Enter Year 23

I had a great birthday yesterday. For starters, we both had the day off and I got to sleep in! For breakfast, we made blintzes, since we didn't get around to it on Christmas. They were sure tasty! I wanted to watch Beauty & the Beast, so Zak obliged, because he is a great husband. After that, I opened my presents, and got some great things! My parents got me a like, deluxe Bath & Body Works set, some warm red slippers, the Lego Harry Potter game, and a few other things. Zak's parents got me a French (tapered) rolling pin, along with some other gifts that are in the mail at the moment.

Zak got me a beautiful new ring...with blue diamonds, my favorite! He was great about not telling me about my presents for Christmas or my birthday (he usually can't wait, and will tell me or show me, even if I don't ask), so I was surprised. Although, about a week before Christmas, he had me close my eyes and look away and he slipped on the ring just to be sure it fit! Well, it fits and I love it. I am a very lucky girl, I have so many nice pieces of jewelry; he is so sweet to me. Whenever I protest, he tells me that he gets good deals on them, and he likes seeing me with pretty sparkly things on. So how can I complain after that?

love love love this ring

We went out to dinner at a local restaurant called the Red Door. It's a small place that uses local food, with a menu that rotates every month or so. Everything was fantastic! We split an appetizer of 'spicy firecracker balls', which were 6 balls of tuna and salmon done almost like tempura, with three different sauces, and one I think was real wasabi. Now, I am not a sushi or spicy type of girl, but I absolutely loved them. They were just incredible. For entrees, Zak got pasta with a garlic cream sauce and sausage; the sausage was very tasty. I had thai coconut ginger shrimp with rice noodles, which was also good. There was so much that I had to take it home, darn! But it was just a wonderful dinner, and we will definitely be going back for more.

We then came home and played some video games and just relaxed. It was a great birthday, and I was happy to spend it with the one I love. I'm a bit 'weirded out' by being 23 already, but it's also kind of neat. I've survived this long without any major problems, and I am pretty happy. Thank you to everyone for all the birthday wishes (email, texts...facebook, haha), I had a great day! And thank you to you, Zakky, for making it wonderful! :)

(my new favorite picture)

Our Not-So-White Christmas

Merry Hamster Christmas!

Yes, there was no snow on Christmas, but there was..rain. It was just like my California Christmases back home! There was a little snow on the ground, but none on the actual DAY; it waited until we had to be at work the next day.

he didn't really love the tree

Anyways, we had a lovely Christmas with just us and the hamsters. Without any parents or siblings to dictate when we opened presents, we did it when we first got up. Zak got another giant tool set, so he is pretty much set. We each got some nice clothing items; Zak got a much needed white shirt and three new ties, whoo! I got some fun baking/kitchen items and some nice Christmas display plates. My parents got us some green fleece sheets, and Zak received a box set of the latest Coheed & Cambria album with the novel it matches. He was completely surprised, and I had forgotten Jenna had asked my opinion about it weeks ago. I got Beauty & the Beast; when it came out last time on DVD, we didn't get it because DVDs weren't very popular, and I will admit, I haven't really let my mother forget it. But now I have it, along with lots of bonus features, and I am happy (it is one of my all-time favorites, sometime I'll have to tell you about my awesome 5th birthday Beauty & the Beast birthday party...)

with most of his loot

super psyched about the tools

new dress clothes

the mustache tie clip

my pile

And we got a TON of chocolate. There is no end to it. I had gotten us each a box of Moose Munch from work a month ago, for our stockings. My parents sent us a bag of 50 assorted Ghiradelli squares (I had been missing them and SF, so I requested some), Zak's parents sent us a bag of Ghiradelli mint chocolate squares, Zak got me a smaller assorted Ghiradelli squares, we got another chocolate orange, a bag of Lindt truffles, and our friends Mat & Erika got us some of the local gourmet chocolates, Cowgirl Chocolates (they are divine, they are 'spicy' chocolates, so far I've had the spicy hazelnut milk and a regular spicy milk, it burns but so good). (Also, website can be accessed by clicking on THESE WORDS). So we are set as far as candy goes, oh wait, Zak got me an entire box of candy canes, because I love them. We are being good to not eat them all at once, but goodness, there is a lot to conquer!

I got Zak some nice things for his 'professional' side: a nice black leather belt, a money clip with a slot for his I.D., and a really nice hammered finish sterling silver tie clip from Etsy. I also got him a funny tie clip with a mustache on it. He was also wanting some nice soaps, so I found a neat website that's based out of Raleigh and got him four. But I cleverly wrapped two in a box, one in its own, and put one in his stocking, so he was surprised to get four of them. Zak was sweet and got me some awesome gifts. He bought me this necklace from work that is really neat. It has garnet, amethyst, citrine, peridot, and aquamarine stones set in yellow gold, hanging in three rows. It's pretty. He also got me some adorable elephant glass earrings from the local glass blowers who set up a kiosk in the mall between Black Friday and New Year's. He also also got me some raw peridot dangling earrings from there. They are all awesome. And he got me this really neat food scale I had been eyeing from Bed, Bath & Beyond. It is super high-tech and will take me awhile to figure out. It was really nice of him to get it for me, I wasn't expecting it.

he let me open this one early (I love peridot!)

the cutest earrings

My grandparents got me an iPad for my combined birthday & Christmas present. I wasn't really expecting them to get it for me, I had told my parents that I certainly wouldn't say no, but my computer has been driving me crazy, and I was hoping for a small netbook or something to replace it. But then my grandparents had to go be all awesome and get me the iPad. It is my first Apple product, and needless to say, I love it. We both do. It is so awesome, words just can't explain it. I am having a blast with all of the 'nerdy' apps; there is one called Art HD, with information and paintings from a lot of different artists, so I am happy with that. I love having virtual books, it is just awesome! I am enjoying discovering all the apps, and am pretty satisfied, because there are a lot of amazing ones for free. Zak really likes playing games on it (specifically, 'Fruit Ninja'). We are both enjoying playing with it.

our sofffft fleece sheets
Christmas plates

Our friends had also gotten us some brie (double cream & triple cream) and crackers, so along with our sausage & cheese ball we got for ourselves from Hickory Farms, we ate the goodies and watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

OH, I completely forgot to mention that I absolutely loved being able to talk to my brother Kenny in Sweden for a few hours on Christmas Eve. It was so much fun being able to talk to him and my family at the same time. He is so cute, and so happy with everything, it never ceases to amaze me. Our favorite part (my family & I took a vote) was when he would talk to his companion in Swedish. It was more fun to hear the conversation than a line or two we asked him to learn for us, although it was fun to hear him say, 'I'd like the fish pie' or something silly. Anyways, it was a real blessing to be able to talk to him and my family. It made me a little teary, since I couldn't be home for Christmas, but being on the phone with everyone, it sure felt like it.

For Christmas dinner, we had a honey glazed ham, that was wonderful. And so simple, I was worried it'd be difficult, but nope! I also made roasted red potatoes with rosemary and oil. Zak helped me make a dish with sweet potatoes & apples (& marshmallows, of course), which turned out well. We had some pillsbury rolls, because I couldn't swing making those since we were working practically night and day for two straight weeks. I did manage to make chocolate mousse, which was almost perfect. I was thrilled. So we had a nice dinner and then watched our Christmas present from Santa: Inception on Blu-Ray. So overall, a very nice Christmas. It was nice to be able to sleep in, not have to worry about work or anything, and be able to talk to our families.

yum!

We are so blessed to have such wonderful friends and families, and we are truly thankful for all of the wonderful gifts we received this year. Thank you so much, everyone! We wished we could have been with everyone this year, but stupid jobs in retail making us work to the bone! Maybe next year we will be able to go somewhere, we shall see. Thanks again for all of the love, support and gifts. We really appreciate everything!

Update.

Sorry for the lack of updates, we have been pretty busy, and will only get busier these next two weeks before Christmas. Things of notable interest include:

-I was sick from last Sunday through Thursday. I went home early from work on Tuesday and called out on Thursday. I had a really bad head cold, sore throat, congestion, dizziness, etc. It was not fantastic, especially regarding work relations. I went through an entire box of Kleenex, several tea bags, and almost two bags of cough drops. Needless to say, I am thoroughly happy to be relieved of it, and am doing everything to not get sick again.

-We have wrapped presents under the tree, which is exciting. We have almost everything ready to send out to our families, and hope to do that within the week.

-Our work schedules are getting crazier. For instance, I work six days in a row this week, with shifts ranging from 8 to 10 hours. I'm not excited, but will be pleased to receive a much heftier check on Christmas Eve. Zak is hoping to work a bit more than usual, so we will have some extra cash, which is always great.

-Christmas decorations are just about done. Zak might do some more drawings, but I got creative and ambitious today while walking around Michael's. I would like to be more creative or artistic, but it takes me a bit longer sometimes. But I ended up with some really cute decorations that I am proud of! I got some glass cranberries on a stick, 'Christmas moss' (green moss with an obscene amount of glitter), gold ribbon, and three square glass vases. Here is the result:

without flash
with
arranged on our book shelf, cute, huh?

I probably won't post again until after Christmas, so from both of us, we hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Decorations!

On Monday, Zak and I got our first Christmas tree! We wanted to go chop one down somewhere, but it was going to be too expensive, and we don't have a truck, so that planned got nixed. Luckily, there were live trees at RiteAid, so we got a nice one from there. I suggested that we put the tree in some trash bags and put it in the backseat, since Zak didn't want to have to tie it to the roof, etc. The plan worked perfectly, and now we know our backseat can fit a tree up to four feet!

We also got some stockings, a wreath, and I made some snowflakes to hang up. Zak did some drawings, and will probably do some more tomorrow or so. And we got a cute little poinsettia, and now our house is all cute and Christmas-y! Here are some pictures.