the renovations are finished (mostly)

Our kitchen renovation is finally finished and it looks great. But best of all we got our living room and guest room (which was storing all the living room stuff) back.

The new open kitchen

Tonight was our last dinner (hopefully) on top of cabinets

Our home is cozy again!

our first christmas tree

Neither of us has ever had a tree at own home (not counting our parents' homes) so we picked this one out yesterday at the elementary school down the street.

Looks like we didn't get quite enough lights...

But we do have the beautiful porcelain origami ornament my Mom got us.

And a bunch of others normal ornaments from Ikea

After decorating the tree, I got killed in Backgammon... twice!

Renovations

Last weekend we woke up to the first snow of the season and the first in our new apartment. It was so peaceful.

This week we've been renovating our house to open up the kitchen.

After day one... what a mess!

Getting there...

more thanksgiving fun...

This year Thanksgiving was one of the most relaxing and I think it may have been in part because we were surrounded by lots of cuteness.

Spoiling Addy

Sohail hanging out with the princess of Adams Morgan while on a teleconference to Turkey.

Thanksgiving in DC

This year we had Thanksgiving at our house for the first time. In all fairness, we didn't cook but it was great to have visitors come for the holiday - especially now that we have more room.

Maman with Thanksgiving gifts for Max & Addy

On a walk Thanksgiving day

With the guys

Sohail cutting the Turkey

Thanksgiving dinner

Derek playing piano after dinner

Union station

Messing with Derek

With Sohail

A botched attempt at drawing Derek

The result of black Friday shopping

Addy!

The view as we exited the Spy Museum

With Maman

Eastern Market and other shopping...

House settling in phase 54... now we're trying to find some furniture for our new place and decorating with flowers and the like. Today the weather was beautiful so we hit up Eastern Market (food market, crafts market, and flea market all in one) and then Logan Circle (a neighborhood near ours).

Furniture store in Logan Circle specializing in mid-century modern.

Sohail with flowers from Eastern Market

A nice piece

Some printing press letters

Two (totally gaga) men and a baby

Before & After

Before moving we watched a lot of HGTV and were anxious to have our own before and after projects projects. Now we're tired of the projects but at least we have something to show for it....

Before - A dirty front door that the previous owners got paint all over

Dull and dirty

After!

Before - Shower had lots of stains (don't know if you can really see them here...)

After - the shower's worthy of my family's visit (I hope)

Engagement Parties

Another round of engagement parties! This time with Sohail's Mom's side on Friday and and with our friends on Saturday. It's been such fun celebrating with everyone.

A video from the last engagement party with Sohail's Dad's family. Such excitement!

Sohail's Mom's side (with a few missing).

Sharzad (Sohail's aunt) and Alyssa (Sohail's cousin)

Sohail and Daniel (a cousin)

The cake and engagement gifts - including mirror and candle sticks for the wedding.

Sohail's uncle and grandfather playing after dinner.

The concert

Nate, Siobhan and Sully

Amazing cupcake tree made by Luna
Kwame and Kim - our salsa partners
Siobhan and sleeping baby
Sohail and Jordan
the Asian spread

Last night's party

Our view from the new place

post-move life

if i had a picture of the container store or home depot i'd include it. my post-move life has become so suburban but we did have drinks with tim tonight who's in town from mexico.

the car wash was a highlight of the weekend