Home Stretch

So AJ is on the home stretch of his finals…

2 down, 1 to go!

The other day he was talking about how excited he is for his Christmas break, not only because we get to visit with family & friends, but because he will actually get to spend quality time with ME!

Of course… I liked hearing that. :)

This first semester has gone by really fast and it’s crazy to think he has one final and then he's done!

I could not be more proud of him!

Law school is definitely not easy… in fact it’s probably one of the hardest things he has ever done, but he has handled it like a champ! 

He works really hard and has already accomplished so much! 

Even though he has been stressed about finals these last few weeks, he has been surprisingly calm and easy to be around. 

He takes his last final tomorrow....  wish him luck!!  

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As for me... I had a VERY lazy weekend and loved every second of it! 

It's a little embarrassing to admit... but I probably watched 4 or 5 Christmas movies this weekend....

gotta love the cheesy Lifetime channel movies!

Luckily I didn't watch EVERY movie by myself....

AJ couldn't handle studying anymore on Friday night so we watched The Grinch together (one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies)! 

P.s. We leave for Utah THIS Friday!!! :)

Lost December

So my mom sent me a book a couple weeks ago titled "Lost December." 

I just finished reading it and it is honestly one of my favorite books that I have ever read (along with The Help and Hunger Games of course).  

I told AJ he needs to read it over his Christmas break once he is done with finals!! 

This book is a little different than any other book I have ever read.  

The story is about a boy named Luke whose father owns a very successful company. 

Luke's father plans to hand the reins of the company over to him once Luke finishes his MBA at Wharton. 

However, Luke starts hanging out with some friends who begin to use him for his money. 

His new friends begin to change the way he thinks and slowly his values begin to change as well. 

Slowly but surely, he grows further away from his father. 

During an excursion in Europe with his friends, Luke eventually runs out of money from the trust fund his father had set up for him.

I don't want to ruin the book for anyone who plans to read it....

but I HIGHLY recommend it!!

This book brought out all sorts of emotions in me.

I found myself cheering out loud in some parts....

crying like a baby in other parts....

and being upset and angry in others.  

Seriously a great book.... read it!!!

What a relief...

Let me just say that it is a HUGE relief to have my company Holiday party over with. 

Not to mention.... it was SO much fun!!

Being in charge of planning our company party was a lot more stressful than I thought it was going to be! 

Being my usual self.... I was very excited to plan all the party details such as decorations, centerpieces, menu choices, activities, invitations... etc.

BUT I don't ever think about the hard part of planning a party....

which includes comparing prices, crunching numbers, and making sure I can stick to the budget! 

I had NO IDEA  that there was such a thing as "gratuity tax" until I planned this party....

no, not "gratuity"..... and not "regular tax"....

but "gratuity tax" which is something completely different that some restaurants charge on top of the gratuity and regular taxes.  

How crazy is that? 

 And since I also do not drink.... I had no idea what a "cash bar" or a "cork fee" were...

Live and learn I guess. :)

This is what our private dining room looked like--I LOVED the ambiance (not too fancy, but not too casual.)

The view was perfect--it looked out onto downtown Boston.

Also, the room was the perfect size for our group because we only had about 20 people.

There were votive candles on each table and it looked SO pretty since it was dark outside. 

We started off the night with passed hors d' ouevres while everyone arrived and chatted. 

Then dinner was served.... and let me just say, the food was AMAZING!!

Everything on the menu sounded a little different (too different) so I was nervous about how it would taste, but it ended up being delicious.

I had planned a little game where I stuck numbers under everyone's chair...

So towards the end of dinner, I had them look under their chair to find the number. 

Then we had a drawing and I drew three numbers and each winner won a gift card to either Target, Macy's or just a Visa gift card.  

Unfortunately, AJ and I didn't win anything.... maybe next year!!

After that, we had a white elephant gift exchange! 

On the East Coast they call it a "Yankee Swap".... not really sure why. 

When I mentioned to have everyone bring a white elephant gift to the party.... nobody knew what I was talking about. haha

Here is what I ended up with.... yep those are MEATBALL bubble gum balls.... GROSS!

The not-so-fun part of preparing for the party was making all of the party favors to hand out at the end. 

I was the one who VOLUNTEERED to make chocolate covered pretzels for everyone because I thought it would be a nice touch and it sounded fun AT THE TIME.

I had no idea they were going to take 6 HOURS to make!! 

It pretty much took up my entire Sunday morning and evening. 

I don't think I will be offering to make those again anytime soon....

They turned out very pretty.... but boy were they A TON of work!

P.s. Only 16 days until we fly home for Christmas.... HOORAY!! :)

Every now and then...

 Every now and then you just need to cry. Yesterday was one of those days.

Every now and then your day doesn’t get any better no matter how hard you try to make it a good day.

Every now and then I feel like I can do anything.

Every now and then I feel inadequate. 

Every now and then I feel like I NEED something yummy to eat...This definitely happens more often than it should! :)

Every now and then I can’t wait for it to be the weekend. 

Every now and then I'm grateful to have a husband who still works hard to clean our apartment and serve me even though he has very limited time. 

Every now and then I miss my friends and family back home so so much. 

Every now and then I loathe law school and how little I get to see AJ.

Every now and then I feel stronger than I did the previous day.

Every now and then I love my job... other times I feel like I am in over my head.

Every now and then I get so excited for Christmas and the joy it brings I can hardly stand it (putting up our Christmas tree instantly made me happy). 

Every now and then I can’t wait to have little chillins' of my own.

Every now and then I am able to buy something new to wear… I love those days. 

 Every now and then a simple hug from AJ brightens my entire day.

Every now and then Boston is exhilarating to me. 

Every now and then I am completely humbled by how much the Lord has blessed me with.

Every now and then…

Food....Family.... And a cozy apartment.

This past week we were lucky enough to have AJ's mom visit us in Boston. 

It was so nice to have a family member here with us. 

These past few months have been especially hard being away from family...

I never thought it was going to be easy moving to Boston... but sometimes you don't realize how hard something is until you actually do it.  

The beautiful thing is that on the other hand, sometimes you don't realize how much you learn and grow until you do something really hard.

 I can honestly say that moving to Boston is one of the hardest things I've ever done... hands down. 

This Thanksgiving I realized just how grateful I am for family.  

I've always been thankful for my family... but this year on Thanksgiving it became very real to me.  

I don't think I will ever take my family for granted in the future because I know how hard it is when I don't get to see them whenever I please. 

In addition to being thankful for my family this Thanksgiving, I am also grateful for: my sweet husband, good friends, memories, new adventures, opportunities to learn, the gospel, a place to live, caring people, delicious food, a healthy body... the list goes on and on.  

I read a quote the other day that I really love! It states: 

"Gratitude unlocks the fulness of life. 

It turns what we have into enough and more. 

It turns denial into acceptance, 

chaos into order, 

confusion into clarity. 

It can turn a meal into a feast, 

a house into a home, 

a stranger into a friend. 

Gratitude makes sense of our past, 

brings peace for today, 

and creates a vision for tomorrow." 

-Melody Beattie

For Thanksgiving, AJ invited one of his classmates over for dinner because she doesn't have any family here in Boston and so she was originally going to be spending Thanksgiving alone. 

We were happy to have her! 

Ze bird. 

I coated the inside of the turkey with butter, thyme, garlic, salt & pepper. 

Then I covered the outside with mayonnaise (a trick I learned from my sister-in-law a couple years ago.)

We had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, green beans, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, pumpkin pie, and apple pie! Thanksgiving dinner done right.

I definitely overestimated how much food we were going to need for the four of us! Our refrigerator is jam packed as a result!!

While my mother-in-law was visiting, she agreed that our apartment needed a little something in order to make it feel more cozy.  So.... we went out and bought some curtains! 

I can't even tell you how happy I am to finally have some curtains in our apartment! Even though it seems so trivial... it really makes a big difference in my opinion.

Tah-dah! Yay for curtains!

And there you have it.... our home for now.

It's amazing how much of a difference it makes when your apartment feels a little more cozy and comfortable.... especially when you are so far away from home.

It makes it a nice place to come home to every night.  

Last night we ate dinner in the North End at an Italian restaurant called Lucca. 

  The food was so delicious!!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

So there are definitely days that I come home from work completely stressed out from everything I do all day!

But other days, I get to do fun things like this…..

 

It's a birthday calendar for everyone at my work!!

It’s pretty awesome when you get paid to do crafts at work! :)

Another fun thing I am currently doing at work is planning the company Christmas party!!

When I first found out I was going to be in charge of planning the party, I was ECSTATIC!

I love planning these types of things… especially when it comes to Christmas festivities, however….

Lately it has been stressful because I am realizing that it is impossible to please everyone!

So many of my co-workers having been coming up to me and giving suggestions of what they want to do (which is fine), but I obviously can’t make everyone happy. 

So I decided to do what I thought made the most sense…. Take a vote!

The majority of people voted that they wanted to do the party at a restaurant and rent out a banquet room.  I’m really excited because I think it’s going to be a lot of fun!

We are going to do raffle prizes, a white elephant gift exchange, and an employee trivia game.  There are only 14 employees where I work and we all know each other pretty well so I figured a trivia game would be fun to learn things about people that we don't know.

Wish me luck!! There is A TON of pressure involved with planning a company party! 

Yay for Christmas though! I CANNOT wait to go home to visit for Christmas!!!

I already gave my mom all the details of what I want to do while we're visiting.... pretty much down to the hour. :) I can't help it.... I'm just so excited!

Harvard Hockey Game!!

Well I'm still alive!

Haven't blogged in a while.... I've been a busy busy bee. 

Work has been busy... and life in general. 

Everything is swell though so I can't complain. :)

  So last night AJ and I went to a Harvard hockey game!!

My boss had tickets that he wasn't going to be able to use so he gave them to me.... and they were FRONT ROW seats! 

It was really cool because it was a first for both of us...

and we were sitting right along the glass.

I got scared a couple of times though when the hockey players got slammed against the glass right in front of us! 

At one point, all the players broke into a big fight (which isn't allowed in college hockey games) so they ended up throwing a couple of the players out of the game.  

So anyway, it was a super fun night and I learned that hockey is INTENSE!!

AJ watching the game intensely. :) 

One last thing I want to mention.... I LOVE public transportation here in Boston! 

Last night we just hopped right on the bus and it dropped us off in front of Harvard.  

We never have to worry about finding a parking spot....

not to mention it ends up saving us a lot of money!

It's great. :)

Baking Adventures

Like many other bakers, I get a little wrapped up in pumpkin during the fall months.  I can’t help it… I love everything with pumpkin in it!

Now, AJ isn’t much of a pumpkin fan…. Which is both good and bad for me! It’s good because it means more for me… and it’s bad for the exact same reason. :)

This past week I made  pumpkin chocolate chip bread and I was surprised at how good it turned out considering my oven doesn't even have a temperature gauge or thermometer!!! Yep that’s right…. I have to GUESS what temperature I think my oven is at whenever I use it.  (See below)  It gets really annoying because I have to check on everything I bake and cook every two minutes to make sure it's not burning.  Needless to say…. It makes baking very difficult!

 I was on Skype with my mom and brother earlier today and I was trying to show and explain to them how my stove consists of just knobs without temperature gauges and they got a real good laugh!!! My mom thought it was absolutely hilarious that I have to guess what temperature my oven is at! 

Since AJ doesn’t like pumpkin and I cannot afford to eat two whole loaves by myself, I took one of the loaves to work and everyone loved it! 

I think the bread was a success given the challenges I ran into! :)