Merry Christmas from Oly.

Merry (belated) Christmas! We spent Christmas this year with Josh's parents in Olympia, Washington. This post is a little delayed, but if I procrastinate it any longer, it'll never happen. So, because I am lazy, here are a few pictures from the day and some captions:

As usual, all of the family dogs were present, and Josh went crazy for them...

Josh and his parents' massive Airedale, Teddy.


Josh and Kitt and Arian's dog, Boutros. (Josh really wants a big dog ... can you tell?)


Josh and his mom prepping the Christmas feast.


Josh's grandparents showing off their Christmas present -- a trip with the kids. I love his grandparents so much. They are the sweetest people. And, they are such an inspiration to given they just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary!


Josh's brother, Kitt, and his wife, Arian.


Josh's nephew in a hamburger beret he won in the white elephant gift exchange. (I made away with a bunch of Lindt chocolate -- score!!)


Josh's cousin playing with his new toy -- a car with a balloon on top. He and his sister are so stinkin' cute, I swear.


After dinner, Josh and Jason decided to play ping pong in the garage. Josh found an old Viking hat with braids.


This picture makes me laugh so hard, my side hurts. What can I say, he's special. :)


I hope you all had wonderful holidays, full of family, friends, and good times. Here's to an even better 2009.

Thankful.

Happy (belated) Thanksgiving! We had a whole mess of people over at our house to celebrate our day of gratitude and gluttony. Nineteen people, to be exact. This was especially ambitious given I had (very routine) surgery on Tuesday. Thank God for my mom who flew in from Alaska.

My grandma's first reaction was, of course, "Where are you going to put all of those people?!" Well, we cleared out our formal living room and rented some chairs. It ended up working out pefectly.

Some pics of our Thanksgiving table.




It was wonderful to have so many people in our home. It felt like the holidays when I was little with all of the family and friends piling in.

And, this was the first turkey I have ever cooked! Well, correction: We cooked two turkeys! (I couldn't risk running out of turkey!). Luckily, dinner turned out well, and I didn't burn anything or have any major snafus.


Per family tradition, we had holiday crackers. As usual, all of our holiday pictures are of us in those ridiculous paper crowns. (Remember last Christmas?)

Bug and Anthony.


Mom and Grandparents.


The whole fan-dam-ily (and some dear friends).


This Thanksgiving, I feel especially grateful for Josh, my sister, my parents, grandparents, and my dear friends. With all of the turmoil in our country and economy, I feel blessed to have my job (despite how stressful it might be at times) and especially blessed and hopeful for our new president.

And, now with Thanksgiving behind us, you know what that means... It's officially Christmastime! Let the present wrapping, light hanging, and carol singing begin!

Keep on truckin', mama.

Sadly, my mom is in Alaska, so we couldn't celebrate Mother's Day with her in-person. I miss her a bunch and was thinking about her a lot today!

To celebrate Mother's Day with my wonderful grandma, we went to brunch at Firefly Bistro in South Pasadena. In attendance were Josh, my sis, Ajax, my Uncle Frank and Aunt Chris, and their two daughters (my adorable cousins whom I want to kidnap).

Kesley in her stylin' frames.

Josh and Hailey; Bug and Ajax

Uncle Frank and Aunt Chris; Grandpa and Grandma

Firefly Bistro was fabulous, as always. I had the crab hash, which was absolutely delicious! I think Josh won for best breakfast: a tortilla dipped in french toast batter, filled with bananas and caramel. It tasted as amazing as it looked!

The ambiance was great. Firefly Bistro is a basically a big, outdoor tent, so it's bright and airy. For Mother's Day Brunch, there was a guy singing bluegrass and playing a steel guitar. When we were walking out, I smiled at him, and he looked at me, smiled, and said into the microphone: "Keep on truckin', mama." Hahahaha!

The fam

After brunch, we ran some errands and then came back to the house to get some stuff done before the week starts.

After some errands, we went out and grabbed dinner. I had the most glorious burrito. It was really more of a Last Supper because tomorrow begins a diet. I hate to blog about weight and diets, but I am at my absolute wit's end. I have gained an unbelievable amount of weight since the wedding and starting to work. I keep half-assing any sort of plan to "eat right and exercise." I have had enough, so tomorrow I am starting a strict regime I followed before the wedding. Wish me luck!

This evening, we are going to go see Baby Mama. I don't have high expectations, but I do adore Tina Fey. Hopefully, it will be entertaining!

Happy New Year!

Ah, another year. Not much to report in terms of an exciting NYE. In an effort not to break our longstanding tradition of being lame on NYE, Jackie came over with PJ, and the four of us drank wine, played with the puppy, and watched the countdown. Is it just me, or has Carson Daly had plastic surgery? Hmmm.

I am actually pretty excited for New Year's this year. I am ready for a fresh start and a new year. Not that 2007 was bad, but I think it's time to break out of my rut. Oh, and finally lose the weight I managed to gain after the wedding. Yeesh.

Well, off to sleep since I am back to the office bright and early. Happy New Year, everyone!

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

Well, another Christmas has come and gone. I hope you all had wonderful days with your families, that you made away with some good "loot," and that you are nowhere near as stuffed as I am!

Christmas Eve, we drove out to Corona to have Christmas dinner with my uncle and extended family. We had our traditional Italian sausage and homemade pizza. We headed back in the late afternoon and went to "Midnight Mass" at 10:30 p.m.

My sis, mom, step-dad, and PJ spent the night at our place. We woke up in the morning, ate breakfast (thanks, A, for the recipe), and then opened presents. We made away with some great stuff, including a new garage door from my mom and Doug, help remodeling the guest bathroom from Josh's folks, and a treadmill from my dad. (Pictures of the home improvements to come!)

We had fourteen people over for Christmas dinner, including my grandparents, mom, step-dad, dad, sis, PJ, and a couple family friends. We had to pull out our dining room table into the living room (good thing we have not furnished that room yet!), add two leaves, and set up a smaller table in the dining room to accommodate everyone!

Our living room with our dining room table, extended with two leaves.

A close-up of the place setting.

The beautiful flower arrangement my uncle sent.

My grandparents, and Ella in the background.

For dinner, we served prime rib, yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, salad, and rolls. It was the first holiday meal I cooked, and I was a little nervous, but it turned out really well. However, with all that was going on, I forgot to take pictures (dammit).

Also, it's a family tradition to have crackers at each table. Inside each cracker, there are paper crowns, and most of our family pictures through the years have us in these ridiculous hats.

Gathered 'round the table.

The crackers also include little toys. There were little cars and a couple people opened their crackers to find mini squirt guns! (My mom and grandma had a little too much fun with the squirt guns!)

My mom and Doug were nice enough to help clean up. Jackie and her family came over and had dessert with us.

Homemade apple pie, pumpkin pie with walnut crust, and pumpkin ginger cheesecake.

Phew. It was a wonderful, wonderful Christmas filled with our wonderful (albeit slightly crazy) family, food, wine, and lots of laughing. Good times.

I hope you all had wonderful holidays, too! I think I am going to go take a nap!

Happy Thanksgiving from Oly!

I am temporarily coming out of my turkey/sweet potato coma to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving! We spent the day at Josh's grandparents' house in Olympia. My dad and sis spent the holiday along with all of my lovely in-laws, so we were one, big, happy family. I feel very lucky that my family and Josh's family get along and like spending time together. It probably helps that we have all known each other for so long. Whatever the reason, I am very grateful for the mutual affection between the two clans.

I am so relaxed and happy. I think I definitely needed a break from work and life in L.A. I have been sleeping a bunch, and some of the health problems that have been popping up seem to have gone away, at least for now.

So, yes, the trip has been wonderful. Here's what I have been up to:

Monday, Josh and I headed downtown and shopped and had lunch. Oh, and I also splurged for a pedicure at a place called Butter London. It was a little mall place, but they have their own product line. So far, no chips, so two thumbs up! After that, we met up with a close sorority sister, Megan, and her husband, Josh, for a fabulous dinner at La Casa del Mojito, a teeny tiny Cuban restaurant in Seattle. I had the Bisteca Fritta, which was like butta. Oh, and the mojito wasn't half bad, either!

Tuesday afternoon, I met Danielle, another dear friend from the sorority, at Bell Square to do some holiday shopping and have lunch. I ended up buying some cute placecard holders for our Christmas table, since we are hosting this year. Other than that, no big finds.

Tuesday evening, I had dinner with Taryn, one of my best friends and a bridesmaid in our wedding (also from the sorority), and we did a little shopping (noticing a trend?). We had a marathon talk, and I left feeling so grateful that she is one of my nearest and dearest. She never ceases to crack me up, and it's so nice to feel like someone else "gets it." Love you, T-Ro.

Wednesday was pretty mellow. We spent four hours (!!!) in traffic headed to Olympia. (For you non-Washingtonians, it should take only an hour.) My sis and dad landed around 6. The sis, Josh, his brother Kitt, Kitt's wife Arian, and I spent the evening at a random little bar out in the woods by the in-laws' house. Since it was cold, Bug and I drank hot buttered rums (and one too many at that). Fun times.

Perhaps the sleep and relaxation has allowed my foggy mind to clear a bit as I have been feeling very grateful these past couple of days. In the spirit of the holiday, as a few of you have already done (see here, here, and here), below I have posted five things I am grateful for this year:

1. Josh. He's supportive and mellow when I need it, and he still manages to make me smile.

2. My family. As crazy as they made me growing up, we have always been very tight-knit, and I feel blessed to have such a wonderful (albeit slightly quirky) family.

3. My friends. I think I might be the luckiest person I know when it comes to the amazing friends I have. Love you guys.

4. My job. As much as I whine sometimes about the hours and the pressure, this is what I want to do and I really do love the work. It's challenging and interesting, even if it is high-pressure. Plus, it's articles like this that remind me that I am lucky to have a great job at all.

5. New found perspective. I am so ready for 2008.

On that note, I am off to bed. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!