quailty friday: there's no place like home for the holidays

a song couldn't be more right. it was such a treat for mark and i to be back in chicago - together - and to celebrate the week between christmas eve until new years eve with family and friends.

christmas eve
despite beginning the day 2000 miles away, we were able to keep with tradition, and celebrate christmas eve with mark's dad and sister at norman's home in hyde park. it was the first year we have ever had pizza for christmas eve dinner, but low key and easy also equals stress free and fun!

we continued the evening by heading to our dearly missed church for a beautiful candlelight service. the scriptures and music celebrated Jesus and the true meaning of christmas. and walking through the doors felt like coming home, and the warm and tender greetings from our dear friends touched us deeply.

and it didn't end there. we then joined melissa and steven's at their home for late night catching up with melissa's mom, lillie.

christmas day
we have always spent christmas day with my family, and since we stayed with them all week, this year it was fun to be able to sleep in. we spent an enjoyable morning and early afternoon preparing the meal together. in fact, the day was so laid back that we didn't even get to opening gifts until the sun had already gone down!

that's how you can tell we're all grown up. no one's begging to open presents on christmas morning:)

the cute couples. and yes, that's a mojito glass in shruti's hands. who would have ever thought in a million years that there would be drinks served?

brandon, shruti, daniel, casandra and jonathan

i think this is such a cute picture of casandra and jonathan. and have you noticed the cute haircuts on shruti and casandra? both recently donated their hair. i'd like to think i inspired them:)

gift time!

the highlight of the night was definitely enjoying dessert after all the presents were opened. the conversations and anecdotes got so funny that i tried to capture them on video, and would share them with you, but they just don't do the night justice. all i can say is that brandon attempting to put cooling eye drops into mark's eyes had me laughing so hard that i literally fell out of my seat and was rolling on the floor crying.

love those times.

the rest of the week

we tried to pack in as much as possible during the days that followed.

we played board games a few times (and yes, the boys did beat us twice at cranium). my mom and leslie and i spent an afternoon downtown in the snow. i laughed till i cried at the movies. mark reconnected with a close high school friend. we saw many loved ones. the list goes on and on.

and from trips to friends homes, to poker and xbox games, to brunches and lunches and dinners with any and everyone that would come out to play with us, we had a great time.

lunch group at fogo de chao. talk about over-indulgence.

dinner crowd at carson's. (l-r: norman, leslie, stacie, reggie, burton, kim, audrey, wylene, mark)

the week flew by, and by the time we left we were tired (exhausted, really) and extremely content.

we headed back to california on new year's eve (sadly, missing out on the fun at "4133"), and got home just in time pop open a bottle of champagne, turn the tv on, and countdown to the new year. and then collapse into our extremely-wonderful-and-very-missed bed!