Major bummer. Luckily we did some quick thinking and replanned the meal to happen at our house, and were even able to offer showers to our poor power outage family members. Extra bonus: Matt and I did not have to eat all the sticky date pudding by ourselves!

Sunday was great. Oatmeal followed by really good workouts (kickboxing at the gym for me, Matt pumping iron in the basement), house cleaning, and more cooking. By 4:00 everyone was at our house for dinner, and it was filled with the scent of cooking food. Salmon, sweet potatoes, sautéed peppers, and fresh cornbread. Yum! We ate our fill (served off our new sideboard), then topped it all off with sticky date pudding and fresh schlagobers. What is schlagobers? Fresh whipped cream! We were given an Isi “whooper” for Christmas and so we broke it in with the big crowd. Best gift ever. It was an awesome end to the weekend.

PS – we also booked a hotel in Rome for our honeymoon! My to-do list is getting shorter…

Sticky Date Pudding

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Butter a 9-inch, baking pan. (I also cut a piece of waxed paper to line the bottom of the pan).

3. Place the dates in a saucepan, and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook for three minutes. Add the baking soda, and set aside.

4. In a bowl, cream one stick of butter, sugar and eggs, adding the eggs one at a time. Gently fold in the flour, the salt and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Slowly stir in the baking powder and 1/4 cup of the date cooking liquid, until the cake mixture resembles thick pancake batter. (Discard the rest.) Stir in the dates. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, or until cooked in the center.

5. Meanwhile, make the sauce by combining a stick of butter, 1/4 cup of heavy cream, the brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla. Bring to a boil; reduce to simmer, and cook for three minutes.

6. To serve, drizzle some of the sauce over the cake as it is cooling. Serve the rest of the sauce separately. Garnish with whipped cream if desired.

I am still working from home while Matt took the bus in. We sure are ready to get back to the normal agenda. Getting up a half hour early, me worrying about him on the icy roads, then worrying more about him making it home while freezing in our house is getting old. Yep, we could use some warmer temps; especially since this snow is no longer soft and fun to play in. Speaking of warm, or the opposite actually, it was 8 degrees at my parents’ house when they left. 8 DEGREES! COLD!

I can still hear the wind and ice hitting our windows outside. It makes me cold. Time for some tea and then back to work.

Oh, and PS ~ I ordered the blue dress for the honeymoon!

This is the last real “big” part of our wedding that we needed to tackle. With all the other big things out of the way (all that is left is little details: painting, send invites, seat assignments, table runners etc) we really needed to buckle down and start getting some dates on the calendar.

A few months ago we finally decided that our honeymoon destination was Italy. Romantic, warm, historic, great food…sounds awesome right? We had picked our wedding date so that we could have 3 weeks off between getting hitched and me starting grad school. Now, what to do with 3 weeks?

We also decided that we would like to try to incorporate a cruise into the itinerary. We found a stunning 12 day Mediterranean cruise that leaves in and out of Venice, and decided that is the one we wanted. Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Monenegro, Italy…ahhh! Now all we have to do is wait till it is closer so that we can book it with Matt’s discount. With the cruise, we will have a full 7 days in Italy prior to stepping on board the ship. This weekend we figured out where those 7 days will be spent. Now, it is not easy picking just 7 days worth of destinations. I was dying to see the Amalfi Coast, Matt wanted to show me Florence (where he lived for a summer), and with guidebooks galore we had a list a mile long. Eventually we had to buckle down and get realistic. We would keep our trip north of Rome since that is where we planned to fly into, and we only have a week to get to Venice from there. We also ditched Florence since we had both been there, and know that we will go back one day. Result: a wonderful sounding 7 day itinerary that balances city with countryside, relaxation with a little more adventure. I cannot wait!

Days 1 & 2 – Rome

Days 3 & 4 – Volterra

Days 5 & 6 – Santa Margherita Ligure

Day 7 – Venice

Days 8 – 20 CRUISE!!!

Oh man, I am so excited!

Ok, but the reality of this plan is that it may not happen. The cruise discount deal is something that we will not be able to book until 3 months out. Eek! This means that we need a backup plan, Itinerary B. Once we get our Rome hotel booked (the only one left now!) we can start brainstorming what this backup may look like!

Then I get to start planning my honeymoon wardrobe Can’t you just see me running around Greece in this?

Sunday we woke up to a light dusting of snow, and while we made lattes and breakfast, the snow started to fall harder and harder. By 11:30 we had over 2 inches. Time for a walk! We wanted to explore Camp Long, but it was closed. We took option B and walked down to the totem poll park that overlooks Seattle. Seattle? What Seattle? We could not see anything through the snow and fog. There were cars sliding down 35^th and one was crashed into a tree. We were glad we had nowhere to go!

Snow day with nothing to do, a clean house and my favorite person to share it with. It does not get better than that!

PS – we also broke in our new computer and started booking hotels for our honeymoon! Itinerary A is set!

Last year I bought a Clarisonic, and I love it. Clogged pores no longer. It is great at removing makeup and other grossness (I use Neutrogena’s basic cleansing bar), and really helped move my skin in the right direction. This year I am switching up the regimen again. I still use the Clarisonic, but am now alternating with washing with hot salt water. Why hot salt water? Well, my skin has always been best when I am around the ocean. Ocean = salt so I figured it would not be too long of a shot. It is working wonderings. I have had maybe 4 actual pimples since I started this routine. My moisturizer is in transition too. I wanted to reduce the number of chemicals and industrial created things that interact with my skin, so I switched to 100% virgin coconut oil. I was a little hesitant to use it at first fearing the grease factor, but it really soaks in well and does not leave me shiny at all! My skin is soft and smooth, and feeling like it may be on the path to recovery.

Step 1: find bottles! We have been scouring all sorts of neat places to dig up old and interesting bottles. One prerequisite: they must be clear glass. We want the color of our liqueurs to come through. Here are some that we have found (both new and old):

Step 2: Make a list of liqueur flavors and put them on the calendar marking when they come into season. We are trying to make our flavors as locally sourced and seasonal as possible.

Step 3: Make the liqueurs! We are compiling recipes and resources so that we are ready to go!

Step 4: Patience…the longer it sits the better.

Step 5: Taste! I am excited to share our successes and failures when they happen!

2012 lineup: sour cherry, cranberry, red currant, basil, grapefruit, limoncello

I have been reading about coconut oil for a while now, ever since the nutrition class at work turned me off some of my standard go-to oils for cooking. I tried out coconut oil in a batch of muffins and I have to say it was great! I did some more searching around and came up with some great natural skin care and hair care information with coconut oil and have been using it ever since.

• Hair: after shampooing, massage into damp hair and let set. Your hair will look greasy (I would not plan to go anywhere for a few hours). When you are ready to wash it out, hop in the shower and shampoo like normal. After you wash it out it your hair will be super soft and shiny!
• Skin: great massage oil and I have been using it as a face lotion as well
• Cooking: use in baking etc. There are lots of great heath benefits of this oil that you should look into

Where to buy: Trader Joes just started carrying virgin coconut oil that is great! $5.99 for a 16oz jar.

2012 is going to be a big year. Matt and I are getting married on August 10, followed by an amazing honeymoon and my immediate start of an MBA program. Yep, it is time to go back to school. The magnitude of the events in the coming year is a little daunting, and I am beyond excited and nervous at the same time. I know it will be a challenging year full of amazing memories and intangible rewards. It will be a year FULL (aren’t they always though?).

In 2012 I will:

Spend quality time with Matt

Take advantage of our weekends off and explore with more hikes

Use my gym membership!

Be more patient with my family

Be productive at work and look for new opportunities for projects I enjoy

Be in better touch with friends

Take time to take a breath

Do well in grad school

Maintain a good work/life/school balance

Volunteer to clean the bathroom more often

Learn to really use my camera before August

Read at least two “fun” books before starting school in September

Drink more water!

To all my friends and family and random readers, may your 2012 be off to a great start!

On the First day of Christmas – Matt and I drove to Ferndale to celebrate “Christmas Eve” with Troy, Jasmine and the Chaplin family. We chopped wood, explored the back 40 and ate tons of yummy Christmas goodies. We had a great dinner Friday night, complete with prime rib and pies. We finished the evening watching “It’s A Wonderful Life” and then I helped mom prepare for Christmas morning.

On the Second day of Christmas – Saturday we woke up to the smell of fresh cinnamon rolls, and opened gifts by the glow of the wood stove. It was a fun Ferndale Christmas. We taught everyone to play Ticket to Ride…another game to add to our family repertoire!

That afternoon we drove to Seattle for the annual Pignataro family Italian feast of Seven Fishes. This is Matt’s mom’s side of the family and they throw an epic event complete with 7 courses of seafood (the crab and massive grilled prawns were my favorites), followed by dinner (lasagna, bread, salad, fruit, sides the whole deal) then dessert. It was my first time going and it was totally overwhelmingly wonderful. We had a blast, and ate and drank until we felt like we would pop!

On the third day of Christmas – Matt and I woke up at home, opened gifts from each other with the kitties and then scooted out the door to drive to Matt’s parent’s in Issaquah. We make buttermilk pancakes and eggs and opened gifts. It is so fun to share different families Christmas traditions!

We hung out there until about 1:30 and then drove down to Matt’s Aunt and Uncle’s house right along the Cedar River…a stunning house that he built all by hand. We celebrated with more food, presents and family fun until it was finally time to get home to bed.

What a wonderful (exhausting!) Christmas! I love that our families are both so welcoming and sweet, and that plans in the future will hopefully combine them into a HUGE double family holiday! Now that will be fun!

Monday Matt had to work, so I hung out with Mom and Dad when then came down to deliver family to Gig Harbor. I finally found an antique sideboard on craigslist that will work in our house, so we used the Subaru to transport it yesterday. It is stunning. Old and solid oak…we got a steal of a deal on it for $180. We have already broken it in serving dinner last night! I am so excited to have a place to store all the bowls/platters/silverware etc that we are starting to acquire!