Finally done!

On the cusp of our 6 month anniversary, I have actually, finally, finished the album! Woot!

http://www.aligrady.com/album

Merry Christmas!

So Matt and I celebrated our first ever Christmas together, and first in LA. Something about the 65+ degree temperature was just weird, but I was determined to go to find snow for Christmas. More on that later.

Christmas morning, we woke up and opened some presents. Matt opened more than I did due to my complete inability to wait (I had mostly just opened things as they arrived).

Among other things, Matt received a Buddy Holly CD and as it turns out there's a bit of a resemblance:

I got a book called "Big Babies", a social commentary tome that I wanted, so I'm giving you my big baby face here:

Eventually we proceeded to make Christmas dinner. It takes Matt and I a crazy long time to cook anything, so it's good to start early. We got a new Vegetarian cookbook from my parents for Christmas and tried two of the recipes. And I think it was probably the best meal we've ever made if I do say so myself.

I made a polenta and lentil dish, that I dubbed 'polentils' and Matt created the Pesto Pizza (it's green! For Christmas!):

But back to the snow.

Snow Odyssey

So, we were going to go find snow on Christmas Day -- one problem though -- we've been having problems with the brakes on the car (and snow generally requires curvy mountain roads full of braking). So the plan was to try to see if anyone was open on Saturday morning to fix the car.

So, Saturday morning rolls around and I call about a dozen places before finding one that is open. They do fix the car, but seemingly being the only open mechanic for miles, they are busy, and the car is not done in time for snow.

So, Sunday morning. And we're finally off to snow!

And we found it! Operation: Real Christmas = Success

Why am I lying like this? Good question. I'm trying to keep my not-water-resistant pants dry and attempting to lay solely on my jacket. In the end, this just makes me look really silly:

Snow, snow, snow...

Where did we find this snow? Well, the Engagement spot of course. Grassy Hollow Recreation Area in Angeles National Forest. You may recall it was snowy then, on Memorial Day Weekend, when Matt proposed. Here's Matt at the Engagement bench:

Where we sat for a while and devoured this cinnamon roll we picked up along the way:

I swear, despite this pictorial evidence, that Matt ate half.

DUCK ATTACK!

After snow, we drove down about 5000 feet into the high desert and through Valyermo, a little town I've always liked. (That snowy mountain in the back is where we drove down from):

We stopped at the quaint post office, where there is a duck pond. But alas, what is this? The ducks head our way -- in force:

I try to get out of the car, to look at the ducks, but then the scouting party of 3 large geese approach the car, and geese bite, so I immediately hop back in the car:

They surround us! See this guy at the back of the car in the rear view:

By now, those swimming ducks have started to reach the car:

And we are officially surrounded by ducks!

Ultimately, Matt rolls down the window a little and throws some food at the ducks, and they all run for it, creating a diversion, that allows us to run for it:

Free!!!

That was a close one.

Sad Forest

In kind of a bittersweet ending to our nice day trip, we drove back through Angeles National Forest, most of which burned down in September in that really large wildfire. And yeah, it was kind of sad, to see it all burned up. A roadside cafe we had gone to was completely gone for instance. But it's ok, at least the forest will grow back eventually!

So all in all a pretty successful Christmas experience. I also managed to slow but surely get some of the Iceland pages done for the album and hope to post those tonight or tomorrow!

Nostalgia Already?

What they call Cool Ranch in Iceland


Lately I've been working hard on the wedding album, doing page layouts, and it's been so fun to reminisce! Already!

Most of the Philadelphia pages are up but I haven't started on the Iceland ones yet. But it'll be a fun end of year project!

I'd still like to blog about our trip to Las Vegas from November and hopefully, on Saturday, we're going to go on a small trip in search of snow. We'll let you know how that turns out. But for now...

Merry Christmas, Southern California-style

Other People Get Married Too?

Our friends Jesse & Jenny got married last weekend in Orange County. Matt & I had a great time! I was so happy to see the wedding, because Jenny was my 'wedding friend' this past year. It was very cool to have a friend also getting married so we could share the fun and frustrations.

Beautiful, right?

Jesse getting ringed.

How awesome are those roses in the glass? Amazing.

Jenny coming down the aisle. So pretty!

We found this car that matched my outfit. I hurt my knee so I was walking around with a cane, but it also matched my outfit so all was well.

If you look real close there's a white tiger behind Matt. The venue had a zoo!

This is the inside of the hall.

This is really cool. They had a logo made for them and it was on the dance floor.

Me & my old roommate Thomas. We were both roommates with the groom Jesse in college.

I assume you know these people.

For favors, they had Christmas ornaments. And I didn't have earrings, so this was a great combination.

Deidre was also one of my old roommates from college, and she commandeered our camera and took most of our pictures. But I'm grateful because now we have all these pictures!

Wedding friends, yay!

Together with the happy couple.

The cupcakes were really good. I had more than one. I will not tell you how many. But it was more than one.

Matt ate both his and my sundaes. Shhh... Don't tell anyone.

Congrats Jesse & Jenny!

Worst Bloggers Ever!

So, we have been the worst bloggers ever lately! We've just been incredibly busy. But on the upside, that gives us lots to blog about!

We are coming back and we'll be posting some of our recent exploits very soon.

I am finally working on the Wedding album and we look forward to posting that as well.

So this post is just to tell you to stay tuned, or re-tuned if you've tuned out.

Thanks!

It's been a month since the Reception! And what a month- We've been doing over all the rooms of the house, which as it turns out, is a lot of work!

But we wanted to thank everyone who came to the Reception and those who sent us warm wishes. We really appreciate it!

Pictures
We got a preview of our pictures today from our Philly photographer and I'm excited to keep working on the album. But, he was with us and not with you all during the cocktail hour and while some people have been awesome and given us their pictures, we still don't have any pictures of cocktail hour! Do you have some? Please let me know at alisonveneto [at] yahoo [dot] com. Thanks!

I wish I had something more exciting to report, but really we've been spending all our time on the house! Hopefully it'll be exciting to report when it's finished!

You're Still Blogging?

So, as you may recall, we are done being married now. But I seem to still be blogging here at the Wedding blog. Some people are wondering how long they should plan on sticking around for. Well, I will not be blogging indefinitely. But possibly for as long as two more months. I intend to keep things going around here until I finish the online photo album (definitely a few weeks away!) and until we have our 'LA Thing'.

Several of our LA acquaintances who could not make it out to Philadelphia have been on our case about having a low key get together. It would have made sense to do this as soon as we got back, but we decided to have it at our house. And our house is totally not people-ready. So it's looking like December, since that's when our couch will be here (we ordered a couch last weekend! But they hand make them hence the wait time). So you're stuck with me till then.

UPDATE: Yes, there will inevitably be pictures of the couch.

Bob Dylan

Last night we went to see Bob Dylan. Matt's work partner had given him tickets as a wedding present. Matt really likes Bob Dylan. I kind of have no feelings on him one way or the other. But we did, in fact, have a really good time.

But I have to say, it was one of the strangest assortment of people I've seen in one place in my life. There was, of course, some older fans, including this guy near us wearing a Bob Dylan shirt who we overheard saying, "Last time I saw Dylan, man...". But there were a surprising amount of older fans along with their kids (who ranged from full grown to the 14 year old kid who was in front of me - which was great because he was short and I could see over him). Then, there were some token "LA people" -- At least one woman with four inch heels and a tight tube top dress. There was another woman, with jeans and a backwards cap, who was dancing like she was at a rap concert, which was pretty entertaining.

But there were all types. All age ranges. All kinds of styles. It was a really great people watching experience.

Dylan was alright too =) I didn't know any of the songs until the encore (when he did one song I knew and another song I didn't know was his because I'm more familiar with a famous cover version) but I liked the music more than I expected. It was all pretty fun, rocky and upbeat.



One of the more amusing tidbits, is that we spotted Dylan's Oscar (he won it for the song from "Wonder Boys". Matt mentioned that he played that song and I should know it because I've watched that movie about a million times). It was on stage on his amplifier. Funny dude.

I always thought that if you need to shorten "Bob Dylan" you called him "Dylan", but evidently I was wrong. Because all the ladies were consistently yelling "Bobby". Shows what I know. Maybe you have to be a more dedicated fan to be on a first name basis. I think as a casual supporter, I'll stick with 'Dylan'.