A glorious holiday

I was lucky enough to get Monday off and I spent it doing a whole lot of nothing. It was perfect.

• 8:30 am wake up to pee and go back to bed
• 11:30 am wake up and lollygag in bed
• noon get up out of bed and decide to make the bed…at some point
• 1 pm poke around in the fridge for food
• 1:30 pm settle on grilled cheese with butter lettuce
• 2 pm  pm participate in the epic battle between plants and zombies
• 3 pm make the bed
• 3:45 pm head to barre class at Dailey Method, go back home
•  6:15  pm light kitchen cleaning, cook dinner
• 7:45 pm – 9:30 pm battle zombies with V by my side and set new high score in Bejeweled

Lazy days are the best.

Christmas 2011

We hosted Christmas at our place for the very first time last year. My mom and sister came over on Christmas afternoon and we had a simple  meal together. It was a meal of firsts, we served dishes that neither of us had made before. Thankfully, it turned out well.

Christmas tablescape. I'm trying to let the wax build up gracefully on the candlesticks but that's not going so well.

As an appetizer, we served roasted Brussels sprouts and beet salad with fried goat cheese. I only started liking Brussels sprouts this year so I was a bit hesitant to make it. I might have overcooked it a smidge but it was still good. Confession, I baked the loose leaves separately to make Brussels sprouts chips and I ate it all before the guests arrived.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

The salad was good but the cheese didn’t hold its shape. We’re going to have to read up on the proper method for frying goat cheese.

Salad with Roasted Beets and Fried Goat Cheese

As an entree, V made squash risotto. This turned out nicely too but V and I disagreed about the garnish. He’s in a sprinkle-everything-with-chopped-herbs phase and I’m in a make-it-look-modern phase.

Squash Risotto

For dessert, we served my second attempt at Brazo de Mercedes. I modified the recipe a bit and we were able to roll it this time!  We didn’t quite achieve the log shape but I think it’s close enough.

Brazo de Mercedes

After the meal, we opened gifts and took a siesta. Then we woke up to a Christmas miracle — all the dishes had been washed while we were asleep! It was a good Christmas.

Looking back on 2011

2011 has been a good year. I already wrote about some of the major changes in our life in a previous post so I thought I’d recap 2011 a little differently.

January

I planned to adopt my sister's cat but my mom decided to to adopt him instead. Unfortunately, Shadow passed away from anemia in October. He was a good cat.

February

Hosted our annual Super Bowl party. I used felt to create a table cloth that looked like a football field.

March

I visited London and Edinburgh. I spent time with one of my best friends and even met up with a classmate from Montessori school!

Eating my words

Remember my post about Black Friday where I advocated for a non-crazy shopping strategy? Well, I didn’t follow my own advice. V and I ended up at the outlet mall in Gilroy. Then we went to a regular mall after that. Then we went to a couple more stores after that.

Here’s what our crazy day of shopping looked like:

Thursday

• 8:30 pm Head to bed to get some sleep. I couldn’t sleep a wink, V slept but not well.
• 11 pm Head to my sister’s place. She and her boyfriend had planned to go to Gilroy all along and we invited ourselves to the shopping trip.

Friday

• 12:30 am Arrive at Gilroy, use the bathroom at Tapioca Express. First stop, Reebok. We weren’t planning to go there but it was the first store in our path and the BOGO signs lured us. I end up with some workout clothes that were ultra discounted.

Valentine’s Day Brunch

V and I don’t make a big celebration out of Valentine’s Day. We usually just cook a special-ish meal and hang out. This year, we had planned to pick up the ingredients for our special meal at Chinatown, not realizing that everything would be closed for Chinese New Year! V did end up finding some flowers though (but I didn’t have a vase). We ended up shopping at Trader Joe’s instead.

I forgot to take pictures of our dinner but this is our day after Valentine’s brunch.

white bean kale soup, sesame roasted nori, herbed parmesan popovers

Time flies when you’re having fun

It’s only the first week of February and it feels like the month is just flying by! I already have the next three weekends blocked out (a rare thing for a stay-at-home type like me). It’s been so busy, I haven’t had much time to write.

So until next week, here’s a pic to keep you amused. It’s from the 4th of July last year when I got to watch the fireworks from a yacht.

Stay tuned for my Super Bowl party recap next week!

Christmas Recap

This was our first Christmas together as a married couple and I think we juggled it rather successfully.

Dec. 23
- I go to work while V plays tourist guide to his cousin from Portland (and his two friends from Australia)
- I meet up with the group after work for dinner, shopping and a movie
- After the movie, V and I finish up wrapping Christmas gifts

Dec. 24
- V and I meet up my sister and her husband for lunch.
- I go shopping and run last minute errands with my sister and her husband while V does some last-minute shopping for gifts
- V and I meet up and head over to his cousin’s house. We cook and eat and play poker with his family.
- V and I head out to my aunt’s house for Christmas Eve party #2. We eat some more, hang out with my relatives, then call it a night.

Christmas Gift Wrapping

I love wrapping gifts. I’m not very good at it but I still enjoy it. This year, I tried something new.

I used a kirigami kit to cut out the designs.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from K, V and Bair!

We Like Fancy Soap

V and I usually opt for the basic option when it comes to household items. We have basic cable, store brand rugs, Kirkland detergent, etc. But we like “fancy” hand soap. While cheap soap cleans our hands just fine, we kind of like having nice smelling soap. Who doesn’t like to have their hands smell like cherry blossoms?

This week, we took advantage of Bath and Body Works’ holiday sale and stocked up on hand soap. I used a gift card so technically, we only spent 60 cents!

BBW has different promotions throughout the holiday season and they ultimately come out to be the same deal, just different math. Or so we thought. We were bummed to get a $10 off coupon after we bought all our soap though. We could have gotten three more bottles for the same amount of money!

I think we may have enough to last us a whole year.