The perfect weekend

For my 30th birthday present Pat's parents got me a gift certificate for a night in a downtown portland hotel and overnight babysitting for Rory. Since baby #2 is quickly approaching (8weeks and counting) we thought we better use it now. Plus, I have alway loved downtown at Christmas time. Soooo, we dropped Rory off and headed downtown. After getting checked into our really beautiful room at the Benson we walked around the pearl and downtown and did a little no-pressure shopping. We then had lunch and even had time to catch a movie. It was awesome. Enough stuff to keep us busy, but no so hectic that we weren't able to enjoy. We had a late dinner reservation so we met people for drinks prior. We then proceeded to have a FABULOUS meal at el gaucho. I enjoyed every uninterrupted bite and never once uttered "sit on your bottom" , "mommies turn with the spoon" or "what do you say when you toot?" It was heaven! We then went back to the Pearl to meet up with Brady, Shahnaz, Corey and Rebecca for dessert. It truly was just the perfect day. Our Sunday morning plans of a leisurely breakfast before getting rory were cut short by a nasty snow storm that blew in to PDX hard and fast. Instead we spent the morning trying to get to Pat's parents house in the west hills and testing out our snow tires. We eventually got Rory home (and even got to Aunt Madi's apartment to pick her up as well) and spent the rest of Sunday decorating Christmas cookies and watching/playing in the snow. It was a very fun snow day. It was actually too cold to be out for very long, but we did get a chance to get Rory in all her gear and prop her up outside. she can barely move in her snow gear- it is pretty funny. The best was the first thing pat did was make a snow ball and toss it at her, trying to show her how to play in the snow. He misjudged how short she is and tagged her directly in the neck- the ONLY exposed area on her body. she just stood there and looked at him as if to say "this is supposed to be fun?" One of my favorite parts of skiing has always been coming in from the cold and shedding layers and hanging out it in whatever comfy clothes were underneath the snow suit. Well I have opviously passed this down- as this is how Rory ended up playing yesterday afternoon. too funny. It is now Tuesday and we are on day three of being house bound. We have had apple cidar in santa mugs, gingerbread man shaped pancakes, built fires (lost power last night so fire was a necessity), read Christmas books, wrapped presents, done CHristmas themed art projects, walked/played in the snow/ice, got Christmas cards mailed out, the list goes on. I am officially out of things to do in the house to make "snow days" special. I had no idea how much I depended on Rory and I's daily outings to make the day go by. oh well, I guess I should enjoy it while it lasts. Amazon.com is getting a much bigger share of my holiday dollar then anticipated- so I will sign off, I am sure there is something I need to go buy online!