This has been a very eventful weekend!  The weather was awful, raining and dark so flying was not really looking good for the weekend at Lookout Mountain or Hensons with the Tennessee Tree Toppers.  Matt and I drove to Lookout Mountain Flight Park to pick up my new harness.  I bought a GT cross country harness from them.  It fits perfect!  It is snug and very comfortable.  I also finally had the opportunity to set up my Airwave 9m Pulse hang glider!

We also went to Maryville, TN to visit one of Matt’s College friends.  We went to Aubreys for dinner and hung out.  On Sunday we took the long route to Asheville, NC to see Matt’s mother.  We drove thru the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and made some fun stops along the way.

We also drove down part of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The weather was cool and slightly sunny with lots of clouds.  The views were amazing.

April 2 thru April 4, my mom, sister, Rachel, Michelle, and I went to Washington D.C. for the Cherry Blossom Festival.  It was so wonderful to see all of them!  I miss my mom and sister a bunch and wish we could see each other more often.  The Cherry Blossoms were so gorgeous!  We took hundreds of pictures as usual and all of them were so good, it was hard to choose which ones to post.  We went to the different Memorials and Monuments as well as the Capitol and White House.

This is my mom, Michelle, Rachel, my sister, and me

My Mom, my sister, and me

Rachel, my sister, and me (Totem Pole)

So… I loved everything we went to see and take pictures of and the great memories we made.  One that stood out the most to me is that Rachel can not stick her tongue out without raising her eyebrows.  This was hilarious to watch her try to hold down her eyebrows as she stuck out her tongue.

My most favorite part of this vacation other than seeing everyone and the SNEAKY confetti egg fight we had, was going to eat at the restaurant Matchbox!  They have the most fabulous food I have ever eaten.  Between the 5 of us, we ordered about 9 dishes each of the two times we went to eat there.  My top two favorites were the stuffed french toast with cream cheese and rum infused syrup and the waffle sandwich with pruscetta and gruyere cheese with rum infused honey mustard.  WOW, WOW, WOW! Highly recommend! Everything we ordered was just mouth watering.  You can find the menu here.

Here is a picture of the first day we went.  All the food we ordered is not on the table yet.

I watch Modern Family on ABC and the episode called “My Funky Valentine” was great.  I loved the line, “Valentine’s Day is not the day you run away from love, it is a day you track it down, tie it up, and take it home.”  It was awesome!  Way to sum it up.  If you have not seen an episode of this show, you should.  You will laugh a lot!

Matt and I drove to Austin, TX to celebrate Christmas with my family on New Years Day and to celebrate New Years Eve with LC Rocks and my friends.  We also took my two dogs with us.  New Years Eve was a blast!  We went to the Double Tree to see LC Rocks and The NewsBoyz perform. Sherry from LC Rocks was making Purple Margaritas for all of us.  After the show was over, we all went upstairs to the suite for the after party.

The girls dancing on stage to Girls Girls Girls.

CHRISTMAS on NEW YEARS DAY

We went over to my sisters house and she her house was gorgeous.  She had Christmas stuff everywhere.  We opened gifts and we all got exactly what we wanted and more.  Then, we had an Italian style dinner.  She made this Spinach Artichoke Dip that was to die for.  It is definitely in my top 5 favorite foods!  The recipe is below.

Her tree was massive and so awesome!  We had some good times and some laughs we won’t forget.

Matt and I also went to see Avatar at the Tineltown in Pflugerville in the IMAX 3D theater.  It was so intriguing.

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Spinach Artichoke Dip By Jackie

• 2 (10 oz) boxes frozen chopped spinach – thawed
• ¼ c real butter
• 1 tbs minced garlic
• 2 tbs minced onion
• ½ c all-purpose flour
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• ¼ c chicken stock
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• ½ tsp hot sauce
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 block cream cheese
• 2/3 c grated Romano cheese
• 2/3 c grated parmesan cheese
• ¼ c sour cream
• 1 c shredded white cheddar – set aside 1/3 c for top of dip
• 12 oz jar artichoke hearts – drained and coarsely chopped

Strain spinach. Squeeze out as much liquid as possible using cheesecloth, papertowels, dish rag. Chop it and set aside.

In saucepan over medium heat, sauté garlic and onions in butter until golden, about 3-5 minutes.

Stir in flour and cook for 1 minute.

Slowly whisk in cream and stock and continue cooking until boiling.

Once boiling, stir in lemon juice, hot sauce, salt, and cheeses (minus the 1/3 c set aside). Stir until cheese has melted.

Remove from heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

Stir in sour cream, then fold in dry spinach and artichoke hearts. Transfer to serving dish.

Sprinkle 1/3 c cheddar over top.

Microwave to melt cheese topping and serve.

Serve with sour cream, salsa, tortilla chips and bread for dipping.

Matt and I drove up to Asheville, NC today to his mothers house on top of the mountain.  When we arrived my car was covered in snow.  I got the pleasure in joining Matt and Randy in shoveling snow out of the driveway so that I could get my car out.  I also made a snow angel in the one foot deep snow!  I had loads of fun and ended the afternoon with several snowball fights.  Below is my car and Lucy’s Christmas Tree (Matt’s Mother)

Me shoveling snow —>

<— My Snow Angel

For all you parents out there, you have to check out this website:

http://portablenorthpole.tv/home/

On the website it says: For the second year in a row, we’re bringing Santa closer to you! Help someone you care about receive a personalized video message from Santa Claus himself using the PNP console, a technological breakthrough that makes real-time communication with the North Pole possible!

It is sooo incredibly worth it!

Matt, Lucy, and I drove to Virginia Beach this weekend to see Laura graduate at Old Dominion University.  She has made some great accomplishments in school and even landed a job with the Kansas City Chiefs!  So over the weekend it actually snowed here!  How ironic is that…!

I just watched White Christmas.  I love watching Vera-Ellen tap dance!  Her performance just awes me everytime.  It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…  The Christmas scent all through the house, the tree lit up and decorated, and White Christmas in the DVD player… what’s better than that!

This weekend was very exciting.  Matt and I decorated the house and the tree while Christmas Carols played in the background and Christmas Scent filled the air.  Christmas Spirit fills our house now and the dogs even joined in.  We also finished all our shopping!

This is our tree with our Reindeer and Santa Dogs!  I love Christmas time!!!

Now we are relaxing on the couch eating Campo De Montalban and Borough Market Cheddar cheese that is DELICIOUS with Tres Ojos Old Vines Gamacha 2007 red wine and watching The Polar Express.  It is such a cute movie, I love it!  But Aerosmith singing… Really!  That was hilarious!

That was a great Victoria Secret Fashion Show for 2009 and totally beat last years!  It was totally entertaining and fun to watch.  For those of you who didn’t see it missed out on some really sexy fun show.  Love starting the holiday season with this show.