Week(s) in Pics!

Holiday cheer began with a Christmas Tree Ornament Party. This is at someone's house, and they actually prepared the food!  I was impressed. 

We went to a super fun Russian engagement party.  Look at Andrew getting down in the dancing circle.  Clap, clap, clap!

I've been noticing how huge hands look in my phone pics. Check them mitts out!

I spent a pre-Christmas week with my mom in Georgia. Then it was off to Connecticut to spend time with my husband's side of the family.  

My sister-in-law does an amazing job doing stocking stuffers for everyone.  Aren't all of the above gifts so fun? Well, the sweets aren't stocking stuffers, but they are awesome, too.  The most popular are my sister's truffle chocolate balls - they are dangerous! Crushed Oreos inside. Yup. 

A toast to the bundle of joy who arrived on Christmas Eve in North Carolina.  We can't wait to meet little Natalie!  

We do a White Elephant gift exchange every year, and this year's theme was hedonism.  The presents I opened were tubs of Nutella and fisting cream.  I exchanged that for Uncle Dick's wine.  He didn't really care for the swap.  (He's like 93 years old.)  

My niece Cate glamming it up!

Sometimes we do a walk around my sister's house after dinner.  This time, we rocked some Christmas carols.

To celebrate 20 years of friendship with my gal pal Joni, we took a snowboarding/bobsledding/skeleton ride trip to Lake Placid. Rooooooad trip! We should have taken our passports...we could have gone to Montreal with only 2 more hours of driving.

Gotta make photo stops!

A frozen waterfall behind Joni. 

That's a frozen pond behind me. We saw people snowshoeing on it. 

Whiteface Mountain.  I am ashamed to admit that I was actually in this position a lot.  Falling on my butt.

That kid behind us.

The lodging options around Mirror Lake were so cute.

Mirror Lake was frozen, and it was amazing to walk on it.

It would be cool to come back in the summer and jump off the dock into the water.

Staying warm while walking around town.

The bob sled finish line.  Not the route we took, I guess. 

The skeleton ride is where you get on this facedown headfirst and GO.

I screamed so much while we were bob sledding.  I seriously thought we were going to roll over during the ride.  We didn't though, so I highly recommend doing it!

Looking forward to sharing some 2014 moments with you guys!