A little warmth in the cold weather

I have recently expanded on my love of taking macro photos of flowers. I should seriously quit my job and be a flower photographer for National Geographic. Since it is ridiculously chilly out, I thought I'd share some pictures from a recent trip to the Botanical Garden here in DC to help warm you up. The first two are pictures of the beautiful red and white tulips my Dad sent Brad and I for Christmas :)

January 1 = football!!!

We treated New Years Day as it is meant to be treated: like a day to worship the best sport there is!! We parked our butts on the couch all day, only breaking to warm up snacks and do a little laundry.

breakfast of champions: a denver bagel sand-o from Brugger's Bagels

football food!

Rose Bowl action

Did you ever wonder what it would look like if you photographed that last swig of beer? I think it looks kind of cool! (the top one is without flash, bottom one with)

Happy 2008 everyone! May you have a joyous and prosperous year!

Ringing in the New Year ~ NYE

For New Year's Eve, we decided we wanted to take it easy. We had a fantastic meal at what is turning out to be our new favorite restaurant - Monroe's. I mean, it's hard not to like Monroe's: great food and it's, literally, directly across the street from our apartment! Afterward, we had just enough time to come home, pop open some bubbly (the cork hit the ceiling!) and toast 2008.

Monroe's all decorated!

bubbly ready!

newlyweds midnight kiss

Christmas Mornin', Part 2

Christmas breakfast - cheesy eggs and sausage ryes

crossword books!

starting the Nutcracker collection

a gift certificate for dance lessons (Christina may live to regret giving him this gift!)

"It's like the Christmas of things I've always asked for an never get!"

Christmas dinner (cooked by Christina, saved by Brad)

Christmas Mornin', Part 1

Red and white tulips from Dad to help make the season bright

Brad and his stocking

Christina and her stocking

new earrings from Brad... good stocking stuffer!

Brad opening all his cheese related gifts from Dad

Christina's pretty sweater from Dad

Christmas Eve

Brad and I were so lucky to have such a wonderful and blessed Christmas and start to the new year. We enjoyed ourselves, having a quiet Christmas here in Washington. We started things off on Christmas Eve with some heavy appetizers, a little "It's a Wonderful Life," opening one gift each and attending a breathtakingly beautiful midnight Mass at our church.

ready for Mass (actually taken at 2am when we got home from Mass!)

the yummy spread

the chef after slaving our oh-so-tiny kitchen

Brad's Christmas Eve gift - a book of quotes from the Godfather

After almost 23 years of asking for one...

Christina finally got her Transformer action figure!

Merry Christmas!

Since this is my last day at work for 11 days before holiday break (I LOVE my boss!), I just wanted to do a quick post to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a blessed start to 2008! Brad and I will be enjoying a quiet Christmas together. We're really looking forward to attending midnight Mass at the church we were married in. I'm going to make a bunch of yummy food and hopefully we can start some of our own traditions this year.

See y'all next year!

Macro

Have I mentioned how much I love my new camera that my awesome hubby got me for the wedding? While Brad was at his men's group at church last night, I got nerdy and took some macro pictures. I think they turned out pretty good :)

Gifts, Merriment, and a Guard Penguin

I am so blessed to have so many shiny packages under our beautiful tree this year! I just can't put my camera down!

a little hot chocolate with marshmellow's for those chilly nights!

Noni sent Brad and I this cute little penguin, since we discovered a mutual love/hate relationship with penguins during our Thanksgiving visit. He now guards our tree and drives our downstairs neighbor crazy as we make him zoom all over the floors!

Two things...

Two quick things:


1. I've posted a smattering of professional wedding pictures on my flickr account. I took out all the duplicates, picked out some of the best shots, and recropped some so-so shots to make them great (see below). Just click here!





2. Please keep the people of Tulsa, Oklahoma and all the Midwest in your prayers. There was a really bad ice storm there earlier this week. Over 200,000 in the Tulsa metro area alone are without power and it is expected to be "weeks" before power is totally restored. We have been working way over time (till 9pm last night) trying to help people who call in, not that there is much we can do to get people's power turned on. Below is a pictrue of a co-workers house, which luckily didn't suffer structrual damage.