Goodbye 2011!!

When planing this New Year, we wanted to do something a little cheaper than past years but still fun and with close friends.  A lot of our friends were out of town this year but when our good friend and Chris' old roommate asked us if we'd like to get out of the city with him and his fiance - we got excited about this NYE's potential!  We planned a weekend away in the Hamptons with Cesar and Courtney.  We rented a car to drive the 2.5 hours out to the Hamptons, rented a house with a grill and hot tub, and made dinner plans for NYE.  Although it wasn't a cheaper NYE, it was a fun, relaxing, casual and special New Years. We spent the first night in grilling, sitting by the fire, and then having champagne in the hot tub. 

First night in the house, Chris grilled steaks.

First night - Cesar and Courtney snuggling by the fire

Chris and Kate by the fire

The second day we woke up late, had a big breakfast and watched some football.  We walked around the downtown area of East Hampton before heading back to the house to get ready for our New Years dinner at Serafina.  There was an amazing pre-fix deal.  Basically every course came with truffles!  After dinner, we headed back to the house for champagne, our own personal dance party and more hot tubing. It was lovely to be away from the chaotic NYC new years we've experienced in the past.

New Years Eve dinner at Serafina - so good!

At the house, Cesar and Courtney introduced us to one of their New Years traditions:  Open a bottle of champagne and everyone makes toasts to people and accomplishments from the past year.  You do this until the bottle is gone.  This was a really special and fun tradition that I hope we do every year.  We won't share (or be able to remember) all of our toasts that evening, but here are some highlights from 2011.

1) We got engaged in Maui

2) We embarked on a world trip (the inspiration to start this blog)

3) Chris graduated with his masters degree from Columbia Business School

4) We moved into a new apartment in September

5) Chris started a new job

6) Chris' Grandpa celebrated his 90th birthday surrounded by dozens of family and friends

7) We celebrated two friends' weddings in Dallas: Josh & Dani and Paul & Mel

8) Friends John & Denise had their first child: Ryland Patrick

9) We went to the Coachella Music Festival in Palm Springs, CA

10) For Chris' spring break, we went to Cabo with friends Kerry & Chris and then visited friends Erin & Craig in San Francisco.  We also managed to make it to Napa for a wine-tasting day-trip.

11) Chris turned 30!! (more on that in a separate blog post)

12) Kate's friend, Malinda visited us in March

13) We've had many visits from family. Both our families came out for Chris' graduation in May, Kate's sister, Sarah has traveled to NYC for work several times, and Kate's parents came to visit in November.

14) Chris went to New Orleans for a bachelor party

15) We celebrated two friends getting engaged: Cesar & Courtney and Bharni & Anu. And Kate's cousin Tyler got engaged.

16) We started the year in Los Angeles, celebrating the New Year and our friend, Lauren's birthday. (And we got to party in Jim Morrison's old house on NYE!)

17) Chris took many snowboarding trips including one to Colorado in Janurary with fellow Columbia Buisness School students.

Needless to say, 2011 was a great year!  We already have a lot to look forward to in 2012:  Chris' sister and brother-in-law are moving to Houston, many of our friends are expecting babies, we already have two weddings on the calendar for May, and we'll be planning our own wedding (date TBD 2013).