Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!!

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my brother is married!

last weekend, we had the pleasure of heading to chapel hill for my brother's wedding! it was such a wonderful celebration, and we are super excited that God brought him and his new wife together in marriage - we love her, and she fits in very well with our family :)  all of us were in the wedding, so that was fun, and there were several great events throughout the wedding weekend that we enjoyed. 

we drove to chapel hill after work on friday, met my family for a late dinner, and got jefferson situated at the "guys' house" - my sister-in-law's brother's house where most of the guys were staying for the weekend.  apparently jefferson had quite the time bunking up with the 15 or so guys.  he even spooned with one of my brother's friends on the futon, so he felt right at home (since he usually sleeps curled up against my stomach). 

saturday, my mom, sister, and i got mani/pedi's and walked down the street to the bridesmaids lunch, which was at this cute little restaurant called four eleven west.  it had great food, and we sat in this little greenhouse-like area that was perfect for the eveng!  while the girls were at the bridesmaids lunch, the guys all went to the "guys' house" for a bbq lunch hosted by some of our best family friends.  jefferson got to partake in that lunch too!  after the lunches, a bunch of us helped get the rehearsal dinner room decorated.  it looked so pretty!  the restaurant/bar, top of the hill, now has a great event facility that was perfect for their rehearsal dinner! 

we headed back and got dressed for the wedding rehearsal, which went very smoothly, followed by the rehearsal dinner.  because it was somewhat of a "destination wedding", all of the guests who were in town that evening were invited to the rehearsal dinner, so we had a little cocktail hour with just family and wedding party members before the rest of the guests arrived.  the rehearsal dinner was great - yummy food, sweet (and funny) toasts, and a fun time with our family and friends.  after that, we headed upstairs to the bar area in top of the hill for a few hours before heading back to the carolina inn for bed. 

sunday - wedding day!!  we got up and hung out a bit before heading to the wedding day brunch at this great little restaurant called the armadillo grill in carrboro, which is right next to chapel hill.  after the brunch, it was basically time to start getting ready for the big event :)  kel did my hair and makeup, which looked great - i really think she could go into business doing that!!  the guys convened in the hotel lobby around 2 to head to the church in this cute trolley, which came back for the girls afterwards.  kristin dressed at the church and was such a beautiful bride!!  what a happy, exciting day!!

we took some pre-wedding pictures at the church - it was a cute church in the country, antioch baptist church, with a pretty steeple and lots of pretty poinsettias inside.  gotta love weddings close to Christmas that get to take advantage of places being so nicely decorated (we did the same thing :))!  i got to spend some time with my dad, brother, and sister before the ceremony just hanging out in one of the rooms while billy and the other groomsmen ushered people into the church, so that was kind of nice. 

the wedding was wonderful!  the ceremony was so sweet and personal, and i think most people in the room got a little teary as kristin walked toward bryan, both of them tearing up a bit.  so sweet! 

afterwards, we took lots of pictures and then the whole wedding party piled into the trolley for the trek back to the carolina inn for the reception.  the hotel was decorated beautifully for Christmas, and the ballroom where the reception was held was so elegant!  we had great food and drinks, and the band was awesome!  they had the band liquid pleasure, which is a great wedding/party band in the area - so fun!!  bryan and kristin started out with a choreographed first dance that was very impressive, then the father/daughter and mother/son dances.  everyone ate dinner after that, and then the dancing began and didn't end until almost midnight when the bride and groom had to leave!  it was such a special weekend and fun time with our family and friends, and we are so thankful that we have expanded our family yet again! 

i'll post more pictures later when i get them too :)  i think they're spread out on several of our cameras! these are the only ones i have for now...

beautiful birdcage with two live doves in the hotel lobby

gorgeous bride!!!

wedding gift from bryan - they'll be on their honeymoon for Christmas, so he got them stockings :)

steed (& chorey) girls

my mom looked so beautiful!

ridin in high style :)

trolley!

cheers!

peppermint bark

a few weeks ago, i tried some peppermint bark my friend had made for her pampered chef show, and it was delicious!  so i decided that would be a great, easy thing to make for our co-workers for a little Christmas gift.  here's the finished product!

i used "candy melts" from michaels, which worked great, and put them in little to-go containers (like decorative chinese takeout boxes) for everyone at the office to enjoy. 

here's the recipe (and there's a more complete version on leslie's facebook pampered chef page :))

put 3-4 candy canes in a plastic baggie and pound with the smooth side of a meat tenderizer (this will probably make kind of a mess because as the candy canes start to break apart, they tear the bag a little bit) - set aside for later

melt one bag of white candy melt chips (or whatever color you want to use) in the microwave for around 2 minutes - stir to make the candy completely melted/smooth

melt one bag of red (or other color - leslie's recipe had used chocolate, but i thought i'd try out something different just to see how it worked) candy melt chips in the microwave for around 2 minutes - stir to completely melt candy

leslie's recipe suggested adding peppermint extract to the chocolate candy melts, but i didn't have any, so i left it out - i'm sure it would have been a nice addition though :)

line a baking sheet/pan (with edges - not the totally flat kind) with a parchment paper, allowing the paper to cover the edges

scoop alternating spoonfuls of each color on the baking sheet (so it looks kind of like a checkerboard) with a little bit of space between each spoonful

run a knife, spatula, or small spreader through the melted candy in both directions to make marbled lines

tap the baking sheet on the counter to make the candy spread out and form one solid sheet - then pour the candy cane pieces over the top and place in the fridge for at least 15 minutes to harden

break up the pieces, and it's ready to serve!

very easy and inexpensive recipe (under $15 for 2 batches, which i used for 9 people) and it looks really professional!

snow!

we are currently having our third snow of the year, which is crazy!  usually, it doesn't snow here until january or february, so hopefully this cold weather we've been having means that spring will come earlier. 
i'm excited to have a half-day at work so i can go home and pack for the wedidng and finish up my family's christmas presents.  and relax with billy and jefferson :)

people get so crazy around here when it snows...most of the local schools were cancelled as of the 11:00 news last night, but it actually didn't start snowing until close to 10 this morning.  we were very skeptical that it would actually snow, but it has made the day very pretty.  but, it has not made the roads fun.  i can deal ok with slippery roads - just drive slowly, don't freak out, and you'll probably be ok (jealous of suv drivers now though!).  what i find amusing is how most people around here completely lose their ability to drive rationally when it begins to snow.  today, thankfully i haven't seen any wrecks, but i did see a large blue van run a very red light right after i'd gone through the green light at an intersection.  not sure if the driver didn't think they could stop (they were several hundred feet from the red light and probably hadn't seen it in its green state at all) or what, but i'm glad i wasn't going through the intersection a few seconds later.  right after that, i saw a guy on a motorcycle plowing through the snow on the shoulder.  i feel bad that he was stuck out in the snow on a motorcycle, but maybe getting a ride in a car or taking the bus would've been a better option on a potentially snowy day.  hopefully he made it wherever he was going safely...i was afraid he was going to slide out when i was driving past him on my way to work.  i'm sure i'll see lots of other interesting things on my short commute home! 

hopefully our drive tomorrow won't be too snowy!!  but the snow this weekend could make for a very pretty wedding :)

New York Girls Weekend

this past weekend, my mom, sister, and i had a girls weekend in new york city!  so fun!!  kel had a couple of free nights at a w hotel to use before the end of the year (perks from her sales job :)), and so we took a weekend in what has turned out to be a very busy time in our lives - between thanksgiving, bryan and kristin's wedding, and Christmas - and got away for a few days.  i LOVED the city!!  i really think i could live there - at least for a year or so.  well, maybe not with the super cold temperatures, but it actually wasn't much colder than our weather has been lately.  it's so nice that people walk everywhere, there are so many fun things to do and places to go, it seems like a pretty active population, and it's great to not be car-dependent! 

i will post more later when i get the rest of the pictures from kel, but for now, here is a little glimpse of our fun weekend...

our modern room at the w new york downtown hotel...our room overlooked the ground zero site, which was really neat

the edge of central park as we walked to the frick collection (which i highly recommend!)

zuccotti park aka liberty plaza park

view of upper east side from the jackie o reservoir in central park

plaza overlooking the lake in central park

"the sphere" sculpture that survived the 9/11 attack and was moved to a memorial site in battery park...the flame in front of the sculpture has been burning constantly since 9/11/2002

last picture of the trip! 

next girls trip, we'll have one more girl in the group!  i'm also very excited to visit the city with billy, hopefully sometime before too long!  i think he'll love it too!!

Bachelorette Fun!

so i only had a couple of decent pictures of my own from the bachelorette weekend for my future (in 11 days!!) sister-in-law, but i found some of her pics from the fun weekend in savannah :)

 i flew into savannah on friday afternoon, and the rest of the girls driving down picked me up on their way into town.  we got settled at the hotel, had a drink, and headed out to find some dinner, winding up at vinnie van gogo's, a good pizza place in the city market area.  it was very good and, more importantly, cheap (gotta love the byob restaurants :)), leaving us with more money to spend at the good consignment shop and cute boutiques we found on saturday.  we had a lingerie shower for kristin and played "the question game" where kristin had to see how her answers about various questions lined up with those of bryan...very fun! 

in the city market

sisters!

more sisters and lizzie :)

saturday, we got up and went walking alongside a parade, which was entertaining.  we stumbled across a great consignment shop and all walked away with some fun things!  i actually wore the dress i got for my anniversary dinner (don't have a picture :( ) and will probably wear it to a wedding this spring as well!  after shopping for a bit, we headed to lafayette square for a picnic.  it was such a beautiful, warm day, and the picnic was a perfect lunchtime activity!  after that, we did a little more shopping in the boutiques around town and headed back to the hotel to start to get ready for dinner.  we did a little champagne toast in the room and then walked to dinner at the olde pink house. i would strongly recommend this restaurant to anyone visiting savannah - it was so yummy, we had great service, and the building itself was really unique.  it was an old mansion that has since been converted into a restaurant (and has some additions as well for a bar and special events hall).  after that, we went to rocks on the roof, a cool rooftop bar downtown overlooking the river.  it's on of those bars that has garage doors, which were open because of the warm night - love it!  then, we headed to a club called saya, where we danced and helped kristin to check off the final items of her "bachelorette to-do list".  so it was a very fun night for all!!

in lafayette square for our picnic

future mrs steed!! (jennifer, one of the bridesmaids, actually made the pretty sash!)

waiting for our table at the olde pink house

breaking out our fun masks...thanks kel!

kel & me after our yummy dinner

rocks on the roof

saya...i'm pretty sure we were all watching kristin do a crazy dance by herself (one of her "to do's")


sunday, we all got up and headed out fairly early.  kel and i got to enjoy a quick lunch at the airport before my flight, which was fun :) 


we are so excited about the wedding coming up in a week and a half and can't wait to get another new family member!!

4 years ago...

...we got married!!  it was the most perfect wedding day i could have ever imagined, and we've had so much fun over the past 4 years and look forward to what God has planned for us ahead.  it's been challenging at times but the good times have always outweighed the bad, and we have both grown a lot through our marriage thus far.  we are so thankful for our sweet family and friends who supported us that day and continue to be there for us! 

here are some highlights from the day...

guys on the lawn pre-ceremony

billy's family

my family

girls on the lawn pre-ceremony

we're married!!

we raced to the lawn to get a few pictures in the beautiful sunset

we had such a fun band - trademark!

couldn't resist :)

Thanksgiving

we went to lake burton and atlanta for thanksgiving this year, which was lots of fun.  we drove down on wednesday around noon and only got stuck in a little bit of traffic, making it to the lake rabun hotel before 9 (even with a grocery stop in there!).  we had dinner at the cute hotel, and it was great - so fun to be with family and eating good non-thanksgiving food :)

after that, we headed to our lakehouse to spend the night and meet up with the rest of our extended family the next day.  it was a nice, relaxing day, filled with several walks, good food, and nice visits with family members, some of whom we hadn't seen in years!  we are very blessed to have a close family with so many sweet people.  the day was lowkey with the exception of grandpa almost rolling his car down a steep hill...thankfully, he was ok (only casualty was the right side-view mirror and a couple more dents to the side :)), and it gave the men a little problem-solving activity to end the day with. 

we went back to atlanta that night, and the rest of our time there was basically filled with relaxation, hanging out with the family, and watching football.  friday, we had our 10-year high school reunion, which was fun.  i was a little unsure how it would be, as i hadn't seen most of the people there in 10 years, but it was so fun to catch up with people and see what everyone is up to now.  saturday, we did our yearly Christmas tradition of dinner at the varsity, which we moved up to thanksgiving since it'll only be my parents and kel at their house for Christmas this year.  we got to check out the latest improvements on bryan's house, which is coming along well, and got back to watch tech lose to georgia when they should've been able to win. 

sunday, we basically got up and headed out in order to get back here with time to get the car unpacked and to settle back into our house before the work week started.  it was so fun being with my family, but it's always nice to come home as well!  and, we're excited to see them all soon - at the WEDDING!!  (and my nyc visit with mom and kel next weekend :))

so, we did a really poor job of taking pictures on our trip, and the only ones i have are of the dog from my phone and one taken from someone's facebook album of the reunion...

jefferson resting up on the trip down

worn out on the way back

tom rittle, sarah morgan's husband, billy, laura, and me