Christmas 2010

It was our last Christmas as non-parents. We enjoyed Christmas eve eve just the two of us. I made a table of snacks for dinner- fondue, meatballs, deviled eggs, bacon-wrapped steak, veggies. It is very hard to make such a spread for two. But I wanted to start a new tradition of eating appetizers for dinner while watching White Christmas.


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And We're Back

Okay I have been absent for awhile now - both here and on Always Fabulous. But I am going to get back into blogging, not because I made some new year's resolution but because I need to write, whether anyone reads it or not.

Since my last post I have some very big news! We're having a baby! A boy! In March!

New Blog

Hello all! I've gotten together with a few of my girlfriends to do a fun blog. It is called Kinda Young; Sometimes Broke; Always Fabulous. We blog about food, entertaining, fashion, style, home decor, crafts, etc.

Please come visit and leave comments! The blog still needs a lot of work, but I could use your support. You can't tell yet who writes which blog, but I'll fix that soon!

Check it out: http://youngbrokefabulous.com/

ONE YEAR!

So I'm just a tad behind on the blog. Truthfully, there hasn't been much to blog about lately! Plus, I haven't been taking pictures! Enough excuses. So, a few months late . . . the post about our anniversary!

To celebrate our first year as husband and wife, we planned . . . absolutely nothing. What with our NYC trip, Aaron's graduation and Christmas, we really didn't put much thought (or money) into our anniversary. We were just trying to survive to see 2010! So, on January 1, we looked at one another and said, "Our anniversary is in two days. I didn't get you a gift. What do you want to do?"

We visited hotels.com and searched for a deal near home. The next day we packed up our things and made the journey . . . to downtown LA! Yes, that's right. We took a vacation just 15 miles away. We were excited to stay at the super-cool Standard Hotel (at an equally cool price). You can find some amazing last-minute deals online.

We went to a movie and dinner. Then we headed up to The Standard's rooftop bar to see the amazing view of the city at night. The next day we had lunch in the hip little cafe there and then took in some art at the Museum of Contemporary Art. It was a lovely one day trip and a great way to celebrate a wonderful year!

Above: This is The Standard's rooftop lounge and pool. The views were breathtaking. Below: This is the also-great view from our room.

Above: The room has really cool, modern, minimal decor with lots of cheekiness.

Above and below: Aaron and I are getting silly at the rooftop bar, doing "model" poses. I'm wearing a dress that Aaron gave me for Christmas.

Aaron could barely get up from this weird outdoor waterbed thing.

Happy Anniversary, my love!

One Hot Tamale!

I finally made tamales . . . probably a hundred or so. We made chicken, pork and dessert tamales. It's a lot of work but a fun process. It's all about hanging out and enjoying some chisme (Spanish for chatter or gossip). They were delicious! I took notes on everything my mother-in-law did. Tamales are a tradition in many Hispanic cultures for Christmas, and one I want to pass on to my children.

Though it's been said, many times, many ways . . .

Merry Christmas to you! I don't have too many pictures from Christmas - oops! Here we are glammed up for Drew and Mande's Fancy Holiday Party (and posing by our sparsley decorated tree).

And here I am holding up one of my Christmas gifts from Aaron - White Christmas on DVD! I love that movie with all my heart. It's not just my favorite Christmas movie. It is one of my all-time favorite movies in general. It's romantic, classy and campy all at once. It has music you can't resist and wardrobe to drool over.

Here is Aaron with his nina (grandma) on Christmas eve. We always go to her house on Christmas eve. We eat and sit around and everyone speaks Spanish, so I just sit there and smile. I try to hang with the young cousins, cause they speak English mostly. This time we did a mug gift exchange, which is a great game with a bilingual crowd. It's universal.

And these two cute pies are, at left, my cousin Liliana and my second cousin Isabel. (Via Aaron, obviously.) When you have a big family you end up with second cousins at the same age. Isabel is very adorable, despite this goofy looking photo.

Graduation

HE DID IT! Aaron graduated from The Art Institutes of California - Los Angeles with a Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design. Not only that, he was awarded Outstanding Portfolio. This is an incredible honor, as a committee of his teachers reviewed all of this graduating classmates' portfolios and chose Aaron's portfolio for this commendation.

Below is a timeline of the graduation process. First, you see Aaron working on his portfolio - he even had to work on it during our trip to New York. The two below are from the portfolio show - this is a very big deal to a design student. You set up your own little booth with your portfolio, biz cards, resume, laptop with website and videos up, sample works, etc. Employers stroll through, seeking out potential new hires. He's already got an interview with a company that liked his work!

And now, graduation! My parents and Aaron's immediate family all came. We had a wonderful time and were so shocked (though not surprised) and proud when the dean announced Aaron's name for Outstanding Portfolio.

After the graduation ceremony, we went to Johnny's New York Pizzeria in West LA. This was a favorite spot of Aaron's during his college years. He'd pick up a $2 slice of pizza and then buy his soda from the 7-11 next door (cheaper) a few times a week. It is delicious pizza - thin, crispy crust and perfect cheese and toppings. The salads were yum too.