christmas on the farm

there is not nearly enough space to share all the photos i have from christmas... but here are a few.  it was such a lovely [and freezing] holiday.

our holiday farmhouse

my handsome husband

aj...

nanny + i

ollie + his love, uncle joe

laughter at our table

no plans for new years tomorrow night just yet... maybe just a nice dinner out and some champagne at home.  it is icy and freezing here, and our tradition is twilight zone marathon and champagne.  sounds pretty good right about now :)

merry christmas!

merry christmas from alaina + PI

may your days be merry and bright!

welcome to massachusetts

well, we finally made it to massachusetts.

we live here now.

but we are up in the most adorable town you've never heard of - great barrington.  we are holed up in a little farmhouse for christmas, watching movies, catching up, drinking and laughing.

this is the best pic i could get as we blew past the NY border into MA

here's a few quick pics to catch you up on the last few weeks since i've blogged:

my sister anne came out from tennessee for graduation

I GRADUATED.       :)

my parents threw a brunch for me at my fave restaurant after graduation

we threw our annual christmas party/goodbye party for all our friends

goodbye dinner with my best girlfriends all together [almost]

we had a very tearful goodbye with our house...

and we packed up our cats and drove from denver to mass.

since i am now not working or attending school lots of updates will be coming... but for now i am putting on love actually, wrapping gifts, and drinking champagne.

merry christmas to all!

so much to look forward to!

hey all!

so here is my first blog post post-school.  it feels pretty good.  today was absolutely insane, as all my days are, even though i am done with school.  i anticipate all of my days to be like this, at least until we move to boston - if not until we actually move into an apartment.  school is just one less thing i have to worry about now.

i worked all day yesterday and today is my last day.  i am not going to lie - it is actually really stressing me out that tomorrow is my last day.  i am having a hard time relinquishing control of some things, and i am really worried about what is going to happen after i leave.  but i know most people who leave their jobs feel like this [so says one of my girlfriends, j, who is an hr expert anyway].  so it will be interesting to see how it goes, because right now i just feel kind of anxious.  we had a team outing yesterday afternoon for the holiday and we did a cocktails and canvas event - and i totally loved it!  painting was such a great way to relieve stress... wish i could do it more often (and be good at it). 

my first painting!

after my work outing, i stopped for happy our with j at el camino.  it felt so great to just sit, drink, talk, and not worry that i was blowing off homework or something else super important.  i am really going to miss our random but always much-needed happy hours...


i am starting to get super excited for this weekend.  in less than 12 hours my sis anne will be here - i can't wait for another visit with her!  my brother aj also arrives in just a few hours... before you know it the rest of my family will be in tomorrow and it will be time for graduation on saturday morning.  saturday night is our annual christmas cocktail bash so anne and i have a million things to do to get ready.  but this is the good kind of busy - not writing term papers and reading til 1am kind of busy.  i like this kind of busy :)

i don't know if i'll have time to blog again til after the crazy weekend - but stay tuned!  lots more coming up!

til next time...

christmas shopping!

due to my absolutely absurd lack of time this holiday season, i have done nearly all of my holiday shopping online.  this is fantastic for a few reasons:

1. i am lazy.
2. i can shop with a glass of wine and in my underwear.
3. there is a much bigger selection of shops and items!

so this year i wanted to try to do like 90% - if not all - of my christmas shopping from non-profits and local and/or small businesses.  so i thought i would share a few of my favorite cites to shop from so far.

punjammies - amazing pajames made by the international princess project, which helps women from lives of forced prostitution.

invisible children - fantastic jewelry, bags, scarves and more made from east african citizens directly affected by joseph kony and the lra's evil presence. 

etsy - this one is obviously not a non-profit, but it is a great way to support people who aren't necessarily professionals but who create things they love, which is awesome.  check out one of my favorite shops, a salvaged home, for unique pillow covers and gorgeous one-of-a-kind vintage finds.

i am heading out to a mission supports christmas shopping event at the merc wednesday night and hope to find some fabulous and helpful christmas gifts - so i'll update this list if i find new great places to shop for a purpose. 

what are you favorite non-profits to shop from this holiday season?

day of firsts and lasts.

 

well, it is finally over.  i finished my LAST CLASS EVER today.  it felt really good, and it was a really great class too actually.  we had a mock-constitutional convention, which i felt was a great way to end my adventure back to school.  it was sort of anti-climactic though, since i still have a term paper to write this week.  and get this:

my term paper is on my own personal political philosophy.  i think that is such a fitting way not only to wrap up the class or the semester, but the perfect way to sum up before graduation on saturday.  it will require me to really reflect on everything i've learned this past year and decide what i really stand for, and hopefully might help me prioritize in searching for jobs out in boston.

it was also a little anti-climactic because i couldn't go celebrate with my favorite carpool/study group buddies, lp + cw, but instead had to rush home to sign the lease for our house!  yup - the isbouts home is now officially going to be occupied by someone else come january 1st.  it's bittersweet, because i really am still super nervous about having someone else live in the house - but this also means it's one less thing that i have to worry about now.

after the lease was taken care of, pi and i rushed out to get him to the airport.  another first today - he left for his first business trip for his new company.  even though he started his job officially on the 26th of november, tomorrow is really his first day.  he hasn't had to go into an office or even really meet anyone from his company yet, so tomorrow is a big day for him!  he's gone all week - won't be back til friday afternoon - but it gives me lots of time to finish up my final paper, pack, and prep for the party this weekend.  i better get used to him being out of town, so i am keeping myself super busy this time around.

i am still kind of in shock about being done with class.  i don't think it will really hit me until i finish my term paper this week - but i am hoping i can actually knock it all out tomorrow evening so i can get on with all the stuff i have to do.

goodnight all!

til next time...

a christmas memory.

this song came on my iPod this evening as i was driving home and i thought i'd share it with you all, along with a little special memory i have of it.  i love it :)

back during my prague days, we took a little road trip over thanksgiving break.  now, of course they don't celebrate thanksgiving in the czech republic, but american students still do.  so basically we skipped class on thursday and friday.  we rented a little car and left prague on thursday afternoon, and then drove to vienna.  it was awesome for so many different reasons - one of which was road trips are just a little more interesting when you are trying to drive your way around europe.  also, PI and i were just becoming an item at this time, so it was a special time for us. 

but best of all, it was christmastime.  and christmas time in vienna is something very special.  we were all on a very tight budget, so we found a nice hotel and shared a room with two twin beds between five of us.  but during the day we would wander around the city and spend time in the amazing christmas village in the city square.  now i am really huge into christmas carols during the holiday season, and one day while we were walking around the christmas village, i found this old frank sinatra christmas album and just had to buy it for our car trip.

well, that night we were all going to bed in our cramped little hotel room and we decided to put on some christmas carols as we went to bed (yes, we were kind of strange college students i guess).  the first some on the album is this one below - which just happens to be my favorite christmas carol of all time.  no joke. 

at the end of the song frank says 'merry christmas.'  and as we all laid in the dark, PI and i cuddled in a twin bed together with some of our best friends, we all at the same time said 'merry christmas frank.'  it was such a weird thing, as soon as we all said it we all just busted out laughing.

it is such a random memory but one of my favorite holiday memories.  just wanted to share that :)

holiday blanks!

hi friends!  i’ve been taking a break from blanking, but since these are holiday themed i just couldn’t say no :) 

1. "the best way to spread christmas cheer is..." being cheery! i am always so happy around the holidays, and i think the best way to make other people cheery is being cheerful yourself.

2. the holiday season is  definitely my favorite time of the year.  this year is a little weird with graduation and the move, but we are making the best of it.

3. when it comes to holiday decorating...  i go all out! our décor is a little bit more wintery – lots of golds and silvers.  but there are some wreaths and red and green candles and things we put out. i love it all.

4. the thing i look forward to most about the holidays is  family, gift giving and christmas caroling.  i know that’s three things, but i could never just pick one!

5. my favorite holiday tradition is  probably our christmas cocktail party.  this year is our 6^th, and each year it gets a little bit bigger and a little more fun.  my family has a lot of great traditions, but they have been changing over the past few years with the death of my great-grandmother (she was our family matriarch), so we are trying to come up with new family traditions.  with four sets of parents, we don’t have too many traditions that we do year after year besides our own christmas cocktail party.

6. this year my christmas plans include  moving.  yeah.  we are kind of up in the air on what to do for the actual holiday, but it sounds like we will be out east somewhere.  my dad is big on wanting to rent a house on the cape, but if that doesn’t work out we will all be in ny.  like i mentioned, my family is trying to come up with some new traditions…

7. my favorite holiday food is champagne.

high high #27

every year, PI and i go to the nutcracker before christmas.  it's one of our traditions, and we usually go all out.  there's a fancy dinner beforehand and sometimes cocktails after the show.  but one of my favorite traditions of ours.

and today, we got our nutcracker tickets! and, of course, we are having dinner before at our favorite place ever.

the denver ballet does an amazing job. can't wait for our holiday themed date among the insanity occurring in my life right now.  i have a serious case of senioritis.  i can't concentrate on any homework and can only think about the move, christmas, shopping, our party, and christmas themed cocktails.  true story.

ok, gotta try to get back to reading about american political thought.  boo.

high high #25

it was a pretty amazing day.

it started out with work, but it got kind of amazing afterwards.  PI & i went to pick out or christmas party invitations from our favorite stationary shop [i CAN NOT believe that it's already time for christmas party invitations!].  they are amazing - can/t wait to share pics!

but after, mom and i had an amazing spa day at  izba.  we had body masques, beating with banya leaves, and an amazing rubdown by a man named dimitri.  after we were sufficiently relaxed, we went for wine and cheese at cellar.  i would highly recommend it :) 

it was an amazing relaxing mother-daughter day... and we don't do it often enough.  it was pretty awesome.

hope you enjoyed your saturday!

xoxo
 

lovely, lovely weekend.

just wanted to share a photo so you could understand how excited this weekend made me.

like i said, two of my favorite people on earth came to visit us last weekend.  my cousin E & her husband P came from queens.  it was a glorious three and a half days off of work and we just had an amazing time.  some photos to follow...

what can i say, P  & philip kind of love each other

it's not a vacation without a stop at the tap room!

double IPA, seasonal, raspberry ale

drinking, walking to a comedy show, what's not to love?

red square, 2am.  enough said.

roomie clarence made a new best friend! 

so did miss E :)  anamana! 

easter family pic :)

me & PI, hair thanks to pinterest!

love love love

growing up, my cousin E and i were complete opposites.  and i don't even mean that figuratively, i mean that if i loved something she HATED it.  but now that we are older, we both discovered that we had a ton of things in common over the weekend.  our home decorating style is the same - the couch she just bought is practically identical to mine.  it was such a great time and it meant the world to philip and i that they visited us.  

but the flip side is now it is totally crunch time!  just a few more weeks of school left - through the first week of may - and then i'm done.  i had a mild panic attack today as i registered for my last semester of college (fall 2012).  all the classes that i need are available and i am registered for, which is insane... but that means it's all really happening, really falling into place.  it seems like just yesterday i was contemplating even going back to school in the first place.  

that makes me happy :) 

til next time (which might be may... ugh...)

xoxo

2011 blanks!

1.   new years is  totally overated, but a clean slate. a chance to do things over - or try again.

2.   one of my new year's resolutions will be  i don't do new year's resolutions. i do these things called 'balanced goals & objectives' that i'll post more on later.  but one of them is going to be to finish school with all a's & b's!

3.  a new year's resolution i've made in the past was to  work out. doesn't everyone do that? it lasted like two months.

4. the most time consuming resolution i ever made was  see above.

5.  this year i will be spending new year's eve  sipping champagne on my couch while watching the twilight zone marathon with philip. love it.

6.  if i could wish one thing for my new year it would be  to finally be done with school.

7.  2012 is going to be  there's no use in making predictions - the way i thought 2011 was going to go was the complete opposite of how it went. so i can't wait to see the surprises and start our new year adventure :)

high high #12

what a day for christmas spirit.

it started out great, with secret santas at work - yay!  i got my whole staff custom mugs with the pictures on them, which everyone seemed to really enjoy.  we were really all in the holiday spirit, and to top it off - winter storm warning for denver!  we are getting dumped on right now and should see about 8-10 inches before it lets up tomorrow afternoon.  SO, unexpected snow day for me tomorrow, which means my christmas vacation starts half a day early - RIGHT NOW!  whooo!

but then the day took a turn for the worst...  when i hear customers of mine who have fallen on hard times, i want to help them.  and in my line of work, that's not always possible.  i have made a solemn vow (to myself) to never be the woman who cries at work, so i held it in all day long until philip picked me up.

we were on our way home when philip reminded me that mom was doing a gift exchange with a single mother of three who we 'adopted' in our community this year.  philip and i bought toys for the kids while mom bought clothes for the whole family.  she was meeting the woman for  coffee and to give her the gifts.  we thought it might lift my spirits to go - so we went.  and WOW.  what a wonderful reminder of how blessed i am.  the mother  cried when we gave her the gift cards for groceries, and of course the rest of us teared up too.  just to see how grateful someone really was for groceries really put my holiday stress in perspective.

and i realized that while i wasn't able to help people out the way i wanted to at work, i still did something good for a family in need.  and i didn't feel so helpless anymore.  and that, along with the awesome winter storm we are having, was my high high.

friends, let's all remember what this season is really about.  friends, family and sharing what we have.  i hope everyone who reads this is able to pay it forward and do something nice and unexpected for someone who needs it this holiday season.

here's a few pics of the snow - and due to this we are headed up to keystone early!  huzzah!  i'm not sure i'll be blogging while on vacation, so we'll see.

outside tree

running inside! 

and one last thing...

i want to say a very special merry christmas to my pop pop.  he loved this time of year more than anyone else i've ever met in my life.  for the longest time i really believed he was one of santa's elves - he always knew just what i wanted, even when i swore i'd never told anyone (but my letter to santa).  he would be the one up at 5am in line at any store possible to get exactly what his grandkids wanted.  he's been gone for 5 years now, but i still miss him like crazy at christmas.  there's a line from the christmas carol 'wintersong' that always makes me think of him...

and this is how i see you

in the snow on christmas morning

love & happiness surround you

i'll throw my arms up to the sky

and keep this moment by and by

oh i miss you so

what a time to be thankful.

merry christmas to all and to all a good night.

xoxoxo

high high #11

my gift wrapping.  LOVE the paper from ikea and my fancy gift tags.  it's a joy wrapping each gift and i can't wait til everyone sees what i've picked out!

holiday update 2!

what a whirlwind weekend!  between buying and wrapping presents and planning (and having) our christmas party there has been zero time for blog updates!  but there’s always a bit of time to share photos ;)

after a week of running around like a crazy woman (well, moreso than usual at least), we had a wonderful christmas party saturday night!  the turnout was wonderful, the cocktails were perfect, the food wasn’t too bad (even my experimental spinach-artichoke dip was a hit!) and the company was perfect.  the highlight of the evening was a surprise guest – my brother AJ showed up, having just flown in from boston.  it was a great night with all the people i love around here :)

me & rach

my bestest girlfriends :)

SURPRISE! AJ showed up! 

my adorable husband, the bartender.

decorated tree - in the front yard :)

with the help of my awesome girlfriend W who showed up early, we got the house totally decked out.  we were even able to make sure of the christmas tree from hell, which now looks pretty cute.

so besides all the christmas trimming and shopping, i have spent a lot of time wasting my life away on pinterest (my sister bianca sent me an invite and i can’t stop pinning things!) and paperless post (thanks to the little things we do).  i am still trying to figure out exactly how pinterest works, so i don’t know if i can link to my boards or not but i’ll give it a shot here.  the best one are the baby shower ideas i have for my soon-to-be little niece!  i literally can’t wait until christmas when the cat’s out of the bag and i can blog 24/7 about how excited i am for baby to come :) anyone who knows me knows that i hate and am awful at keeping secrets!!! anyway, back to my holiday card.  last year i totally slacked and didn’t send out a holiday card.  when things started getting busy this year, i decided to do something easy and green by sending a fancy holiday card online.  sometimes online cards look really tacky – but i think the one philip picked out is super cute!  check it out:

the next few days are going to be just as busy – my mother-in-law and sister-in-law & her bf are coming in for christmas.  we are driving up to the mountains on thursday afternoon to spend the holiday snowed in, watching christmas movies and drinking.  now that’s what you call the perfect colorado christmas :)