Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Twelve

On the twelth date of Christmas, my true love, my sister, and I....

Celebrated a wonderful Christmas day complete with gift and stocking opening, a big breakfast we all cooked together, a beautiful program at church centered around our Savior Jesus Christ, having the missionaries from our church over for a dinner of tamales, google chatting with family, etc... It was delightful.

{by Simon Dewey}

It was a special treat to have Kristin here for our holiday! It was a surprise for me and I loved every minute of having sister time. Job and Kristin got to know each other better which was nice. We also had a fun week-after-Christmas which I will proceed to put all in another blog post.
I had a lot of fun with these 12 dates of Christmas. Maybe this will become yet another holiday tradition.
I love those.

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Eleven

On the eleventh date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I....

Attended our now traditional Italian Christmas Eve Feast (we went last year too ;).
In case you didn't read last year's post let me paint a picture (since no real pictures exist to document the magic :( )  A 7 course, homemade, Italian seafood meal. Feast of the 7 fishes they call it. I call it amazing.
We fed ourselves silly, sat by the fire, read Luke 2, and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas Eve with friends.

And then invited ourselves back for next year. Can't mess with tradition right?! ;)

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Ten

On the tenth date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I....


Went to the New England Aquarium to oogle at our favorite enormous sea turtle Andre, and then walked right on over to the North End for a big box of cannoli from Mike's.

And yes, we then went home and proceeded to eat them all.

No regrets.

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Eight

On the eigth date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I....

Went to see the Boston Ballet perform the nutcracker! They were amazing to say the least, and it was definitely a fun way to get in the Christmas mood.

Before the show we hopped on by Sam LaGrassa's (remember, the world's greatest sandwiches?! :) Did not disappoint, that's for sure.

I mean, come on, just look at that happy face :) I sure love that guy!

Twelve dates of Christmas: Date Six

On the sixth date of Christmas my true love, my sister, and I.....

Went to enjoy some beautiful art at the Museum of Fine Arts. Boston has a great one and I always love going. The special exhibit going on now is Degas Nudes and many of them were very beautiful (we didn't care for his brothel period however). We also saw the new Jewlery exhibit, the contemporary art, the rest of the impressionists, and some video art. Can I just say, I could spend all day in there!

After getting our culture fix we headed over to our favorite little tea shop for some hot apple cider and herbal tea. Speaking of art, they always show local artist's work in the place which I love.

Now, if watching Job sip his drink from a tiny teaspoon doesn't make me all jolly inside, I don't know what will ;)

Gourmet Night-I hosted! :)

I thought I'd share a few pictures from the gourmet night last month, which I got to host at our home. It was so fun, there was a great turn-out, and I had the BEST co-host in the world. Jessica, you are a lifesaver. Most of these pics are hers too (thanks for letting me steal use these! ;)

The women all brought amazing dishes! The theme I chose was Apples and Cinnamon, and it turned out DELISH. We had salad with apples, warm braised chicken and apples, a spicy African chicken dish, amazing spiced stuffing, to die for goat cheese, apple and honey tarts, and many more awesome dishes we all got to try. (no pictures of food sadly. We are always too busy eating to think of that! ;)

As a little thank you/party favor I sent the women home with some homemade caramel apples. I dipped them in all sorts of things and they were fun (and messy) to make :) I don't have a picture of the finished product but I wrapped them up with clear cellophane, raffia, and a cute thank you tag.

Jess and I had a ton of fun with the decor as well. We made cinnamon covered candles, apple votive holders, leaf garlands, a leaf chandelier, and pretty fall foliage place settings. 

Can't wait for this month's dinner party! This time someone else gets to host so I just need to find an awesome recipe to try :)

M-m-m-memos

To the couple across from us on the T---full out nuzzling, complete with eyes closed and dramatic slow-mo attacking of the ear and neck is usually always a social "no-no". Job and I would have gone for it and tried to out-PDA you but alas, we value our dignity. 

To Rino's waitresses---Ever heard of a chill pill? Attacking everyone at a large table of costumers and then backpeddling and trying to be all chipper near the end of the meal to land a bigger tip doesn't fly with me. 15% for you, and no returns to the restaurant. Bummer for Rino.

To Rino---Your Italian food is deeeelish! My tummy thanks you. P.S. See above memo to your waitresses and hire some new ones.

Half of the group at dinner last night. A group of couples who live in East Boston. We call ourselves the Easties. O.k., I call us the Easties.

To Jessica---You are such a good sharer! :) Lots of points for you.

To Five Guys---We obviously like you a small amount. Please do not tempt us more than 3 times a year. Or something like that.

We had to take our little foreign exchange student/nephew Oscar out for an American hamburger. Right?! Right.

 To Oscar---I do declare we miss you mijo. Thanks for spending the summer with us.

Tanglewood concert

Sincerely,

J&R

Catch up-Mum, Maren, Melia and Eliza

Right after Becca and Cody left my mum and 3 younger sisters came! :) They are also a ton of fun and I have missed them so much. It was so nice to have them here and it was much needed. Thank you mum for your support through the ordeal of our apartment getting broken into. It was horrible timing to be in the middle of your trip but I really don't know what we would have done without your help. You're the best! Same goes to you Ren, Mel and Lizy Loo :)

Once again, I'll let some pictures do the rest of the talking ;)

Mount Auburn Cemetery. So beautiful!

Popcorn popping! ;) The Spring trees were fantastic

Taking the water taxi

Musuem of Fine Arts

 

The Chihuly exhibit at the MFA

Our favorite little Thai cafe before our Boston Pops concert

Yay Pops! We love them :)

Museum of Science. This was one of everyone's favorite things we did while they were here! :)

Silly girls (as if that needed explaining ;)

Wow!

Riding the T with our fave snacks haha

Temple day! It was so nice to be there with Job and my beautiful girls. 

Childrens Museum

Upper Crust on Newbury Street. Deelish.

The beautiful main branch library at Copley 

We played phase 10 dice almost every night! haha Job doesn't usually like playing games but he was the one begging to play each night. It is lots of fun with these gals. 

Quincey to see the presidential homes

 

Taking them back to the airport :( Sad to see them go but we had the best time with them! :) Thanks you guys for your support and for making us smile even while we were going through a hard time smack in them middle of your trip.

We love you lovely ladies!!

Catch up-Becca and Cody visit

I am so far behind on blogging about the wonderful visitors we have had lately! I want to try and catch up over these next few days. First on the list: my sister Becca and her hubs Cody. They are a fun couple and having them stay with us was like having one long double date ;)

Here's a quick recap in pictures :) Prepare for an overload.

 Making Parker House Rolls and Boston Cream Pie. Whilst watching America's Next Top Model (hence the face ;) Our husbands strangely refuse to watch that show with us so we have fun doing it together.

Walking the freedom trail + some sisterly love

Workin' the big guns over at Old Ironsides

 Public Garden and Boston Common

 Riding the T everywhere

 Laughing like crazies while playing games. I think my jugular was in danger of popping right there.

 Harvard

 Boston Symphony Orchestra Concert

Thanks for coming you guys!! It meant a lot to us and we had a blast! :) Love you.

Re: Tid-bits for today

In response to yesterday's post

• STILL rocking the bounty quicker picker uppers.
• I brought my friend chicken salad sandwiches on croissants, curried carrot soup, and spice pecan cookies. Hope she liked it! (And her baby was adorable!!)
• Job has had that "I have a little surprise" look on his face lately. (he uses that face a lot. I like it.) I am pretty sure that means he hasn't forgotten about my birthday ;)
• The No Knead Bread turned out sooo good!! Seriously, you cannot mess this bread up. It turned out fragrant, crispy on the outside, chewy and soft on the inside. Mmmm....I advise you to make some. Right now.
• New plan on the computer-buy a hardrive and some software "stuff" to fix up a computer that our other friends gave us. Seriously, we have amazing friends.
• These girls are also extremely cute. And I sure as heck love them too. 

My sister Eliza and my sister Kathleen....psych! That's my mom! I know, she's hot. (Trip the Boston Temple, May 2011)

Tid-bits for today

• I am reduced to using paper towels for loo roll today since Job took the car and I don't want to walk 3 miles carrying a big ol' thing of toilet paper. But maybe that's just because I'm lazy 
• I am bringing dinner to a friend who just had her baby. What do women who just had a baby like to eat?!
• I am realizing that my birthday is one day before Job's concert, so he will probably be very busy. Oh well, new plan! ;) (my old plan was to do a whole day of service in different places. 21 acts of service for each year of my life. I will probably just spread my service out over a few days instead because I am too selfish to do all that service alone without Job ;) 
• I am currently trying to make the New York Times recipe for No Knead Bread. I'll let you know how it turns out :) I put garlic and rosemary in mine and it is smelling so good!   
• We haven't gotten a new computer yet. We have been taking advantage of some wonderful friend's kindness as they let us use an extra laptop they have. We decided rent was probably more important to spend money on than a new computer. Darn my practical side.  
• Aren't these silly girls just adorable :) Love them.

Enjoying some hot New England Clam Chowder. Melia and Maren, May 2011