The Day after Thanksgiving

We set-up the Christmas tree tonight.

Our Christmas Cactus is blooming.

We watched Christmas with the Kranks tonight.

Yarn Stores...Quilt Store and Gus Look-a-Likes...OHH My

Brian had all sorts of surprises in store for me today.  We started out the day by driving to downtown Whitmore Lake, where he found what he thought was a quilt shop.  Brian knows that I love to quilt.  'A' for effort.  It actually was a Yarn shop (Whitmore Lake Yarn Company).  The store was filled with different types of yarn in all sorts of different colors.  They also had patterns, classroom space and different things for knitters and crocheters.  Nice little store.

Meet Louie.  A mixed Yorkie and Havanese.  He works at the shop.  He looked exactly like Gus, but with a bigger body, and a more toy-like bark.

While at the Yarn Company, we were turned onto a pretty nice Quilt Shop (Lake St. Mercantile) in South Lyon (MI).  It was a nice 2 story townhouse type building.  A quaint country style quilt shop with a ton of different fabrics, patterns, kits and different quilting projects.

An article appeared in the Quilt Sampler Spring/Summer 2008 on the quilt shop.

Fabric on bolts and fat quarters galore!!!!

Wall quilts line the stairwell going to the second level.  They even had a quilt that was dated prior to 1850.

This mural is on the side of a building in downtown Whitmore Lake.  This photo does not do it any justice on the detail of the work.

The Polly Market is a little grocery store in downtown Whitmore Lake.  For being a small town, its a cozy and quaint grocery store.  It has almost everything one would need.

Afterwards, Brian drove me around Whitmore Lake.  There are spots around the lake that are already frozen, which look really pretty.  We are sure when the spring/summer rolls around, it will be beautiful still.

Thankful

One of Brian's and I's good friends, Darryl invited us to his house for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was a great meal.  Darryl did a majority of the cooking (a traditional baked turkey, a smoked turkey, a fried turkey, a baked ham, collard greens, mashed potatoes, stuffing, mac n' cheese, sweet potatoes, green beans and corn bread).  Brian and I brought over some wine, cheese and crackers, a chocolate-espresso mousse pie, pumpkin pie and apple pie.  Brian and I are very blessed, and have a lot to be thankful for.  Two great  loving families, great friends and each other.

After dinner, two football games (Detroit/Chicago and Dallas/Philadelphia Eagles) and some Seinfeld episodes, Brian and I came home and watched one of our favorite holiday movies, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

1st Date Night in Ann Arbor

Brian planned our first date night for Ann Arbor.  We walked up and down Main Street and enjoyed the festive holiday lights.

The windows in the store fronts in some of the buildings on Main Street were painted and decorated for the holidays.  Brian has seen the artists painting the windows the last two-weeks.  Here are some of the stores with there associated windows.

Brian took me to Palio for dinner, which is a Italian restaurant in downtown Ann Arbor.  Brian was offered his job here when we flew up for his second interview, and it has quickly became a favorite of ours.  As an appetizer, we had grilled calamari, which was really well seasoned and tasted great.  For dinner, I had rigatoni pasta with a pesto sauce with pine nuts, and Brian had spaghetti pasta with a bolognese sauce with two meatballs.  Both dishes were really delicious.

Cheery Republic was an interesting store in downtown Ann Arbor.  For those of you that didn't know, Michigan is known for its cherry orchards up north.  Traverse City, MI is known as the Cheery Capital of the World.    In Cheery Republic, they take cherries, and produce different products from them (i.e. wine, salsa, sauces, dried fruit, trail mix, jams and jelly).

Brian capped off the evening by taking me to Blank Slate Creamery.  All of there ice cream is made onsite, and is all natural local ingredients (milk, fruits, vegetables, herbs, cookies, etc.).  They try at all cost to only use local products, but sometimes have to use non-local products.

New flavors are introduced on Friday's.

The table tops are chalk boards.  There are chalk tin-jars on each table.  Customers can doodle, draw or play games on the tables while they enjoy their ice cream.  Brian marked our occasion on the table.  We sampled fresh basil (a non-over-powering basil taste)  I had a small scoop of salted caramel coffee and a small scoop of banana fosters.  Brian had a small scoop of salted caramel , and a small scoop of cookies n' cream (which the people behind the counter highly recommended and is a best seller).  Of course, Brian and I shared with each other.

Heading out of downtown Ann Arbor, I noticed an inflatable festive Mr. Potato Head on the roof of one of the houses.