Christmas 2009

While I didn't get the puppy I was hoping for, (I got some other really cool stuff instead!), there was a lot to be thankful for this holiday season, particularly the amazing travel luck I've had the last few months! I flew home for Christmas on Thursday morning with one mission in mind, holiday shopping! Per usual I procrastinated to the point of utter ridiculousness, but thankfully the panic attacks were over within a matter of hours (just in time)!

Merry Christmas from NYC!

(go Bears!)

I always love being home, especially when the family is all together. This year Jon came to spend some time with us for the holidays, flying in Christmas Day! We had my grandfather over for dinner and spent a low key evening at home.

My parents had gotten a Wii for Christmas so we were rather entertained by that for most of the weekend, and when I say we I mean me! It would be an understatement to say things got competitive. I won't get into the details, but let's just say the "Single Ladies" dance was involved and some people spent a bit of time lying on the living room rug. I'd also like to note that I beat the boys in the boxing competition the first time round, I'm sure now you know who was doing the dancing!

Everyone put aside their Wii rivalries and on Saturday we went into the city to see Cirque de Soliel's Banana Schpeel. It was a good show, although unfortunately the audience was only half full...probably because it was snowing like crazy outside! (I was really excited to help shovel the driveway, I'm sure it's because I only have to do it once a year at most...I think in the end my "help" was anti-productive.)

Super fluffy snow, perfect for snowball fights!

At Banana Schpeel!

Saturday night we relaxed at home and everyone enjoyed some more Wii (surprise, surprise)! It was fun to watch my parents get into the golfing and bowling, apparently old dogs can learn new tricks :). Sunday, Jon helped me pack my new handheld mixer and spice rack in our carry on luggage, and some how with all that AND the new speakers Curtis gave me, we made it through security and back to NYC without any delay or hassles!

Dear Santa...

I have been a good girl this year; I brush my teeth every night before bed, I say please and thank you, I don't cut the old ladies off in the subway, and I try to make sure I always eat everything on my plate. This year I'd really like a dog (or two) so I can name them meat and potatoe. Please let me know if this is possible and I will make sure to leave dog treats under the tree.

Love,

Kate

p.s...Jon will be very diligent about looking after their poop, I'm planning on getting him some rubber poop so he can practice cleaning it up.

Graduation Celebrations

This weekend my family was out in Colorado to celebrate the youngest member of the family's graduation from college! It's official, Curtis is an alumni of CU Boulder...or as the Chancellor kept saying a Buff Alumni! Curtis and his fellow graduates from the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences stood out at the ceremony with their yellow/orange tassels (I'm envious as mine was a poop brown color)! After the ceremony we took some family pics (grad with parents, grad with sister, grad with random CU Boulder building, grad with tree, etc) and even got one with all of us...it was so bright out we unfortunately all look like ghosts!

After the graduation ceremony Curtis gave us an abbreviated driving tour of Boulder before we stopped at Boulder Cork for lunch. Ironically we were just talking about this place with some family friends a few weeks before as they're CU Boulder alumni and were curious if it was still around! Once we were sufficiently (so) full we decided to make our way to Vail where we were planning to continue the graduation weekend celebration! We took the scenic, aka very twisty with lots of cliffs, way which was so beautiful and made me realize how much I like Colorado! On the way it was funny to see how roles have changed over time...Curtis and I were up front driving, while the parentals napped in the back :)

Vail, Co

Our time in Vail was amazing, very relaxing without any real agenda. Days were planned around the meals and the meals were mmm mmm good. Curtis and I went snowboarding on Saturday and are definitely still in the learning phase...although I have to say he spent less time in the snow then I did so really I should only speak for myself! It was so sunny and not to cold, all the up and down helped with that I imagine!

Standing Up

(some of the time)

!?

(most of the time)

Curtis!

(Despite the snow on his back he did not fall right before this picture!)

Congratulations again Curtis! You are now joining the real world...I will expect larger and more lavish birthday, Christmas, just because gifts :)

It's Christmas Time in the City

Ring-a-ling, hear them ring...Christmas music always has the ability to make things a little brighter! It's officially that time of year (although the retailers have had Holiday decorations up since Halloween) as evidence by the lighting of the Christmas tree here at Rockefeller Center on Wednesday!

This weekend Jon and I got a Christmas tree for his apartment! This was the first time in a long time that I could remember getting a real tree. My parents a long time ago opted for the more practical fake option. I agree the ease of assembly and disposal is probably enough to justify the absence of the fresh pine needle smell (in addition to the constant "is it straight debate"), but I have to say it's so nice to have a real one even if it is a 4-ft mini version!

Heavy lifting

Fresh pine scent!

A few weeks ago we'd made a trip to Target to pick up lights and some ornaments and despite our initial concerns about having gotten 200 lights (our original estimate was for a bigger tree), the light to tree ratio didn't end up too bad! My favorite ornament we have, there are not many to choose from yet, is definitely the penguins with balls from Crate & Barrel. They're just so cute and happy looking!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!

Turkey Time

This weekend kicked off the upcoming holiday festivities with Turkey Fest 2009! I think I did the smart thing this year and waited to fly out on Thursday morning. Every other year when I've tried to fly out Wednesday night whether for Thanksgiving or the Christmas holiday it has resulted in multiple hour delays or diverted train rides to Philadelphia to fly out. This year everything was so smooth it felt too good to be true!

Thursday night was the official feast and when I got home, everyone was prepared to contribute to the making of the meal! I was a little surprised when I heard some of the dishes that were a part of the Porter Woo turkey feast...particularly the guacamole and the dumplings...but I guess that's what makes us unique! I would say it's a representation of our heritage, but last I heard we didn't have any Hispanic descendants, despite often being confused for this nationality!

Dinner was sooo good and needless to say it was successful as I spent the rest of the evening in the prone position with a sufficient food comma and promptly went to be at 9PM. Sadly there wasn't even room for dessert...no worries, breakfast was pretty good the next day if you get my drift ;)!

Friday I took it easy with the family; going for a run with Curtis, lounging around the house, and setting up the Christmas tree! This is the first of two trees I will be putting up this year. Jon and I are going to get a real tree in NYC which I'm excited about! I think after these 2 I might be able to go pro, I wonder if there's a market for that...there's apparently at least a market for having your tree brought to you and installed (tree delivery....only in NYC)!

Chicago Tree!

After building up an appetite from setting up the tree, I met up with my friends Cynthia and Ameena for dinner at Joy Yee's Noodle Shop in Evanston...yumm! It was so nice catching up with them, because I definitely don't seen them enough, especially over some delicious bubble teas!

So good!

Saturday started off with a family trip to Costco...it's been a while since I've been in one of these warehouses and I still get such a kick out of some of the gigantic quantity/sizes of what they sell. For example the gigantic container of mayo, the extra large bag of frozen fish, or the gigantic melons we discovered in the produce section!

They were so heavy

(but I can still hold them up w/one hand...I am jacked)

I made chocolate chip cookies later that day to take for dessert as we were going over to my friend's Becky's families house for dinner! This was the first time our whole families have been together in years...it was so crazy to see how much everyone had changed, but mostly our younger sibs!

Homemade Chocolate Chip Cookies!

It was another successful Thanksgiving break: no one burned the house down or the turkey! This year, as with every year, I am thankful for my amazing family and friends!

I see London, I see France....

...actually I saw them last week! Jon and I, reluctantly, returned from our vacation to Paris & London this Sunday. I did my best to protest our return - everything from walking slowly in the airport to my best "don't make me leave" face. Clearly that did not work and now we are back in New York.

We arrived to Paris on Sunday afternoon after an overnight flight from NYC. There was little sleep to be had en route and needless to say I was in desperate need of a nap. Miraculously we were able to motivate later that evening to do what ended up being quite the walking tour of Paris. We saw the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and explored a lot of cute Parisian streets along the way! I even had my first, of many, chocolate croissants that night!

Eiffel Tower!

Sooo good, can't stop to talk!

(or pose for pictures)

Monday was another big walking day to take in such sites as Cathédrale Notre Dame, the Louvre, Hôtel de Ville, etc! I had brought along a camera which was kind of big/heavy so just as we were approaching Notre Dame Jon volunteered to carry it for me. He had put it around his neck as a joke, but in those few seconds it acted as a gigantic bulls eye pegging us as tourists (not that I think we blended in otherwise). Almost instantaneously other visitors were asking us to take their pictures, the local panhandlers had swarmed him, and I'm pretty sure the pigeons even started to flock in our direction (ew). We learned our lesson and swiftly put the camera back in the backpack.

Cathédrale Notre Dame

Jon

("the tourist")

The Louvre!

Paris in the fall!

There was certainly a lot of walking in Paris, I'm pretty sure that's why I took the liberty to eat whatever I wanted (including desert every night) throughout the trip. On Monday we were able to catch up with one of Jon's former work colleagues, Gaby, for dinner where I had an amazing chocolate soufflé to end the meal (it was so good I "forgot" to share)! :)

For our last full day we ventured out to see Versailles, a first for the both of us. The trip got off to an interesting start. While we were waiting for the train to take us out to Versailles I saw a pigeon hop onto one of the trains that had pulled into the station! I guess it decided it was the wrong one, because just as the doors closed it jumped out (Jon will claim I was more entertained by this then by Versailles).

Versailles was very beautiful and opulent from the front gates/facade of the palace and even more so when you see exactly how large the grounds/gardens are. We were able to explore a good majority of the palace and some of the grounds (although it would take days just to walk around those)! We decided to head back into the city and try to see Sacré-Coeur before it closed especially since it was just becoming dark (which I had read was the best time to head up there). The views of Paris were awesome!

Versailles!

Hall of Mirrors

(the full length mirror at home has nothing on this place)

On Wednesday we took the Eurostar to London for the next leg of our trip! That evening we went out to Amersham with my friend Christina to see where her and her boyfriend Chris have been living for the past year and to try some good local curry! It was so good to see her, catch up, and check out a little of life outside of London!

Drinks at a local pub!

In London we did some sightseeing and lots of catching up with friends which was amazing! Having both been to London before we opted for a double decker bus tour. It was great cause we got to see/learn so much about the city from our trusty guide, Brent! The only downside was that it was quite chilly by the end of the 2 hour tour. We remedied that by having some Viatnamese Pho in China Town afterwards!

Parliment

(where business gets done)

Big Ben

(so they know when it's time to do business)

Beginning of the Tour

End of the tour

(cold!)

China Town

Thursday night we had a nice dinner at Roka a Japenese restaurant close to where we were staying. Unfortunately it was downpouring when we were leaving for our reservation and on the way had mistaken Koba, a Korean BBQ restaurant around the corner, for Roka (can be very confusing when it's downpouring and you're hungry) so by the time we found the restaurant the rain had entirely soaked through the back of Jon's shirt! The food was very worth it though!

On Friday we did a little walking tour of some of the sites we'd seen on the bus tour the prior day. We walked to Buckingham Palace, Parliment, and the London Eye before heading to meet up with Jon's friends Brian and Andrea and their visitor's from Washington DC. That afternoon/evening we were going to check out Borough Market, do a little pub hopping, and have dinner!

The market was really cute and the cheese sandwiches and apple cider we had were really good! This place was similar to Chelsea Market in NYC but so much bigger! After the market we headed to a few of the Brian and Andrea's favorite pubs in London before heading to dinner at a cute and delicious French restaurant. There was an appetizer on the menu called "piggy treats" which we, of course, had to try. It was sooo good, but lets just say it'll be a while before I'm craving bacon again. After dinner (and stuffing myself beyond belief...everything was so good it was impossible to resist) we headed to Jerusalem Tavern where Christina and Chris met up with us! Such a great night in London!

Borough Market!

Drunk Cheese!

George Inn

(opened 1300's)

Ye Olde Mitre

(opened 1500's)

"Piggy Treats"

Me, Jboy, Brian, and Andrea!

(outside of Jerusalem Tavern - opened 1720)

Chris, me, Christina, Jboy!

For our last day of vacation we decided to take it easy and rest up. We had Dim Sum in the morning with Christina and Chris and in the afternoon we caught up with Jon's friends Bobby and Katia at their apartment. We even got to meet their new puppy Nero who they'd just brought home that day!

Little Nero!

For our last dinner on Saturday night we decided to go back to Koba, the restaurant we'd accidentally walked into thinking it was Roka on Thursday since it had smelled so amazing! The food was really good and the hostess lady even recognized us from a few nights before (I think she was happily surprised to see us or maybe worried we'd lost our way again)!

Last night of vacation

Such an awesome vacation! As much as I protested coming back because I was having such a good time, it's nice to be home and I'm really excited to head back to Chicago next week for Thanksgiving (aka Turkey Gorge Fest 2009)!