Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

I've had a wonderful past few days. I went to MI for Christmas and it started snowing somewhere around Kentucky. It never got higher than 35º our entire trip and there was a snowstorm on the day after Christmas!

On Christmas Eve, we visited Frankenmuth. I specifically wanted to visit Bronner's for a 2012 Christmas ornament. I ended up getting a flamboyant chicken ornament for our yearly one and a little camera ornament just because. :) We also stopped by Rau's Country Store and tried on silly hats.

Christmas morning was a lazy one. I got some really fabulous presents, my favorite was my birthday/Christmas present from Mike: this Kate Spade Mrs. necklace! I got him a kit from The Art of Shaving to go along with the straight razor that Kevin got him. We were watching TV where they said the key to the best present-opening reactions is getting people exactly what the asked for. Turns out that's right because we were both very excited about our gifts!

The day after Christmas, we had planned to go downtown Detroit to explore. We didn't plan on a snowstorm, but that didn't stop us! We went to American Coney Island for lunch (delicious) and then walked a few blocks to the Guardian Building (gorgeous). Afterwards, we went to the Detroit Art Institute. A return visit to the DIA is a must!

It started snowing before lunch and didn't stop until late that night! I was a little afraid we wouldn't make it home. We stopped by Chris & Racki's (Mike's cousin & wife--love them!) for dinner. I was a little worried we wouldn't make it out of their neighborhood! It was impossible to tell the roads from the  yards in all that snow on our way in, much more so on our way out.

I was happy that I brought both pairs of new boots and my fabulous hand-me-down coat (used to be my mothers). Oh, and a sweater for Bella, of course!

During the holiday, I also finished The Causal Vacancy by J.K. Rowling (another wonderful novel by Jo but very different from HP), started and finished To Notting Hill with Love...Actually by Ali McNamara (typical and lovely romcom novel), and started and finished The Mating by Nicky Charles (cheesy and you have to skip past the nasty bits, but fairly entertaining).

I hope everyone else had a fabulous Christmas holiday! And I hope tomorrow is an equally fabulous NYE. Ours will be filipino style!

My tree is still up and it'll be coming down in the next few days, so I'll enjoy the glow while it lasts. :)