Texas Tech vs Baylor

This weekend, we headed to Dallas for the Texas Tech vs Baylor football game. It was held at the new Cowboy Stadium. Johnny had been before for a tour of the stadium and it was my first time. We had a blast! 


I worked Friday night so we hit the road as soon as I got home. Luckily, I slept the whole time while Johnny and his friend did the driving. We got to Dallas around noon and went to set up the tailgate. It. Was. Cold. The actual temperature was fine, but the crazy wind was just too much. The Tech people were used to it from their days in Lubbock, but I spent my college years warm and cozy in Austin.

Luckily, I had my blanket from the car ride up to keep me warm.

Cowboy Stadium was so HUGE and great. I had a really good time. There were about 20 of us sitting together so we were probably not our neighbor's favorite. We were told that because it was a Baylor home game, alcohol wouldn't be served. I thought that didn't sound right.

My only dislike was that they played the bands over the sound system. That is kind of the point of college bands, ya know? To be able to hear them on your own. 

Soooo, the game didn't turn out exactly how Johnny had hoped. Here is a glimpse of his misery. 

Thanks for the free hat, State Farm!

I love neutral-venue games! I am sure there are tons more in the future thanks to Mr. Jones!

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I LOVE the Christmas season, but there is something about the togetherness of Thanksgiving that I love so much. My family has some fun traditions that I look forward to every year.


We start off Wednesday afternoon prepping all of the yummy food. We usually have 10-15 people at my parents' house for the big day so we need lots of grub. My dad and I always bake bread from scratch. He has baked bread for as long as I can remember and I have gotten into the habit over the past few years. My signature bread is a Beer Cheese Loaf from one of my dad's bread books. Next year, when I have a camera, I will do a step-by-step. It is actually easier than you think!

Our meal Thanksgiving-Eve night is always spaghetti, thanks to my Granny's tradition!

Thursday morning, we always go to the Houston Thanksgiving Day parade with a family friend of ours, the Coogan family. The mommies always stay home to cook while the kids and dads go to the parade. We have been doing for about 15 years. I was up all night before with a fever and night-chills so I skipped this year, my day just did not feel complete!

As far as the food goes, we always have 2 turkeys- one fried and one traditionally roasted. My dad does the frying and it is so fun to watch, as weird as that sounds! It is a pretty quick process and smells so yummy. 

My dad taught the boys how to carve the turkeys. 

Here is the spread of delish foods we had. Everything is homemade:

Starting at the bottom left dish, working clock-wise: stuffing from the oven, stuffing from inside of the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey (fried and roasted), green bean casserole, my Aunt Cookie's rice dressing (family and friend favorite), mashed sweet potatoes. We also had my Beer Cheese Bread, my dad's white bread, cranberry relish, cranberry sauce, and lots of yummy desserts. 

We finished the evening watching the Texas vs A&M game. Go 'Horns!

Las Vegas!

Let me just start off saying that I was going to have the cutest Instagram pics from my recent trip to Vegas... except that Las Vegas ate my phone. We'll get into that later.


Last weekend, I went to Vegas with 3 other girls Charlotte, Katherine, and Annie for a long weekend of fun. I got way more than I bargained for. Since I don't have any pictures to entertain you, I will just give you the highlights:


Favorite New Casino:
Margaritaville! This is Jimmy Buffet's new casino located in the Flamingo. We loved it because of the laid back atmosphere, young/fun dealers, and cheap tables. We learned how to play 3 Card Poker and made tons-o-friends. We ended up there every night.

Shows:
We went to see Charlotte's favorite- Chippendales! I had so much fun! It's one of those shows that you will get out of it what you put in it. Pic below.

Favorite new restaurant:

Lakeside at the Wynn. It was so yummy and pretty. Highly recommend!

Lost phone:
I have had the old iPhone 3G since (literally) January 2009. It was soooo slow. When the new 4S phones came out, I jumped on it and was SO happy with how FAST it was. I managed to keep up with it for about 3 weeks... until Vegas. All I know is, I had my phone at the hotel before we left for the airport and did not have it once we got there. The hotel didn't have it so some cabbie is enjoying himself a new phone with my cute old case- the pic is just a little blurry.

Summary: We slept for about 10 hours over 3 days. I have been sick ever since. I had too much Vegas.

Registering

I have recently been able to do one of the best parts of wedding planning: registering. I know that registering marrying your mate is the best part of a wedding, but getting to do some shopping is up there on the list. I love registries. I love looking at other people's registries. It is always so interesting to see what people have chosen.


I knew that my heaven, Williams-Sonoma, would be my first place to register. I think I decided that when I was about 15 years old. I love everything in the store. Johnny came along to Williams-Sonoma and Macys to help me pick out stuff. I know that this is about 100x more important to me than him, but I wanted to include him and I knew he'd like the registry gun. We just did the Crate and Barrel one online since I knew it would be short. It's weird, but for a split second, registering feels a little gluttonous. It's like, "Buy all of these things for me... NOW!" But then I got over it.


Here's the deal with each of my choices...


Williams-Sonoma:
Every kitchen gadget you can imagine. 
Macy's:
Good home stuff like serving platters, kitchen electronics, household electronics, luggage, etc.
Crate and Barrel:
I love their cheap glassware. The wine glasses we chose are literally $5 a piece. I really don't have that much on my registry there so I may just go and buy it myself and nix the registry. 
Neiman Marcus: 
Wow. My sister's friend, Brittany, is the manager of the home department at the Neiman's in Dallas (Northpark store). My mom, sister, and I made a field trip to go up there and make my registry with her. It was so fun! Brittany had it all set up for us when we got there and a list of what she thought I would want. She's so cute. We got to play with the choices, look at lots of different patterns and mix and match the favorites. I've had the Juliska dinnerware chosen for about 3 years. Brittany helped with coordinating the different pieces. For the china... I had another set chosen but was never 100% in love. When I saw this pattern from NM, I instantly loved it. I know it is more expensive than the other I had chosen, but I decided I would just spend the next dozen years getting one piece every few months. I put the pics below of the everyday dinnerware I chose as well as the china. I don't think the websites do them justice. 


Interesting fact: Dallas and Houston are the only stores in the country with a bridal consultant. 


Juliska

China

Final note: Johnny kept saying, "Are you ever going to use any of this stuff?" and "Where are we going to put it?" Answers: 1. Yes, I will use it all. I think I'll even do a blog series about using everything just to prove to the world that I needed it. 2. We will figure that out later.

Thanksgiving with Friends

This past weekend we had the third annual Thanksgiving with Friends. This is one of my favorite things of the year. I have everyone over to my house to celebrate the season with a pre-Thanksgiving Feast. Every year, I make the turkey and some appetizers and everyone brings a side. It is a blast. 

This is the "S" cutting board I bought for Johnny at the Nutcracker Market. Don't tell him, but it was only $19.99. There is a similar one from Williams-Sonoma for $100. I win.

Some of my appetizers plus the table scape. The table scape is up all season. 

More appetizers with the Paul Michael iron and wood cutting board I was telling you about last post. I did mixed cheeses and crackers with Spiced Cranberry Dip. Tip: to make this dip, you need (literally) 4x the amount of cayenne recommended to taste the spice. I also made this yummy Spinach & Artichoke Dip (not pictured). 

My new turkey platter! I used to always borrow the Judy's. I think she was sick of me taking it so she bought me one for myself! 

The boys' job! Carving the turkey. I bit the bullet this year and bought the turkey lifters from Williams-Sonoma. Again, I used to just borrow my mom's. 

Finished product

All of our grub! Sorry it's a little blurry and that I have no more pics. I just got too excited and forgot! 

Nutcracker Market

Nutcracker Market. Oh, the joy! The thought of it makes me smile. I purposely plan my work schedule to be off for it. 


Every year in Houston, there is a huge market to kick off the holiday season. It benefits the Houston Ballet, but I think that is the last thing on everyone's mind. There are (literally) hundreds of booths from all over selling their goods. They sell everything from home goods to Christmas decor to food. It is so fun! This year, we decided to have some breakfast at my house before heading up to Reliant. My mom, mom's BFF, sister, and sister's friend came over for some fuel. Here is the breakfast:


Coffee (of course)
Williams-Sonoma Pumpkin Bread with Pumpkin Butter, baked in my pretty loaf pan
Healthy Egg Casserole from Kraft
Fruit

Once we got there, the "grown-ups" (my mom and Lisa) split from the "kids" (sister, sister's friend, and myself) so we could maneuver more easily. We all walked away with tons-o-stuff. My purchases:
1. Large monogrammed "S" cutting board for Johnny (pic in next post)
2. Large iron and wood cutting board (pic in next post) from Paul Michael
3. Black and sparkle dress from Lot 8
4. Cute, patterned Gift Boxes from It's a Wrap
5. Cross for my Cross Wall from Paul Michael

6. The Pewter Lady- I have a few of her things and have loved them. The pewter is oven to table and always so pretty. This year I added a casserole dish holder and deviled-egg tray to my collection

We decided that all of the good stuff is on the perimeter: Round Top, Paul Michael, and The Pewter Lady. It would take you days to see every booth so save yourself the trouble and keep to the edges. This reminds me, I need to check the dates for next year to plan!

Rome! Part 1

I have a new love: Rome. This was definitely one of my top places to have ever visited in Europe and I will be returning. 


Once we were done in Tuscany, we headed to Rome. Abbey had to head back to work, so Erin, Jennifer and I were left to our own. Abbey had booked us at this hostel in Rome (which I would not recommend so I'll move on). Once we were settled into our digs, we started our visit to Rome with a free walking tour. All major European cities have free walking tours and I think it's a great way to get around. Plus, it's free! They just ask for a little tip at the end. We're talking 5 Euros here. It is led by locals or ex-pats who have some great info and are very entertaining. We did the New Rome Free Tour and I loved it! The tour started in the evening so we finished once it was dark, it was beautiful! Here are the highlights:

The Spanish Steps

The Pantheon

Trevi Fountain

Tossing the coin!

After the tour, our guide suggested a nearby restaurant with (literally) over 100 types of spaghetti. It was delish!

 Our table!

Monday morning, we started the day at the Colosseum with a guided tour. We looked look Tourist McGees with our cool headsets. I had made fun of people doing tours like this before but it was really neat! You can walk away and look at stuff while still being able to hear the guide. See below:

It was beautiful! 

After the Colosseum, we were sick of standing up so we went to a rooftop hotel restaurant and enjoyed a bottle of Prosecco. Yum! 

UT/Tech Weekend

This weekend we participated in two of my favorite activities: 1) Taking a trip to Austin, and 2) Going to a college football game! Remember this from last year? It's crazy to think of what this past year has brought us and where we will be in a year from now. I like to think we can mark our lives in college football seasons.

Warning: I still don't have a new camera so that explains why I have I have so few pics and why the ones I do have are of less quality. This was also my first attempt at the iPhone app Instagram. Here we go!

Friday evening, we arrived in Austin and got ready for the evening. We met 10 friends at a fun, nicer Mexican restaurant in downtown, Manuel's. After dinner we met up with even more friends at some bars downtown. We slipped out right before closing time to grab a cab back to the hotel.

Saturday morning, we woke up at 7AM (ugh) to begin our day. The game started at 11AM so we needed to get busy fast. We had lots of Mimosas and Bloody Marys on our to-do list!

After getting a ride with some strangers to the game, we made it for all of the pre-game festivities.

Cheering on the teams!

It was a beautiful day and we had a blast cheering on our alumni. BUT, the good ole 'Horns won so I was happy!

After the game, we made our way by pedicab to Scholz's Beer Garden for some drinks and snacks. 

We decided we needed a nap after the mere 4 hours of sleep and rough morning we had. We headed back to the hotel for a nap... and never left again. We all woke up, ordered room service, and finished the night with lots of football on TV. It was glorious. 

Sunday morning we met a big group for brunch at Second. It was delish! We had a super fun weekend of football and friends. 2 of the best things in life!