Christmas (times 4)

We just returned from a week-long trip to Tulsa. It was so nice to see family, but it's always nice to get back to your own home with all your own stuff. We had lots and lots of Christmas - 4 Christmases, in fact. Below are some fun pictures from all our celebrations!

John's mom reading Lisa's Christmas card - announcing that she is coming back to Tulsa for awhile!

Super-cute Gabe!

My mom, at Christmas number 3.

Christmas morning.

Nothing says "Christmas" like a little family Rock Band playing. That's my mom, rocking the bass.

John's mom on vocals.

The Adams Cousins Christmas Get-together

Yes, that's a real gun. We are from Oklahoma, ya know.

Me with my childhood friend, Tulley, drinking at some creepy bar with the locals.

At my Dad's Christmas celebration. "Wrastling" as we call it in Oklahoma.

4 Years and Counting!

Today is our fourth anniversary. It's so cliche, but these last four years have really flown. (Or I should say three years, since the first one seemed to drag on forever!) We really aren't doing anything special for the big day, which is bad because we should probably cherish these special days a lot more than we do, but since it's only a week till Christmas, our thoughts are elsewhere these days, and it's sort of inconvenient that it falls in the middle of the week. Anyway, here's to four great years, and many more to come!

Christmas is Coming

Ten more days until the big day! December has really flown by - we still aren't done with our shopping. In honor of the final countdown, here's a little photo snack:

2nd Annual Cookie Exchange

My fun brunch club (minus Erica) came over for our second annual cookie exchange! Lots of sugar was had by all, and everyone's cookies were delicious! John is happy for the leftovers, that's for sure!

The goods

The group

Un-Pretty City

Last night my friend Rebecca and I went to an event called Pretty City. It was supposed to be a beauty product fair with fun demonstrations, lots of samples, and free coupons. Instead, however, it was sort of a dud. There were way too many people there to get to any of the free stuff, and the music was so loud you could barely hear each other. The highlights were definitely the girls dancing on the stripper pole and the ladies getting their facial hair waxed right out in the open. They did have free drinks, though. So that was a plus.

I am always trying to find fun free/cheap things to do in the city. I'm glad I went, but I know that this is an event to skip next year.

The "interesting" crowd.

Rebecca and me, sad that we didn't score any cool swag.

Christkindl Market

Last night we went to the German Christkindl Market in our neighborhood for some beer, glogg (nasty warm mulled wine), and merriment. There were lots of booths of different German things to buy, and there was live music, because nothing says "Christmas" like an 80's hair metal cover band! The people-watching was fantastic!

It's a blustery 18 degrees outside, so we're busy trying to stay warm and get all our Christmas shopping done. It's crazy that Christmas is in less than 3 weeks! We are really looking forward to going home and enjoying the holiday with our families. Until then, however, there's lots of shopping left to do!

The priest from the local Catholic parish singing a Cheap Trick song. Quite
possibly the highlight of the evening. That's how we roll in Lincoln Square.

Kristen and me enjoying (more like barely tolerating) our glogg.

Fat.

Yep - that's us. We are still feeling pretty gross from Thanksgiving, although we both have been pretty good about the gym this week! This is always such a busy time - not only is work totally crazy (people fight over lots of visitation this time of year), but there's so much going on with the holidays. The good news: I've made it two evenings without my Blackberry going off. That's a feat!

Otherwise, we're doing a pretty good job maintaining the status quo. We have some fun holiday plans this weekend -- a German holiday fest in our neighborhood (expect a post on that), and a Christmas carol concert. It's also been pretty snowy this week. Although I always look forward to winter weather, I must say that I'm not loving it so far this year.

Anyway, we promise to have some interesting things to post about soon. We've just had an incredibly busy fall, leaving us little time to post, or even do anything worth posting about. More to come ...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We stayed in Chicago this year for Thanksgiving. Although we missed our family, we had a great time doing Thanksgiving our way. I started the day by running the Turkey Trot 8K. It was really fun, although I had a terrible finish time (I swear something was wrong with my chip, because I ran the whole time and was passing all sorts of people). After the race, we came home and cooked a full Thanksgiving dinner for just the two of us. It was so delish! After a short little nap (had to recover from the race), we got to work putting up the Christmas decorations.

We hope everyone had a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Vinyl's Back, Baby!

Hi folks, John here! My boss has been promising me a turntable for about a year, and he finally came through! As an early holiday present, I got a sweet Pro-Ject Debut III turntable, a Bellari Tube Phono Amp, and some calibration tools. Got to get the setup right! I've been collecting records ever since I started at Music Direct over a year ago (half price, baby), and now I can play them at home! I have a mix of new releases and neat vintage ones from the 50's, 60's and later. It's a little bit of a downgrade playing them on a $400 table instead of a $20,000 one at work, but it still sounds awesome. There is a used record store in our hood, too! Megan's even excited about it. Before, she didn't think it would fit in our already crowded condo. It's on the floor for now, and my boss would kill me if he saw it there. We sell $3,000 racks at work, but I'll be holding off on that for now I think.

Here's the duo.


Artsy, eh?



The signal from the needle is so small that you need a preamp to get it ready to go into the receiver. This model is cool because it's affordable and uses a tube, keeping the warm analog sound!


And a neat photo of my palm just for fun!

Go Titans!

The Titans played the Bears last weekend by some total fluke, so we went and watched the Titans play a great game for the second weekend in a row! It was VERY cold (read: snow), with lots of wind, but we had a great time nonetheless. The Titans are now 9 and 0, so it's been a fun season cheering them on.

That is not dandruff in my hair -- it's snow. Yes, snow.

The seats were sort of in the nosebleed section, but we still had lots of fun!

The Boys: Jared, John, Tim and Jeff

Another Adams Family Reunion!

We have been traveling to Nashville every year since 1999 for John's family reunion. This year was extra exciting since the Titans are undefeated! It was fun to see family we don't get to see too often and to enjoy watching the Titans beat the Packers in overtime! Very exciting game! Let's hope the Titans can keep it up for the rest of the season.

Big football players!

Victory is sweet! Go Titans!

Watching the game (and eating lots of chicken fingers).

The fam (minus David, Lisa, and me)

Dinner the night before the game

VICTORY!!!

President-Elect Barack Obama (with Lincoln and King) in his Capitol Hill office. Photograph by Jonas Karlsson.

Way to VOTE!

Our evening has consisted of being glued to the TV, watching the election results. The race isn't over, but it's getting pretty close! This has been a pretty awesome election year. Those of you who know me well know that I am all about political participation, and I've been hassling family and friends for months to make sure that everyone participates and the democratic process. Despite my openness about which side I slant toward, I don't really care who my family and friends vote for so long as they get out there and do it. I honestly can't say that I know of anyone who did not vote in this election (and believe me, I've asked around).

I'm so happy about the excitement surrounding this election - this is how it should be every election year! This morning John and I were at our polling place at 5:50 a.m., and there was already a line. In fact, it took us a whole hour to vote! Tonight will be historic for our country, no matter how it turns out (although I'm pretty sure it's going to Obama - yay!). These next four years will be very exciting with lots of great changes in store for our country.

Aloha Springfield

Our friends Michelle and Jim recently got married in Hawaii. They had a reception in Springfield, Mo, where they currently live, and I made the trip down there with my friend Sara to celebrate. (John couldn't make it because of catalog crunch time.) Those of you who know Michelle know that she is absolutely adorable, so it was no surprise that she made a beautiful bride (and Jim didn't make too shabby a groom, either). It was so fun to see old college sorority friends that I don't get to see too often, and to dance the night away with my fun girlfriends.
Congrats to Mr. and Mrs. Van Dillen!

Michelle doing her famous rendition of "Eternal Flame" -- I hope she
eventually forgives Leigh and me for this!

Sara, Leigh, Michelle, and me

Theta pic!

10 Year Reunion!

We just returned from a weekend trip to Tulsa for our 10 year high school reunion. We are super tired, and a little hungover, but we had a really fun time. There was a nice turnout, and we hadn't seen a lot of our classmates since the day we graduated. We started the festivities with a family-friendly picnic at the school. A few of our classmates have kids, so it was fun meeting the kids for the first time. There was a dinner-dance in the commons, then we all headed to a bar to round out the evening. It's so funny how easy it was to pick up where we all left off 10 years ago. We hope to keep in touch with a lot of the people we reunited with, and we can't wait to do it again in another 10 years!

Before the party -- we felt like we were going to prom!

Fun friends Lilac and Felipe!

Me with Katie and Adrienne, both of whom I haven't seen in 10 years!

More Reunion Pics!

At Kilkenney's, several beers later ...

Me, Lilac, and Allison

Brandon and Patrick

Lilac, Katie, Stephanie, Kate, and me

Brandon, John, and me toward the end of the party