farewell week recap

Hello from Kansas City! We're not in Dallas just yet - we don't have access to our place until the 29th so we stopped off to hang with our families for a few days before we drive down to Dallas. We made it here Sunday night and missed all Juno-related snow issues, thankfully. But I'll admit, I did have a little bit of Juno FOMO yesterday.  

We had one spectacular last week in New York City. We started to call it our Farewell Tour since we had something just about every single night. It was a great way to see tons of our friends (and eat some great meals). Here are (quite a lot of) photos of our last week in the city...

Two Saturdays ago we had a fun morning doing a little goodbye surprise (you'll see photos of it soon, I promise).  After several hours in the freezing cold we stopped for brunch in the meatpacking district.

That night we had a big group dinner with some friends at Fedora. It came together last minute, but ended up working out perfectly. I called Fedora meekly on a Thursday asking if they had a private space available for ten people that coming Saturday (a notion that completely absurd). Thankfully, it worked out and it turned out better than I expected. Highly recommend their private dining room in the basement. We had great service, great food, and the private space made for a much more intimate experience.

The following Sunday we met my boss, her husband and darling daughter for brunch at Marta - a new place that I'm so sad we just discovered! It's so close to our apartment. I mean our old apartment. Yikes. Anyway, carbonara pizza for the win!

After brunch, we decided to tackle some of the drawers and spaces in our place that have been collecting the most random of our possessions over the past five years. Since we didn't have to pack (Al's new company paid for packers and movers), this was the extent of our physical work for the move (so lucky). We found some seriously great things - a first generation i-pod, 6,000 lip sticks, tons of old Lily toys, FLOPPY DISKS, my stash of Taco Bell sauce, and way too many expired foods. I'm thinking we should have been doing this exercise once a year...

^^ Not pictured: a first generation i-pod. I had to persuade Al to throw it out. He claimed we might want it as a "back up".

^^ "Guys, this bag better not be the trash bag. I need all these toys."

^^ The winner of the expired food awards. Food coloring from October 2011. 

^^ Threw out all but the essentials in our fridge.

^^ The great lipstick sort. Moses parted The Red Sea. I parted the lipstick pile. Can you guess which side was keep and which side as trash?

Sunday night we met our friends Matt and Megan for a delicious dinner at Dell'anima. I forgot how much I love that place. We ended the night with an after dinner liqueur they introduced me to and now I'm hooked - Amaro Nonino. Oh it's so yummy. Can't wait to sip an Amaro Nonino in Mexico in October at Matt and Megan's wedding! 

We had Monday off for MLK day and finished the clean-out process and called around and did the ol' cancel cable/power and change address routine. So many different people you have to notify about a new address. You'd think there'd be a site that you could enter the information once and it would change it on your bank, credit cards, post office, catalogs, voter registration, etc. 

Monday night we had dinner with our friends Ryan, Laura, and Patrick at The Smile. It was good to get the group together. Ryan and I work together and also went to KU together, and he's engaged to Laura who went to law school with Al and Patrick. How's that for a circle of friends? Another great goodbye meal. The Smile is darling, btw!

Tuesday my team at work threw me a little goodbye celebration. It was so nice to have all my friends from work from different groups stop by for a going away drink. And Al made an appearance too! We miiiiight have over-ordered on the appetizers a bit. So typical for my team (we are known for our eating habits...and our excellent work product, of course). 

Lily was so over us and our weeknight plans. She's used to us coming home after work to be with her. Not a fan of the farewell tour. 

And after some seriously intense work days (writing down a training manual for your future replacement is so daunting), it was Friday and the packers and movers were at our place and it all started to feel real. 

^^ Going to miss this view, for sure. 

We sort of forgot that we didn't have overhead lights in our apartment except for the kitchen. And with the lamps all packed up it made for some early dark evenings sitting around in our place. The future tenants wanted a few pieces of our furniture which worked out well so that we could seep on our couch for a few nights before we left. So we pushed the couch as close to the kitchen as possible for some light and hunkered down for the night (and watched The Wire). 

And then it was time - our last night in the city. We asked our friends to meet us at Anfora for a going away celebration. So many people turned out. It was really perfect and a very bittersweet night recalling old times and saying so long. 

^^ Hardest part was saying goodbye to my dearest and closest friend, Jolie. There were some tears for sure. Love you Jo Jo!

^^ Couldn't imagine doing any of this life stuff without Al. I feel like with him we could do anything and live anywhere. Love you, Al.

Sunday was our last day in the city. We spent it walking around to some of our favorite places and having one last meal at Friedmans with Jolie and Sean (we just couldn't say goodbye for real on Saturday night).

^^ One last carry home. Can't wait for the stares we'll get doing this in Dallas.

^^ One last play in the dog park for Miss Mayo

All packed up and ready to go. We definitely both had tears in our eyes (and mine streaming down my cheeks) when we walked out of our building for the last time. So much life was lived inside those walls.

And then we took our one-way tickets (!) and headed for Kansas City. What a great last week in the greatest city in the world. We love you New York and all of our friends.  See you very soon, I'm sure!

We're hitting the road for Dallas tomorrow (we hope - we were just informed that our moving truck didn't make it out before the snow storm - ughhhh).  See you soon new home!

weekend {and friendsgiving} recap

I'm all out of order this week, but wanted to make sure you had the first of my gift guides available for Cyber Monday. As such, we'll go with a little mid-week Weekend Recap. We had a great few days off from work, a terrific Friendsgiving party, followed by two spectacularly lazy days on the couch. ☺  Here are a few photos...

Wednesday night and Thanksgiving day were spent prepping for Friendsgiving (reminder, we celebrate on Friday not on Thanksgiving day).

^^ The stringing of the lights. My favorite part of the holidays. Love me some big bulb party lights (mine are from Target).

  

^^ Pretty little place cards, all set to go.

^^ Serving dishes set out and labeled. You wouldn't believe the cabinets and heights I have to scale to retrieve all of these. 

^^ Tip: tape your recipes and your to do list to an upper cabinet in the kitchen so you can prep without losing or dirtying your papers.

But it wasn't all to-do lists and chores. We did important things too like stay in our jammies until 4pm and watch the dog show. (Woop! Frenchies win the non-sporting category!)

For our Thanksgiving meal, we visited Ai Fiori - a restaurant that's been on my must-eat list for some time now (again, by Chef Michael White - if you've been reading TRR for awhile, you know how much I love him). The meal did not disappoint and it was fun to be in a fancy setting with other people all dressed up having their family meal and realize that not everyone is cooking their own turkey on turkey day. And I must confess, we chose this restaurant not because of Chef White or it's proximity to our apartment, but rather because in addition to the standard Thanksgiving fare, they also had... a pasta course. 

^^ Love the presentation. I never thought to line ravioli up like that.

Friday - the day of Friendsgiving - started out pretty uneventful. Most of the side dishes were already prepped. I cleaned the house, moved around all the furniture, and set the table. All I had left to do was put the turkey in the oven. When I went to get my roasting pan and rack out from the drawer under my oven, thing was stuck. Somehow a round cake pan had been put on top of the roasting rack in the drawer and jammed the whole thing. We tried and tried and finally called maintenance (ahh apartment living. no clue what we would had done if we were homeowners). 45 minutes later, after removing the oven door and 4 layers of oven floor, he retrieved the stuck pan and got out my roasting rack. "Why didn't I just run out and buy a new pan" you ask? I was thinking the same thing. But he kept telling me he almost had it.  

To distract myself from the fact that my oven was in pieces, I decided to take some glamour shots of my table. To be honest - not crazy about this table cloth, but since we only needed one table this year and not two, the usual tablecloths I use didn't fit. It is very fallish, I'll admit. Maybe I'm not a fan because I'm already in the Christmas zone - red berries, holly leaves, etc. Nothing some nice silver candlesticks and pretty plates can't fix though. ☺

^^ Yes, Al gets a Chiefs water glass. One of our glasses broke a few weeks ago and I forgot to replace it.

After a fun little cocktail hour it was time to load up our plates and sit down and eat. I love this meal so much. I don't really like when my food touches on my plate with the exception of Thanksgiving. A little stuffing, a little turkey, a little potato. Yesssss.

^^ Cheers!  (I spy Lily trying to sneak a bite)

After dishes were cleared, we chatted and played celebrity - a Friendsgiving must-play game.

^^ Friends around a table telling stories and laughing (with paper stuck to their foreheads). Doesn't get much better.

 Miss Mayo didn't last very long...

Saturday morning I woke to a pretty clean house. You know you're getting older when your dinner guests do all your dishes for you. :)  Seriously though, you should see the post-party conditions from Friendgivings pasts. Trust me, they do not look like this...

Some leftovers for breakfast...and lunch... and then I'm embarrassed to say we watched 8 episodes of Homeland Season 3 while lounging on the pallet. It. Was. Glorious.

^^ 8 hours of this and your heart explodes.

Sunday we got our act together. Chores, 6+ hours of blog work (those gift guides don't make themselves!) and decking the halls for Christmas. And some take-out cheese steaks for the Chiefs on Sunday Night Football.

^^ I call this "Reflection"

  

^^ Our tiny little tree. No full-size real tree this year - we aren't here enough in December to justify it. And Lily eats the pine needles.

^^ CHIEFS! Thankfully our sandwiches were better than the game.

Had to say goodbye to this sweet face come Monday morning. I think long weekends really confuse her. She always seems so sad when we have to go back to work. Sweet Lily girl. 

Hope your long holiday weekend was just as tasty/lazy/lovely! Check back tomorrow for my Gift Guide for the Guy!