can you guess what i'm excited for?

the Christmas season.

now i know it's super early, but i can't help it! with the weather changing and the air becoming crisper it makes me begin to anticipate Christmas and all that goes along with it. i love driving around town at night and seeing the houses all lit up with Christmas cheer. i love playing my favorite Christmas Cd's as my brother and i bake our "Cherry Green-Cheese Pie". i love when the whole family gets together. i love celebrating old traditions and making new ones as people come into our lives. i love having Christmas parties with friends. i love knowing you have gotten a gift someone will love and putting it under the tree.

and this year i love the thought of another snowmageddon. what do you think? will we get one? and do you want one, or was one year enough? (now if we could have all the snow without the shoveling- that'd be perfect!)

so i know it's early, but i can't help it. i'm excited for Christmas

a band i love

last week Karen introduced me to the band "Caroline Smith & the Good Night Sleeps"

they are awesome. very ingrid michaelson like, with an even more unique voice. the whole album "Backyard Tent Set" is amazing.

check her out:

VA Wine Festival: Recap

For those of you who couldn't come out to the Wine Festival- you were there in my heart! But I also thought I'd give a little tour

Here goes...

It was in Centreville, VA out on a farm. There were tons of wineries, tons of wine, and tons of people! Karen and I drove up with my parents and met Maggie and Dave there.

The crowds were large so you had to be a little forceful to get up to the front of them for the tastings, but once you did you got to taste the whole series from that particular winery. My favorite was from Prince Michel- which is located about an hour north of Charlottesville off of 29. Here's their tent-

And after a bit Kayla joined us! Who's Kayla? Oh, yeah! There she is! :)

We settled in to listen to Over the Rhine.

And they were awesome! But there was something extra that made the show even more special...

yes- that's a hula hooper doing mad tricks. there was a troupe of hula hoopers right in front off to the side of the stage. i've never seen anything like it. it was mesmerizing. along with the man wearing a wife-beater, camo shorts and a camo hat, this lady was one of my favorites. check out that form!

but one hula-hooper trumped them all. during this video she makes her way up right to the front, it was awesome. notice her skirt-over-pants combo as well. here she is- "black tank-top" in all her glory....

maybe i'm in the wrong profession?

here's the view of the whole place as we were leaving

cheers!

wine festival

this Saturday, September 18, I'm going to the Virginia Wine Festival in Centreville, VA.

wanna come?

one of my favorite restaurants

this past weekend i had the opportunity to eat at the Melting Pot to celebrate the birthdays of two close friends here in town. i had been once before, and it had quickly become one of my favorite restaurants, so i was excited to go again! The food is absolutely amazing, but it's also just a great conversational atmosphere. There's something nice and relaxing about slowly eating a dinner that you're cooking at the same time. we do it every year at Christmas with the family, but it's nice when you don't have to do any prep work or clean up! here we have the cheese course and meat course. i didn't get a picture of the chocolate because it was too delicious to stop and take a picture!

blue

gosh i want a table with a built-in fondue hot plate. that'd be sweeeet

this just moved to the top of my to do list

so i recently read an article about Liberty Mills Farm located in Somerset, VA (about 40 minutes northeast of Charlottesville). apparently they are about to open a 20 acre corn maze in the shape of the liberty bell, statue of liberty, a bald eagle, and the first 3 words of the Constitution. the maze also includes trivia questions about these symbols along the way.

Here is a sample maze question given on their website:

Sample Maze Quiz Question:

Q: What president accepted the Statue of Liberty as a gift?

A: Franklin D. Roosevelt

B. Grover Cleveland

C. Woodrow Wilson

now sadly I don't know the answer. anyone? (no cheating)

and here is a picture of the maze itself

Now i'm definitely feeling like a trip needs to happen to this amazing place. who's with me??

mac it is!

well here it is! (well not the actual one, this is a google image, but looks the same) so yep i decided to go for the mac. i've had it for about a week and am loving it! i'm still just beginning to learn my way around it (thus the lack of blog posting) but really like it thus far. it's also quite nice to have a reliable computer to work on! thanks for all your advice!