While I Was Away...

How was your holiday? I spent lots of time with my sisters and was lucky enough to have my friend and boyfriend join us for Christmas.  



I wish I had taken pictures of Christmas dinner. We sampled homemade hummus and crab & cucumber canapes before the meal. My dad made beef bourguinon, and we served it with chickpea fritters and roasted fingerling potatoes.  My mom had made her famous caesar salad and we never even got to it. It was a feast for 20 rather than the 8 we had!

I didn't take many pictures on Christmas, but it seems that my sisters found my phone. I glanced at it and found this lovely shot as my background. 

Got them back by sharing this flattering photo with the world!

 Kath and I made some fun holiday crafts. 

Vivi Kitty especially loved the sparkly ornaments!

                             

Chris and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather on our day off, Monday. We wandered down to the harbor for a bit. 

I didn't edit this photo at all, isn't the sky gorgeous! 

 Later in the afternoon, we made our way over to Ft. McHenry for a picnic.


Lucien, the wine director at the Wine Market (where I used to work) recommended a delicious Cabernet/Sangiovese blend for us to enjoy with our prosciutto and mozz snack. 

Chris came up with a creative  bottle holder. I forgot to bring glasses for us, so we opted for the sip sip pass method. Super classy. 

I thought the weather was relatively mild, but I didn't take into account that I had positioned Chris to block the wind. As soon as we stood up to leave, I started violently shivering. The poor guy didn't say a word about how cold he must have been the whole time! He claims that it was "a little chilly." There I was, loving that it was almost warm with the wind blocked and the sun shining on me and he was taking the brunt of the cold!

We had a great date day. Sometimes you just need a low key lazy day. We made a tasty dinner of Chilean sea bass and I successfully passed the test of cooking seafood for Chris! He's a pretty avid fisher and although I'm a pretty good cook, I was terrified of bumbling it!


One of the things my family discussed at our Christmas dinner were our best and worst moments of 2011. Last year I worked two jobs so that I could go to Bali. It was something that I really looked forward to, and with such high expectations, it could easily have let me down. Luckily, everything went beautifully. I had so much fun and got to spend time with great people. The worst moment of 2011, probably was when I broke my foot two weeks before the trip. Once again though, everything worked out really well. I was able to put weight on the foot and crutches became optional the day I left. The only things I couldn't do while I was there, were volcano hiking and surfing. 


All in all though, it's been a great year. I've made some major life changes and feel as if things are going in the right direction. Things got a bit hectic when I added school onto the two jobs, but I went back to just one job and life has calmed down significantly!


If you had to sum up your year in two sentences, best and worst moments of 2011, what would you say? I'd love to hear what your best and worst moments were.

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas

“I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again.” - William Penn

This weekend, Chris and I met in the middle of NYC and Baltimore in Philadelphia. We walked all over the city and checked out the National Constitution Center, Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell, just to name a few. 

Display in the museum housing the Liberty Bell. 

National Constitution Center

Independence Hall

The Liberty Bell

The tree in Rittenhouse Square

Funky art house on South Street

We couldn't leave South Street without pizza from Lorenzo's!

If you've ever been to Philly, you've likely been to Lorenzo's. They offer pizza by the slice and toppings aren't an option. The slices are bigger than my head (literally) so Chris and I split one. 

Penn Station- Philly

It's funny, I always seem to be coming or going from Penn Station. It's either Baltimore's Penn Station, New York's Penn Station or now Philly's Penn Station. Chris met me by the Christmas tree when I got into town. Isn't the tree beautiful? You can tell how high the ceilings are with the tree as reference. The tree was at least 15ft tall if not taller! 

Sal and Jo were generous enough to host us this weekend. Sal welcomed us with pumpkin beer and snacks. 

Chris told me that he had a Christmas surprise for me a month or two ago. Obviously, I was dying to know what it was! He told me to bring a dress, but wouldn't give me any clues as to what type of dress other than "a nice one".

Hmmm...what type of "nice" dress would you bring? 

Whenever I asked him what we'd be doing, he said we were going jetskiing. 

Haha, very funny. 

 Needless to say, I brought three dresses. 

Finally, on Friday after we got into town, after much pestering on my part, he told me where he was taking me! 

Luckily, I had brought an appropriate dress!

We went to dinner at a cozy Italian restaurant, La Viola, and then went to one of the most beautiful concert halls I've ever seen. It even began to snow on our way there! 

The Kimmel Center hosts "The Glorious Sound of Christmas" each year, where the Philadelphia Orchestra performs with a choir. They played traditional Christmas carols, Tchaikovsky, Handel, and even did a jazzy interpretation by Duke Ellington of a piece of the Nutcracker. It was incredible. The acoustics in the performance hall were phenomenal. 

 Santa made a trip down from the North Pole to conduct a portion of the event and a local newscaster read the Night Before Christmas. 

I adore Christmas music and they performed all of my favorites. 

I loved every second of it. Christmas is such a great time of year and this event really put me in the holiday mood! We had amazing seats and the music was done so well. 

This is the view from our seats of the audience behind us.
The hall was magnificent. 

I was so excited when Chris told me his parents were going to meet us. We had such a great evening with them! 

Isn't he handsome?

I didn't have a mirror to see behind me when I was doing my hair,
so I made Chris take a picture so I could see if I needed to fix any of it.
Worked like a charm! (He thought I had completely lost my mind!) 

Santa!

We also got to meet up with some friends from our Bali adventure while we were there. I was completely surprised by my holiday weekend and had a wonderful time. Chris definitely spoiled me! 

What do you like to do to get in the holiday mood? Do you have a lot of annual traditions or do you like to find new events to attend every year? I'd love to hear about how your family celebrates! 

I hope you all are enjoying your holiday preparations! Back to studying for me. One Accounting final to pass tomorrow night and then I can relax for a bit. 

Happy Holidays!!