My 29th Birthday!

Feb
21

Posted by: Maggie

Sorry for the posting delay! Last week was hectic finishing up my preparations for my How to Shoot Your Kids Workshop, and with Josh and Eleanor both getting sick. Not fun! Although, Josh is still not well and I’ve had a sinus headache for 3 days that doesn’t want to go away, I’m back to posting about my birthday celebrations!

The morning of my birthday we went out to breakfast at The Egg Plantation with my dad, step-mom, brothers William and Elliott, and Elliott’s girlfriend Lily.

photo taken with my iphone

Apparently, my choice of restaurant was perfect, because they give you a free breakfast on your birthday! And the coffee is good! Score!

After breakfast we said goodbye to the family and went on a little craft store shopping trip for some Valentines supplies. And then to pick up some birthday cupcakes, because according to Eleanor, birthdays=cupcakes, of course!

We tried out a new cupcake place in town, Bake You Happy. It’s very cute and the cupcakes are awesome, and I don’t even like cake!

We shared a banana cupcake there, soooo good! And brought three more home for my birthday night dessert!

Later in the day Josh and Eleanor gave me my birthday gifts!

Josh got me a book I’ve been wanting for a long, long time. It’s a collection from my favorite photographer, Cindy Sherman’s series, “Untitled Film Stills.” They are a series of amazing self-portraits. I’ll write a whole post about it soon!

Eleanor (with Josh’s help) got me some yummy butterscotch chews from See’s. Tasty!

We had our weekly family movie night and for dessert we had the cupcakes we had brought home!

A Chocolate Cherry Licorice (an amazing combination of chocolate cake filled with melted red licorice, topped with pretzels and marshmallow–incredible!), Snickerdoodle (like the cookie, a yummy cinnamon spiced cake the uneaten half was delicious with coffee the following morning!) and a Heavenly (a gourmet grown-up version of a Hostess Cupcake, delicious chocolate cake, with marshmallow filling topped with dark chocolate ganache–awesome!)

Happy Birthday to me!

Comments: 1
Categories: Celebrations, Eleanor Stories, Family Stories, Josh, Maggie
Tags: birthday, breakfast, candy, cupcakes, gifts, Maggie's Birthday

Christmas Dinner 2010

Dec
29

Posted by: Maggie

Christmas afternoon we headed to my mom’s house for Christmas dinner. As usual, my mom did a fabulous job decorating.

And of course the cocktails and appetizers were delicious!

After appetizers and drinks we exchanged gifts.

After gifts we had a delicious dinner, which I apparently forgot to take photos of. Oh well! It was a very merry Christmas!

Comments: 0
Categories: Celebrations, Eleanor Stories, Family Stories, Holidays, Josh, Maggie
Tags: christmas, Family Stories, gifts

Christmas Morning 2010

Dec
29

Posted by: Maggie

Christmas morning was spent at home with just Josh, Eleanor and me. Eleanor hadn’t slept well the night before. She’s a little sick this week, so she slept in very late. I got up around 8:30, Josh a little later, but Eleanor didn’t get up until after 10. She was hungry, so we ate breakfast before starting to open presents. Thus, the bright sunshine coming in the windows in the following photos.

As it was in my house when I was growing up, the presents for Eleanor were mostly from Mommy & Daddy with a couple from Santa. The Santa gifts are always something that was made by elves in Santa’s workshop (definitely not something with a brand name! The elves don’t work for Mattel or Disney!).

This year Santa brought Eleanor musical instruments, an Eleanor sized guitar, and a little drummer boy drum! She was very excited!

The rest of Eleanor’s gifts were mostly books and movies. Her favorite things!

It took forever for Eleanor to open her gifts. She wanted to try each one out before moving on to the next.

I gave Josh clothes. I know, it’s not an awesome gift, but it’s what he really needs and he was very happy with it.

Eleanor made a present for Josh and me at school. She wanted to help Daddy open it. It was a very cute ornament with her picture on it!

The last gift to open was mine. I knew that Josh had planned some big gift for me and had asked some friends and family to contribute, but I had no idea what it was. I thought maybe it was a camera lens or a DVD box set. But when he put this under the tree I had no clue what it could be.

It was Exposed: Redefining Boudoir, a book on boudoir photography by my favorite boudoir photographer Christa Meola! You may remember that I put it on my Cranky Gift Guide and mentioned that it was the gift I most wanted! I definitely didn’t cry when I opened it. Those are not tears in my eyes if you zoom in on the picture below!

A very big thank you to my Mom & Step-Dad Tommy, my father-in-law Brian & mother-in-law (as of Sunday!!) Raisa, Josh’s BFF Brian, and my BFFs Betsy & Justin and Andrew & Amy without whom Josh would not have been able to afford this amazing present! Love you guys! This is the best present I’ve ever received!

After opening my amazing gift, we dug into the stockings.