David's Surprise Birthday Party

Hello everyone!

It's been awhile, but I wanted to stop by because summer break has started, and more importantly, it was David's birthday yesterday!

Since it was his big 30th birthday, I wanted to do something special for him and throw him a surprise birthday party!  I asked everyone to come at 6:30 with the plan to pick David up from work and bring him home around 7, but the plan almost fell completely apart.  At 6, David called me and said that he already left work and was walking home instead of waiting for me to pick him up from work.  It takes about half an hour to walk from his work to our place, so I panicked a little bit, and texted everyone to come ASAP.  Thankfully, we have amazing friends who ran over as fast as they could (one even ran out of the shower to get here on time  haha) and we were able to assemble before he got here!

SURPRISE!!  =)

It was a little stressful towards the end because everything had to be done super quickly(thanks dear...), but it was also fun to set everything up.  Initially I was going to use plastic cups, but when I ran into these cute little milk jars, and couldn't pass them up!  I think they ended up being only a little more expensive, and I thought it added a cute touch =)

the first wave of friends as we waited for David

The birthday cake!

I didn't really have a theme in mind, but somehow, the theme became green/blue as I was assembling the spread, and there happened to be a perfect cake that matched the theme!  It was a green tea/blueberry cake, and it was absolutely delicious!

such beautiful peeps =)

After the food, we got together for some friendly competitive round of Taboo and other board games  ;)  We could have gone easy on the birthday boy, but that's just not how we work around here =p  haha

After a round or two, I presented David with the last part of his birthday presents  =)  

We had all of these amazing pictures taken with Kate last year, but we had never printed any of them!  It was a good chance to get one blown up so that he could hang it wherever he wanted in our home =)

Happiest of birthdays, my dearest David.  Hope your 30th year will be the best yet  =D

Thanks for stopping by!

--Janny

Mt. Holyoke

Hello everyone,

Have you ever done winter hiking?  It's a completely different animal than just good old hiking, let me tell you. David and I didn't know this though, so off we went to Mt. Holyoke to escape the hustle and bustle of the city life, quite content with our rain/snow boots, and expecting to have a nice little jaunt in the mountains.

To be sure, it was incredibly beautiful.  The photos don't really do it justice, but something about the snow and the ice and the overall quiet mingled with a faint murmur of the brook created an ideal setting for two city dwellers looking to escape and recharge.

I've always found that I need more frequent contact with nature than perhaps some others.  And this is probably why my favorite city is Seattle. As you've seen, our backyard park is a giant forest haha. (don't worry, Boston, you are my second favorite  ;)  haha)  I'm not sure if David feels the need as much as I do, but he also enjoys being outdoors, so it works out for us.  I mean, deep down, I think everyone feels the rejuvenating effects of being out in nature...  don't you think? 

But going back to the whole winter hiking thing...  

It became increasingly clear as we started our climb that we didn't have the necessary equipments.  

Though neither of us actually fell..........  we got as close to that as humanly possible, multiple times.

and while we didn't see many others attempting the climb, everyone else who did had what looked like ski poles and really intense boots.  At one point, we saw this man coming down the now-very-steep trail leaning heavily on his poles and still slipping, and we decided to turn around.  He caught up to us a bit later, and showed us the gear he recommended.  He had on hiking boots, and on top of that, he had little metal claw looking things strapped to the shoes so that he wouldn't slip.  We were definitely VERY unprepared for this icy hike.  He said that he saw us turning around as he was coming down. We must have looked pretty pathetic to him  =p  haha   

Despite the unpreparedness on our part for the climb, we still thoroughly enjoyed ourselves just roaming around the mountain talking, enjoying the smells, catching each other from falling, taking photos, and laughing.

It was the perfect little half day getaway from the city, and I can't wait to go back and finish the hike once we have the equipment (or once the snow melts!)  =)

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful rest of the day!
--Janny

Welcoming 2016

Hello everyone!

I hope you are all having a wonderful new year!
It was extra special for us because it was the first time we were able be together to celebrate NYE and the new year together!

The obligatory NYE celebration photo  =)

and of course, the other obligatory photo of us being us  haha

David had been talking about the new Star Wars movie ever since it came out, so we decided to go watch it before having dinner.  Little did we know, it would be all sold out... all weekend...  So instead, we tried to go to the Boston Commons only to drive around for half an hour trying to find parking. At this point, it was looking a lot like our first anniversary misadventures...  haha  We gave up on Boston Commons, and tried to find something else to do.  By then, we didn't have much time until dinner, but we decided to try the Faneuil Hall anyway since it was only a few blocks away.

Thankfully, we were able to find parking, and we had a good time poking about in different stores. In one, I found a Princess Leia's hair-esq fluff muff, and we called that good enough for our Star Wars experience for the night  ;)

with the tree  =)  

It wasn't anything special--just walking around and shopping, but it was fun to just spend some time together.

For dinner, we decided to try a spot in Cambridge, recommended by our friends Daon and Tristan. They couldn't say enough good things about Oleana, so we got a reservation (which I highly recommend), and crossed the river! 

We weren't really sure what to get, so we started with the chef's choice vegetable sampler.  Because they were chef's choice, I'm not sure what they were called, but we had some sort of carrot hummus, followed by these amazing falafels... 

another carrot dish, but roasted this time, with some amazing crunchy something happening.  Maybe it was fried quinoa? I'm not sure, but it was delish!

The next dish was made of some sort of vegetable from the broccoli family, but it tasted a lot like kale!

And of course, we have to continue our tradition of getting lamb at date night! It was quite literally falling off of the bone, and we thoroughly enjoyed it!

I think my least favorite was the dessert, which was a fried cream puff sort of a thing...  but I think that's usually what happens with me at most restaurants.  It's so difficult to get dessert just right at a restaurant!  I much prefer bakeries for desserts.

It was so wonderful to spend NYE together and to ring in the New Year. (yes, I actually stayed up until midnight, which took effort for this grandma  ;)  haha)  The next day, we left the hustle and the bustle of the city to hike Mt. Holyoke, but more on that will come in the next post! 

Happy New Year, and thanks for stopping by!

--Janny

Friendsgiving 2015

Hello everyone!

I've completely fallen off of the blogging wagon... there's just no time to blog anymore because whenever I have some semblance of free time, I end up sleeping  haha

However,  I wanted to try to have some documentation of our lives, so here we go!  A documentation of our Friendsgiving, a few weeks later  =)

The first year David and I became friends, we threw a huge friendsgiving and made our first Turduecken-hen to feed about 25 people.  For our first Thanksgiving together in Boston, we decided to try our hand at Turducken once more!  It was a smaller party, so we picked smaller birds, which made the process much more manageable. We even had enough room for everyone to sit around the table!

Our Thanksgiving spread!

so excited!!

Surprisingly, we did some damage to the Turducken!  we were a small, but a mighty force of eaters! haha

then, we played some board games to give our tummies some time to digest before we dug into the desserts!

Trivia is always a fun choice with a large group!  and so was Dixit!

I'm so thankful to have such stellar group of people around me  =)  My parents have always commented on how blessed I am to have the type of mentors and friends that I have wherever I go, and I could not agree more!   I am surrounded by some amazing folks.

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving with your loved ones, whether it was with your family, or with your 'chosen family'!  ;)

--Janny