Lone Bellow Concert

We had these tickets for a while and were surprised when the date snuck up on us so fast.  We started listening to Lone Bellow when they were announced for the 2013 ACL line-up.  And let me tell you, we were bummed when the Sunday acts were cancelled due to flooding at Zilker Park.  Yes, Lone Bellow was scheduled for Sunday.  We swore we would see them next time they toured.  Next time ended up being at the newly opened Music Box Club here in Cleveland.  If you haven’t seen an act perform at the Music Box, you must go.  We were seated within 10 feet of the stage, enjoyed a craft brew, and comfortably enjoyed a brilliant concert with storytelling in between.  May have been one of our best concert experiences and reminded us of the first time we saw Shawn Mullins at the little club in Chapel Hill, North Carolina when we first met.

The Floyd

During the Christmas break, B was charged with “the Floyd” from her teacher.  Floyd is a small, stuffed black lab that has exciting adventures.  Kids are tasked with taking “the Floyd” everywhere they go, then writing about Floyd’s adventures.  Not all of the adventures that Floyd enjoyed could be written down in the notebook, but here are a few of the more interesting pictures.

Floyd was enjoying a Wee-Heavy Stout over the holidays - shhh!

Christmas Excitement

Christmas morning is always a wonderful time in our house.  I love the tradition of watching the girls going straight to their stocking to see what surprises Santa left and B looking to see if Santa ate her cookies and shared carrots with the reindeer.  After all the presents are opened, we gather for breakfast strata - a tradition that we've managed to keep up for every Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We definitely have a lot to be grateful for.

Culinary Vegetable Institute and Date Night

We are very fortunate in our area to have a strong Farm to Table movement.  We are also very lucky to have the Culinary Vegetable Institute in our backyard (well, 45 minutes away).  They host dinners a few times a year to share their seasonal vegetables and we finally signed up for one.  We were treated to several small courses throughout the evening with an interesting story about each course.  We met Farmer Lee Jones (yes, he was in his trademark bibs!), were encouraged to wander around the kitchen (which we did) and dined on inventive appetizers and desserts.  My only regret is that it was so dark outside, preventing us from wandering around and viewing the outside grounds.

Such a great evening with the husband!

24 Days of Christmas

This year was hit or skip for the 24 Days of Christmas activities.  I had everything laid out and organized, but the holiday season was so hectic with my work, B’s activities, and Meg being at school.  My accuracy rate was probably 75% this year (although Meg would argue it's closer to 50%).  We still managed to hit all our Friday Night Family Activities.  The first Friday was watching Elf.  Second Friday was spent enjoying pizza from Angelos (another tradition).  But the most exciting family activity was our Lolly the Trolley tour, which included visiting the Christmas Story House.  I would highly recommend this tour for everyone who is a fan of The Christmas Story or just enjoys a tour of Cleveland and looking at the pretty lights.

Visiting Santa

Love this picture of B with Santa.  What’s better than sharing your Christmas list with Santa, then enjoying an ice cream at Mitchell’s?!

I wonder what they're talking about?

Learning to Ski

I think it’s important to learn to ski at an early age, if possible.  I learned at 34 (1 month before my 35th birthday to be exact) and would never recommend that.  For starters, I understand our hospitalization insurance too well and I don’t have the lower center of gravity that a small kid has.  When you hit the ground, it hurts…a lot.

Kids, on the other hand, are fearless and learn so much faster.  Meg started ski lessons at 7 and has also enjoyed snowboarding (especially being in class with Lil Wayne's kid) and cross country skiing.  Our schedules finally eased up enough, and Mother Nature cooperated with a nice blanket of snow. 

Love this pic of B.  I’m more pizza slice, and she’s totally French fries on her skis!

Playing Around at Target

Sometimes, the best memories and most fun can be had in a spontaneous way....in the aisles at Target!