Friday, December 30, 2011

Christmas in Chicago...With Some of the Folks From Home

Christmas Eve
showing off our new PJ's
So this year we fully embraced our emerging adulthood & decided to stay in Chicago & celebrate Christmas in the Windy City! We visited a Lutheran church in Wrigleyville for Christmas Eve services, and apparently we attended the "Kids Service" which was a mistake that I won't make again, but the church was really nice & they even had some programming listed in the bulletin that grabbed our attention. I think we may go back there. Anyway, after church we came home to open our annual Christmas eve gift, which is always PJ's. I am a believer in jammies in general, but there's NOTHING better than a brand new pair of pajamas on Christmas eve that you get to lounge around in the whole next day. Coop decided to stay in Chicago for Christmas too, so her Mom sent her PJ's to our house so she'd have some new jammies on Christmas too. We spent the rest of the night baking sugar cookies, drinking wine & watching The Grinch.

GO BEARS!
Sadie's Stocking
Christmas morning Lilah & Sadie woke up EXTRA early (they must have been excited that it was Christmas day!) so we got moving bright & early. We also had our friend Blake's dog Charlie so the puppy energy was at an all time high at Casa Latchford-Morgan. We got my Mom's traditional Christmas morning breakfast right in the oven, set a pot of coffee to brew & opened our stockings. Even the pups got some prizes in their stocking from the man in red. We took a break for brunch & a visit before opening the rest of our presents. We got spoiled rotten again this year from family & friends. Greg was especially excited about his new Bear's shirt that Coop got him...the icing on the cake was the Bears played the Packers on Christmas Day. Sadly, we lost. But Greg looked great!
One of my faves...new slippers!

Merry Christmas from
Santa's Little Helper
After we opened all of our presents Coop & I started on the Christmas feast...and a feast it was. For some reason grocery stores don't see a need to offer a Christmas ham smaller than 8 lbs., so even though there were only 3 of us, and 2/3 of us don't eat meat much, we still had an 8 lb. ham. We had all the rest of the trimmings including Coop's famous brussel sprouts & Aunt Di's Apple Pie recipe, which Greg made for the very first time from SCRATCH! Very impressive. After the feast we watched the Bears game & relaxed. It was perfect.

The next day we got right back to work at the wedding planning (over bloody marys of course) & have been busy looking forward to the adventures of 2012! We're excited for the New Year & are so grateful, as always, for the love & support of friends & family, the privilege of the work we do, our education, every opportunity & of course, each other.

A belated Happy Holidays to all & best wishes for a happy & healthy New Year!

Gratefully,
Meggo

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Holiday Planning

It was a bitter sweet decision for Greg & I to agree to stay in Chicago for Christmas this year, but with the wedding coming up we thought it was the smartest decision. Mostly because of the expense (you KNOW we have to fly Lilah & Sadie with us for Christmas. I refuse to celebrate holidays without my "children") but also because if there was ever a year when the timing was right to not go home for Christmas, it's the year before the wedding. Most years after this one it'll be more imperative, but this year, what's imperative is that we be together, & we will be. Ok, moving on...

My sweet neighbor Charlene, who should be solely credited for righting the wrong that was Lilah & Sadie's behavior is approaching her 1st Holiday season as a Chicago resident & since we are also new to our building, we thought it would be a good idea to throw "neighborhood Holiday party" to get to know everybody. This combined with the treat of preparing my first Christmas feast means I'm already planning & organizing. I've scrounged around for all of the coupons I can find & have a pretty good shopping list going which I'm going to STRICTLY adhere to otherwise we'll have to postpone the wedding...Holiday grocery trips can get PRETTY expensive. Shout out to The Project Girl for the best Holiday Menu Planner ever.

Also, since I got a head start on Christmas shopping, all of those little gifties are already on their way to our family & friends which means it's time to start crackin' on the holiday cards. Last year we worked with an Etsy artist who created us a custom stamp for our cards, but this year we're showing some Chicago pride with Cubs cards. So exciting! I'm looking forward to finishing up the holiday cards tonight whilst watching Water for Elephants with my mister. Finally!

That's all from this holiday elf. Hope you're enjoying your holiday planning too!

Merrily,
Meggo

Monday, December 5, 2011

The Bookworm Returneth

Well...I didn't read ANY OF THE BOOKS on The Reading List 2.0 because I had ALL I could say grace over with school...but it's THAT TIME OF THE YEAR AGAIN! Time to read for fun...& I only have to take a break from reading for fun 1 more time, because next semester is my LAST SEMESTER!!

Just as soon as I finish my assignments for this semester, I'm going to start reading THEEEESE lovelies...

I'm starting with Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang. 'Cause I wanna.
Why Are All the Black Kid Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Because I wanna. And also because I'm planning on using it for my multicultural counseling class this Spring.
Bossy Pants for a little funny.
A People's History of the United States because I LOVED history class this Fall & I just want to soak up as much history as I can.

The reading lists get less & less ambitious as the semesters go on...My thinker knows better than to bite off too much. So, maybe 4 books over winter break?

still to do...

  • The gallery photo wall. I have all of these amazing photos & prints & awesome frames. Sitting in a closet. No bueno. The goal is to have them up by Christmas. 
  • Refinish the little chairs & the craigslist table. High gloss grey. CAN'T wait.
  • Some lady baby projects...More to come later. 
JUST for clarification...in case anybody follows me on Pinterest & wonders what lady baby I'm talking about...It's baby Frederick, not a baby Morgan. Just want to make sure there's no confusion about that. Check back in a couple years. 

Gotta freshen up the old wine glass & pack the chick lit for tomorrow... It's (almost) Winter Break y'all!

Relieved & ready to read & be refreshed,
Meggo