I am a little late posting on Christmas as I failed to take my camera out very often so I had to ask others to forward their photos along. It was a nice, quiet Christmas but we missed Ryan's parents - Donna and Sandy and also Todd, Cathy, Owen and Grant out in Oregon.
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Let's get started...Christmas Eve was for Ryan and I. I had reserved this night awhile back when I said this was "our" night and we were to have a romantic dinner out and chill back home by the twinkly lights. We had done this once years ago when we were dating and it was so much fun. So, we headed to a local Italian restaurant, Fratello's, which is in a renovated mill building in downtown Manchester for some yummy pasta and brick oven pizza. We had a great time and it was complete with twinkly lights and a festive pianoman that entertained us.
Here is our table at Fratello's - you can see me in the dark background perusing the menu. There is the yummy bread basket to the right!
We had my mom, dad, sister Jodi, brother-in-law Jon and nephews Ethan and Aaron over for brunch on Christmas Day. The kiddos were patient enough to allow us to cook, eat and clean up before we opened gifts. We had a menu of blueberry pancakes, bacon, cheesy eggs, scrambled eggs, bagels, blueberry bread (handmade by my dad - yum!) and fruit salad.
Ryan, Cood and I. 
Aaron, Jodi and Jon after brunch and presents. Time for a nap!
My mom and I.
We also celebrated with Ryan's brother Mark, sister-in-law Allison and niece and nephew Chelsea and Hunter but I have no photos... I think taking the camera out more often is a good New Year's resolution! Overall, a great holiday. A belated *cheers* to you all!
As you can see, he is already very photogenic at only 8 weeks of age!
Last May, Ryan and I took Ethan to a cat show in Concord (see our old post from May of last year) where we were introduced to the Birman breed and we met a very nice man who bred these special cats. They have very silky soft fur that feels like a bunny and have very sweet dispositions. They love to play but also love to snuggle and sit on your lap. We kept in touch with the man we met and his wife and when they had a litter, we set up a time to visit. We were able to see them this weekend and we had a lovely time visiting with the owners and all of their wonderful cats. We immediately fell in love with the kitten above which happened to be one of the 2 up for adoption.
I was pretty quick on testing out the snuggle on Gus. He checked out just fine.
Here is Gus with his brother and sister. I wish we had gotten some pics of their mom (Betty Boop) and dad (Zach) because they were absolutely gorgeous cats... and very sweet as well. We were a little too wrapped up in these little guys as you can see...
Gus' little paws checked out just fine as well - look how tiny they are! Oh boy, now we can't wait for big brother Coodie to meet him! Gus will be coming home in mid-March. We are counting the days and planning for our new little guy. Stay tuned for the big homecoming!
We even had crushed peppermints on the rim...very pretty. But, I won't lie...They didn't taste very good - a little TOO festive maybe? So, we ditched them and went back to our wine. It was fun and fancy while it lasted.
Aunt Kate gives Cood a nice snuggle. She is truly "Aunt Kate" to Cood as she comes by twice a day whenever we are out of town to feed and play with him. He really loves her and rolls over with just the sound of her voice. It's very sweet.
Uncle Scoop gets in the action and gives our big boy a good scratch.
As usual, we had a great time with Scoop and Kate. The four of us got to play the classic "Apples to Apples", Kate and I got to catch up and Scoop and Ryan played some "Madden 2010". Another fantastically fun night with our best buds.
