A Cabin in the Catskills

Josh and I just celebrated our TEN year wedding anniversary on the 6th! I sort of can't believe we've been married an entire decade, but I can also barely even remember what life was like before Josh, so next thing you know, here we are! Alive and happy and old and married ;) But most importantly, he's still my best friend after all these years. I can't imagine doing life with anyone else. We celebrated the momentous occasion with a momentous 12 course meal at Trentina and then skipped town the next day for a long weekend in the Hudson Valley. I found the DREAMIEST cabin on Airbnb which was the perfect setting for a cold January weekend with my love.

The cabin had a proper bedroom but who could resist this cozy sleeping nook?! It took all my willpower to pry myself out from under those blankets each morning. We spent the next few days watching movies in bed and drinking coffee and playing card games in front of the wood burning stove. It fulfilled all my coziest fantasies. The most hygge of anniversaries and I never wanted it to end.

About 25 minutes away from the cabin is the adorable little town of Narrowsburg, NY where we ate at the Heron Restaurant which quickly became my new favorite restaurant and will forever hold a special place in my food loving heart. The atmosphere, the staff, the music and decor and my god, THE FOOD. Unfortunately, it's a whole two states away from me now which is really gonna put a damper on my ability to eat there every single day like I did while we were in New York.

#noregrets

The Delaware river and the scenic and beautiful (even in January) Hudson Valley

There is some amazing shopping in downtown Narrowsburg

We spent our final night back at the cabin reminiscing about our early days of dating and living together and thinking back on those good ol' days. We decided the most appropriate way to end our anniversary weekend would be to commemorate it with an old dating tradition of ours. Eating pizza rolls in bed while watching tv. If we aren't the gold standard for marriage aspirations then I don't know what is. Nobody does romantic quite like we do. 

What New Year's Eve Looks Like as a Parent

It looks like hanging with your friends and your kids and your friend's kids. And bringing homemade cannoli and lots of sparkling grape juice. 

 Kate's sultry stirring gumbo look on point

 It looks like video games for the grown ups AND the kids

 It's playing monopoly with the eight and under crowd - which is not like playing monopoly at all.

 it's LOTS of dress up  (ever took this picture!)

even for the grown ups.

 It's the kiddos having zero problems making it til midnight and the adults barely rallying. 

 It's the most excited little faces counting down

and THE sweetest new year's eve kiss you've ever seen.

Happy New Year to you and yours!

Our Christmas Photos!

I know you're probably being inundated with holiday photos from all over right now, but I wanted to share some photos from our christmas eve and christmas day if you'd care to take a peek! This was probably the best christmas we'll have with the kids. All three still believe in Santa and Ever was finally old enough to kind of get what's going on. I think this will be the last year believing for Wes, so this year was extra special for me. 

We are always all over the place on both christmas eve and christmas day and I always have the best intentions for taking photos everywhere we go. But, as usual, I started out strong taking pics at christmas eve morning brunch and then fizzled out immediately afterward. Some photos from that morning...

Christmas eve night we did the normal ritual of sprinkling reindeer dust (oats mixed with glitter) in the front yard to attract the reindeer ;) and putting out cookies for Santa followed by a reading of "The Night Before Christmas". This year the kids thought Santa would like hot chocolate better than milk but I'm pretty sure Ever enjoyed it more than anyone.

(And yeah, Oren is indeed dabbing here.)

 note the marshmallow still clutched in her tiny fist.

For the last few weeks whenever we'd ask Ever what Santa was going to bring her she'd exclaim, "BABIES!" (we're going through a major baby doll phase right now). So when she opened this gift and saw the twin babies inside she literally clapped, squealed and started kissing the box. Heart. Melted.

She also got a tiny kid sized ergo to carry them around in. Dead.

Oren got his Nerf brain saw (because that's a thing) and Wes got his coveted PS4 video game but the biggest surprise came last...

Hope you all had a very merry Christmas! This is one I will never forget.