Christmas away from home.

Before going home at the end of December we tried to celebrate a little around the city.  We:

1.  Went to see the White House Christmas Tree and the Capitol Christmas Tree.
2.  Went to see A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theater.  (This is one of my favorite things I have done in DC).
3. Went to breakfast at Old Ebbitts Grill.
4.  Made Gingerbread Men (Mary Kate tried to eat them, she is the cutest).
5.  Went to the Botanical Gardens to see the Christmas display.
6.  Made gingerbread houses with Mitch's classmates.  As you can see below, we've got serious talent.
7.  Discovered the perfect Christmas store (it's actually called The Christmas Store!) in Old Town Alexandria, the ornaments are amazing.

Miss Mary Kate.  i am slightly obsessed

Mitch and the Botanical Gardens

Our award winning gingerbread houses

The White House Christmas Tree

The Christmas Store in Old Town

Claire and Mary Kate

Three Fabulous Years

The Perfect Christmas Tree

We celebrated our third wedding anniversary on November 24th by buying the world's smallest Christmas tree for our tiny apartment and driving home from New York.  It was perfect.  I love Mitch with all my heart and I have no idea how I would survive without him.  He makes me better every single day.

Thanksgiving

So, I am obviously a little behind on my blogging, but Thanksgiving was so fun that I wanted to make sure not to forget it!

Macy's Day Parade

We went to New York to visit Abby and Jason for Thanksgiving and I fulfilled one of my life long goals/dreams to attend the Macy's Day Parade and let me tell you it was seriously fabulous.  The floats were huge and I was so glad we were able to go!

We went a little crazy on Thanksgiving and cooked everything in Abby's perfectly (but slightly small) Brooklyn apartment.  We made rolls (Shelley's of course) with homemade jam, stuffing (my absolute favorite part), yams, potatoes, salad (my second favorite dish), cranberry cake, and we bought a turkey (least favorite part).  It was perfect.

Cooking - Me, Abby, and Mitch (in a flannel of course)

Our delicious food

We also braved the crowds and went Black Friday shopping at Target, let me give everyone a little piece of advice...NEVER take Mitch Black Friday Shopping, he lasts less than a minute.  We got new sheets for a fabulous price (I hope everyone thinks it's hilarious that we bought sheets - for the second year in a row).

The Meatball Shop

The day after Thanksgiving we went into the city and ate at the Meatball Shop, went to see Starry Starry Night (one of Mitch's favorites), went to see the Spider Exhibit at the Natural History Museum (slightly scary, but so awesome), saw Lincoln, and of course stuffed our faces with Levain cookies.  It was a perfect day.

It was just one of those days...

Do you ever have those days when...

You wake up at 8:18 am and you are supposed to leave your house at 8:16 am?
You sprint to the metro, start sweating, sprint to work, keep on sweating, and then cool down too fast and stay cold at work all day?
You are in a constant losing battle with excel?  (Excel:  2000,  Sarah:  0)
You pretend to be a tax person (can't even think of the right word), then realize you made a mistake on your 941s?  Your co-worker swears and all you can do is laugh at how ridiculous the entire situation is??
Your lunch is nasty and you paid $10?  Not that this matters, but it kind of does...
You eat 10 peanut m&m's?  (When you are supposed to have none.)
You don't brush your hair until 3:45 pm, even though you work in a professional office?
Don't put on make-up again?
Wear purple pants, hot pink shoes, and a bright blue jacket because all you want to be is comfortable?
Your class is at the complete opposite side of campus?
You drink two diet cokes in one day instead of zero?


And then you realize....

You are overly grateful for your best friend that lives across the country in Colorado and just listens when you call, even though all you can do is keep on complaining?
You go to class and you are overly inspired and realize that none of it really matters?
You go to an exercise class (with a billion skinny undergrads) and you are proud of the fact that you are stronger than almost all of them?
Sit down with a good friend at the end of the day and remember how good your life really is?
See your husband and feel happiness?

That was my day yesterday.  Often I just have to take a step back and realize that it's all going to be ok. And that "I am enough".

Watch here.

Hawaii

Mitch and I went to Hawaii a few weeks ago with his brother Joel and his wife Lindsay.  It was fabulous.  It was my first time in Hawaii and I loved every single minute of it. 

Mitch snorkeling 

Queen's Bath

Mitch golfing at The Prince

Joel & Mitch

Poipu

Hiking the Kalalau trail

End of Kalalau Trail.  The cairns were my favorite part.

My favorite cairn.

Poipu

Joel & Lindsay

Farmer's Market

1, 2, 3, 4 ....43

Do you ever count days?

I do.  But I think I am more likely to count minutes.

When I count days it’s usually waiting for something to end.

Like waiting for the workweek to end.

I am always counting minutes.

Minutes until I have to leave for work.

Minutes until I will be late.  I really hate being late. 

Minutes until I can eat lunch (I make myself wait until at least noon).

Minutes until class ends.

Minutes until I finish running.

I am always counting minutes.

Chase, my brother, he counts days.

But he is not counting for something to end.

He is counting the number of days he has been sober.

It’s 43 today.

I am so proud of him.

I think I should start counting days with him and stop counting things that don't really matter in life.

What are you counting?

Post-Election

Election day brings a lot of emotions for me.  First, I love election day, regardless of candidates or parties.  I look forward to election day, especially when we vote for a President.  I love the ability that I have to vote, in fact I believe it's a responsibility (some may disagree, but I am entitled to my opinion).  Yesterday I waited in line for three hours to vote.  Half of these hours were outside in the freezing cold shade.  But I didn't care, because voting is a privilege that many women around the world do not have, and I have it.  I take pride in the fact that I get to vote for the candidates I think will best serve my community and country.  My opinions may be different from my husband, family members, and friends, but it doesn't matter.  I took the time to read up on the issues and study the candidates.  I am not going to state exactly how I felt about the outcome of the election yesterday.  I was encouraged with the results of some elections, I feel hope for Utah.  Other races broke my heart.  I had so much faith and hope and the outcome was different than I wanted.  I think that America is going to survive one way or the other.  I believe in a balance of power and truly believe that the country will not spiral into some kind of hellish world because of one person's decisions.  Voting is our right and our freedom.  The results of yesterday's election was the choice of millions of America.  Now, we should all put our pride aside and work together.  Make positive change happen for our country.  I don't know how to do this, I don't have the answer; but I pray with my entire heart that President Obama will serve our country well.

On a side note, I read this article in the Deseret News this morning, it's my favorite post-election article so far.

Read and enjoy.

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865566168/I-voted-for-freedom-today-in-Ohio-2-and-so-did-everyone-else-across-the-country-who-voted.html

And remember that we all voted for freedom yesterday and our vote does count.