Holidays!

Happy New Year! Well, it has been over a month since I last posted. But, in my defense, it has been a busy month. :)

Two weeks before Christmas we moved into our TINY (even for NYC standards) new apt and Megan whipped it into shape in a week. We have a lot of boxes stacked and hidden away, but we're pretty well moved in. It is a swanky building in a GREAT area, very close to work, and there are lots of stores and awesome restaurants around. We're pretty happy there, but we miss my aunt Kathy!

Speaking of my aunt Kathy, I think I mentioned in my previous post that she invited me to be in an art show with her. That happened in December and it was a very special experience for me. I definitely felt I was the 'novice' artist of the show, but it was still fun to have my painting in a bonafide gallery. Here is a picture of my aunt Kathy and me standing by our paintings. Mine is called "Transitions."

Christmas was spent at my parents' house in Danville, VA with all of my brothers, their significant others, uncle Keith, and all of my grandparents. It was definitely a full house with 16 stockings over the fireplace!! Unfortunately Jake's girlfriend Corinne did not make it from NYC because of the storm, and my brother Jon and my grandparents both had cancelled flights trying to get home. But we had some fun times!!

Mainly, we were all entertained by this cutie:

(image by Josh Ford used without permission...but it is on Facebook... is it OK to post Maggie?)

My adorable niece Molly Leah O'Grady was quite the entertainment. Her laughs, squawks, and twinkling eyes kept us all smiling--even though she was constantly mauled by her grandfather. In fact, Molly did remarkably well with so many people in such a confined space, and (thankfully) she seems to enjoy her uncles and aunt.

We also played a lot of cards over Christmas, and were consistently beat by big bad Joe, who, by the way, has been working out and looks great. As per usual, we had many laughs. I literally almost tossed my cookies one night I was laughing so hard.

Megan and I returned to Denver around 1:00AM on Wednesday morning and headed up to Frisco early Thursday morning. We beat snowstorms in both Denver and Frisco, and we have been having fun being snowed in with mom and dad #2. Their anniversary was last night (New Year's Eve) so we all went out to dinner and then went to Copper Mountain to see a breathtaking fireworks display (through the car moon roof, as it was -9 outside!)

So, all in all, things are going well. It has been VERY nice to have 11 days off of work, and I'm not 100% excited to return on Monday. But I will return rested, and I'm not complaining about that. Next weekend we return to Frisco (which is only a 75 minute drive) to have Cornwell Christmas with Megan's brother Andy and his wife Jessica.

I hope you all had a great holiday!!!