Dinner Guests

Tonight we had guests for dinner… my parents!  

Me and my Parents (and Sadie)

Ryan, Me & the Pup

They stopped by our apartment en route to St. Pete from Jacksonville and we enjoyed a tasty dinner of slow cooker chicken tacos.

Taco Toppers

My Taco Plate

I inhaled these tacos and went back for another plate full of taco salad.

Do you prefer hard shell or soft shell tacos?

I’m a hard shell girl… but I feel like I’m in the minority on that one. 😉 I stand by my hard shells!

After hanging out and catching up, my parents left and Ryan and I took Sadie on a short one mile walk around the neighborhood.

After our walk I enjoyed a tasty dessert of banana soft serve with chocolate chips.

Chocolate Chip Banana Soft Serve

Ryan and I are enjoying the rest of the night being homebodies. I honestly love Friday nights at home with Ryan and Sadie. They’re my favorite.

See ya in the morning!

Family Dinner

I feel very fortunate that I had family dinners nearly every night when I was growing up. Some of my best memories from childhood came from conversations around the dinner table, and I still look forward to family dinners whenever I come home to my parents’ house.

Ryan and I arrived in St. Pete around 6:15 p.m. and snacked a bit while we waited for my dad to get in town from a meeting in Jacksonville.

My mom already had a good portion of the dinner ready, but I tried to make myself useful by chopping up some brussels sprouts, tossin’ them in olive oil, salt and pepper and roasting them in the oven, right beside the fish and shrimp casserole my mom made.

The Cooks

Brussels Sprouts

Ryan and Leslie made a delicious fresh fruit salad.

Fresh Fruit Salad

Once my dad got home we were ready to eat!

Dinner included:

• Brussels sprouts
• Fruit salad
• Corn on the cob
• Brown rice
• Shrimp and fish casserole

Corn on the Cob

Casserole

Brown Rice

I filled my plate with a bit of every thing… and went back for seconds (and thirds of some things). 😀

Dinner

Dinner was yummy!

Ice Cream Party

My mom keeps our freezer stacked with a bazillion (yes, a bazillion) different kinds of ice cream, so you know I just had to have some. My dad, sister and I scooped ourselves a big bowl of chocolate marshmallow ice cream, my mom enjoyed chocolate caramel cone crunch and Ryan opted for cookies ‘n’ cream. All delish!

The guys have already gone to bed, and my mom, sister and I are hangin’ out watching The Bachelor that my mom taped for us. One of the bachelorettes was actually in my sorority in college, but she went through rush after I graduated, so I never knew her. Still, it makes it fun to watch!

See ya in the morning for wedding dress shopping fun!

A First Attempt at Bridesmaid Dresses

Normally on the day after Christmas I cannot help but feel a little sad. All the hustle and bustle of the holiday season comes to an end, and I know I’ll be back at work, away from my family, in no time.

Fortunately my family had a lot on the agenda on the day after Christmas this year so I didn’t have any time to dwell on the fact that we have to wait another whole year to celebrate again.

Next year I will be a married woman at Christmas! Holy cow!

The wedding preparations continued yesterday when my mom, sister and I (once again!) headed out to try on wedding gowns. We ended up browsing around in the bridesmaid dresses section for quite a while and really enjoyed looking at all the different styles.

I want my bridesmaids to feel beautiful and look classy and a bit trendy at the same time.

Luckily my sister was on hand to model a couple of dresses. She’s one heck of a model though and everything seemed to look good on her!

The red dress below was our favorite.

Option Number One

The woman at the store encouraged me to try it on as well so we could see another body type in the dress.

...And Again

I loved how this dress looked on my sister, but wasn’t crazy about the dress on me. I am super-aware of my butt and hips and generally like more A-line styles on myself. I’m a lucky bride because all of my bridesmaids are gorgeous and have great figures and would look good in any style.

The second option was more whimsical.

Option Number Two

...And Again

I thought this dress was very romantic, but a little too casual for the vision I have for our wedding.

I really liked option number one, but when I showed pictures to Ryan he isn’t sold on the one-strap look. We’ll see!

Regardless of the dresses we pick, the bridesmaids will likely wear dresses that are a champagne color to go along with our color scheme of yellows, whites, creams, golds, etc.

I tried on dresses again and am still set on the Maggie Sottero gown I liked the last time. It’s more expensive than I want to spend on a dress though, so we’re still lookin’ around.

Lunch and a Boat Ride

After a couple hours spent trying on dresses, we headed home to meet up with my dad, cousin Ricky and his girlfriend Abby to grab a quick lunch before heading out on the boat.

I made myself a cheesy sandwich with Provolone cheese, tomato, portobello mushrooms and spinach.

Open Faced Sandwich

Provolone and Veggie Sandwich

My Lunch

I also enjoyed two Reese’s peanut butter cups that I got in my Christmas stocking for dessert. Mmm, mmm.

After bundling up in multiple layers and bringing several blankets onto the boat, we were ready to head out!

It was a beautiful but chilly day on the water.

Captain and First Mate (Dad and Mom)

My Cousin Ricky and His Girlfriend Abby

While boating we saw lots of dolphins! They even swam right under the boat so we got a close-up view. It was really neat!

My dad also took us by the Vinoy, our wedding venue.

The Vinoy

Once we were frozen solid, we headed back inside to hang out a bit before heading off to The Clubhouse for dinner.

Dinner

Ryan arrived at my parents’ house after spending the day with his dad in Bradenton. Before leaving for dinner he was kind enough to snap a picture of our little gang.

The Gang

(Yes, my sister and I are wearing the same Ugg boots. Wanna know what’s worse? Underneath her jacket is a black sweater. Why do we dress like twins? It was unintentional but happens way too often!)

Once we got to the restaurant, our waiter brought us complimentary shrimp dumplings to enjoy.

Shrimp Dumpling

Before my meal, I ordered a miso soup to enjoy.

Miso Soup

It was salty and tasty!

My main course was sushi. I ordered the California roll with cucumber instead of rice. I also shared a Philly cheesesteak and fries with Ryan.

California Roll (Sans Rice)

Philly Cheesesteak and Fries

Yummy!

My Love-ah Love-ah

Dinner was delish!

Afterward Ricky and Abby headed on the road to visit Abby’s uncle for the rest of the evening. We came back home to make homemade Neiman Marcus cookies.

Cookie Time

Abby told us about these special cookies while we were on the boat and we knew we wanted to make them.

Neiman Marcus Cookie Dough

The recipe makes a lot of cookies! Fortunately we cut it in half, but we still had several dozen cookies!

Freshly-Baked Cookies

I think we all were sick off of the dough by the time the cookies came out. Still, that didn’t stop us from enjoying some of the freshly-baked goodness.

These cookies are amazing! Definitely add them to your list of cookies you must make.

Neiman Marcus Cookie Recipe

2 cups butter
4 cups flour
2 tsp. soda
2 cups sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal**
24 oz. chocolate chips
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

** Measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder.

Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.

Christmas Cheers

Christmas was full of family, love, presents and food!

Family Christmas Tree

 I love opening gifts but I really  love watching my family open the presents I picked out for them. It’s so fun to see the reactions I’ve been anticipating for months (and in some cases days).

After a big breakfast of monkey bread and cheese puff cassserole (think egg, cheese, ham and bread), we opened all of our gifts. I received wonderful presents from my family! They did a great job. 🙂

Then my family loaded into the car and headed off to Ryan’s mom’s house for Christmas lunch and a gift exchange with his family.

The food was amazing! Ryan’s grandma used to own a restaurant called The Coffee Cup and his grandmother and mom are excellent cooks. I loaded up my plate with lots of yummy food.

My Christmas Lunch Plate

I prepared a squash recipe and my mom made green beans with almonds to bring to the party.

For dessert I enjoyed a piece of Italian eggnog cheesecake that went unphotographed. In fact, the majority of my meals went undocumented yesterday. Woops!

After lunch, we opened presents. I received wonderful gift from Ryan’s family including a beautiful fleece jacket, scarf and bedazzeled earphones for my iPod.

Me and Ryan on Christmas

Christmas Kisses

Around 3:30, we headed home where my cousin Ricky and his girlfriend Abby were waiting.

It was great to see them! We enjoyed a yummy dinner of potroast, potatoes, carrots and macaroni and cheese before watching Christmas Vacation. Great movie!

I’ll be back soon with more updates from today! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and are enjoying special time with loved ones.

Thank you for all the wonderful Christmas wishes yesterday. I always read all of your comments and emails and am touched by each and every one. Gosh, I just love you all! 😀

It’s Christmas Eve!

Way to state the obvious, huh?

I don’t care… I’m SO excited!!!

Today started off with some holiday baking. I made a fresh batch of homemade peanut butter cookies for Ryan to take to his dad for Christmas.

Peanut Butter

More than one peanut butter fingers were consumed in the baking process. 😉

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough

 Sadie helped me lick the beaters clean.

Beater Licker

 What a good dog. 🙂

Yummy Cookies

While the cookies were baking, I prepared a breakfast fit for the holidays: Honey Bunches of Oats French toast.

French Toast

I made the toast batter with Egg Beaters, whole wheat bread, cinnamon and sugar. I then added several handfuls of Honey Bunches of Oats cereal for extra sweetness and crunch.

Honey Bunches of Oats French Toast

Ryan enjoyed a huge plate of this breakfast!

Ryan's Plate

Happy Boy

Now that breakfast is complete, I’m ready to tackle the day!

I have lots on the agenda:

• Workout
• Shower
• Blog (x 2!)
• Appointment to try on wedding dresses
• Take jeans to get altered
• Last minute shopping (stocking-stuffers)
• Grocery store
• Prep food to cook for Ryan’s family Christmas party tomorrow
• Wrap a few remaining presents
• Church
• Secret Santa exchange (via conference call)
• Look at Christmas lights with the fam on our boat

I am most excited for the last bullet on my list.

When we first moved to Florida from Illinois in 2003, it was hard wrapping my head around warm weather when I was so used to chilly temperatures. Somehow it just didn’t feel like Christmas.

To help embrace the warm weather and make a Florida Christmas feel legit, my family started a tradition where we hop into our boat (which is decorated with Christmas lights) on Christmas Eve evening and travel up and down nearby canals looking at Christmas lights. We pop in a Christmas CD, sing, laugh and hang out and it’s my favorite part of the day.

Christmasy Boat

 Rudolph Walk

 Our family has always embraced traditions during the holidays.

What traditions do you have in your family?

When we lived in Illinois we’d always go on a Rudolph Walk on Christmas Eve. Our annual Rudolph Walk was our family hunt to see if we could catch a glimpse of Rudolph’s nose in the nearby forest. (My wonderful father would head out hours before us to put a red light bulb in the forest, way out in the distance.) Somehow we were lucky and saw him every year!

Rudolph

To prepare for the cold walk, we would layer our clothes, put on boots and snow pants and head out! I’ll never forget the walk during the first year that I didn’t think Santa was the real-deal anymore. My dad and younger sister, Leslie, led the way into the forest while my mom and I linked arms and took up the rear.

We started to tell my sister that we had to be very quiet because any noise might scare Rudolph away.

I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to walk quietly in snow pants, but it’s virtually impossible. The swish, swish noise is very hard to avoid. 

Leslie was set on seeing Rudolph’s nose and was committed to not making a sound. She walked with her legs stiffly apart for nearly half a mile to avoid any noise. It was hysterical and my mom and I were grunting and snorting trying not to laugh as we watched my dad try to help her balance so she wouldn’t be too loud and scare the elusive reindeer away.

I hope you all have a wonderful day and are able to enjoy some special time with loved ones.