New Year

Well, it's been nearly a month since my last post. The holidays have come and gone and all of a sudden, it's 2013. I spent a week in New Jersey with Rob and his family for Christmas and the time went by too quickly.  We visited Gillian one afternoon in Bethlehem and it was so nice to drive through a town that I spent so much time in as a young girl. Being there made me miss my grandmother more than usual, but the timing was right - Christmas was a holiday we spent with her, and it felt good to be in a place full of memories of such a wonderful woman.

Christmas in Bethlehem

Good old days with Grandmommy

Christmas Eve

Rob and I came back to Charlotte on December 30. He's all moved into our apartment now, which is exciting and somewhat scary - when did we become adults? We spent NYE at Dilworth Neighborhood Grille with a bunch of our friends. It was very crowded and the night is somewhat of a blur (oops) but we all had fun. 

Yesterday, we saw This is 40, were involved in a hit and run (everyone is fine and so is Rob's new car, miraculously!), and had a yummy chili dinner with Brett and Joe. In 2013, I want to focus on just being healthy and happy. 2012 was such a great year and I have high hopes for the next twelve months - hopefully I will spend more time with my family (and less money on clothes). I'm a lucky girl with some amazing friends, an adorable pup, and a guy who supports me no matter what. Here's to 2013! 

Oy vey, Happy Hanukkah!

Today is the third day of Hanukkah. I'm terribly sad to be celebrating the holiday alone this year (although Rob will be here Wednesday for the fifth night) since lighting the candles alone is a bit depressing...I think my menorah fits in pretty well with the apartment's other Christmas decorations/Tucker's stocking, right?

Saturday night, I ordered a pizza (solo) and poured myself a glass of wine for dinner. I felt like an old single lady and I loved it. SVU marathon plus pizza? Sold. After an exciting couple of hours, some friends and I went to a "Sloppy Santa" party at a bar near my apartment. Said party was ridiculously fun. Many of my coworkers and friends from Davidson were there, so it was a grand old time.

The entirety of Sunday was spent on the couch watching Downton Abbey. I am obsessed. Any scene with Mr. Bates and Anna ends with me crying. They're absolutely perfect and I love them and I hate Mrs. Bates!

Source

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Bates in real life with a baby!

 Later this week, I'll be preparing a Hanukkah feast...but more on that later.

December

December has been pretty busy so far! Last night, a bunch of friends from work and Davidson went to a Salvation Army charity event called Second String Santa. I went last year, but this one was a lot more fun! The band was great and I think everyone had a fun time.

In other news, Tucker has been acting up a LOT this week (eating everything in sight), but I still adore him.

Lastly, congratulations to Rob for finishing his last classes of graduate school and BUYING HIS FIRST CAR!!! He spent weeks and weeks and hours and days researching the perfect car and finally decided on the Chevy Cruze. Isn't he just the cutest???

Sweaters and Cars

This past weekend, I headed up to Winston for Rob's last fun weekend with his grad school friends (this coming weekend he will still be there, but has a 48-hour final spanning Saturday and Sunday). On Friday night, I tried to make turkey burgers but they ended up tasting like meatloaf. Not necessarily a bad thing, but just not what I was going for. I think adding mushrooms is what did it...oh well.

Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early to head to the YMCA and register for their Mistletoe 5k to raise money for childhood obesity prevention. After picking up a bib, I slept in my card for about 45 minutes before the 8:25 start time. It was really chilly - like 32 degrees - so the first mile was spent warming my lungs up. The course was hilly and full of little kids, but I had a great time! I love waking up early on the weekends and getting a workout done before breakfast.

The rest of the day was spent car shopping for Rob. We went to two car dealerships (which took about 4 hours) but we stopped at The Carving Board for lunch. I've been hearing about this place since I went abroad three years ago with some girls from Wake Forest who always talked about how good it is. Sadly, we got there just before closing so lots of the salads were out, but it was delish anyway.

That night, we went to a Christmas Sweater party at one of Rob's friends apartments. These are my favorite kind of holiday parties.

Sunday was a major recovery day. Dog park, nachos, and football. When I got home, I went over to the grocery store to pick up food for the week and ended up prepping a lot of stuff (peeling 5 lbs. of carrots, cooking up a bunch of chicken, and roasting some sweet potatoes). I had a juice for dinner because I was still feeling pretty sick.

Last night's dinner? Bacon wrapped chicken, sweet potatoes, and sauteed zucchini/kale/spinach. Yum. Time to start re-organizing the apartment to get ready for my new roomie! So excited.

A California Thanksgiving

This year's Thanksgiving was one of my all time favorites (I probably say that every year - especially the Watson Skreet Thanksgiving - but it really is the best holiday). On Wednesday afternoon, Rob and I flew to Los Angeles. Because of airline delays (we hate you, US Air), we had to sprint through the parking lot to the Airbus that took us from LAX to Santa Barbara.

After a glorious night of sleep, we woke up at 6:45 thanks to jet lag and headed out for a Turkey Day 5k down to Butterfly Beach. Unfortunately, it was pretty foggy, but the run was a really good way to start the day. I bribed Rob with Coffee Bean so he was a happy little camper.

The rest of the day was spent cooking and waiting for Emily's arrival. She had to work on Thursday and so my grandparents picked her up at 4:30 and then got to Montecito around 6:30. A late Thanksgiving, but we were so happy she was able to make it! Since dinner was actually at dinner time instead of the usual Thanksgiving 3:00 pm "dinner," we grabbed tacos from El Bajio for lunch. El Bajio has some of the best tacos in town and my dad is best buds with the guys who work there. Carnitas on Thanksgiving? Yes please. Back to dinna....we had turkey, mashed potatoes, mashed yams, roasted root veggies, arugula salad with goat cheese and apples, FOUR kinds of stuffing, and corn bread. Lots of wine and champagne. Pretty delicious.

Hanukkah came early this year and my parents gave us treats from their various world travels (scarves and candles and necklaces, oh my). I couldn't resist the gift giving season and got matching pajamas for Emily, Hilary, and Gillian. This was my dream come true. Matching outfits and a photo shoot? Yes please.

The rest of the weekend was obviously lots of fun, too. We saw Skyfall and Silver Linings Playbook, went wine tasting in the Santa Ynez valley, hosted a big brunch and met my parents' friends, went to the beach to see my aunt's open ocean swimming group, watched lots of football, and went to Grauman's Chinese Theater in LA. We mostly ate at home, but Saturday night we went to Plow & Angel at the San Isidro Ranch near my parents' house (where Drew Barrymore had dinner the night after her wedding!) and Monday night, my mom took Rob and me to AOC in LA which was phenomenal. We had such an amazing trip, I miss my family already, and I'm counting down the days until I go home again. 

One of the best parts of going home is looking through all the old pictures. This picture of Emily is definitely my favorite from this trip:

Toggy Tuesday: Thankful Edition

1) My family, of course. If you have read any post on this blog, you know how obsessed I am with my entire family. I'm so lucky to have supportive, fun parents who always set such an amazing example for me and two three sassy sistahz who I love more than anything.

2) My friends. Even though we're not all in the same city, I am so thankful to have these girls in my life! Thank goodness for cell phones and the internet, or else I'd be spending way more money on airplane tickets to see them every weekend.

3) Rob, because he puts up with my crazy and loves me anyway. 

4) And my wonderful cousin Caleb, who drafted into the IDF yesterday. Caleb is six months older than me and is basically my twin. Love him so much and I can't wait for this fighting to end so he is safe. 

Friendsgiving

Such a busy weekend! Sorry for the lack of posts (again), but I promise this will be a good, long one. Last week was a bit of a blur - nothing really special to report. Friday night, Brett, Joe, and I went to Red Sea, a small Ethiopian restaurant near our old apartment. We love Red Sea because the food is cheap, authentic, and delicious. On this visit, I got the lamb platter, but I prefer the vegetarian combo with lentils and cabbage. Mmm delish.

Saturday morning, I met Hilary for brunch at Toast in Davidson. We had a grand old time (as usual) chatting and eating. I got scrambled eggs with chorizo and a Bloody Mary. Yum. That afternoon, one of our friends got engaged! The rest of the day was spent celebrating at the Brickhouse with his family and then back down in Charlotte.

Sunday morning, I was not feeling so hot...but we all got up anyway because I had to pick up my turkey breast from The Fresh Market (Sunday afternoon was Friendsgiving and I had a few hours before ten people came over for a feast). An hour later and with a bagel in my belly and the boys on their way back to Winston, I got to cooking the turkey and roasting the chicken (although the chicken turned out to be total extra food, oh well). Everyone came over around five and the spread was amazing:

Turkey and chicken

Balsamic sweet potatoes

Roasted green beans with mushrooms and asparagus

Curried cauliflower

Cucumber salad

Grilled squash

Stuffing

Cranberry sauce

Pumpkin cheesecake

Apple pie

and wine (obviously)

 Some of us were a little more tired than others, but it was so fun having friends get together to celebrate Thanksgiving.