Welcome to the "Year of Years"

Yes, Joe has dubbed 2009 as the "Year of Years." There are many reasons why we think this is so which I won't bother to enumerate, but the fact that we are both finally graduating after 19 and 20 years of school is definitely one of those reasons. :) We kicked off the New Year by clanking champagne glasses and downing some sparkling water at a fantastic restaurant downtown - with Nate & Lori, of course.

The restaurant was French, so we made our reservation for 10:30 in true French style (sadly Joe wouldn't let me order snails, so I couldn't enjoy the true French experience...why do I still listen to him??). We had just finished ordering dessert when the countdown began and we got to have the traditional kiss during those few important seconds when the ball drops. No, the kiss wasn't on the cheek, but Nate & Lori were too busy smooching to document the actual thing - plus I might not post that on my blog.

Happy New Year! 2009 is going to be great!!

The Most Wonderful Month of the Year!

Happy Holidays!! It has been a busy and fantastic month. Get ready for a rather lengthy post as I try to do a quick recap of my favorite month of the year.

The first half of the month I spent mostly studying. Luckily, though, my finals were much more manageable than previous semesters, and for the first time I was able to find time for a few study breaks to do some Christmasy-type things. Our first activity was to trudge through the thickly falling snow one Saturday afternoon to find and cut down the perfect Christmas tree! The tree was for Nate and Lori, but we decided it would be lots of fun to go along for the experience. Plus, without us there, who would have taken all the pictures?? I was seriously very concerned about this - it was the tipping factor when I was trying to decide whether to stay home and study or go Christmas tree hunting.
We had a great time and were glad we went. I'm just relieved I didn't lose any fingers to the cold since that would have made typing my finals considerably more difficult.
Nate and Lori really did find the perfect tree - but they couldn't have done it without us! Plus Nate needed another guy to help chop it down and carry it off. Lori and I were there for photo-ops, not for sawing on our hands and knees with a face full of pine needles.

I was just super excited not to be studying!

The next event of the month was my 25th birthday. The past few years my birthdays haven't even caused me to blink since I'm usually taking a final that day or the day after. But this year my first final wasn't for 3 more days, and I wasn't nearly as overwhelmed as usual - so I stopped studying at 5 and took an entire evening to celebrate. Joe and I went to Pei Wei, and then went to look for a small tree of our own, which proved unsuccessful.

Then I went to Lori's to open my present and blow out my candle on the fantastic cake she made me. :) I told her I didn't want a real cake since I was trying to eat healthy during finals and she came up with this creative concoction. I am a huge Special K fan and I loved it.

I also took some time to admire my new car, since that was my birthday present (quite the present I'd say!) and opened my other wonderful presents from my parents and Nate and Lori. Since my birthday expectations have been set pretty low in recent years, it really didn't take much to make it a completely fantastic day! Except for the fact that I am getting so old ... I didn't like that part so much.

Then, by December 19th, I was done! It was an awesome feeling to know that Joe and I are both just one semester away! We had to kick it right into Christmas mode so we could get our packages sent out the next day, and then start our Christmas shopping. But we had everything all set by the night of the 23rd so we could enjoy Christmas Eve. That night we also went to see the lights at the Temple and the Reflections of Christ exhibit which we really enjoyed.

On the 24th we awoke to freezing rain and almost called off our trip to Hershey, PA, but then decided to go anyway. It was basically empty there which was great - we could tell the place is set up for long lines. We rode the "factory tour" ride twice without even getting off and had fun looking all all the different sweets which none of us really wanted to eat (well, maybe deep down we did, but ...).

The weather wasn't fantastic but we had fun anyway. Now we know what the place is all about, and we may just have to take a trip back sometime when the museum reopens. We ended the outing with lunch at the The Chocolate Bar, and it was delicious. Then we drove back home through the rain while listening to Christmas tunes on XM radio ... Joe and Lori belted out the Hallelujah chorus of Handel's Messiah, and I even joined in a little. Fun!

Later we had a cozy little Christmas Eve at Nate and Lori's. We made pizzas with dough from the Big Cheese (sooooo good) and watched the Santa Claus, and then went home to wait for Santa to come.

And come he did! Here is our little tree (borrowed from the Edmans after they left town but decorated by us) and all of our presents before we took them up to Nate and Lori's.
Basically it was the size of the tree that determined where we would hold our Christmas festivities. And here are Joe and me showing off the Christmas pajama bottoms my mom made for us! They have cute little snowmen on them if you can't tell ...
Although we really missed our families, we had a very nice, quiet little Christmas just the 4 of us.
Joe with his new bike helmet.

And some nice vice grips.

Me opening up a new hair straightener (a Chi!) - well, a box with a picture and a customer review of the straightener taped to it (very cute, Joe!). The real one was on its way.

And admiring my new coat! Joe did a fabulous job surprising me this year. :)

That afternoon we enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner with friends at the Auston's home. Unfortunately I had a few hours where nothing seemed to go my way - the rolls took forever to rise, one pan got burned, and I felt like a Christmas wreck. You'd think the adorable Christmas apron my mom made me would have brought me better luck! ;) However with wonderful company and great food I was soon able to recover.

To finish off the day, we talked to our families via phone or iChat, and then started and almost finished a 500 piece Christmas puzzle before we could no longer keep our eyes open. Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas! We love you!

Presenting: our Christmas Present!

I know I've got some major blog catching-up to do but since I still need to get some pictures from Lori, I thought I'd do a quick post about one of our new Christmas presents! This year my parents got the 3 married couples the same main gift: a Vitamix! If you don't know what it is, well, it's basically the most amazing blender ever! It has a huge motor and can blend ice and whole foods like it's nothing. And ... if you put it on a certain speed for about 4 minutes, you come away with piping hot, creamy soup! Incredible. The blender comes with tons of recipes for smoothies, ice cream, peanut butter, hummus, soups, pudding, dips, and sauces. Fun!! Last night Joe and I tried out the blender on a beginner recipe of Chicken Potato Spinach Soup. We put whole baked potatoes in the blender with milk, chicken broth, onion, and spices, which came out super creamy, and added chopped chicken and spinach at the end so it would be more coursely chopped.

This was our beautiful, steaming hot result! It was a lot of fun - although it turned out a little too "potatoey" for my taste (I think we used the wrong kind of potatoes). Now we've got some smoothy ingredients in the freezer just waiting to be put to use. I am very excited about it since our old blender really couldn't handle the frozen peaches and I had basically given up on smoothie making altogether.

Also - like my super cute plate and bowl?? It's my birthday present from Lori (& Nate)!! I love it.

Our Thanksgiving Getaway

We are still recovering from a completely fantastic Thanksgiving weekend! We spent 3 days in a cozy cabin in the middle of a winter wonderland with great friends, plenty of delicious food, and non-stop laughs and entertainment. The cabin is in Western Maryland near Deep Creek Lake and is basically brand-new! It was awesome. I am so glad Hannah found the cabin and organized it all ... this was one of the few holiday weekends since we've been in Md. that I haven't spent studying, and I'm grateful we had the chance to spend it with great friends who will be moving away soon.

10 people cooking Thanksgiving dinner in one small kitchen was a little crazy but somehow everything came together wonderfully. Jeremy did a great job on the turkey and the rest of us pitched in with the appetizers, mashed potatoes, yams, salads, rolls, and stuffing (Joe's specialty). Oh, and plenty of pies, of course! I think key lime may have been the hit.

Joe always is a great cook on Thanksgiving and this year was no exception!

We took a nice little walk in the snow which led to trouble when I started threatening Joe with a snowball.
But how could I not forgive a guy who belongs on the cover of GQ? So dang cute!

All in all it was a great 3 days. It was so much fun to spend time with the Skinners, Burnhams, Walkers, and Millers ... and we wished others could have been there as well! Favorite parts of the weekend were: playing games, laughing, and telling stories into the early morning hours, cooking and sharing delicious recipes, and hanging out in a new and beautiful place. The only not-so-good parts were: a terrifying episode involving wooden stairs, a nasty smell coming from the fridge, and not enough sleep. But thankfully we are all home safe and sound! Now it's back to real life and lots of studying until December 19th!

Just Dance.

Joe and I are huge (HUGE!!) fans of So You Think You Can Dance. And just to show what incredible fans were are, when the top 10 tour came through Baltimore we were there with our friends Chad and Emily, cheering as loud as we possibly could! I was sure I was going to lose my voice since Emily and I were screaming like 13 year old girls - although not quite as loud as the real, live 13 year old girls that were sitting near us in their tutus. (Can I just say 'WOW.') Joe was pretty excited as well. He and Chad pretended to lament the fact they were missing Monday night football, while secretly being grateful they had wives who were so into this that they were sure to be dragged along, without having to actually look like there was no where they would rather be.

The show definitely did not disappoint! Twitch was twitchalicious, Will was even more ripped in real life, and Chelsie, Katee, and Courtney were better than ever. It was so fun to see all our favorite dances from the season brought back. The performances included dances involving a door . . . a bed . . . . and yes, a briefcase. :)

At the end of the show as everyone was leaving Emily and I rushed to the front just in time to see them starting cleaning up the confetti. :( It was over much too soon. By next year we've definitely got to figure out how to snag those front row seats!

Birthdays are Delicious Part II

Last weekend Joe got his birthday dessert (caramel apples!) but unfortunately I did not have time to make him his birthday dinner. Unthinkable, I know. But we both had a busy few days so he understood. And today I made up for it by attempting to replicate one of our very favorite foods - Cafe Rio Pork Salad! I know a lot of you out there may already make it but it was my first time. Fortunately it turned out amazing!! We were both so happy to realize we don't have to wait a whole year to have something close to the Cafe Rio experience. Given the time and $$ involved in making everything I think it would be more economical just to hit up the restaurant ... but since that isn't an option I plan to continue perfecting my speed and technique on the homemade version.

P.S. Joe's 28th birthday is now officially OVER.

Birthdays are DELICIOUS!

I told you a few posts ago that Joe likes apple pie ... however he did not get an apple pie or even a cake this birthday (or cinnamon rolls like last year). But don't feel bad for him. What he did get was a caramel apple party! In this picture you can get an idea for how it works - the shiny apples, melted caramel, crushed m&m's, oreos, and heath bar, and melted chocolate. Yummm. Joe was a great sport and helped me out a lot with his own "party." Even though it was a small group it was still kind of crazy since I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing. Although the milk chocolate melted up fine (by holding a plastic bag of choc. chips suspended in a pot of boiling water) we couldn't get the white chocolate to melt right. Why is that??

You really can't mess up a homemade caramel apple ... although some people's apples turned out "prettier" than others.

Nate did quite well decorating with a kid on his arm. Impressive.

After decorating, we stuck the apples in the freezer for a couple minutes for the caramel to set up.

The result was completely declious! The tart apple and all the sweet stuff on the outside is a combination you just can't beat. Soooo good!!

And here is a picture of the cute little gourd vases I made. Darling! But don't try it unless you have a hacksaw handy ... those gourds are insanely hard to cut.

28 and entitled

Joe says that now that he's 28, he is "entitled" to have a car payment. Whatever that means! But apparently, this is how he really feels:

As for me? I am super chill, couldn't be better.

Just kidding! I am totally flipping out! I couldn't even trust myself drive home from the dealership because I was bouncing off the seats. Literally. And letting out a little scream every few minutes.
And this is what I will be doing every time I get out of my new car for the next little while. Niiiiiiice.