A wedding, a party and an anniversary

Tonight I'll be playing a little catch up here, sharing some major events that have gone down over the last week and a half.

Let's start with the wedding of the decade (maybe lifetime). One of Bill's best friends from growing up, Mike, got married Dec 28th in a castle. I'm not kidding.

Seriously, he and his now wife chose the second-largest private estate in America as their reception locale. Yep.

Photo courtesy of oheka.com

Apparently Tiger Woods rents it out when he stays in the Gold Coast (home to Gatsby himself). Wikipedia calls it "a popular wedding venue for socialites, celebrities, and dignitaries". Well, we got to play socialite that night, getting fancy, walking through ornate halls, sipping cocktails near mantles over roaring-fires, and even getting to play the library's grand piano. 

(Sorry for the crappy iPhone pics) 

We spent a lot of time in the library. No one else was in there and it was just gorgeous. 

Here's how we came in...

Bill's brother, Mike, and his wife, Deb.... 

And then there's us (a little shorter... at least I am) 

It was a pretty fun night. Everything was slightly over the top which was tons of fun as a guest. Oh, and let's not forget dessert... 

Which was an entire room full of buffet tables of dessert. 

Here's a possibly better picture... 

Again, courtesy of Oheka.com 

All in all, it was pretty fun, and it was great to get to spend some time with Mike and Deb who we rarely get to see. 

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Shortly after this extravagant date, we went on some more casual ones - the first being NYE. 

Every year we spend it with Bill's sister Liss and her fiancee at their home in NJ. Normally its a bunch of the siblings but this year, due to work and sickness, it was just the four of us and a couple drinks each. 

For Liss and I, the drinks were a little fancier... 

(You can also tell how much we spent here, apparently) 

NYE happens to also be Bill and I's anniversary. January 1st, 2010 we met outside our houses on Webster St. So every NYE at midnight we celebrate that first night. This year marked three years together. Its crazy that this wonderful man stays with me and puts up with my craziness, poverty and lack of ambition to lose those 20 lbs I gained since we started dating. :-) 

So come the evening of January 1st, we decided to do a little light celebrating. After not feeling like going out, Bill asked what I wanted to do. My reply?

"Build a fort, watch a movie and play Scrabble?"

Hahaha. I'm 8 years old. 

So what did Bill do? 

Built me a fort, of course! 

We ate pretty well, too, despite staying in... 

After getting the 8-year-old festivities out of my system, we went out last night for a more grown-up celebration at Morimoto. 

For those of you who don't know Morimoto, he's the Iron Chef who is known for his Japanese cuisine. The restaurant is a collaboration between the chef and restaurateur-extraordinaire Stephen Starr. Its also rated one of the best restaurants in the city so we figured we should finally go. 

Bill's pot of fish and tofu (not what he had in mind, I think) 

My striped bass with black bean puree 

Me with a St. Germain drink. Can't go wrong there. 

Awww, he's trying not to laugh as I take a picture of him. 

Over all, I don't think we were impressed by the cuisine. We didn't try the sushi, to be fair, but what we did have was a little on the "ok" side. 

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And last, but not least, by request of the red-headed-man himself, comes this picture... 

After months of being sick of our "front hall" coat closet being fuller than me after dinner, I decided we needed some more space for Bill's tools. I bought a bunch of boxes to go under our "bar" that can house tools, rags, and just miscellaneous crap. It might be a little more crowded looking under there, but Bill's tool box is looking good and that closet is much easier to work with! 

Happy Anniversary to us! 

That's all for now! This week I am spending 99% of my out-of-work time studying for my real estate exam on the 14th, but if I get a second, I really want to present some of my favorite moments from 2012!!! Just don't be angry if my 2012 posting is in July of 2013. :-)