food + friends are all my blog posts about eating?

After the new year, we reunited with friends at the Bombay House. 

I was mostly excited that our curry came out in little metal dishes (the best curry I've ever had in New York came in little metal dishes, so I associate the two together).

 

We followed dinner with cards and cupcakes, best combo ever.

marriage is what brings us together this day.

We celebrated our anniversary by going to Tuscany in Salt Lake (I told Brad that all I wanted was to eat somewhere that we wouldn't eat unless it was a special occasion).

I loved the food and the dessert and eating.  It was a little pricey, but really good.  Brad had a meatloaf that had pulled pork in it which was a cool twist and really good. I had a pasta special that had a wine sauce (my favorite), butternut squash, and sundried tomatoes. For dessert, we had a banana cream pie that had a coconut crust. I LOVE eating dessert. Seriously. We never really order dessert unless it's a special occasion, but it's one of my favorite things.

Fun fact: Mark Eaton (former Jazz player) is one of the owners.

Check out the awesome Harry Potter glowing menus. Magic.
The third anniversary is the leather anniversary... I got Brad a belt (he needed a new one) and he got me some snowboarding boots and a charm for my charm bracelet (I get one every year).

byu beats sdsu... holla!

We interrupt this trip down memory lane for an imperative current event.

BYU BEATS SDSU.

 Yep. I even wore white for the whiteout. I think this is a lifetime first. And I was lucky I found a white shirt (and we still need a new camera).

ahh the sweet victory. No we did not [flood the court - what is the term for this in basketball?].
a: it was far, b: I didn't want to die.

Also related:
BYU/Jimmer owned Sportscenter (which we've been watching for the past hour and a half).
Part two of above.
Kevin Durant likes Jimmer.

I predict that tomorrow's headlines will read something like this:
"Jimmer Ends Aztec's Perfect Record."
Why? Jimmer had 43 out of 71 of the Cougars' points. Jimmer has lots of hype. SDSU's perfect record ended. (Not to mention Jimmer got WORKED... did you see the giant claw scratches across his shoulder?! Enlarge the below image.)

And, although I've been on team jimmer forever (and still am), you've gotta give it up to the rest of the team... Hartsock and Emery were rockin' today in non-shooting areas (and Emery's little steal-dunk-block/steal?! amazing), Anderson only had 3 fouls and had 2 points!, and Davies had a great game.

Also, did anyone else get REALLY annoyed by the lack of reffing the first half of the game? It was like the refs realized at 5-7 minutes left in the first half that they'd just been WATCHING the whole time, and they'd completely forgotten about their JOB to MAKE CALLS. Oops.

{PS. Dear Neil Anderson - Cool Cougar?! You couldn't think of a better beverage than that?! Seriously? A Cool Cougar? I think I had an elementary school t-shirt that said that along with something like "don't do drugs".}

So it's a new year.

New Year's Eve is one of my favorite holidays. Lots of family and lots of food. This year was a little lower key, but I still love it.

clockwise from top left: dancing in the attic - Thriller, Serene doesn't like head spins, Sacre Bleu - our crab that Brea had my dad buy from the food crab place because she wanted it as a pet, food, more food, midnight udon noodles, Blad, Britney, me.

The Ghost of Christmas Past: A Royal Christmas

Our families live twenty minutes from each other (which is both a blessing and a curse),

so after Christmas morning, we scurried over to the Royals for part two of Christmas.

Clockwise from top left: David in his Christmas blanket, Brad playing with a bag, Jordan waiting to be given his presents, Mike telling Maralea that she'll want to return this Christmas gift (jewelry), me sleeping on the floor in our Christmas blanket.

The Ghost of Christmas Past: The Best Part about Christmas

 My two favorite things about Christmas? Christmas cards and wrapping schemes.

This year's card was a combo of photoshopping and some minor crafting skills (i.e. sewing along the top edge).

I've been looking forward to this wrapping scheme since Christmas last year; I bought the paper and everything last December. Each present had a silhouette of the recipient on it.

One of my favorite wrappings yet.

The Ghost of Christmas Past: Christmas morning

This year, Kellen kindly let us sleep in until about 8 (hallelujah). Then the Christmas madness began.

 {clockwise} Brea is fat so she got a bunch of workout dvds for Christmas, my mom compared her silhouette to her actual face, my mom also made a turban out of a bow (guys - are you seeing where this comes from?), Kellen's smallest present came in the biggest box, and Lauren Bucks that she made for my mom.

Me and Brad and our early morning happiness.

These jovial scenes were followed by a fantastic breakfast with the Holleys and some Black Ops for the boys. Then, Brad and I traveled to the south side for part two....

The Ghost of Christmas Past: Christmas Eve

I am excited to embark on a journey into this Christmas past because there are lots of pictures and lots of awesomeness. 

We begin this saga with Christmas Eve.

 The above photo is taken at 1 am after we had finally opened our Christmas Eve pjs and about the same time that my mom suggested we read Luke 2 

(me: Mom, there is NO WAY. I've been up since 4 am Vegas time... I think my eyes are going to fall out of my head.).

 The evening's previous excitement:
Favorite foods dinner with the fam at the other Horitos'.

 

{L-R, top to bottom} Prime rib and those bacon waterchestnuts, spam musubi and rolls, chocolate molten cake, sushi (rolled by my mama), Star Wars cookies, wedge salad, my dad's holiday outfit (holiday as in I think he wore that the whole time I was home), Serene being smothered, and some post-dinner jumping jacks.

This year, we had a lovely production of A Star Wars Carol - basically a Star Wars take on the Christmas Carol, complete with Darth Vader (Scrooge), Luke Skywalker and the Jedis (that guy - the Tiny Tim dad and family), The Han Solo of Christmas Past, the Storm Trooper of Christmas Present, and Chewbacca of Christmas Future.

The Han Solo of Christmas Past showing Darth his days as Anakin with Padma, a joyful Christmas day reunion of the Jedis and nice Darth - right before Brad's line, a group shot of the entire cast.

We have a video that is basically awesome and will change your life forever, but I have to pilfer it from someone else because it wasn't made on our camera.

good luck kuck

Today, Brad is interviewing for a job

mainly because he's been spending about 90% of his time like this:

No this is not a picture of a teenage boy in high school. 

This is my 26-year-old, college grad husband who enjoys his time playing Black Ops with his friends.

**To his defense, he does do a nice job cleaning up my messes, making dinner, and attending to all other needs of the house.**

::still:: married

three years ago....

and we're still married...



Of course, this photo is pre-Ohio State beating Arkansas because we're smiling, and we still like each other.  Apparently Brad decided that Arkansas blowing their chances at winning ruined his night and turned him into Oscar the Grouch/the Grinch's hated stepchild because blah blah blah Ohio State, overrated, stupid something, didn't get what he wanted, wah.

Dear BCS/Arkansas/college football,

Thanks for ruining my anniversary.

>;)