MLK Day

I love when Federal Holidays roll around. It means that Dustin and I both get a full day off during the week to be together and go do fun things in the area. On a normal work week the only day off Dustin and I share is Sunday. So we took advantage of the day and headed to Atlanta.

Started the day off right-(or wrong)- however you want to look at it, with some butterscotch sticky buns. So sinful. Dustin's birthday is the end of this month, so as a b-day gift I scheduled him a golf swing evaluation. They hook you up to all these sensors and video tape your swing and educate you on how to improve. They also put still shots of Dustin's swing side by side with shots from the pros and compared different angles, positions, etc. It was really fun to watch. Dustin's should be good to go on the golf course once it warms up a little bit.

Then we stopped at Maggiano's for lunch.

After we went to the beautiful Lenox mall , where the only thing we left with were some America's Best Cookie Co. cookies sandwiches and a chat with Jennifer Nettles from Sugarland in Crate and Barrel. All in a days work.

Frozen

We have finally thawed out from the ice storm here. We literally had an ice skating rink for a driveway and schools we closed for a full week. Good thing I had my handy hot chocolate maker that my parents sent me for Christmas. Sure did come in handy!

Some sheets of ice peeled off our car

Yummy, frothy goodness

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

Dustin and I spent Christmas Day at home with just the two of us. It was quiet and we missed our family, but when we fly for free we can't complain right? Since we had to come home early from NJ and were not expecting to be home on Christmas day, we had no plans, no food, and no gifts to open Christmas morning. And when I say we had no food, we really had no food. We ran to all the grocery stores in town, not one was open. So we scrounged around for food at home resulting in Mac and Cheese and leftover Olive Garden from a few days before. When dinner rolled around we got in the car and drove around to look for open restaurants. Options were Little Caesars, an Asian Food restaurant, and Thai. So we opted for Thai. We had our own little Christmas Story Fa ra ra ra ra moment.

Christmas day activities included going to the movies, Dustin playing his new XBox and enjoying the snow. Yes I said Snow! It actually snowed here on Christmas Day. This is the first time it has snowed in the Atlanta area on Christmas day since 1882. No joke. It was beautiful! Downtown Newnan

Christmas in NJ & NYC

We spent some of Christmas this year with Dustin's family up in New Jersey. We had to fly home earlier than expected on Christmas Eve day due to storms in Atlanta. We ended up only being in New Jersey for a day and half. But, we made the best of our time there and had a ton of fun.

Joni and Zach on our way to the NYC bound train. In front of Macy's All bundled up! The window displays at Macy's were beautiful. Times Square Shiny McD's

Shake Shack! So good, just as I remember them.

Our tiny corner to eat. We are lucky we even got seats. It was madness in there!

It was cold, very cold.

We love NYC!

We conveniently walked right past Magnolia Bakery. Naturally we had to pick up a few cupcakes.

The Tree

Headed back to the train station.

Christmas Eve morning was when we found out that Delta had cancelled a ton of flights into Atl. We knew the only way we would ever get home over the next few days is if we left that day (got to love standby!) My sister in law Amanda was awesome and turned Christmas Eve dinner into Christmas Eve lunch, so that we could all eat before we had to head to the airport. The food was delish and she even broke out her beautiful hand painted Mexican dishes just for us.

Josh and Amanda even let Zach open a few presents early before we had to leave.

The boys and grandma working on putting together Zach's new legos.

Christmas Randoms

Grand Cayman Island

We headed to the Grand Cayman Islands for an overnight trip this last weekend. It was warm, sunny and perfect beach weather. We've had some colder weather here in GA lately, so it was nice to head south and warm up!

The sunset was amazing the night we were there.

Out to dinner at Coconut Joe's

Such yummy food

This is kind of a blurry picture, but I had to try and capture this moment. As we were leaving the restaurant, this guy stands up from his table and stops Dustin. He looks at Dustin with his eyes wide open and tells him, in his Irish accent, that Dustin is the "biggest boy" he has ever seen! He couldn't get over it, it was hilarious. Apparently they don't have very tall, broad men in Ireland?

Yay for Christmas Trees in the Caribbean!