Oh what a wonderful yesterday! We went on a road trip to visit with our far-away friends, and it was so great to see them all. Nothing went as planned and time wasn't on our side, but it was still so wonderful.

We had planned to get shopping done between 1pm and 4pm, get Bree to her hair appointment (which we thought would take about 30 min), and get home to make homemade lasagna for the boys by 6pm. DID NOT happen like that!

By 6pm we had only managed to grab some lunch and get to the hair appointment (which had taken an hour and a half, plus 20 minutes searching-in-the-cold-with-screaming-babies time) Then it was off to the mall since I was on the prowl for the perfect baby gift for a friend, but we also had to feed starving children, wade through the crowds of Christmas shoppers, and stand in the huge line-up for our white chocolate peppermint mocha's.

By 8pm we were home attempting to make homemade pasta.
Plan A: Making lasagna from homemade pasta noodles was out the window since we didn't have time, so we went to Plan B: Make homemade ravioli out of homemade pasta. Dough making didn't go so well.

By 9:30pm we were back shopping and buying fresh pasta dough to go with Plan C: Make homemade ravioli out of boughten pasta dough.

By 10:30pm the fresh boughten pasta dough wasn't working out so well either, so we resorted to Plan D: throw a box of dried rigatoni into a pot of boiling water.

By 11pm we are finally eating dinner...but SERIOUSLY worth the wait.

Despite our fresh pasta disaster, Tara had been making the most incredible homemade tomato sauce with chorizo, italian sausage, fresh buffalo mozzarella and fresh basil, complete with a side of garlic bread topped with smoked mozzarella....I was in heaven! I have never had a better tomato-meat sauce on pasta in my life, and I would be hard pressed to find something as good in an Italian Restaurant. So the day was crazy, but so great because of the wonderful company (and food)...and I didn't mind eating at 11pm...it meant that we could keep Adam and Bree there for extra visiting time.

I was also amazed at the generosity of our friends. We were given beautiful Christmas gifts, and the coolest, most-stylin' baby clothes for Eva. The clothes she was given were friggin' adorable, and I can now fill her empty 1-2 year clothes drawer. Here is just a smattering of the cutest baby clothes you've ever seen:



Wow. We have amazing friends.