Merry Christmas to All!

From A:

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve, having our big holiday dinner before the candlelight church service.

Here is our ham, baby carrots, sweet potatoes with spiced pecans (plus a few leftover pecans), and crescent rolls:

We must have been very good this year, because Santa came last night and filled our stockings with lots of goodies:

And we have to show off the awesome Christmas card we got in the mail yesterday from the College of Engineering:

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

From A:

It's Christmas Eve!  The countdown calendar is full:

And the presents are under the tree:

Here's a sneak peek at our dinner menu:

• Honey-Dijon Ham
• Sweet Potato with Pecans Bake
• Crescent Rolls
• Sweet Baby Carrots
• Cinnamon-Perfumed Custard

Merry Christmas!

Haircut!

My new haircut:

What's for Dinner? Steak Edition

From A:

Last week, J and I tried to recreate our delicious Thanksgiving steak experience.  Instead of getting a flank steak (they were all HUGE), I opted for a flat iron steak.  The package said "great for grilling," which is a claim we're still skeptical of.

The steak spent two full days in a vacuum marinater with Italian dressing:

We used our Cuisinart Griddler, which I can't say enough good things about, to grill it:

Our nutcrackers stood guard while J was in the kitchen cooking:

A perfect medium well:

The finished dish (the slices are a little funky shaped because J did his best to give me the pieces that were the most well done - a few of his pieces here are a little too pink for my taste):

Our overall opinion:
Was it flavorful? Yes.
Was it juicy? Yes.
Was it tender? Mostly. Next time we'll try a different cut of steak.
Was it as good as Thanksgiving?  Unfortunately, no.  But we'll try again to hopefully get it right.

Surprise Christmas Present

From A:

There are three main blogs that I follow for information on ways to save money and get good deals, which are:

• I Heart Publix
• I Heart Saving Money
• Totally Target

In addition to alerting readers to coupons and other good deals, these blogs also have periodic giveaways, which include product giveaways, coupon giveaways, and gift card giveaways.

I usually enter every giveaway I happen to see (assuming it's something I'm actually interested in) and have never won anything... until today!

After entering a quick giveaway on Totally Target last night, I got an email this morning that I had won the Kaloric Candy Apple Red 10 Cup Coffee Maker:

What a great surprise Christmas present.  And a very festive color as well!

Christmas Time is Here

From A:

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

All around our condo

Ceramic tree made by A's Mom

Countdown on the fridge

Crochet by Chelsea - snowman and angels

 "Mantle" and stockings

Mini stockings

But the prettiest sight to see is the holly Santa that will be

On our own front door

Remix Revealed

From A:

As I mentioned in the last post, I had time to do some shopping during the Thanksgiving holiday week.  I found some really cute beach-themed home decor at one of the stores I visited with my parents.  This decor served as inspiration for a redecoration of our guest bathroom.

After finding a few finishing touches today, our bathroom remix is complete!  I give you...

...the vanity area:

...the storage shelves:

...the towel rack and wall behind the door:

...and J's favorite part, the flameless candle that illuminates the wooden slat box at night:

Now we have a little piece of the beach in our condo.

Thanksgiving Recap

From A:

J and I enjoyed an extended Thanksgiving break this year.  It all began with a wonderful Thanksgiving meal in my parents' backyard.  We had beautiful weather, with the high temperature being about 80 degrees (the thermometer in the yard reads a little on the warm side):

Instead of turkey, we continued our Thanksgiving steak tradition.  This year the grill master cooked a delicious flank steak.  But first we had to kill the cow:

Just kidding!  Our range practice was purely recreational.  However, the previous picture would make an interesting Vera Bradley advertisement, right?!

Anyway, here's what the steak looked like (yum!):

After Thanksgiving, J traveled to Boston to present at a conference.  He also did some sightseeing, including  having dinner at the German brewhouse called Jacob Wirth, which is the second-oldest restaurant in Boston:

I was able to spend the week with my parents.  We did a lot of shopping, including some much-needed Christmas gift shopping.  Additionally, we went on a historic tour of Pensacola on an 1880s replica streetcar.  We had a private tour that consisted of 66 different places of interest, including a stop for gelato at Joe Patti's World Famous Seafood Market:

It was a great week - but it went by way too fast!

Happy Birthday Times Two

We have double birthday wishes to send today.

Happy Birthday to J's Mom:

And Happy Birthday to A's Dad:

We love you and hope you have a wonderful day!

Adventures at the Tree Farm

From A:

This afternoon, J and I visited a local tree farm to pick out our first 'real' Christmas tree.  Actually, this is the first 'real' tree I've ever had since my family opted for the 'faux' variety each year.

Upon arriving at the farm, which consists of five fields full of trees behind a house, we were given a saw and turned loose on the property.  Each tree for sale had a tag with the tree variety, price, and height.  We spent quite a while exploring each of the five fields.

After considering several worthy candidates, we found our tree!  It's a five foot tall Virginia Pine.

Following a car ride home (the tree fit inside with the back seat down), it was time to decorate!

Orange lights + blue jingle bells = a Florida Gator Christmas tree!

 

New phones, part deux

From J:

As A alluded to about a month ago, we recently purchased new phones.  I've had a smartphone for a couple of years (an iPhone 3G), but this is A's first smartphone - she upgraded from a venerable Motorola Razr that had ~3 hours of battery life.  We both went with the LG Optimus S on Sprint since A gets such a sweet discount through her employer.  For $50, this is a heck of a phone.

The basics: the latest and greatest Android operating system (v2.2), a teensy form factor, and good speed.  I was hesitant about the less-than-cutting-edge processor (600MHz, when top of the line phones are running 1GHz), but the phone has never felt slow, web pages load smoothly, and apps open very snappily.  It also multitasks just fine thanks to plenty of RAM for such a cheap phone.

The best feature is Android itself, which is blowing the pants off of iOS.  Widgets are excellent; without opening up any apps I can check my google calendars, the weather, phone settings, to do lists, see text messages, etc.  Sweet, and something that makes the iPhone look like it's in the dark ages.  It's not as intuitive as the iPhone, however - it's more like having a real computer in your pocket, with access to the file system, lots of customization options, and some troubleshooting required for certain apps.  This is not a downside to me, but I can see where it could get messy for some people.  And, while the iPhone comes with lots of basic functions preinstalled and polished, Android requires you to download standalone apps from the market for simple things like a stopwatch.

In short, we're loving our new phones.  I can't imagine plunking down $200 for an iPhone or a top-of-the-line Android compared to this thing.  LG's hit a home run with this one.

Visitors!

From A:

We had a great time this weekend with two very special visitors, Colleen and Isaac!

We had lots of fun playing with Isaac's moose, crab, dump truck, and crinkle books.  We also went shopping and ate some delicious local cuisine.

Isaac's "Auntie" is so glad that he and his mommy came to visit!

Technology

J and A have entered the Android world.

More details to come.

The Proposal

From A:

Three years ago on this day...

... J asked me to marry him.

I'm so glad he did.

What's for Dinner? Pasta Edition

From A:

I found last night's dinner recipe in the latest issue of Publix Family Style magazine.  Have I mentioned lately how much I love Publix?!  Anyway, this recipe is a keeper!

I was initially interested in making this recipe because I had almost all of the ingredients on-hand, with the exception of the peppers and fresh parsley for garnish.

Here are the ingredients the recipe calls for:

• 8 ounces dried bowtie pasta (about 3 cups)
• 1 12-ounce package cooked sweet Italian poultry sausage links (or cooked chicken and apple sausage links) (12 ounces is 4 links), cut into 1/2 to 3/4-inch pieces
• 2 medium red and/or yellow sweet peppers, cut into 3/4-inch pieces (I used one green pepper instead)
• 1/2 cup beef broth or chicken broth
• 1/4 cup snipped fresh basil or Italian parsley (I used Italian parsley, but we decided it really wasn't needed, and actually didn't match the flavor of the dish very well - maybe basil would have been better?)
• 1/4 cup finely shredded Parmigiano Reggiano or Parmesan cheese (I used a grated Parmesan and Romano blend that we hand on-hand)

Here is what you do:

1. Cook the pasta according to the directions.  Return pasta to saucepan after draining. (Note: I added the parmesan cheese to the pasta at this point so it would flavor the pasta - this is in lieu of sprinkling the completed dish with the parmesan).

2. In a large skillet cook sausage and peppers over medium-heat about 8 minutes or until sausage is brown, stirring occasionally.

3. Stir broth into sausage mixture.  (At this point, I chose to deglaze the pan with a little white wine since the sausage had left some delicious color on the bottom of the pan during the cooking process).  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes.  Remove from heat.

4. Add pasta and toss gently to coat.

The finished dish!