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The past four weeks have been the best...

We did Christmas in Vegas this year. It was fun to see the new place, enjoy balmy weather in December, hang out with the family, and talk to Daniel on Christmas (can't believe he's going to be home from Italy in less than two months now!)

Took advantage of the warm weather and explored Red Rock Park.

And got out mountain fix in with a quick trip to the cabin before spending a week with the LeBarons in SLC.

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Then I headed to NYC for work.

And of course per tradition had to stay an extra day to hang out with Chad (Cara we missed you!) and eat way too much yummy food...

...and get lost exploring one of my favorite cities.

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Then it was back home to Chicago for more work, then off to SLC again to see Miss Lindsey Cra's wedding (which of course was just as GORGEOUS as the bride herself!)

(photo from Ash...of course somehow misplaced my camera while I was packing for this trip!)

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It has seriously been the best month, I could not have asked for a better way to end 2011 and ring in 2012!

Hello, Winter.

Winter break and skiing are synonymous in my book. This film had me drooling.

Legs Of Steel - Nothing Else Matters - OFFICIAL FREE FILM from Legs of Steel on Vimeo.

Nutcracker Ballet

Let me just start this out by saying Bobby is normally a steel lipped secret keeper. And I cracked him. In retrospect, I feel like 5% bad...but only because everyone keeps telling me how mean it was.

Pfff. I call it resourceful.

So. Bob was dropping me off the other night after running some errands when he noticed I was texting one of my friends to see if we could hang out sometime this week. To make mittens. Totally normal. I didn't think anything was up until out of nowhere he says "wait, don't make plans with her for Thursday." #EarsPerkUp.

So naturally, I decide right then and there that I am going to do everything in my power to make him spill the beans: "Why? What's going on? What's on Thursday? What's the surprise? Why won't you tell me? ...Are we going to the Nutcracker???"

And let's just say that Bob is a horrendous impromptu liar. Horrendous. Face gives it away within .2 seconds. But that's not the bad part. Here it comes. He immediately tries to deny the obvious--that he got tickets to the Joffrey Ballet--so I decide I'm going to just see if I can get him to crack. Because normally I can't. Normally he won't budge a centimeter on giving anything away.

So I say, "Ohhh. Should I not have bought tickets then?"

To which he says, "You bought tickets too? Crap!"

I know, I'm totally evil. And I ruined my own surprise (he had it all set up for me to get a snail mail invite. ahh cute.)

But like I said, 95% happy with myself for cracking the boy.

Heh. Heh.

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See? Still super happy even sans surprise.

The Auditorium Theatre is so beautiful. And Babe got awesome seats. We're thinking it'd be fun to a do a group date next year and get one of the boxes on the side.

So stoked for Babe to experience his first ever ballet. Excuse the iPhone pic. These ushers were flash nazi ninjas.

Lumberjack

We had a lumberjack party last night. It was awesome. Surprisingly everyone actually showed up in flannel and plaid! And not so surprisingly, I forgot to take pictures of ohhhhh the other 25 people there. My bad.

Meet Jack.

Our tree this year. Yes, it's real. Yes, it's beautiful. Yes, it's dropping pine needles like nobody's business all over our carpet. Fake tree next year? Yes.

Enjoying the balcony on a balmy December evening. Seriously, 50+ degrees, God must love us. (and for all of you non-Chicagoans, 50 degrees with no wind is a Christmas miracle. a big, warm Christmas miracle)

And strictly for laughs, I give you bobble bob:

All I Want for Christmas

I have Kaisha to thank for this gem. Watch twice daily for abdominal workout.

Mat Kearney

We went to the Mat Kearney concert at the House of Blues a couple weekends ago...it was seriously one of the best concerts and venues I've ever experienced. The food was great (we ate at Crossroads), the energy of the crowd was intoxicating, the opener was surprisingly good, and Mat Kearney was phenom.

Chicago just keeps growing on me...even with the fah-reezing cold!

Blackhawks Birthday

Took Babe to see his first NHL game for his birthday this year. We sat center ice in some pretty sweet seats. And we met some pretty awesome fans. And the Hawks won. It was a great night.