The Great Storm of 'Snow Nine

Yesterday Ryan and I hunkered down at home while the massive snow storm that hit most of the East coast came to our town. It was the first time in over a year that both of us had a Saturday off together, and it was absolutely wonderful to be forced to relax and do nothing. We watched Christmas movies all day, and our neighbors even brought us homemade chicken dumpling soup and cake. In short, it was perfect. Today may not be as fun as we have to shovel ourselves out of the 20 plus inches of pretty white stuff, but it was definitely worth it yesterday! 

I took lots of pictures last night and again this morning as we walked to and from Mass. All of the snow makes our town look like it came straight out of a Christmas card. I think I'm in love ...

Outside our front window yesterday afternoon

And the back side

What it looked like later in the evening

Sunrise

Brick wall almost completely covered

So beautiful

The lamp posts in town

Snow on the Green

The Courthouse

Ryan trying to find a path where we could walk

Icicles!

Walking home from Mass

Seriously, isn't this just gorgeous?

More icicles and lanterns

Winter wonderland picture #1

Winter wonderland picture #2

What happened to the car?

Pretty church picture in the center of town

I hope everyone else who was hit by this storm is safe and warm! 

Christmas in our McCasa

As promised, here are the photos of our Christmas decorations. I'm pretty excited to say that we spent a whopping $50.00 on decorations (including our real tree). Everything else was generously handed down from family members. Hopefully in a year or so, we'll have enough saved up so I can get beautiful matching decorations a la Martha Stewart. But until then, here ya go: 

The outside of our little house. Christmas is a reason for me to put bows on EVERYTHING. I heart bows...

The craft store wanted $3.00 for 2 bows, so I bought a big o' roll of ribbon and made them all myself. 

I love the candlelight in our bedroom. Luckily, in our old town, it is perfectly acceptable to have window candles year round. These babies are staying put! P.S. remind me to share pictures of what an odd shape our bedroom is. 

Pretty garland on the tv armoire. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that in a few years Santa will replace that armoire with a flat screen and a fire place.

Stockings hung on the staircase with love until the said Santa above decides to bring us that fireplace...

Also on the bookshelf you will see Santa, a small nativity set, and the Polar Express (I still hear the bell ;0) ) 

Merry Christmas!

This is what you see when you walk into our kicthen...

This picture doesn't really show how neat this super old door in our kitchen looks. Once the wreath is on it, it feels like Christmas cira 1844. 

Peace & Snowmen inside our kitchen

I love all the Christmas cards coming in! Seriously I get excited driving home from work hoping more cards are in the mailbox!

Another thing Santa is going to bring us one year is a fabulous new dining room set! Until then, I made do with what we have. My mom picked up the Christmas china set from the Christmas Tree Shoppe for $15.00. How great is that? 

This is Pedro. He sings, "Donde esta Santa Claus?!?"

Otherwise known as pure awesomeness. 

I spoke to this weatherman. He's gonna bring everyone snow on the 25th. 

O Christmas Tree! 

I usually like pine trees, but we went with a fir tree this year. I think it looks pretty (and of course it has lots of bows)!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Favorite Couple Costume!

Last week, Justine, over at Almost There, posted her favorite Halloween costume. I loved the idea so much, I figured I should share mine with you. It all goes back to Halloween 2006. My hair was longer, and darker due to an unfortunate mishap I had trying to dye it myself. Ryan and I had been dating a month and a half, and somehow I convinced him to dress up as this crazy couple (this was at the height of the T.C. insanity). Enjoy!

Ahhh the days when Tom was jumpin' on couches, Katie was always sporting glasses and turtleneck sweaters, and everyone questioned whether or not the child was really theirs. I think we captured the spirit pretty well...

One of my roomies recommended we pose like the oh so popular Vanity Fair cover:

So, of course we had to...

I'm dying to know, what's your favorite couple costume???

Our First Home!

We're officially homeowners!

I don't think I could be any more excited! We weren't planning on looking for a house until October, but one day, on a whim, we decided to check out a neighborhood my friend recommended (thanks Sarah!). Little did we know that we'd be putting an offer on a place the next weekend. One home inspection, multiple trips to the mortgage broker, and a closing later, it's all ours!

Our house is in a section of town called Old New Castle, and goodness is our house old (well in U.S. terms anyway...I'm sure my friends living in Europe would have different expectations :0) ). Exactly how old is it? Well, it's older than the civil war, older than The Scarlet Letter, and older than the first U.S. postage stamp. From what we can gather (a couple records differ), the house was most likely built around 1844.

Luckily the house was renovated in 2001 so that it has central air and closets. Closets you say? Yup, no one back then (in this area anyway) had closets. All I can say is I am so very very thankful for for renovations.

Even with all of the new updates, our house still has lots of old charm. The hardwood floors are original, and we found about 7 different skeleton keys above the doors when we went for inspection.

I am in LOVE with our house (I'm just hoping it isn't haunted).

These are the keys to the back door and basement.

We're planning to try and get in and paint a bit this weekend, and then officially move in the 19th after we get back from a short vacation. I'll be sure to do lots of updates with pics!

365 Pt. 3

Here is the final part of the anniversary re-cap. For the last part of the day, we went out to dinner at Limoncello . The food was so good! I had some reservations about going to an Italian restaurant since I can't have wheat or dairy, but they made me the best fish meal ever! It was so wonderful to be able to go to a restaurant and not have to have a piece of grilled chicken and steamed veggies. I'm pretty sure there was absolutely nothing left on my plate :0)

Here are the last of the re-cap pics! 

Yup, I re-wore my wedding shoes. I was so excited to have a reason to wear them again!

365 Pt. 2

Thanks for all of the kind wishes everyone! I also loved that you all loved the VT blanket. If I can get him to sit on it by our 1st anniversary, maybe I can make him a fan by our 50th? Hmmm, that may be wishful thinking, but one can always hope!

Up next on our anniversary day....Ryan & I go to the ballpark! 

A South Jersey Housewife guessed right! We went to go see the world champion Phillies (whoot whoot) play the St. Louis Cardinals, and it was such a great time.

Ryan & I heading to our seats. 

Pic in front of a wall of baseballs

I heart citizens bank park

Ballpark & city skyline

Chickie's & Pete's crab fries. So yummy!

 Ignore the massive amounts of ketchup. I'm a ketchupaholic. 

Chase Utley hitting a home run. 

And the light up liberty bell ringing afterwards

And the absolutely best part...dum dum dum...

For $25 we were able to get this announcement on the scoreboard, 

and a picture frame that plays "take me out to the ballgame" 

I definitely recommend doing this if you have an anniversary taking place during baseball season! 

Hope you all have a wonderful day!