Top 5

Yes, I have been deep in the middle of busy season. That's my excuse for the lack of blog entries lately. That and the fact that not much exciting has been happening. Trust me. Here's the top 5 (in no particular order):

1. Aunt Karen visits

The weekend after we returned from Copper Mountain, we were lucky enough to get a visit from Aunt Karen, who had a conference in Princeton, NJ and decided to head to the Northeast a little early. Luckily, work was just starting to get busy, so I wasn't working the whole time. We picked her up at the Newark Airport on Saturday afternoon and, after nearly running out of gas on the New Jersey Turnpike, we made it back to Connecticut. We watched a little basketball and then headed to Barcelona in South Norwalk for tapas for dinner.

The next morning, Aunt Karen and I headed in to New York City to try to catch a Broadway show. It was my first time to visit the TKTS ticket booth and I was so glad we were able to get tickets for the show Aunt Karen wanted to see, Mamma Mia. We did some shopping along Broadway and then headed to the show. Our seats were only a few rows from the stage and the musical was great! Tommy had etouffee waiting for us when we got home - YUM!

On Monday I had to work, so Aunt Karen spent the day wandering around Greenwich and we took her to Colony Grill for pizza for dinner. Tuesday morning I drove her to Princeton for her conference and managed not to get lost once!!

2. It snowed...

several times. This is winter in Connecticut after all. I got to stay home for one snow day, which was nice even if I did still work all day. We also had one very comedic morning that involved me getting Tommy's car stuck in the ice on our driveway and not being able to get back to the house on the ice in my dress shoes. Our driveway was literally like a skating rink! I ended up calling Tommy from the driveway, waking him up, and making him come get me from his car. He carried me to my car, fell trying to scrape the ice from my windshields and somehow managed to get my car out of the driveway. His was stuck until I could bring home something to de-ice our driveway after work. Strangely enough, the roads were fine...

3. Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was very low key around our house. We will eventually go have a fancy Valentines dinner in NYC, just not actually on the 14th. I worked pretty much all day, making time for a trip to the grocery store and dinner. Tommy was wonderful! He sent roses to my office on Thursday and got me some cute PJs. He also made our WHOLE Valentines Day feast by himself - steak, lobster, caprese salad and homemade tres leches cake. It was delicious!!

4. I worked...

Of course. I've worked every day since Aunt Karen left - I think today was day 25. It's no fun - and I know I've never read so much about so many utility companies in my life. Fortunately, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, which is why I'm taking a little time to blog. I may even get a day or 2 off this weekend!!

5. A chimp went crazy in Stamford, Connecticut

This is actually a very sad story. A woman's pet chimp went crazy and attacked her friend, almost killing her. She's still in critical condition. However, it must have been a very slow news day because this story was all over the national news - the Today Show, CNN, just to name a few. No, we did not know her and I'm not sure where she lived. Stamford is small, but not quite that small. I was amazed by the number of friends and family that asked me about the poor chimp that day.

There you have it - January and February at the Mhire house. Oh, and Tommy has also played lots of computer games. Hopefully work will slow down soon and I'll have more to write about. Remember to plan your visits!!

Our Winter Getaway

After 2 years of Tommy heading off on January ski trips without me, my busy season finally starts a little later up here in Connecticut, so I was able to join him. We headed to Copper Mountain, Colorado with Austin, Travis, Chrissy and some of their family for a long Martin Luther King weekend.

We arrived Thursday afternoon and spent the rest of the day settling in to the condo, picking up our skis and getting groceries for our stay. We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Frisco. Yes, even the Mexican Food in Colorado is much better than Connecticut!

Here's the view of the slopes from the balcony of our condo:

We headed out to the slopes bright and early on Friday morning. We had absolutely beautiful weather the entire time - 25 to 35 degrees, sunny and not too windy. I was a little nervous at first because I hadn't been skiing in quite a few years, but I don't think its something you forget too easily. After a fun day skiing, we headed over to the tubing hill. We slid down the mountain for about an hour before heading back to the condo for shish-kabobs. So fun!

Saturday was another full day of skiing. For dinner, we headed to CB Grill, a fancy restaurant with steaks, fish and game. I had the fish special and Tommy had the tournedos of beef - sorry, no pictures!

Tommy was feeling pretty under the weather on Sunday, so we skiied just long enough to make it to the top of the mountain for a group photo. I did head out on my own for one run - just to be able to say that I'd skiied a black run on the trip! Here are some photos we took. Poor Austin hurt his ankle earlier in the day and couldn't make it up there.

We had Mexican food on our last night in Copper Mountain, as well. Unfortuately, Tommy wasn't feeling up to going, but I'm sure I ate enough for both of us.

After a 4 hour delay on the flight home that included circling LaGuardia for a few hours and flying to Hartford to refuel, we finally made it home. Busy season is upon me once again - wish me luck!

Happy New Year!

OK, so I know I'm a little behind on my blogging. It isn't quite February yet, so I'm not a month late yet. I would like to say that I'll be better about updating the blog, but with busy season upon me, I'm not so sure I'll have either the time, or the interesting material to write about, but I'll try.

Our New Year's celebration was quiet this year. We briefly considered heading in to New York City to celebrate with the millions of other crazy people at Times Square, but when the snow started to fall on New Year's Eve and we read that it would feel like almost zero degrees (farenheit!) when the ball dropped, we decided to catch it on TV instead. A wise choice, I think.

The snow fell pretty much all day long. Here's a photo looking out of our house early in the day:

I think Tommy has decided that he kind of likes to shovel snow - and he's getting to be an expert! He even shovels our neighbor's part of the driveway, what a nice guy!

We did manage to make it to the grocery store and cooked a yummy New Year's Eve meal. Traditional Swiss cheese fondue with bread and apples, French Onion Soup, Spinach Egg and Bacon salad, champagne (of course) and a delicious Bananas Foster for dessert. I think every dish in the kitchen was dirty, but it was worth it!

We even managed to stay up until midnight and ring in the new year watching all of the very cold people in Times Square in our very warm living room. Who can tell what other adventures 2009 have in store for us, but I'm excited to find out!

Christmas #3 - A Hill Country Christmas

On Christmas Eve, we left Houston and headed west to Boerne to my parents house. The time spent in Boerne can be summarized in 3 words - family, food and fun! We arrived to a Christmas Even dinner of small plates, finger foods and dips - boiled shrimp and remoulade, a cheese plate including my dad's homeade herb cheese (my favorite!), summer sausage, cream cheese and bacon bites, 7 layer dip followed by all kinds of cookies and fudge including Grandma's famous chocolate chip cookies, Ian's family recipe for meringues and yummy pecan fingers! No pictures, but I'm sure you can imagine. I was very excited to get to see little Evan again - my little nephew is growing SO fast (pictures soon!). Most of the family was up well past midnight wrapping presents (ok, so we go a bit overboard with stockings).

We all awoke on Christmas morning to this beautiful and VERY happy Christmas tree:

Here we are opening our presents:

We had breakfast - Ian's yummy cinnamon rolls and breakfast casserole:

Finally, it was time for our last little present opener to open his very first Christmas presents. Evan had so many presents we decided it would be best for him to have his own present opening after he ate. Here's the (slightly spoiled) little cutie:

His Grandma even found the perfect shirt :)

Yet another delicious meal for Christmas dinner - very British - prime rib, salad, mashed potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, Christmas pudding for dessert and of course, Christmas crackers. Don't we all look lovely in our Christmas cracker hats!?

On Friday, we tool a walk around the neighborhood in the balmy weather (70 degrees!). Friday evening, the Davis family - John, Jennifer, Reid Candice and Papa and Marianne joined us for hamburgers. Even though they were tired from a long day of travel, we had a great visit - it was so nice to finally get to meet Candice! Here are a couple more of my favorite photos from our visit:

On our last night in Houston, we were lucky enough to be able to meet Jeff and his new girlfriend, Sarah for dinner at Lupe Tortillas (YUM!) and meet up with Scott and Cynthia afterwards for drinks at Beaver's Restaurant and Bar. Living so far away, we really miss all of our friends, so it was so great to be able to see them!

Christmas #2 - A Gulf Coast Christmas

Our Gulf Coast Christmas began on Monday afternoon when we arrived at Tommy's mom and Robert's house in Houston. Rather than give a day-by-day account like I did for our Louisiana Christmas, I thought I would give my 5 favorite things about our Gulf Coast Christmas. They are (in no particular order):

1. The Amazing Christmas Candy Race

Tommy's Mom is so creative - we can never just open presents when we're at her house. In between stockings and before we opened the presents under the tree, Brandi, Ryan, Tommy and I participated in The Amazing Christmas Candy Race. The competition began with a toothpick and marshmallow structure building contest - first team to top 12 inches wins. Tommy and I were a close second in this competition.

Next, the race really began. Each team headed to a different room to search for a box of candy wrapped in our color wrapping paper. Attached to the box was a clue for our next challenge. We all ran around the house like crazy people counting Santas, putting the verses of The Night Before Christmas in order, putting together puzzles, throwing paper balls into a container blindfolded and doing brain teasers - it was so much fun! I'm happy to say that Tommy and I were victorious this time - Brandi and Ryan got hung up trying to complete the fast forward (putting together a whole puzzle rather than just the border) :)



2. Christmas Lights!

Robert had researched and had a long list of fun Holiday things we could do around Houston. We chose to go see Christmas Lights - what better way to get in the spirit of the season? We drove to the Prestonwood neighborhood in Northwest Houston - a neighborhood famous for its over-the-top light displays. From the block that was all decorated for The Night Before Christmas - Texas Style to the house whose lights were timed to music playing on its own radio station, they definitely did not disappoint!

3. Pappasitos

Kathryn and Robert knew that we had been missing our Mexican food up in Connecticut, so they treated us to dinner at Pappasitos - Fajitas for everyone! Sorry I don't have any pictures of the night, but we had a great time and the food was delicious!

4. Pot Roast Cook-Off

The pot roast cook off began with Tommy trying to show his mom and Brandi how to make pot roast for 2, rather than the usual version made in the giant Magnalite pot. Tommy tried to turn it into a competition to see whos pot roast was better, but I think the tasters were just glad they got to eat roast twice! I'd take either version any day of the week - YUM!

5. Time Spent with Family

Ok, a little cheesy, I know. #5 encompasses everything else we did while we were in Houston - baking, watching movies, playing games, opening presents and just hanging out. We hadn't seen Tommy's family since we moved up North, so it was great to get to spend some time with everyone. We're hoping that they can all make visits up to Connecticut sometime in 2009!

Christmas #1 - A Cajun Christmas

This year, Tommy and I were lucky enough to be able to celebrate Christmas not once, not twice, but 3 times, each with a different part of our family. After flying in to Houston on December 18th, our Christmas festivities began with drive down I-10 to Lafayette, Louisiana to visit Tom and Greta and the Mhires for the weekend. We made a slight detour down 6-10 to the Kolache Shoppe - best kolaches in Houston! They don't even know what a kolache is in Connecticut :(

Unfortunately, the beautiful floors in Tom and Greta's house had been ruined by water for the second time, but fortunately, their neighbors were nice enough to let us all stay at their house while they weren't using it. Friday afternoon, we headed over to Tom and Greta's property to watch Tom and Buck herd cattle. Tom is really enjoying learning how to herd and competing with Buck, and it sounds like he has great potential to excel in herding competitions. It was fun to watch! On Friday night, Momom and Papop joined us for Greta's delicious crawfish etoufee, we worked on putting together a puzzle and had a nice relaxing night.

Saturday afternoon and evening was the family Christmas celebration - this time we celebrated at Tommy's aunt Liz's house. As always, the food was delicious - a traditional cajun Christmas meal - pork roast, fried turkey, rice, corn and gravy, rice dressing, Mamom's cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole and of course miracle pie for dessert! This year, we started a new tradition with the "Dirty Santa" gift exchange, where everyone brought a gift and drew a number. When it was your turn to a gift, you could either unwrap one, or steal (like a white elephant, but the presents are good!). It was a great way to exchange gifts with a large number of people (18!) - thanks, Brandi! We were sad we didn't get to see Tommy's cousins Lindsey, who was in Africa and Jake, who was in a fairly serious car accident the night before we arrived (not to worry - he's OK).

Papop looked so handsome in his hat from Brandi and Ryan!

Sunday was a relaxing day of puzzles, cards, and smores by the fire. Tommy's godfather, Wes and his wife Chris stopped by for a few minutes and I learned bouree, a Cajun card game. Greta and I completed a 1000 piece puzzle and observed a very competitive game of hearts - Tom was the big winner!

On Monday, we headed back to Houston to begin our second celebration...

Christmas in New York!

So even though the high was 34 degrees, Tommy and I decided yesterday to brave the cold to experience the craziness that is Christmas in New York City. The wind wasn't too bad, so with many layers, the weather didn't really feel that cold.

My friend Turner, who lives in NYC, created a list, especially for me, of "Top 10 Places to Shop in NYC" and also "Top 4 Cliches Worth Visiting." Great lists! We visited almost all of them. We started out at Grand Central and headed down Broadway to Macy's in Herald Square to see the windows and holiday decorations. Here are a couple of photos:

From there, we continued down to Soho and West Village and made a couple of purchases at the stores Turner recommended and took the subway back to the Upper East Side. There, we took a look at the windows at Bloomingdales - the Tony Bennett Christmas music was playing in the background, so it really felt like Christmas.

We stopped in a few other stores as we headed back towards 5th. Ave. We skipped FAO Schwartz because the line stretched around the building, but stopped to look in the windows at Bergdorf Goodman - definitely more "avant garde" than the others, but really cool.

Our last sight-seeing stop of the night was the one we had been waiting all day for - the tree and skating rink at Rockefeller Center. It was SO crowded, but totally worth it!


We stopped for dinner (burgers) at Eamonn's Bar & Grill, an Irish pub near Grand Central before heading home. I'm not sure if it was because we were both really hungry, but the burgers were great! We may not have gotten nearly enough Christmas presents bought, but we had a fabulous day!