Nicole on christmas morning.

Nicole’s mom made it back to Cincinnati around 3 in the afternoon and it was a good thing she hadn’t come home any sooner since we had finally just gotten showered and cleaned up just as she called. So we packed up all our stuff and said goodbye to Phil and headed over to Jean’s place. At Jean’s place we hung out for a little bit and then exchanged gifts with her. I think Jean really liked the wedding album that Nicole had made and finally given to her. For dinner we did snow crab legs because it was fast and easy to do since Jean wasn’t home for most of the day. After dinner we went downstairs and setup the Wii and tried playing some of the new games that Nicole got for christmas. Unfortunately the Mario Party 8 that I had gotten for nicole didn’t work which was a bit of a bummer for the day.

Ross opening one of the shirts he received from jean.

Jean and Nicole looking at the wedding album.

Our snow crab dinner. So yummy.

Saturday was another relaxing day. We started of the day by getting a little bit of shopping done. Surprisingly it wasn’t really that crazy while we were out shopping but that could have been because we were out early and were home by 2PM. After a nap and some video game playing and hanging out we went out to dinner. Jean wanted to do a special dinner for us and instead of cooking we convinced her to take us to Montgomery Inn since I had never been there. This place is known for their ribs and is a favorite of Sean’s. Unfortunately because they are so good and popular they only take reservations for 5PM and anytime after that you just have to show up and wait. We ended up just getting reservations and going to dinner early. The place was enormous and had a ton of different rooms where middle to small functions could be held. It was also kinda interesting since as you moved through the place the atmosphere changed from really casual bar dinning to a more formal dining depending on which room you were in. I of course got the ribs since thats all I had heard about from the place. I thought they were quite good and better than anything I could get here in DC but they weren’t no dinosaur bbq ribs.

Nicole and Ross at Montgomery Inn

Jean at Montgomery Inn.

The next day was the end of our trip and after a quick breakfast with Jean we headed out. Since we got a good start in the morning we made it back to DC just after it got dark which left us with plenty of time to unwind and to go to the grocery store to get food.

The next day was Christmas Eve and started off with a quick trip to the mall so I could pick up the last of my gifts for nicole. Originally I was supposed to get it the weekend before but thanks to snowpocalypse that didn’t happen. Luckily we got an early start in the morning and managed to get to the mall soon after it opened so it wasn’t too crazy while I got the shopping I needed done. Afterwards we went to the third place that nicole loves to go to when she is back home. We had an early lunch at Skyline Chili. I have to admit that the place has really started to grow on me over the years and now I really do like going there especially cause their cheese coneys are so yummy. All that finely grated cheese just can’t be beat.

Nicole and Phil outside Skyline.

After lunch we headed into downtown Cincinnati to go and see a model train exhibit put on by the local power company. When we got there we were greeted with a free warm cookie which was awesome. The train exhibit was a little small but still very good. The line moved quickly and we got to see the model train after only a few minutes. I really liked it and there was a surprising number of things going on.

The model train exhibit.

Nicole and Ross in front of the model trains.

Phil and Nicole in front of the trains.

The model train exhibit.

Look at the little construction workers. They even moved around.

After the trains we headed home and just hung out for the rest of the day. Nicole spent a little while trying to teach her dad how to play the Wii. Phil was a good sport about it and did a pretty good job playing. I spent most of the afternoon working on dinner since we were having prime rib and I was in charge of the meat. After dinner we headed out to catch midnight (10 pm) mass.

Phil playing the wii.

Nicole having fun beating her dad at wii golf.

Ross working on preparing his prime rib.

Nicole and Phil before church.

The holiday party was at the Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria. We decided to take the metro to Alexandria and then hop the free shuttle from the metro to Old Town that way neither of us were driving and we could enjoy ourselves. When we arrived at the party it was clear Plateau had gone all out for the holiday party and everything looked fantastic. There was a wide selection of some fancy looking food. We made a point of trying almost everything and most of it was quite yummy. Also a good portion of my division was in attendance so Nicole was able to meet quite a few of the people that I work with on a daily basis.

Nicole at the Holiday party.

Some of the desserts we tried. Most of that plate was very yummy.

One thing that blew me away at the party was that they were having door prizes. Initially they started small with $100 gift cards to area restaurants. But as the night progressed they went on to give away things like $1,000  gift certificates to skiing resort, a mac book pro, and even a 42″ TV. I even managed to win the second door prize given away which was a $100 gift card to Fogo de Chao. It was quite funny because I was at the bar trying to get a new drink and when they were announcing the prize all I heard was “all you can eat meat”. The next thing I know they were calling my name out and I went up to collect my gift. I’m excited to go to Fogo especially since we can now justify it since most of the meal will be on the company.

The live band that was pretty good.

Ross with some of the other developers that I work with.

Overall I had a really good time at the holiday party and was really impressed by the company. Luckily we managed to snag a cab home after the party as it was really starting to snow and was the start of what I later would call Snowpocalypse but that’s for another post.

A view of the street as we left the party.

All Decorated.

Before we decorated it.

The one hiccup we ran into when trying to decorate our tree was that we could only get 3 of the 6 strands of lights to work. Unfortunately we figured this out at 9PM on sunday night. So nicole went out all over the place looking for somewhere that was both open at had christmas lights. She tried cvs, then the Harris Teeter, finally she got in her car and went to the wallgreens in clareden to find the lights. While Nicole was out driving around Ross stayed home and went through each of the bulbs testing them and was able to get 2 more of the strands working in the time it took her to come back.

Our original plan was to go with brad and courtney on sunday when we got back to chicago. Sadly when we landed in Baltimore we realized it was pouring rain so we canceled with brad and courtney since we didn’t want to go in the rain. Instead we thought we would just try going to the local lots around our place and get a tree from there. We were a little disappointed we weren’t going to do our tradition of cutting down our tree but at least we would have one. Unfortunately because of the rain all the tree lot places we went to weren’t open. We went to two separate places that had trees but no one there to sell them. Nicole was really disappointed so I sucked it up and offered that we could drive out to our usual place provided they were still open.

So we ended up at Pine Valley Farms in the middle of the pouring rain. There were a handful of other families that were there trying to get their tree too. But mostly the place was deserted as most people had more sense to stay home out of the rain. We picked up our gear and went off into their lots and hunted for our tree. Since there was hardly anyone there we didn’t have to mark the trees we liked or worry about someone else claiming out tree. Also since it was the thanksgiving weekend most of the trees were still on the lot so we had our pick of trees. Cutting down the tree was a bit of a mess since the ground was soaked and only slightly better than a swamp. But I got it cut down pretty fast since i didn’t bother to ask nicole if she wanted to crawl around in the mud and help .

Driving out to Pine Valley Farms

Look at all the rain bouncing off my head

Nicole next to our tree

My muddy legs after cutting the tree down.

I win!! Conquered the tree

We got it all loaded and brought it home and set it up without too much problem which was a nice change from last year. Nicole spent most of the evening getting it all decorated. She did a really great job and it looks very nice. I didn’t help her decorate the tree beyond the lights since I was processing pictures from the thanksgiving weekend.

Tree all nicely decorated