merry christmas charlie brown!

courtesy of mommylife.net

I love Christmas movies.  I could watch them all season long.  Sitting on the couch, snuggled up with a blanket, the tree lit, a Christmas candle burning, and a good movie on TV.

I like two movies more than any others.  Charlie Brown Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life.  Of course I own both of them on DVD, but that doesn't stop me from putting everything on hold and watching them when the are on TV.

So if you would excuse me, I have a Christmas movie to watch!

There's a Baby at Dinner

This month Katie, Mary, Kristen and I decided to meet at Mary's house for our monthly dinner.

She just recently moved in to a new house that her and her fiance built.  It was finally finished and they were all moved, so we thought why not have a little relaxing night in with pizza and good friends?

It was great and we even had a special guest.  Kristen brought her daughter to her first monthly dinner!  She is just about 7 months old and is absolutely adorable.  She was definitely the entertainment for the night.

Between her cute faces, sitting around watching her crawl and playing with her toys we had lots of fun.  We had some good girlfriend talks about boys, weddings, and babies which seems to be what more of our conversations revolve around these days.  We were even talking about how crazy it is that this is what our conversations are about these days.  My how things have changed!

from our annual tribe game this year

Here's to wonderful friends!  I love you girls.

Another Rainy Weekend

The rain hasn't stopped. 

Despite all the wet weather, I had a pretty awesome weekend.

Friday night I ended up meeting Melis, Anthony, and Mark out at Bar Cento for pizzas and drinks.  This is one of my favorite places, obviously because I enjoy visiting Ben while he is working.  We had a great time as always...the service was good and the pizzas were great!

Saturday morning I was up bright and early because I participated in the 16th annual Walk for Stronger Bones.  This is the second year I have participated in this event.  Last year I was invited along with my Girls on the Run group that I help coach.  This year we were again invited to walk, and although our group was a little smaller and it was "misting" the entire time, it was a very nice event.

Ben and I took a little trip to The Westside Market when I got home to get some fresh fruits and veggies and bagels and breads for the week.  We also had some delicious crepes from Crepes Deluxe.  We have never eaten here before and it was great to grab a yummy treat and stand outside the market in the sunshine and enjoy breakfast.

After the shopping trip we went to the second annual Hooley which is located at Kamm's Corner.  They shut down part of Lorain Ave and have lots of different vendors out with a band and even stuff for kids.  We took Breckyn and she did a pretty good job with all the people around.  The skies quickly got dark and we ran back to the car so that we didn't get soaked.  We made it home and lounged around for the rest of the afternoon before Ben went to work.

I grabbed dinner with the parents and sister at Two Dad's Diner (no webpage sorry!)  This is a great little diner that is run by two families and has great food.  We love to go there for breakfast or dinner.  There is never a wait and the food is always good.

I spend the rest of the night in and even got to bed early! (it's okay, I know I'm a big dork)

This morning we met Melis and Anthony at Market for brunch.  Yes, that's right, Market.  I have officially been there for the last 3 Sundays for breakfast. And for happy hour last Thursday. 

Overall, great weekend despite the rain.  At this point in CLE we don't have a choice but to just go out and brave the raindrops!

Happy Anniversary Stone Mad!

Yesterday I met up with some friends for dinner at Stone Mad.  I have been there before for drinks and once on a last day of school lunch/adult beverage celebration.

Last night, they were celebrating their third anniversary.  There was a band playing and the bar was packed.  After visiting the bar and getting a delicious Harp, we sat down and ordered dinner.  The food was great and so was the service.  The only that could have been better would have been if the weather was a little nicer and we could have spent time on their amazing outdoor patio.  This is definitely a place I will be visiting as a summer patio spot.  The patio has a beautiful fireplace and everything is (yep, you guessed it) stone.

We had lots of fun at dinner and left at about 9:30.  When I say we, I mean everyone else went out to XYZ The Tavern, which is also a great time, and I left and went home to go to bed like the old person that I am.  Well there is always Friday night right?

Or not...considering it is 11:15 p.m. on a Friday night and I am in my PJ's blogging.  I did have a nice dinner tonight with my mom though.  Since it is Lent we usually go to a  local church fish fry, but I decided to try to switch it up a bit this week.

Bar Cento is a place that I visit quite often.  They have lots of great food and because of one particular boy, I tend to go there a lot to visit and hang out for the night (more on that later).  Tonight, I decided to take my mom out to dinner.  We went for the fish fry which was very tasty and ended up with a huge plate of their potato fries to share.  We also had a dessert that tasted like a lemon creme brulee, but had lots of flavor.

All in all, it was a nice dinner with my mom.  She was happy to be treated to dinner and I was happy to take her.  I was home by 8 and have been putzing (yes, i said putzing) around the house for the rest of the night.  I'm not even mad.  I'm actually thinking that I'm going to head to bed soon, which means I get to wake up in the morning rested and feeling great without any tired/hungover regrets about all the fun I had the night before.

Every once in awhile you just need a Friday night in!