Sunday, April 10, 2011

Great Catch-Up : Valentine's Day

This year, in addition to our individual plans for romance, we had a lovely double date with Jacque and Clyde at our new favorite place in Bridgeport (a southside neighborhood), Nana. No pictures of the delicious food, but it was a good time had by all...


Great Catch-Up : Grandma Wright's Birthday

It is truly embarrassing that we haven't been to visit our relatives in Indiana in at least a couple years. With Grandma Wright's birthday around the corner in February, we thought a visit was finally in order!

In addition to bringing tons of food to cook for the masses over birthday weekend, Jacque brought Grandma this beautiful necklace...


In honor of Mark (of Mark and Diane), our hosts for the weekend, Jacque was going to make Mark his favorite dessert - angel food cake. We did run into a few issues (smoke filled oven!) but it turned out delicious in the end!




Jacque brought decorations so the whole family, including Brittany's three beautiful kids, could help with making the den perfect for Grandma's birthday celebration. We were excited to have all sorts of family on-hand, including Heath's cousin Nathan and Steve and Liz with their three kids...















Great Catch-Up : New Years

The winter season had more than just Christmas fun!

For starters, we got quality time with Mackensey, including checking out Rick Bayless' new restaurant, Xoco, known for authentic Mexican street food. Yummy...




Then, we traveled down to Kansas City to ring in the new year with the Tomlinson family. Lots of good conversation and, of course, Heath whooping his cousins in various video games...



Of course, the big highlight was finally partaking in Clyde's big birthday present: Tickets to the Chiefs game! We had breakfast with the McGinnis clan beforehand, which was awesome. The game itself was a lot of fun, but it was a little sad to see the Division Champ Chiefs lose to the Raiders - boo...











Great Catch-Up : A Double Christmas

We had a long, wonderful Christmas extravaganza. We got out to DC a few days early and were able to visit with friends like Jess and Adam in Virginia Beach (see below) and Adam and Sarah in Baltimore.


Christmas Eve was celebrated at Aunt Renee's place with dear friends Barbara and Adrienne in attendance. There was a lot of wonderful food and Violet was a doll in her jingle bell collar.














Christmas Day was spent at Dad's place. He and Lynn made a wonderful breakfast and we had presents "round two," followed by a rousing game of Take Two (between Tiara, Dad, Heath and myself), while others worked on the traditional Christmas puzzle...








That night, we did what Pietrangelos do and went for Chinese food at House of Dynasty!



Then, we went over to Tiara's new place and kicked butt at Wii golf. Below, Heath and Bryan enjoying one another's company...


The next day, we all went and saw South Pacific at The Kennedy Center. While a little dated, it was a lovely show...





And now, for the Double Christmas! One of the treats of having the Carters in Chicago is that we were able to drive back from DC and start our Christmas celebration all over again with Jacque, Clyde and Mackensey. Not just wonderful gifts, but wonderful food!





Violet's favorite gift of the season? Her new Chiefs jersey!