Birthday Month Recap

I logged in during my lunch break and was happy to see that it hadn't even been a month since I last posted! Not too shabby, compared to the last few months, haha. Not sure who keeps tabs on this blog, but I'll post an update anyway...

I lovingly refer to January as "my birthday month," since I try to stretch out the festivities as long as possible. They started the first weekend with Danny and Sherry's visit, in which I got a cool new bluetooth device and we went to Maggiano's for dinner (they have an excellent buy-one here, take-one-home-free pasta deal, if you haven't already taken advantage!).  My office also held the "January Birthdays" party that first week, so I got to enjoy an apple pie via my Birthday Buddy, Jenny, as well as some very sweet gifts.  I also go my hair cut and colored earlier this month, a treat I always try to grant myself in January.

My Birthday Month went from "me" to "we" for one special weekend in the middle -- Nathan and my 2-year wedding anniversary!  We spent the weekend eating (cooking and going out), exploring the newly renovated NC Art Museum in Raleigh, doing a tasting at Cloer Family Vineyards in Apex, and purchasing a new mattress. Since 2 years = cotton, Nathan got me a VT football jersey, and I got us some 700 thread count sheets for our new bed. Luckily our anniversary (1/16) fell on MLK Monday this year, so we got a 3-day weekend to celebrate our own special day -- yay!

The following weekend, my REAL birthday weekend, I made sure to indulge -- new restaurants, wine, sleep, etc.  One of Nate's gifts for me was a Cheese 101 class at Southern Season in Chapel Hill, which we went to this past Thursday -- so fun!

This past weekend, my mom and aunt Hilary came to visit us in NC. It was great having them in town, eating at vegan/vegetarian-friendly spots in the area, and having Hilary see our new home.  Sunday night I organized the first of many Carolina Cousins' gatherings so that the family members Nate and I have living in this area can hang out and get to see each other. There were 9 of us at dinner and it was great! Yay for having family close-by!

As you can probably guess, I didn't lose any weight this month due to my many celebratory meals, haha.  I would, however, recommend Spotted Dog in Carrboro, G2B in Durham, Lucky 32 in Cary, Peak City Grill in Apex, and both Jibarra and 18 Seaboard in Raleigh, based on my dining experiences this month!

So....clearly it's been a jam-packed month for the Reynolds Family. Both with fun activities like I mentioned above, AND plenty going on at work for both Nathan and myself. February will be pretty much just as busy, but at least it will be sprinkled with a visit from Dillon (grad school interview weekend at NC State! Woo!), another wine & cheese class at Southern Season (Valentine's gift to ourselves), and our next Carolina Cousins' outing, to Carolina Brewing Company in Holly Springs.

Hope you are all having a great year thus far, as well!

Hello 2012!

Nathan and I are back to work after some nice partial-weeks which I called "Winter Break Part 1" and "Winter Break Part 2." We enjoyed getting to see family, do some shopping (hoorah for new boots and jeans!), cook and eat new things, get stuff done around the house, watch movies, etc. 

January is a busy month for both of us, at work and also with lots of birthday and anniversary celebrations. A week from today we'll be spending our 2-year wedding anniversary together (hoorah for having MLK Day off!).  The past two years have gone by quickly, but they have been jam-packed with fun things like buying a house, traveling to new places, convincing some of our fave family members to move to NC, and more.  We look forward to seeing all that's ahead in the coming year!

Some things to look forward to so far include Josh moving to Raleigh (he started his job at NC State today), Dillon attending NC State's graduate school Recruitment Weekend, Suitemate Reunion in DC in April, and our big trip to California in May :).

Happy 2012!