Christmas 2010 at the Capers

Last night, Chris and I opened our gifts to each other and gifts from my parents and my grandmother. And the kitties continued to be their adorable selves. Here's the highlight reel.



Oreo and Shadow enjoying their Christmas present.



But of course, they stil love their old cat bed too so they can snuggle.

Zoro loves his brother so much. What a cuddle bug.

The birds enjoying the new bird feeder.

Here's a couple awesome presents Chris got me. They are from 20 x 200, an excellent place to get limited edition art for a steal. Here's the website in case you're interested: http://www.20x200.com/




Superman.



Another kitty! But this one is a planter. Sooo cute!

Chris made me a calender of my kitties through the years. He wrote super funny captions to go with all the pictures.

Callie's Kitties.

The aftermath of opening presents.

Chris also bought me a security camera for the house. It's awsome. Now I can pull up the video feed on my phone or through a website to see the kitties when we're away. And of course, it will certainly help me feel safe when Chris is away. :-)

Presents!

Just wanted to show off a couple of my early Christmas presents. The adorable bird picture above the headboard is sooooo cute and looks good in pretty much every room in the house. We're starting it off in the guest room but I'm sure it'll make it's way around. So cute. Also, the bench at the foot of the bed was a special gift from my dad. He made it out of antique barn wood. Planning on putting it in the garden this spring, but it looks really great in this room too. I love the rustic charm.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Chris and I have really been in the Christmas spirit lately. We love our holidays and it's so fun to decorate and attend festivities.

Here's stage one of the Christmas decorating. Got some lights up.

We also went to North Syracuse's holiday parade. It was super cold but pretty fun to weather the snow and freezing temperatures with our community.

Here's the firefighters pulling an old firetruck and dressed as reindeer. haha



A cute bird ornament we got at Beckwith's Christmas tree farm this year. Goes with our wedding theme. :-)

We also got this funny little guy. We're thinking it's a cat, but we're not totally sure. It's made out of some sort of dried plant.

Meow?

Okay, these pictures are out of order, but I'm using Internet Explorer and it's crap and won't let me rearrange the order. lol Here's the finished product, our Christmas tree all decorated and gorgeous.

And now you get to see the tree bailed and ready to be unwrapped.


And here's our tree getting bailed at Beckwith's Christmas tree farm. Do you feel like you're in some sort of weird Christmas flashback scene in an old holiday movie? Maybe when we stop, we'll be at the very beginning of the Christmas season again and can make up for past/future mistakes?

And now the tree with lights. Forward progress now. haha

Chris and me at the farm, about to ride a wagon out to the field to pick out our tree. Oh man, we're heading backwards again. Look at those faces. They have no idea they're caught in a time warp.

Love it.

Here's the lobby of my office building. Oh man. Now our time warp involves changing locations? This is intense. At least they did a really nice job of decorating it for the holidays.

So there you have our crazy little not-at-all chronologically ordered Christmas adventures. Maybe I should ask Santa for Firefox for Christmas next year. haha

Michigan for Thanksgiving

Last weekend Chris and I drove to Michigan to spend Thanksgiving with my family. Here's a few of the pictures from our time there.

This is my cute cousin Jayda trying to hold my neice Hadley. Jayda is very tiny for her age and Hadley is pretty pudgy. The results are so cute.Check out those chubby thighs!

Hdaley and her mommy.

Me with one of my bridesmaids, Cara and my maid of honor, Katie.

Hadley and her Nana. :-)

An Offering to Bridezilla

Last night I had to stop at the post office to sign for a package from Disney Fairy Tale Weddings. It seems the wedding industry has decided to make a peace offering to appease the great-and-terrible Bridezilla. (Actually, we've been on good terms with the Disney people. They're very pleasant, just ridiculously expensive.)

Anyway, Chris and I opened up the envelope to discover that our wedding coordinator sent us two free annual passes to Disney World! She said it was to help us get started on our happily ever after. For those of you who don't have Disney ticket prices memorized, each annual pass costs a little over $530. And they sent us two ... Pretty fantastic.

So now we're already thinking about going back to Disney the following summer after the wedding to get some extra use out of the passes. This is just way too cool. You've gotta love the magic of Disney. :-)

The Zombie Bride and Groom Return

I promised a few more pictures of our crazy zombie bride and groom costumes, so here they are. Avert your eyes if you're squeamish. We tried to get as realistic a look as possible. Dave and Lisa took the pictures before we headed over to the party at Renzis.

And in case you're wondering, the clothes are all from Salvation Army. The dress was a little too small, so I just ripped it in the back a little to make it look like I was attacked by other flesh eaters. haha We bought the fake blood, rubber wounds and face makeup at Twilight Halloween. The veil, garter and flowers are from Michaels. I also bought a huge fake diamond ring from Christmas Tree Shop to wear so my actual engagement ring wouldn't get dirty with blood or makeup.

We tore up the clothes and then splattered them with fake blood the night before so they would have plenty of time to dry.



Here comes the zombies.

While we were posing, I got a little hungry and Chris's flesh just smelled so good.

Snack time.

We're fierce.

And here's one not-so-fiere but totally adorable monkey, Jackson Dolen, in his Halloween costume. So cute!

Halloween Party at Renzi's

It's that time of year again. When the leafless trees look scary and the old houses you pass have you wondering if they just might be haunted by some specters with unfinished business. Or if maybe there's a crazy killer on the loose hunting down promiscuous camp counselors around Crystal Lake. haha

If you can't tell, we love Halloween. We get so into it and usually have a horror movie marathon during the whole month of October. (Will anyone ever be able to kill that darn Michael Myers?) So of course, Chris and I were pumped to carve pumpkins. Here are our creations:

My guy may be better off in a mental institution.

Chris's pumpkin is classic and cute.

For the party at the Renzi's house, Chris and I went all out as a zombie bride and groom. What can I say? We really, really like Halloween. And this seemed appropriate since we'll be getting married next year! Hopefully I'll have some more pictures soon to post of the full ensembles.



"I do. Promise to eat your flesh."



The Burnt Hills gang.



Kirsten and Ruleson.



Sir Renzi, the king.

Deidre as a biker chick and Dave as the guy in "V for Vendetta" ... with a sippy straw so he could drink some punch. haha

Beaver Lake Pumpkins

Here are some more pumpkins from the Beaver Lake Nature Center. We went on a walk through the woods at night and got to see them all glowing and spooky.

They had a contest for the best jack-o-lantern and Oscar the Grouch won. So cute!Here's the Joker from Batman.
An owl.
Puss in boots. hahaha
A jack-o-lantern fire.

Rocky Horror Picture Show

Just before Halloween, Chris, Kristen, Derek and I went to see a brew and view double feature of Day of the Dead and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Here's some entertaining pictures of the latter. If you've never been, you should definitely go. But what out for the flying toast ... and toilet paper ... and rice ...
An enthusiastic fan of the movie.
Kristen trying to dig her way out of the mass of toilet paper.

Ok, this pictures isn't actually from that night. But Chris and I went to a nature center and saw a pumpkin carved like Dr. Frank-n-furter from the movie so that got us super pumped. haha

Bridezilla is Not as She Appears

Before getting engaged, I used to think those shows about Bridezillas or monster brides or whatever you want to call them were ridiculous. I always thought, "Well, this is the happiest time of their lives. Why get so bent out of shape? And are there really that many crazy control-freak women out there?"

After being engaged for less than 8 months, I've discovered the truth behind these crazy women that freak out at the caterers, scream at the DJs and threaten to call the wedding off over an error by the florist. The truth is: these women were not like this before planning their weddings. And these women are not just letting the fact they are the attention-getting brides go to their heads. No, these women are this way because the wedding industry has made them so. *

I have paid for a reception - only to have everyone at that business declare they have no idea who I am. I have been told that I must buy a dress without ever actually getting to try it on in my size. I have been told I can't return the dress if it doesn't fit once I get it in my size. I have been told I have to pay a fee to a venue to have a wedding cake. I have been told one price, and then given another with 21% service charges added on. I've been given a "final price" and then told everything that was presumed included is actually additional. I have been told I can pick any room I want for my reception, later to be told I will be put in this room and I can't change. I have been directed to registry websites that only let you add from a small selection of items from the website, without pictures or descriptions, of course. I have tried to get a price quote from a DJ - only to have him send me 4 e-mails about his references ... and no price quote.

In any other industry, this would not stand. These people would be out of business. But because of that stupid image of the perfect wedding that has been tucked away in the back of every bride's mind her entire life, she must endure the rudeness, the flakiness, the odd rules, the bitchy vendors. If she doesn't, she won't have that dream wedding. So she deals with them in the only way that seems to have any effect.

And you know how you deal with these people? Do you know what it takes to make them understand that you will not be screwed over? Well, you can elope. lol That would be the best decision. But if that's not an option, you have to go ape-shit on them. You have to turn into Bridezilla because you know that no one else is going to fight this battle for you. Polite phone calls and e-mails go unanswered. Simple, friendly questions are skipped over. Reasonable requests are laughed at.

No, what you have to do to survive amongst the onslaught of wedding vendors that wish to take advantage of you is threaten to take your business elsewhere - or threaten to call off the wedding, lol. Or you have to go above their heads and get furious and argue and point out faults and get to the point where your irritable bowel syndrome or ulcer or migraine or whatever ailment this craziness has caused you threatens to make you so uncomfortable sometimes you feel like you might explode. And then you have to go and do it all over again with the next vendor so you can check off the next item on your list. Again and again and again.

Screw the happiest time of our lives. This is Tokyo honey, and you, the bride, have got to toughen up your skin and go climb that building. And if a few extras get stomped or eaten in the process ... well, just remember: they made you this way. They are the ones that created this monster.

*I do want to call out that not everyone in the wedding industry is bad. I've met with and talked to a few really wonderful people that have gone out of their ways to make this a pleasant process. But for everyone else, I stand by my opinion.

Engagement Announcement

I almost forgot to put up the best picture yet! This is the engagement announcement that ran in the Jackson Citizen Patriot newspaper (in Michigan) a few weeks ago. Pretty exciting. :-)