriously. In her mind, angels prance through the living room during "hark the herald angel's sing" with a special star wand, and a very solemn expression on their face. She might be right...who can say?

Then we had a little immediate family gift exchange at my parents house...

Christmas morning we were off to the Rienstra's household for a fabulous day of gifts and merriment. Check out this monster mystery box...any guesses?

And look - it's a Bob in a bow!

We were graced with a choir girl in a snuggie...

And I'm so thankful to the Lord for my hottie sisters....who ever imagines they'll marry into a household of snuggie models? :0)

Later Christmas Evening we went over to the Noteboom Family Christmas...

And the infamous Christmas present game was as crazy as always...people even steal gifts from poor grandma!

We spent the next day with James' extended family, but sadly no photos of this event. All in all, we had a wonderful time with family - LOVE coming home to visit them. Now if we could only get them over to our side of the country... (wink wink!)

Been awhile...

It's been awhile since I've last posted. Probably because there has been lots of reading and writing for final papers, memorizing French vocab for French tests, and editing of writing samples for Ph.D. applications (and might I add that James turned in his first application today, which called for Trader Joe's peppermint bark to celebrate!).

Despite the fact that I get to study in a library that looks like this, and that I sometimes pretend I live at Hogwarts and that my best friends are Ron and Hermione,

I'm still basically covered in books like this, writing papers on the moral significance of innovation. Thus my world is not quite as glamourous as that of Harry Potter, especially when I don't have a broomstick to grab and a quidditch match to go play.

So I still find myself day-dreaming in the midst of my studies, especially when I find posts like this one on the topic of English country houses:

(http://www.designspongeonline.com/2009/12/past-present-english-country-house-diy-project.html)

And then I start looking on Travelocity for cheap tickets to go visit here:

And guess what - I found a killer deal with roundtrip tickets from NYC to London, including 6 nights hotel and 6 days of breakfast, all for the ripe price of $599.00 - are you kidding me!?! Anybody up for a jaunt to the continent?

Well, let me know, in the meanwhile - I'm back to the library...

Birthday Boy

This post is late in coming, but on the eve of Thanksgiving I am immensely thankful for my husband, and for our friends who helped us celebrate James’ birthday this year, and for our family who sent James their birthday love.

James requested Red Velvet Cake this year, and after searching 4 stores I finally find red food coloring.

We went bowling for the evening, which was a grand time!

Karen and Al:

Me and Anna:

The boys having a team pow-wow:

Strategy:

James and Marc:

Ben, Karen, and Vivek:

Princeton v. Yale

Last Saturday James and I went to the Princeton v. Yale game with a group of friends. This game is supposed to be the biggest rivalry of the year...and this year the Tigers won! The weather was really nice, a perfect fall day to watch a game. We had a lot of fun, but I can't imagine that watching this game is anything like watching a Notre Dame game....maybe next year we'll just happne to be in South Bend, who can say?

Philadelphia

A few weekends ago we had the pleasure of having some friends from home come visit us here in Princeton. B.J. and Rachel Louws are friends from our hometown/SPU, and James has been good friends with B.J. for quite some time. They were out in Philly for a work conference, and then came and spent a weekend with us. It was great to catch up with them, and we spent an afternoon roaming around Philadelphia. Checked out the Liberty Bell again, Rachel and I visited the grand and large Anthropologie downtown, and we explored the grounds of Ben Franklin’s old house. I am always captivated by the incredible architecture in this city – so many fine and beautiful structures.

James and I on the grounds of Ben Franklin's home:


Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was drafted:




This building was the second bank established in the US:

Notre Dame Plays USC Tomorrow

I HEART SEATTLE (Part Two)

Surprise, Surprise...I couldn't fit all my "I heart Seattle" pics in the last post, so here goes round two. One of the things James and I always try to do when we visit the homeland is try to round up as many friends as possible, and this last trip we had dinner at Tutta Bella (amazing pizza) with Jay, Trisha, Evan, and Laura. Then Laura and I took off for capitol hill to meet up with Kristen at "The Garage," which is like an upscale bowling alley. Seem like an oxy-moron (upscale bowling)? It usually is, but not at the garage.

Here we are just outside The Garage with the neon sign in the background.

The girls at Tutta Bella.

And the boys.

One of our blessings on this last trip was the overbooked flight from Seattle to Philly - James and I volunteered our seats for flight voutures, a free night at a hotel, and one extra full day in Seattle. The day was sunny and glorious, and we spent it downtown at the Sculpture Park and Pioneer Square.

A silver tree in the sculpture park - I honestly walked right by it before James pointed out that it was a sculpture.

This piece here seems to be the most widely publisized. James doesn't care much for it, but I've grown somewhat fond of it.

This exhibit is called "waves" and is cool to walk through.

Here is James by his favorite sculpture. wink wink.

The gorgeous pier-side.

The interior of Elliot Bay Bookstore, a beloved Seattle landmark that I had never actually visited before. It was grand - I spent an hour looking through a book on Italian Architecture.

All of the buildings around Pioneer Square are so beatiful - rich, textured details that harken back to a grander era (aka pre-modern square cement cold architecture).

Pioneer Square

The Pioneer building

This is the headquarters to Tully's coffee--I actually love the way they transformed this brick building into a colorful and whimsical landscape. It used to be the old Rainier Brewery building.