Lately!

Wow, it's been a whole month since I have added anything to the blog. This past month has been super hectic. We have been up to visit our families every weekend since Thanksgiving and then there was the holidays. It was SO nice to already be here and not have to hop on a plane at Christmas, we didn't miss all the stress of dreading sudden winter storms in Chicago which would delay our flight, cramming in all our family time for the entire year with two families  into ten days, doing all the traditions and eating at our favorite places, and trying to see all our friends too.We always came back from our Christmas vacation feeling like we need a vacation.  It was much more relaxed this year. Even so, after this month, we are exhausted!

Here is the brief run down.....

Thanksgiving with my family and some friends

Picking out our Christmas tree and creatively getting it home in one piece

 Seeing Pearl Jam in Concert where they played over a three hour set

Nutcracker with my mom and sister on a very cold night

 Throwing a baby shower for my long time friend Meg

Christmas Cocktail and Cookie Party 

Saying goodbye to my sister, who moved back to Costa Rica the week before Christmas

 Missing our third elf (see above) on our annual Christmas Eve oyster run

Christmas Eve seafood fest - Oyster stew, pan-fried oysters, raw oysters, steamed mussels 

Christmas Morning at Marty's parents

 New Years with my favorite girls and some root beer floats

I hope you had a fun, happy, and relaxing holidays. Here is to 2014! 

(and I promise - more blogging soon!)

Christmas Music!

I just love Christmas. Every year I try to wait to listen to the music til after Thanksgiving, as a sort of, generally futile, attempt at self control. I make it almost every other year. This year, not so much. I love all the traditions, the smell of a Christmas tree, giving gifts, Christmas treats, sweaters, and hearing the Christmas story over and over. But mostly I love the music. I have been tucking my phone in my sweatshirt pocket while playing christmas music so its always going!

Did you see this awesome video of four guys and one piano. What a musical treat!

Here are a few of my very favorite Christmas songs, already on repeat in our house.






 

 

(Also this album and this one).

Non-music funny: this hilarious list from a crazy kid (language warning).

Resolution Sunday: Cooking!

I am so thankful (although I haven't always been) that my mom made me cook with her all the time growing up. Some days I admittedly put up a fight, but now I know how to cook a lot of different standby dishes without recipes and can improvise with the best of them.

I am thankful that she took the time to teach my sister and I the tricks of the trade and made us participate in all parts of the cooking, including the planning, weekly. It was expected that we help (almost) every night, and now that I have my own kitchen, I am thankful that I did.

I am also thankful that Marty loves to cook. He loves to do the long, intricate recipes that are new and adventurous, and inevitably delicious. I think he is a fab cook, and I am thankful that he loves all sorts of different foods.

I am thankful that I get to cook too. Choice is a luxury, and I get to go to the grocery store and pick out what I like and what fits in the budget, and cook it in my own kitchen using my cooking skillz.

Thank you

Thank you for the sun that shines through the curtain in the morning, reminding me that this is a new day. This day may hold good things, bad things, frustrating things, joyful things, but for that first moment it is simply just new.

Thank you for a husband who comes home at the end of the day ready to talk finances, ready to laugh at our inside jokes, ready to do nothing for the fourth night in a row but veg out in front of 30 rock with leftovers. Thank you for making him kind and patient, just the right amount boring, and for making him the kind of guy who cleans the toilet.

Thank you for parents and their never ceasing love. Thank you for the moments when we realize that our parents are humans just like us, and especially for those moments that we realize that they truly are super-human.

Thank you for fresh air, clean water, and coffee. For yeast that makes donuts rise and ovens that bake cookies quickly. Thank you for butter I don't have to churn and milk that comes in a jug. Thank you that I don't have get up at 5 am to milk any cows. Thank you for those who do.

Thank you for those that love us so well. For those we drink beer with and laugh with and talk about forbidden things with. For those who know we snort when we laugh too hard. For those who have to explain football plays again and again and for those who patiently remind us to let it go.

Thank you for the excuse to express gratitude and thank you for reminding us to bundle up all the thankfulness of the weekend and take it with us (that, and ten containers of leftovers).

Resolution Sunday: My Birthday!

This year my birthday was just awesome. We went out for dinner for my birthday to a nice new place (they are all new at this point) in a new neighborhood of the city. It was only the second time we had gone out for dinner just us since we moved here in August.

For a very long time Marty has been making me promise not to plan anything for this weekend, so I knew something was up his sleeve. We headed to the zoo yesterday morning as what I thought was just the first of many activities and perhaps a night away. But after the zoo and a quick sandwich stop, we stopped back by our place to "pack our bags", but instead found a big group of my friends and family.

Marty had clearly instructed them that I "liked surprises but not being startled" so Marty walked through the door first and when I came in they gave a very friendly Happy Birthday cheer!  I screamed and threw my purse on the ground. It was awesome.

The first person I saw was my friend Jenny, who was wearing a sweater that we both own, hiding behind the couch. I honestly thought that someone had come into my house, stolen my sweater, and was now hiding behind the couch because I had walked in on the theft. That was my first thought.

My second was wondering if Marty had bought enough food and goodies to host all these people. He had.

I am so grateful for a sweet husband to plan me a party and for all my friends who love me enough to give up their saturday afternoon and for my family who drove down from our home town. I am just too flattered and grateful.

And too top it all off, my mom made cupcakes, and mom-made-cupcakes are just the best on your birthday. 

This year is gonna be dynamite!

Resolution Sunday: French Bakeries

(enjoying an actual French Bakery)

This week I am thankful for french bakeries. We visited my very favorite one, the one by Pikes Place, where my love for all things French Pastry started. This Saturday we went downtown and pretended to be tourists. It was pretty surreal, doing things that I had always done as a tourist thinking "we live here now".

I am 99.5% sure that heaven smells like a french bakery, so buttery and warm and just a touch sweet. Mmm..... I love the almond croissants and pain du chocolat. Really anything with warm and flaky crust.

I am just so grateful that these places exist.

Birthday Month!

This week was Marty's birthday week. Remember this story about his birthday? We were remembering when I came up from college on a Wednesday, even skipping a chem lab, to surprise Marty for his 18th birthday. I went with his family to a fancy pants restaurant in Canada and I drove back down to college the next morning. This was, of course, a huge deal at the time. And a whole decade ago (wait, what?).

This year we are back home, which means we get all sorts of family love on our birthdays. Marty's twin brother is back in town after a couple years in Paris and we are happy to be all in the same place. We made homemade sushi on the floating home that Sam and his girlfriend are renting on Lake Union, drank local beer, and played a new game. And of course ate The Carrot Cake. I even made Marty's mom tell their birth story, which I am sure the boys really enjoyed.

Happy birthday to my rockstar of a husband. We are the same age for exactly 8 days (and that is neat)

Now, on to my birthday week!

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Your Friday Feelgoods -

Batkid in San Fran

MY mom is the best

I am craving watching the sound of music, but not with a grump

I don't have kids but this is funny.

Now these are some cats I like.

HAPPY FRIDAY!