The end of 2010 brought with it a large celebration at Austin’s Fuel Room in Libertyville, the same Austin’s where we had our wedding reception!  Austin’s decorated the Fuel Room with Christmas lights & snowflakes, played music video’s on the dual screens until Your Villain My Hero took the stage and played a couple hours before the balloon’s dropped from the ceiling for the New Year’s celebration where they passed out hats & a champaign toast.  Then YVMH, one of the hardest working cover bands (in our opinion) took the stage for another couple hours.  Jeff & I really enjoyed our night together and I’m super excited to see what this new year has to bring!

Drove out to Rockit Bar & Grill in Wrigleyville for a tweet-up and had some exciting convo’s with some great people!  It was awesome to meet Everett Bogue, Colin Wright, and many other followers of the minimalist lifestyle.

Cooked burrito pie for dinner with Tony, Jen & Andrew and then played a few rounds of Egyptian Ratscrew followed by some Jenga & the dice game. Yay for game night!

Went to the Grand Victoria Casino in Elgin to celebrate Teri’s birthday…and Jeff & I left with some nice, unexpected, winnings! (Not that I’ve seen Sex and the City before, but it was the only modern-ish game on the floor!)

I was so tired I don’t remember this day at all…I think I woke up at 3pm and went to bed around 8…haha. What’s great is you can’t even tell all the dishes that are sitting waiting for me to clean in the kitchen behind me.

Woke up early to prepare the chili and appetizers I planned to make for the Bear’s game.  We were so excited when Joel, Lisa & Kyle arrived first followed by Mike, Chrissy & Halo.  After a Bear’s win it was time to watch Echo meet Halo, and make sure Echo didn’t attack the dog.  Another great day hangin with our friends.

Jeff, Echo & I headed to Chris & Teri’s for breakfast and presents!  Then I came home & while Jeff got everything cleaned up around the house I finished cooking our Tuscan inspired dinner (three different crostini’s, cabbage salad, Pappa col Pomodoro, Potato and Potato & Spinach Gnocchi with cream sauce & tomato sauce, mozzarella chicken, Sangria and for dessert chocolate covered strawberries & strawberry-rhubarb cobbler) and I finished everything just seconds before everyone arrived.  We had a very Merry Christmas with our the family

Cleaned up the house with Jeff, did some more prepping then it was off to my parents house for a fishy Christmas Eve dinner.  We had an Othello tournament before heading to church, busted out 13 Dead End Drive when we got back and had a cookie party then opened our Santa bags!

Today was a prep day for Christmas day dinner….grocery shopping with a million other people in the packed Caputos then home to chop, prep and bake. Jeff caught me as I was cooking the tomato-basil tomato sauce.

Jeff & I drove downtown to see the  lights at Lincoln Park Zoo then came home for some more cookie time…