Anniversary Weekend!

"1 year ago today, we were Jamaica bound for our Honeymoon!  Today, we go to work :)"

My Facebook status read something to this effect this morning.  Needless to say, today was not nearly as exciting as a year ago, but we sure did enjoy our weekend celebrating year numero uno!

Friday night we laid low, got our fav take out from Basil, and watched Water for Elephants!

I was so excited for finally watch the movie!  It was one of the most "true to the book" movies in my opinion. I just loved the characterization in the book and thought the actors and actresses captured it so well!!  Loved it!

Saturday morning, we headed off to Asheville for the night!  Since our anniversary is so close to the Holidays, we thought it would be fun to tour The Biltmore during their Candle Light Christmas tour as well as their winery.  Brandon had never been and we thought it would be fun to get the full experience!

When we first got to town, our hotel room wasn't ready, so we walked around downtown for a little shopping & lunch!  They were actually having a parade downtown so we caught a little bit of that while waiting to be sat at Tupelo Honey Cafe!

There was a bit of a wait at to get in at Tupelo Honey Cafe, but it was well worth it!  Those biscuits were to die for!!

After lunch, we were able to check into our room.  Turns out a little birdie (aka Brandon) told the hotel it was our anniversary so we walked in to a sweet surprise!

B caught up on the Michigan game while we sipped some Champagne, and then it was off to The Biltmore!

The gorgeous entrance!! 

Waiting for our wine tour, sampling some champagne :)

The Clock Tower - the 2nd most photographed spot, next to the house

Edith Biltmore's wheels & get up (in the corner!)  Her *estate car*

Large white wine fermenter's behind me!  (I think that's what they were called!)

The AMAZING house!!!

If you've never been to the Biltmore, you should definitely go at least once!  The house is spectacular.  Each room has such immaculate detail, the ceilings are my favorite!  They have such incredible features!!  I wish picture taking was allowed!

Since we realized we couldn't take pics by the GINORMOUS 33 ft tree inside The Biltmore, we had hoped to take our Christmas card picture by this lit up tree outside.  After a few practice shots, we realized it wasn't really going to work!  Haha, onto plan C....

After second look, I thought the giant lion in the background might be a little weird for a Christmas picture.  Plan D...

After The Biltmore, we made it to our dinner reservation at The Chop House.  Our filets with blue cheese crumbles and sides were delicious, but the service...not so great!  Or we might have just been tired from all that walking at The Biltmore.  Either way, not sure we'd go back.  We'll stick to our trusty Ruth's Chris when we feel like celebrating over a good steak!  Maybe one day when we're real baller (haha, oh to dream) we'll try out Morton's!

For dessert, we walked over to the French Broad Chocolate Lounge for some truffles and brownies to go :) We felt a little lame, but we were tired, so we retired to our bed, watched House Hunter's and ate our yummy desserts!!  The night was perfection!

Their truffles lived up to their hype, by the way!  And they ship those puppies, so if you need some nice Chocolates as a gift for anyone, go drool over their website!

Before we left our overnight get away Sunday morning, I wanted to snap one last picture.  I found this anniversary tradition on Pinterest and just for giggles we thought we'd try it out!

Brought our wedding photo and everything! I felt extremely awkward holding the photo while being photographed, ha!  I'm glad eventually this picture will be WAY down deep in the years of pictures since my eyes were so puffy.  Great look for me!  Not!

We had planned to grab brunch before heading back, but breakfast at the hotel seemed a little easier!  Once we got home, we turned on the Panther's/Lion's game and brought Christmas our from the storage unit :)

We had a house divided this week during the game, but Brandon didn't rub it in too much when to no surprise my Panther's lost and his Lion's won.  :(

I love our 3 new ornaments from The Biltmore!!

  We attempted a few more Christmas photo ideas so here's something similar to what they'll look like ;)

They're no where near professional looking, but I think our final one turned our pretty cute and I love the card I picked out form Vistaprint!!  I can't wait to mail them all out!  We used a wedding pic last year for our cards, and our picture this year was taken exactly a year later :)

We topped off our Anniversary weekend with a family dinner at my brother & SIL's new house last night!  My parents got in town yesterday for Thanksgiving and I'm SO SO excited!!

1 more day of school this week...

and tomorrow...

we start COOKING!!!

PS - bear with me while the blog is undergoing a little construction :) If you know how to upload a premade header and/or edit html and would like to offer your expertise, please don't hesitate!!