Posts Tagged ‘holidays’

Deb and Ralph Do Dallas ’10

April // February 18th, 2010 // 5 Comments »

We recently celebrated one of the biggest events of the year…the fifth annual “Deb and Ralph Do Dallas for Dental”.  Every January, April’s step dad, Ralph, attends a dental convention in Dallas, and in recent years, you never know who might decide to make the trip with him and Deb (April’s mom).

The weekend before the big event, April’s sister, Brooke, decided to come, and a few days later, her aunt Tracey and cousin Erin decided they would drive up from Katy on Friday.  On Wednesday night, we picked up Ralph at Love Field and had dinner at Chip’s Hamburgers before taking him to his hotel.  After Deb arrived on Thursday evening, we had our traditional dinner at Al Biernat’s in Uptown with her cousin, Chuck, who lives in Dallas.  On Friday, April left school at noon so she and her mom could spend an afternoon running wedding errands.  They met with the florist, A Stylish Soiree, and had a great time choosing the flowers for the ceremony.  The remainder of the afternoon was spent buying out Pottery Barn and World Market.

Friday evening, Brooke arrived into Love Field and after picking her up, we met Joe’s family, April’s parents and Tracey and Erin at Celebration, our favorite Dallas restaurant and date spot.   After a wonderful dinner, we headed back to the apartment for a slumber party (minus Deb and Ralph).

Saturday morning, Deb picked up breakfast and came over for a visit before we ventured out for the day.  First on the agenda was a quick lunch with Ralph at Sonny Bryan’s downtown.  After lunch, we all piled into the suburban and headed back to the Park Cities area.  We gave the family a tour of all of the wedding venues – the church, hotel, rehearsal dinner and reception sites.  We then stopped by Sprinkles for dessert before making our way over the The Container Store and our last stop… NorthPark!  After only one hour of shopping, Deb left Nordstrom with the perfect MOB dress.  She absolutely loves it and will look stunning!

Saturday night, we met cousin Chuck at La Duni in Uptown for quite possibly the most fantastic meal of the weekend.  We had yet another great dinner with excellent food, drinks and entertaining conversation.  If you have never been to La Duni, we highly recommend going for the Tres Leches.  TO DIE FOR!

We ended the weekend with our traditional Sunday brunch at Breadwinner’s before the family headed back south.  We were sad to see them go, but exhausted from four days of nonstop food and fun!  Already counting down the days to the 2011 dental convention…


8 Christmases

April // February 9th, 2010 // 3 Comments »

When Joe first created our website, we vowed to blog regularly throughout our engagement.  Several months later, after failing to carry through on this, we promised again to start blogging regularly.  Well…that was two months ago, and we are just now getting around to our Holiday Blog!  Life has been so hectic these past few months that the days and weeks  just seem to fly by.  Enough with the excuses…here is a recap of our whirlwind holidays!

Christmas break for April began on Friday, December 18th.  That evening, we headed to Katy for the first round of family Christmases.   The Hagemeiers gathered on Saturday and, as usual, there was plenty of entertainment.  After a delicious meal, we watched The Hangover…because that is what every family should watch together during the holidays.

On Sunday, we met April’s friend, Kelly, and her husband, Brian, for lunch at one of the girls’ favorite restaurants – Chuy’s!  After a little shopping in H-town, we headed to Livingston for Christmas #2 with the Haynes Family.  We had yet another delicious meal before making the late-night trip back to Dallas because Joe had to work the next morning.   April spent the next few days doing some last-minute Christmas shopping and gift wrapping while Joe worked.

Christmas Eve brought a rare “White Christmas” for Dallas.   The day started off pretty miserable with a cold rain, but shortly after lunch, it changed over to snow and within an hour it was not just snow, but BLOWING SNOW.  We spent the afternoon finishing up our gift wrapping while listening to Christmas music and watching the snow fall.  The snow was beautiful, but it was much prettier to look at than to have to drive in.  By the time we left for mass, it had started to accumulate and the roads were getting icy.  The wind was blowing about 40mph and it felt like a full-blown blizzard.   After mass, we gathered with Joe’s family at the Einspaniers for perhaps the most eventful of our 8 Christmases.  Joe’s family takes the $20 gift exchange VERY seriously, and it got pretty intense.   We managed to make it out with two pretty awesome gifts…a toaster oven and a set of “gourmet” steak knives.  When we got home that night, we couldn’t wait until the next morning to open gifts, so we decided to open one gift each at midnight.  April got Joe the one item on the wedding registry that he actually got excited about…a faux sheepskin throw from Pottery Barn, and he was completely surprised!

After opening the rest of our gifts on Christmas morning, we packed up the car and headed to Joe’s parents’ house for breakfast.  There was still plenty of snow on the ground, so we played in it and took pictures.  We left for Livingston late that morning and although April wasn’t too happy about spending three and half hours in the car on Christmas Day, we passed the time quickly by taking the newlywed quiz that Joe’s Aunt Laurie gave us the night before.  Unfortunately, we didn’t do so well, but the wedding is still on…as of now.

The day after Christmas, we took our engagement pictures in Livingston.  We still have not seen them, but are sure they turned out great!  On Sunday, April’s sister, Brooke (the Maid of Honor), came back to Dallas to spend a few days with us.  The girls spent the next few days hanging out, shopping and doing “girl stuff”.  On Wednesday, they went to the bridal salon to check out bridesmaid dresses again, and after the consultant informed April that the dresses needed to be ordered asap, they were able to choose the PERFECT dress!  Brooke left on Wednesday and we were sad to see her go.

On New Year’s Eve, we had dinner at Mi Cocina with our friends Dan and Kaitlyn, and somehow managed to stay up to ring in the new year.  The next day, we went to Midlothian to April’s cousin, Lauren’s (Matron of Honor) house for lunch with her family.  That evening, we had a date to Studio Movie Grill to see It’s Complicated.  Saturday night we had dinner at Joe’s parents’ before going to see Up in the Air.  We spent Sunday just being lazy.  Unfortunately, even lazy days seem to fly by recently, but it was the perfect end to a wonderful holiday season!

We are really looking forward to our first married Christmas next year.  That will be here pretty soon, considering we are already six weeks into 2010.   So far, this year has been great, and it’s only going to get better!

Quick Website Update

Joe // December 28th, 2009 // No Comments »

While we have been rather busy with work and other events, we were finally able to publish our Wedding Party page, as well as our Registry page. We also were able to take some great videos this holiday season and will be sure to write posts regarding the occasions shortly. Until then, be sure to join our e-mail list and follow OurLifestream on the right side of the homepage below the pictures.

And a special congratulations to Amanda Wiggins and Andrew Haynes (both in our wedding party) who became engaged on Christmas Eve!