As we settle into the holiday season we are reflecting on what a wonderful year it has been – filled with good friends, our wonderful families, some amazing trips, and a lot of good meals along the way.
Bridget continues to work in Marketing for The Home Depot (she got promoted this year!) and is in the final stretch of the MBA program at the University of Georgia (Go Dawgs) with a completion date in Spring 2020. Ben’s work in Marketing at UPS is fun and engaging (don’t blame him if your packages are late this Christmas, he’s thankfully not out working the midnight package sort). He fills his time at home making ever increasingly complex meals and is eternally grateful for Bridget’s taste testing and willingness to clean up the messes he makes.
The house in Atlanta is looking tiptop after 2018’s DIY full bathroom renovation and (not DIY) new deck and is proving to be a warm and comfortable refuge from all of the Atlanta traffic.
Travel this year took us back to our old stomping grounds in Washington, DC, a beautiful summer weekend in Michigan, a great week of eating and exploring in Montreal, a relaxing beach trip to Maine, dance-filled weddings in Chicago and Florida, to Williamsburg, VA for Ben’s 10 year college reunion (time flies) at William and Mary, a post-Thanksgiving weekend in Savannah (one of our GA faves), and finally back to DC and Virginia to celebrate the holidays with friends and family.
Around Atlanta we enjoyed hosting friends from near and far, had an amazing time at the Atlanta Food and Wine Festival where we took classes on crawfish boiling, pickle making and smoking on the Big Green Egg, joined 60,000 of our Atlanta neighbors for the 4th of July Peachtree 10k road race (PRs by almost 5 minutes!), and continued to take in all of the great things this city has to offer up every day.
We would like to send you the warmest wishes this holiday season and hope that you have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy new year.
Cheers,
Ben and Bridget
Check out a few of our pictures from 2019 at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/EDfXJGwfTxb6eVaR7
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
Misbehaving by Richard Thaler
Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian
Salt Fat Acid Heat by Samin Nosrat
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and A Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
The Crown
The Good Place
Barry
Fleabag
Killing Eve
Au Pied du Cochon (Montreal) – best bite of the year: Foie Gras Nigiri
Mamak (Atlanta) – Malaysian gem of Atlanta’s Buford Highway
Little Goat (Chicago) – interesting and innovative diner that Ben went back to twice
Little Giant (Portland, ME) – the black rice risotto with lemongrass was so good
Boone Tavern (Berea, KY) – an unexpectedly amazing stop halfway between Atlanta and Michigan
Del Mar (Washington, DC) – the food is perfect but the real takeaway was the tiger prawn Bloody Mary
The Grey (Savannah, GA) – Oysters and snacks in a beautifully updated art deco former Greyhound bus station
We learned to make sushi!
Empanadas
Chinese pork and shrimp dumplings
Smoked BBQ ribs on the Big Green Egg