01/11/09 - Brand New Year – It's a brand new year and that has to be a good thing for everyone. 2008 witnessed a drastic decline in world markets, a presidential election that lasted an eternity, and for me personally, the busiest year at the workplace I can ever remember having (hurricane Ike, hurricane Dolly, April shower after April shower, and special projects out the wazoo). On top of that we bought a house and put our old one up for sale (which hasn't gone so well thus far). All in all it has been a very stressful year and to top it off I have Joe complaining I've slacked of on my diary entries - thus, this one is for you Joe :).
To be honest, beyond the house purchase, not much has happened recently. I guess Susan and I have unintentionally been keeping a low profile. In fact, we didn't even participate in the "Tour de Oklahoma" this holiday season. Instead, and much to our pleasure, Susan's family came to visit us in our new home (my family went on a Cruise for Christmas - long story short - we didn't go because it happened to be the same cruise we took in April 2008 - we'll be heading to Tulsa for a visit in late January). Nina, Jeff, and Benny stayed for a very nice weekend and simply "hung out" at the old homestead. It was the most relaxation Susan and I have had in a very long time. We slept in, we ate lots of goodies, and we generally simply enjoyed the company. We opened a few gifts on Christmas eve and the biggest event was a Christmas day dinner with friends and family. I served up one of Susan's favorites, Greek stuffed chicken with asparagus and asparation, for Susan's family, Carey, and Matt. We had a wonderful time!
|
|
|
For New Years we dropped by the residence of a couple new friends of ours, Bob and Mark. They had lots of food, lots of wine, and even a couple of social games to help entertain between 11PM and midnight (about the time Susan and I were about to fall asleep - we're such lightweights). We certainly had a good time and were glad we had friendly faces to celebrate the new year with.
On the following Saturday we attended The Cat's Meow belated Christmas party at Rachel and Jeremy's. This was another great event in which there was lots of good food and drink (see a trend here? - just give us snacks and wine and we're satisfied!).
Winter 2009 at the New House
Coming up later this month will be our housewarming and I hope to have lots of pictures from that event (including more pictures of the house now that we're starting to get it arranged just the way we want it). In the meantime, please keep your fingers crossed for us on our old house - I'd like to see a buyer sooner than later - one less than to stress me out in 2009.
01/24/09 - Housewarming Party – We finally held our housewarming party last night and it was loads of fun! It was a blast just hanging around the new house sipping on good wine and enjoying lots of warm friendship. I never completed a final head count but I believe we had about 30 visitors and 17 bottles of wine.
The wine ranged from a sweet Bacchus and fruity Zins to dry Tempranillo and bold Shiraz. We even topped off the evening with a sparkling dessert wine from Italy. My personal favorites were the Bin 555 Shiraz and the Cline Zinfandel. We served about 6 different types of cheeses, lots of dark chocolate, plenty of crackers, and even some salami and olives.
|
|
|
|
Kitchen View - Wine Bar on the Left |
Barstools Galore - View from the Living Room |
|
|
|
|
View from the Dining Room |
|
|
|
|
|
Living Room View looking toward the Master Bedroom |
Living Room View looking toward the Other Bedrooms |
George left for Houston a few minutes ago so now we're just relaxing and recovering from a late night (that being said, I overslept until about noon on Sunday...it was lovely). I snapped a few pictures of the house to display a couple of pieces of new art we snagged over the past month (we had quite a bit of white space that needed covering). I also thought it would be a good idea to show some of our furniture instead of the old pictures from November showing the previous owner's setup. We're really not very good at decorating but I think it has turned out nicely.
