Work Holiday Party

Mid-December we had my work holiday party at the Portland City Grill in downtown Portland. It's a really nice restaurant at the top of the tallest building in the city, so the views of Portland are spectacular from up there. And the food is amazing...it is definitely one of the most popular happy hour spots in town. My company rented out a private room where we ate dinner and had a casino night (with fake money of course). It was a great time being able to socialize with co-workers outside of the office and meet their significant others...definitely one of the best parties we've been to in a long time.

My company also hired a photographer for the event. She took formal pictures of people when they came in to the event (we received a nice 5x7 picture to take home) and then took candid shots throughout the night. Below are some of the pictures she took.

Actually, I think this picture is photoshopped :) But it does serve as a good representation of the evening.
Here are Brad and I at the roulette table. Also in this picture are our good friends Laura and David. Laura and I used to carpool to work together (when we both lived in downtown Portland). We also bought our houses at the same time and closed 1 day apart from each other, so we definitely helped each other with tips with the whole process.
Here we are playing a little blackjack. Too bad they didn't have a poker table to play on...
This is a pic of my co-worker Scott and his wife Suzette. Scott is another good friend of mine at work and also a Business Analyst like me. Our cubes are right next to each other, so it's good to have someone to joke around with all day. He went to Michigan State for undergrad and Ohio State for his Masters in Accounting - so he's also a Big Ten guy! We're definitely a minority at the office...but at least I have someone on my side when we argue with our University of Oregon co-workers about who's going to win the Rose Bowl January 1, 2010.
Besides dinner, open bar, and a casino night, our company also hired this guy to provide us with entertainment. He performed Frank Sinatra covers...and sounded exactly like him!
And finally...the view from the Portland City Grill. Too bad it was night time...the view from up here is really gorgeous when it's sunny out and you can see Mt. Hood.

Christmas in Ohio

Christmas has been a long month celebration that we've been too busy to post to the blog! So as usual, we are a little behind on our posts. Christmas this year started out with a trip to Ohio in the beginning of December. I had a work trip planned in Cincinnati for a few days, so we decided that I would stick around for the weekend and Brad would fly out so that we can celebrate Christmas with his family and attend our nephew Elliot's baptism.

After Brad landed in Cincinnati, we met up with Tony (a friend of Brad's from college) and his wife Kim for dinner. After dinner, Brad and I drove up to West Alexandria to spend time with his family. On Saturday, we met up with Paul Kersey (Brad's friend from grade school) and his fiancee Leeanna for lunch at Brad's parent's restaurant the Twin Creek Tea Room. We haven't seen them since they got engaged, so it was great catching up with them. Later that evening, we opened presents and had a nice Christmas dinner.

A pic of all of us (minus Kristy since she was the picture-taker) at the dinner table. Also included in the picture is Pat's dad who drove in for Elliot's baptism.
A pic of the group in the family room opening gifts. Of course, the center of attention was Elliot :)
On Sunday morning, we went to church where Elliot was baptised. What a trooper! He didn't cry at all during the ceremony even as his face was dripping with water. He is by far one of the happiest babies I've ever seen. The pic above was taken during Elliot's baptism. Brad and I were part of the baptism since we're Elliot's guardians.
After the baptism, we had to get a few shots of Elliot in his cute outfit. He's laying on a quilt that I sewed for him. I started this quilt when we moved to Portland over a year ago. This was prior to even knowing if he was going to be a boy or a girl :) I thought it would be fitting to sew a quilt for him because Kristy actually taught me almost everything I know about sewing. Though it's only a baby sized quilt, I think all in all this quilt took me over 100 hours to cut, sew, and create. Yes, I'm a little slow at sewing...but it was also my first quilt that I've ever created and I had to learn to complete it on my own.
I love this pic of Elliot. This just shows how happy of a baby he always seems to be.
I forgot to mention that Saturday night we hung out with Kersey, Leeanna, and Greg. We also got to meet Miley, Kersey and Leeanna's adorable new puppy. What a cutie...she was so playful!

Thanksgiving and Christmas around the House

I know, I know...it's been awhile since we've posted. We're almost past 2 holidays here. So lets take you back to Thanksgiving. We hosted our annual Thanksgiving dinner at our house for those of us away from our hometowns. Actually, it seems everyone who attended this year was at our Thanksgiving last year with the addition of Eric. The nice thing about having the same people year after year over for Thanksgiving is that you know what dishes they're good at making. So now everyone kind of has their token dish they bring to Thanksgiving, and man, is everything good!

The group around the dinner table minus the two hosts :) Hopefully some day we can upgrade to a formal dining table! Sigh... But on the plus side, we have a huge kitchen counter top to serve as the buffet this year.
The spread. I bet you're just drooling right now looking at this picture. I am at least. I suggested to the group that we host a mid-year Thanksgiving feast. Why celebrate one of the best holidays only once a year? It sounds like a go :)
The weekend of Thanksgiving we didn't have much going on since it was pretty icy on the mountain (so no snowboarding...we can be picky like that now!), so we decided to decorate the house for Christmas. Here's our Christmas tree - we went to a local tree farm and did a U-Cut where we sawed down our own tree. No worries though...this is Portland, and this farm plants new seedlings for future Christmases where we cut our tree. Turns out too that our tree is decorated in semi-Ohio State colored ornaments (how did that happen?). We also got some stockings put up - the extra one is for our CAT. No kids yet. And we had a nice fire going that weekend...definitely felt like Christmas in the new house.
I came up with the idea of decorating our stairway with garland for a really festive look. Notice too in the background that we have some framed pictures hanging. These are actually some great shots we've taken in the past of unique locations and great views. We have some pics up from Egypt, Lebanon, Utah, Hawaii, and Mexico. Guess you'll have to come to Portland to check them out!
We decorated the outside of our house with the icicle type lights. Sorry the lighting isn't very good, but at least it kinda portrays how the lights look outside the house.
Thanksgiving weekend also happened to be a gorgeous weekend, which is kinda rare since it's usually in the midst of rainy season. We took advantage of the weather by going on a hike around Forest Park, which is a park located right in NW Portland (pretty much downtown). It's very lush and full of elevation changes, so it made for a good workout. This trail that we hiked is a 30+ mile trail...I think we only ended up doing about 5 miles of it.
On the hike up the hill in Forest Park, we ended up at Pittock Mansion where we were treated to an awesome view of downtown Portland and Mt. Hood. Definitely makes for a rewarding hike!

We hope you all have a wonderful holiday season. Keep in touch and stay warm! :)