January....Longest Month of the Year

Maybe its the post holidays, winter (although not necessarily winter like weather!) blues, maybe its the anticipation of a super exciting February (and 2012 as a whole!), mabye its just really, seriously long, but January has seemed never ending and I am so excited about February coming this week. We have definitely not been sitting around with nothing to do....actually lots of exciting things have gone on. Here is a recap:

*Our house went on the market!!
*We put in an offer on a new house and we should close on February 13th!!! (I will post all about it once it is official...now we are hoping our old house sells quickly!)
*We attended "John and Jen" at Workshop Theater
*We attended Columbia Classical Ballet's "Lifechance Gala" and cast party. At the silent auction we came home with a very cool, artsy bracelet, one of my favorite difusers, a gift basket and a gorgeous piece of art
*We visited our neighbor's church.
*I bought a waterproof to 10 ft Olympus Tough camera to take to the Bahamas for underwater pics....it does real cool things such as the fish eyed photo of Ben above.
*Ben had baseball conditioning to prepare for tryouts in February
*Ben spent three days on a field trip at Camp Thunderbird
*Ben and Glenn went to several Gamecock basketball games and I joined Glenn and Ruben for the first SEC win of the year against Alabama!
*Planned for next month's Bahamas and Washington, DC trips
*Booked a vacation to the Xcaret in Mexico for me and Glenn in June
*Began prepping for a spring break road trip for me and Ben...we are going to travel from SC to Houston, TX!

Now I am looking forward to so much in February, moving in the new house and the next six months that I am almost giddy!!

Favorite Christmas Party of the Year

My favorite party we go to each year is the EAGC party. It is always held at Forest Lake Club and includes a delicious dinner, band, dancing, and gifts. Each couple gets these "party" bags with goodies from some of the EAGC member companies. I love going home and going through it! They also give each lady at the party a gift. This year they did something different and had handblown glass ring holders from One Eared Cow made. It is a beautiful piece of art as well as ring holder and such a great idea.

As always it was a fantastic party!

Mrs. Matthews with her boys

The Matthews women

my gorgeous piece of glass art

Official FurBall 2011 Photograph

The photographer posted his photos right after I finished my FurBall post. Here was one of the two pics of us!

My Favorite Gala - FurBall!

For the third year in a row we attended Pawmetto Lifeline's FurBall. (At our first one, Glenn bought me my first Christmas present from him in the silent auction --- a signed copy of Pat Conroy's South of Broad.) It wasn't the same this year without his grandmother there, but Belinda and his dad joined us and the Russells for a wonderful evening of food, fun and dancing to Heart and Soul (the same band from our wedding reception!)

me and Mary
us and the Weitzels

Pictures

Carolina Wildlife Care posted pictures on Facebook from the Black Tie and Tales Gala we attended a few weeks ago. I thought the photo of Glenn's grandmother and of us was really good and worth sharing!

Black Tie and Tales Gala 2011

Our final stop was the top of the Nelson Mullins building for this year's Carolina Wildlife Care Gala. We decided due to time (and a "hey, it's derby day, why not??) to just wear our same outfit. We definitely stood out! Peggy and Paula came and as always it was way fun to hang with them.

Love these girls!
what a view behind the steel drum band

they both looked gorgeous

we took a little photo shoot on the emergency exit porch!

USC Dance Gala

We ended April 30th (tired!) at the USC Dance Gala. It was a nice evening, although the band, Heart and Soul (same band from our reception) wasn't able to start playing until we were about to leave. There were great performances by students, staff and community dance suporters. Glenn was excited to win a baseball signed by USC baseball coach Ray Tanner in the auction.

Glenn with Patsy, Michaela and Buddy

our friend, Lee, was also there

the dance studio named after Glenn's grandparents

Red, White and Black Tie Gala

On Friday night we went to the annual Red Cross Gala (which also serves as the kick off to Red Cross Month). Our friend, Hilda, was on the committee so we decided to go. Glenn's grandmother was unable to go so we invited Peggy and Muoud to go with us. It turned out to be a blast! The food was good, the band was great and the undercover Gamecocks were awesome!

Ready to go

me and Peggy

Peggy, Hilda and me

my new to me Manolos!!

Marcus Lattimore and me

Glenn and Marcus

Glenn, Stephan Gilmore and me

Glenn,, me, Tammy and Dylan Thompson (I used to go to church with them and now he plays for the Gamecocks!)

Decorations and cupcakes!

Mr. M, Glenn, Belinda, me, Peggy and Muoud

Muoad and Peggy

Peg, Hilda and me

Best Christmas Party of the Year

After a day of opening wedding presents and resting we got dressed up again on Saturday night for the annual EAGC Christmas party. I love this party! The food and music are wonderful. Although this year we were too tired to dance (I did one dance to the Cupid Shuffle and it wore me out!), we still had a great time. And, the best part, the gifts for the ladies and goody bags for each couple!

Belinda and Mrs. Matthews opening their EAGC gifts. My gift was a set of "12 Days of Christmas" dessert plates and a Christopher Radko ornament! Awesome!

Fur Ball 2010

This weekend we attended our second Fur Ball to support "Pawmetto Lifeline", a no-kill pet shelter. This is one of my favorite gala's we go to as the food, the dancing, the crowd and (though we didn't get anything this year) the live/silent auction. Glenn's grandmother had gotten a table so it was me, Glenn, his grandmother, Mr. Rick, and her friends -- VJ, Mary and Charles. We had a great time. And, on a side note...the band that was there was fabulous and they will be the band at our wedding party in December!!

Happy 80th Birthday, Township!

Tony Bennett may have re-opened the Township on Thursday night, but the official grand re-opening gala/80th birthday party was on Friday night and it was wonderful. We go to quite a few of these type events, but this one was definitely one of the absolute best! We arrived to a red carpet entrance and a reception/silent auction in the lobby. Then, it was into the auditorium itself, which was decorated beautifully, for a sit down dinner (garden salad, bacon wrapped filet, chicken breast, rice, summer veggies and --my favorite -- polenta cakes followed by a mousse cup dessert) that was deliciously enjoyed while The Headliners sang a variety of songs from the main stage.

After dinner was a brief presentation that included a history of the theater and all of the events that had once been held there. And, then, dancing!!! The Headliners played wonderful dance tunes and thankfully, Mr. Rick is a very patient dance partner for my two left feet! We had the best time!!

Pictures: me and Glenn before heading to the gala; Lee and Belinda after dinner; me and G at the gala; view from the balcony; on the red carpet -- Glenn, me, Belinda, Mr. Matthews, Mary and Charles