And a special congrats to Paul today...

on his first day, officially, as an attorney at DLG! This is the same firm that he has been at since we moved here (previously as a law clerk), but recently accepted a promotion. Congrats, counselor!

Christmas in Michigan

Happy New Year!! Yes, I realize Christmas was a week and a half ago... we needed time to decompress!

We traveled to the mitten for the holidays this year for a short and sweet trip. After a red-eye flight with a three hour delay right in the middle, we landed in Detroit at 8am just in time for the 2.5-hour drive to Grand Rapids. Yay! So after more time in planes and cars than we've spent in the last year combined, I didn't leave the house much. :)

As per usual with this family, there was a lot of eating, drinking, laughing... more drinking... more laughing... with some presents mixed in. I took a lot of pictures, so this post will read more like a family album. Enjoy!

December 23rd

My usual post

Elliot and Grandma Horvath

Wrapping presents!

Grandma and Grandpa Mayo

Don't worry, Elvis was there, atop the paper towels.

Lauren and Grandpa Horvath reminiscing

The stockings were hung...

Presents!

Joyce and her parents

Me, Joyce and Grandpa Horvath

Joyce and new Tom

That night we all headed to Bar Divani in downtown GR for the much-anticipated Lime Green Shirt reunion. Lime Green Shirt, what is that?? Musical worlds colliding as DJ Elijah (aka Elliot), Archangel and Sylock (better known to most of you as the two rad dudes who DJ'd our wedding) reunited for an epic set.

December 24th

Christmas Eve! Of course after excessive imbibing the previous evening, we all rolled out of bed late morning and proceeded to lazily hang around the condo all day. Just like the three cats that live there as well.

This is Max. He's awesome.

Catnap!

This is Shadow, the most cuddly friendly cat I've met.

And of course Sam... the fat one.

Rar!

Nature's fridge.

"Don't worry, I got it... I'm way tall."

Dinner prep

Lauren, Erica and Elliot

Grandpa and Grandma Mayo patiently waiting to be fed.

There's one proud lady

PRESENTS!!!!

"Thanks for the 4-years-expired coupon, Erica" - Elliot

Watching Paul attack siblings and cousins with a foam noodle at Christmas 1994

Watching old family Christmas videos

December 25th

This should come as no surprise, but Paul decided rather than one big Christmas dinner, he would roll out food all day long, sorta like tapas. Eating all day long? Yes please.

Bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with chorizo, chevre, and chipotle. Supreme deliciousness.

Gramps Mayo diving into the goods.

Mom, Joyce and me in front of the fire.

Erica, Grandpa Horvath, Grandpa Mayo, Marshall, Grandma Horvath and Grandma Mayo - potato peeling party!!

Mom and Grandma Horvath

Dad and Grandpa Horvath in front of the dual fires.

Grandpa Horvath never gets caught without a martini

Carving the rosemary and horseradish crusted prime rib that Paul made.

What better way to conclude a perfect Christmas than an impromptu piano concert from Lauren's boyfriend Dan?

It was a wonderful holiday, albeit short. And just for fun, here's a little stop-motion video of Erica and Elliot throwing down.

To anyone who made it through this entire post and is still reading... I also have some news. The day we left for Michigan, I was offered a position at Jive Software, a super awesome software company in Portland that I have been hoping to work at for forever! I applied for a job with them before we even moved here, and finally the time is right. Starting January 11th I will be Jive's newest Sales Support Specialist. While this is a fantastic opportunity and I am so excited, it is bittersweet as it means I have to leave my beloved Veritable Quandary. I was so lucky to get a job at the VQ only two weeks after moving here (thanks for taking a chance on an unknown!), and it's been such a wonderful year and a half since then. It is truly like a family, and it's gonna be tough to leave all the awesome people I've had the privilege to work with during that time. I am happy and sad and nervous and scared, but I know it's going to be great. Wish me luck!

Love,

Jenny

Trillium Lake

We've been having gorgeous weather this week in Portland (except for today, BRRR!), so on Tuesday we decided to head out of the real world and snowshoe around Trillium Lake, situated at the base of Mt. Hood. It was great to get out of the city for a day and just enjoy the pristine beauty of the lake.

Not a single cloud in the sky all day

Show us the way

You have to hike in about 3 miles to get around the one side of the lake and emerge from the trees, but once you do, this is the view you are greeted with.

Wow.

The lake is surrounded by campsites, which we definitely intend to check out soon (maybe in the summertime though...). Of course the lake and everything around it is frozen over by now, so we stopped off at a frosty picnic table to enjoy the view and take a little break.

We almost froze our butts off. Literally.

Time to move on.

We decided to stick around for at least the beginning of the sunset to take some pictures. We came across this dock that provided a perfect view. So perfect that there was another photographer there. :) He was super nice, a very serious amateur, and gave me some good tips. He was even nice enough to take our picture.

Taking a break on a bed of snow

We couldn't stick around for too long since, after all, the sun was setting and we're out in the woods... but we did get to see the mountain turn a really pretty orange.


And even though we couldn't clearly see the mountain on the trail back, it was a gorgeous sunset nonetheless. Just look at this.

The moon rose just as the sun set

And of course, we took some video while we were there. I used iMovie to piece it together and set it to a little ditty by Passion Pit.



And we were back to the real world by dinnertime. We are certainly lucky to have such a wonderful playground an hour's drive from home. Expect to see more of Hood this winter!

Love,
Jenny