Pasta Making with the Italy Crew

Starting the pasta making lesson
Our pasta is resting

Sandy starting to stretch her dough

Gary cutting his dough

Look at all that beautiful pasta...homemade with love

The final result

Good times!

Wow how time flies...it's been a while since we've had a post. We're gearing up for our trip to Italy, so we had a little pasta night to talk about some of the details. Unfortunately Daniel was playing photographer so we didn't get him in any of the pictures, but he was there too :)

Happy 2012!

A Little New Years Kiss

We brought in the New Year with our good friends Gary and Sandy. Champagne, Crab legs, and caviar...can't go wrong with that!

Merry Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve Eve Dinner with Kenny and Val at the Chameleon Cafe

Daniel making our Christmas Eve Fettuccine

Robin helping cut the fettuccine

Yummm

and it's cooking...

Lovely presentation

Reggie Christmas morning enjoying his stocking

Sam doing the same

Some of our decor

blankets for the homeless

Gary and Sandy helping us for the second year hand out blankets

One thing is for sure, we are very blessed! It's easy sometimes to forget just how blessed we really are. While it's hard to be away from family this time of year, we have great friends here in Baltimore who fill the void. This Christmas has been slightly weird, it's been warm and didn't really feel like the Holiday Season we are used to. However once the weekend came and we started participating in our now traditions, it was clear Christmas was here. Typically we have dinner with friends on Christmas Eve. This year we moved it up a day and spent Christmas Eve Eve with Val and Kenny at Chameleon Cafe. Christmas Eve we stayed home and made ourselves some Christmas Fettuccine. It was so good I think it's now a new tradition. Christmas morning we woke to open all the gifts our families had sent. I'm not sure we deserve all the wonderful gifts but we appreciate the thought and effort that went into all of them. Lastly we hit the streets with our friends Gary and Sandy to hand out blankets to the homeless here in Baltimore. We were able to provide a holiday gift for 25 people this year, and hope to be able to grow our efforts in the years to come.

We hope all of our family and friends had a wonderful Christmas! We love you and miss you!

Holiday Party!

Daniel and Robin
Val, Kenny, Shawn, and Jenna

Val, Robin, and Jenna

The entire party gang

Just the Ladies

Our Beautiful Tree!

We hosted a holiday party for some coworkers and man did we have a blast. It was nice to get together outside of work and share in the holiday spirit....and some adult spirits as well. You know its a good party when there's nothing left the next morning. 'Tis the Season!

The traditional Post-Thanksgiving decorating!

We found the perfect tree!
Daniel strapping it to our car

Off we go!

It's a perfect fit...Before!

Ta-da.....After!

It's tradition for us to decorate the house for the holidays after Thanksgiving...it gives us a chance to work of some of that turkey. We have always used an artificial tree, but this year we decided to go for the real thing. We picked out the most beautiful tree and its' now calling our living room home for the holidays. The house is now busting with Christmas spirit!

Thanksgiving in Baltimore

Carving the Turkey
Yummy and Perfect!

The Holiday Table

Daniel at work

Kathy, Robin and Lori

Lori enjoying the appetizers

Robin starting the fire

Kathy with the Grandogs

Robin's Mom and Sister made the trip to Baltimore to spend Thanksgiving with us. We had a fun filled weekend of cooking, eating, and tinis (we discovered the 12 days of cocktails!). What a wonderful thanksgiving it turned out to be!

Jenna & Shawn's 10th Anniversary Masquerade

Robin & Daniel in their Masks
Kenny, Val, Robin and Daniel

The happy couple, Jenna and Shawn

Kenny, Mark & Carey

Daniel and Robin playing the Newlywed Game

Kitty Cat

The Yummy Food

More Yummy Food

The Awesome Cake

We were invited to celebrate Jenna and Shawn's 10th wedding anniversary. The masquerade themed event was very well done and so much fun. Jenna and Shawn are a wonderful example of how a great marriage can work. Congratulations on 10 years and thanks for having such a great party!