Birthday fun

Posted on December 6th, 2008 by Tarina

Atkins bought a couple of gingerbread house kits for my birthday because he knew I’ve been wanting to make a gingerbread house for a while.
So, we each made a house.
This is my creation. Note the Smarties pathway and the Nilla wafer roof. Delicious!

Here’s Atkins’s abode:

In front of the house you will notice the snowman who appears to be vomiting blood. No, it’s just a Red Vine. Also delicious!

It was a lot of fun! Tasty and creative. Of course, I think I may have developed diabetes just by tasting all the things that didn’t make it onto the house, but that’s okay. I know how to give insulin shots. I’m a doctor for goodness sake.

Anyway, Atkins is getting ready and we are going to go to one of our favorite restaurants for dinner. It’s going to be, in the spirit of this post, delicious! :)

Hope everyone is well. Thank you all so much for the birthday wishes!

The Giving of Thanks

Posted on November 28th, 2008 by Tarina

We had our first Thanksgiving as a married couple this year. It was also the first Thanksgiving that neither of us were able to be with our families. It was a little bittersweet, to hear about the fun everyone was having back at home. We definitely miss all our families and friends.

We decided to stay tradition-adjacent and make a chicken (a turkey would have been waaay too much food for the two of us). We also made the typical trimmings: mashed potatoes, cornbread stuffing, salad, cranberry sauce, green beans with almonds, and of course pumpkin pie (made by Atkins). It was the first whole poultry I’ve roasted and I have to say, it came out pretty darn tasty! Even the white meat was nice and juicy. I was pretty proud.

It was just me, Atkins and a friend from my work (she’s a vegetarian, which was another reason to keep the bird scaled down). And I have to say, it was really nice! The food was yummy, and the company was great. The wine flowed freely. ;) And then we played Mario Kart on the Wii, which was pretty hilarious given how much wine we had.

Here’s a few pictures of how I set the table: (Sorry no food pics, I was too hungry to take pics after the table was loaded)

A wide view of the table. We put the leaf in the middle for extra space.

Close up of Mr. Turkey, the centerpiece. He’s stuffed, but he wasn’t eaten.

Here’s a closeup of the wreath that you can see on the wall in picture one. I made this wreath. Yes, I know, I’m just so crafty. Okay, it came in a kit, but I put it all together. I also added the fun little swirlies on some of the leaves and the curlie-q wires that I’m not sure you can even see. I thought they added a little more visual interest.

This season we have a lot to be thankful for. Our health, jobs, housing, and most of all, we are very thankful for our wonderful friends and family and we give them lots of love and hugs over the interwebs. We miss you and hope to see you soon!

Holiday Update

Posted on October 18th, 2008 by Tarina

The fall season is in full swing in Chicago. It’s wonderful to be in a place that actually has an autumn. The trees are changing colors and dropping their leaves and there is an unmistakable chill in the air that means winter is just around the corner. This means that Halloween, Thanksgiving and then Christmas will be upon us soon.

I am sure many of you will be curious to know our holiday plans.

Unfortunately, we will be unable to make it back to Colorado for Thanksgiving and Christmas this year. We are extremely fortunate to have been able to see our families several times this year, thanks to a couple of important weddings. We will certainly miss all of you but we’ll see you soon!

So why are we not able to come out? Time and money play a big part in it, but mainly because we are saving both to go on our honeymoon to Belize! The details are getting worked out, and by the end of this week, we hope to have a travel plan laid out. So, while everyone in Chicago is freezing away in February, we’ll be here:

Okay, maybe not EXACTLY right there, but we are planning on going to Ambergris Caye for the beaches and diving. There’s a lot to do in Belize and we are very excited!
Until then, we’ll be having our first married holidays together and starting some new traditions. You’re all in our thoughts. Drop us a line sometime and say hi!

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