Feliz Navidad

I am a little bit crazy about Christmas. Not sure exactly when it happened. But I absolutely LOVE it! In our little one bedroom apartment, I have not one, not two, but THREE Christmas trees.

We have a tree in our main room with white lights, angel and crystal ornaments, the bedroom tree with Hokie ornaments, and kitchen tree with space and doctor ornaments.

Did I mention I also  have a small Charlie Brown tree at my office? Hahah!

We had stockings hung by the "chimney" with care. Well, fireplace at least!

and plenty of homemade cookies...

Dozens and dozens of cookies were made. From Storck favorites: spritz Christmas trees, and raspberry filled with chocolate tips with my cookie gun from my most favorite in-laws, Stein favorites: traditional "Santa" sugar cookie cut outs with frosting and lastly Mexican wedding cookies. I was a cookie making machine this year.

Our Christmas week started in Ohio with just the two of us. My present from Jared was in one of my favorite boxes.

We travelled to Virginia for the holiday week and spent Christmas Eve shopping with my husband and brother-in-law, Jason. We had dinner at Sweet Water Tavern where somehow I only got a photo of the boys!

This year I had decided to take a turn being in charge of our "Secret Santa" gift exchange and "Grab-A-Gift". All in all it went well and I hope everyone liked their gifts.

We even got some southern snow.

I was lucky enough to see some of my favorite girls... having dinner at Coastal Flats with Laura & Dan from The Land of Syd and then later in the week with Tracey in Falls Church!

We even helped furniture shop with Julie and little miss Madison! 

It was a great holiday which always goes by too fast. With late nights, dance dance revolution tournaments, and lots of food and family.

Merry Christmas from The "Stein" (Storck & McDougall) Clan!

Winter Begins

The winter solstice is today, the start of winter, the beginning of days getting longer! It is also, and more importantly, my best friend Natalie's birthday! Natalie is oh so far away, living literally on the other side of the planet for a few years and I miss her so much.

Thank goodness for technology! I can pick up the phone and talk to her anytime. Like the other night when I called her after a holiday party where I was a wee bit tipsy and we talked and talked. Well, I think I did most of the talking but it was wonderful to know she is always there for me.

And she is. Always there for me. We met in 1993 when we had both made the Drill Team (soon to be called Dance Team) and were suitemates at summer camp. And she has been there for me since. Whether it is all through high school together... (us in 1997)

a crazy NYE night downtown DC...(NYE 2003)

going with me to try on wedding dress after wedding dress for my wedding... (photo care of Natalie! and yes, I was trying on ALL those dresses in the photo during summer 2007)

or just on the other end of the phone on a random night, she is there for me. And I know she always will be. Happy Birthday Natalia! Can't wait to celebrate with you when you are home to visit!!

One million addresses

That is what it felt like. One million addresses that I hand wrote. In reality, it was only one hundred. (Mental note, printing labels next year is a must!)

But I do like how our cards turned out. Here is the Storck Christmas card for 2010!

And since I wasn't blogging back then... here are our cards from Christmas past. Silly, I know. But I just can't help it.

2009

2008

Three Hour Tour

It took me nearly three hours to get home from work today. Three hours because of this...

and this...

and this...

Thank goodness I have a Jeep and plenty of Christmas music!

Charlotte

North Carolina that is. Over the Thanksgiving holiday we got a call from our friend, Dr. C. Dr. C was a roommate of Jared's in college, the best man in our wedding, a great friend AND he has a wonderful wife, Mrs. S. You don't find many couples that you click with both people. Dr. C and Mrs. S are those kind of people. We always have soo much fun together. Since both of the guys are physicians our visits are always too short, but each meeting is like starting right where we left off. 

Well, Dr. C and Mrs. S surprised us with tickets to the ACC Championship Game where the Hokies were playing Florida State. Needless to say, we were Charlotte bound! A little pre-gaming at a Brazilian steakhouse where we had the whole bar to ourselves!

All bundled up for another Virginia Tech win!

We had a great time with Dr. C and Mrs. S (send kisses to baby C!) and can't wait to see them again soon!