I heart Texas

We were fortunate enough to be the guests of Liz and Tommy last evening for dinner. They had the good taste to get married this year during Columbus Day weekend- their wedding was October 7, 2007- the day after ours!

It’s nice to see them so happy. Their place is really great, and their beagle puppy Abby is absolutely adorable! If there was any doubt where Liz is from- all you have to do is take a look at her home to see her Texas pride.

As an extra treat, Liz’s father Chuck Roy was visiting them from Texas, and he prepared an outstanding meal for all of us. Chuck is the author of a cookbook series called Cooking Lessons -- Recipes for Life as well as for Dinner. Each book has different stories about his family and recipes from their table.

We really enjoyed talking with him about family, his experiences as an engineer and at The Culinary Institute of America as well as his passion for fishing. He was kind enough to sign one for us. If you are interested, they are available for purchase at; www.lulu.com/royce1228

Happy Anniversaries

Sunday was a pretty relaxing morning. We finally had a chance to sleep in a little and spend time with David’s family.

We had a yummy brunch and then hit the road. The drive to Maryland wasn’t too awful, and we got home in time to order some Chinese food, unpack and enjoy Carolyn and Adam’s champagne.

For those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, my friend Carolyn got married last Thanksgiving weekend. On the way out of the reception, each guest was handed a bottle which read, “Toast with us on our first anniversary, 11/25/07.” So we popped open our bubbly and toasted to Carolyn and Adam. We hope they had an amazing first year as Mr. and Mrs!

It was also Fara and Hunter's anniversary on Sunday - we know they've had a great year because we've been fortunate enough to spend a lot of time with them. Biggest milestone was welcoming their daughter Riley on December 5, 2006. Can't believe how big she's grown and that its been 9 whole years since my first Scott Morrell wedding!

NYC and Dinner at Wasabi

We had an awesome day of eating on Saturday.

It kicked off with brunch at Rick and Carolyn’s place in NYC. We ate, drank mimosas, played with Benjamin and planned our ski trip for this winter.

Then we headed up to Nyack for dinner with Amanda, Brooke & Brian and Andrea & Kevin. I showed David the awesome Brown, O'Grady, and Paige post office on our way to Andrea’s parents place.

We hung out a little while, looked at more proofs and then went to dinner at Wasabi. Dinner was pretty…pretty….pretty tasty. We had some sushi, discussed the interesting bathrooms (two toilets in one room?!) and of course took lots of pictures.


Table pic at Wasabi

Brooke & Brian

E's

The fabulous Ace

Amanda, David and Ali

Andrea & Kevin and Brooke & Brian

Amanda and Ali

The Rubins

We drove to NJ after dinner and fell asleep about 5 minutes after arriving at Fran and Dov’s place.

Proofs and Ingrid's 21st Birthday

On Friday, David hung out with Ilan and Patricia while I spent the day with my mom running some errands and looking at photo proofs from the wedding. There are SO many- over 2100 pictures- I have no idea how I’m going to narrow them into an album! Some of my favorites are below...


Brian and Mom

With our awesome groomsmen

G&G Koles and family

Machatootsies!

Mamma Koles and me

G&G Felder and family

G&G Felder

Happy Bride

staring contest

rings

Outside of Temple Israel

Happy Birthday David

Our wedding ceremony

Gettin' hitched

First dance

my happiest day with my bestests

mom and dad

holding hands during hay's toast

In the evening, we call got together for cocktails at mom’s place before going to dinner at Ciao Baby for my cousin Ingrid’s 21st Birthday.

Ingrid's birthday was a lot of fun and a LOT of food!


toasting the birthday girl

all the cousins

Everything was delish- especially that sangria! We had some fun with the fake desserts...

and then we had some birthday cake.

After dinner, Hayley and Shawn came over to look at some proofs and catch up for a bit

Thanksgiving 2007

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!


We headed north for the Koles/Ehrlich Thanksgiving extravaganzapalooza after work on Tuesday. After a better-than-expected dinner from Wa Wa, we arrived at David's parents place and spent the night in Scotch Plains. We continued on towards good ol Forest Hills in the morning.

Wednesday was full of prepping...



We brined the birds, made cornbread, soup and lots more.


The fridge was at max capacity!

Thursday was perfect. We woke up around 7, Brian snoozed while David and Dad made stuffing and got the turkeys in the oven.


Then, the 3 chefs (Dad, Brian and David) discussed menu and strategy before some light manual labor.

Mom came by with some much-needed breakfast. Mmmm, love those New York Bagels!

Then it was back to work.


Everything went perfectly! There were no water-main breaks this year, no acts of vengeance by mother nature- traffic was great and everyone even found parking!

Hangin' with Fran and Dov


Turkeys are done!

Brian and David watching football

Leslie, Mom and Fran

Grandpa Paul, Dov and Grandpa Ruth

David, Brian and Uncle Al

Grandpa Don and Brian

Grandpa Don and Dov

It was great to see Devaki and Mallika -We hope they come back again next year.

We (somewhat belatedly) celebrated Virginia's birthday..

...as well as Grandpa Don's 80th!

We have SO MANY leftovers- we could have fed another 20!