30 Years

Skip and I have been married for 30 years!   So...we celebrated of course.   We both took the day off and did some of our favorite things.   We explored the Natural History Museum in D.C.  and stumbled upon an amazing exhibit of orchids:

It was hard to decide which ones were our favorites.  Skip especially liked the white ones, and I'm always partial to yellows.   While at the museum we saw a 3D IMAX movie on Arabia.  Then we had a fabulous lunch at Oyamel, a Mexican Restaurant.  Other than the Guacamole, it sure wasn't typical Mexican food, but very interesting tapas style dishes.

For dessert we went down the street and found the best pistachio gelato we've ever had at a place called Pitango.  It was a wonderful celebration for both of us.

Although the food was good, those loving eyes are for me!

CHEERS!

Lemon-Honey Cupackes

I know.  More cupcakes.   It's a fun and delicious thing to be mildly obsessed with.  These are so good.  I don't have a lot of success with cupcakes, but when I do, and they turn out this moist and delicious, it's so hard to stop eating them.

 
Here's how I did it:

The Cupcakes:

Heat oven to 350.  Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

Whisk together:   2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, 3/4 tsp. each baking powder and baking soda, and 1/2 tsp salt

Whisk together in another bowl:   1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream,  1/4 cup milk, 1-1/2 Tbsp. lemon zest,  4 Tbsp. lemon juice

Beat together until light and fluffy:  3/4 cups softened butter, 3/4 cup honey, and 1/4 cup sugar

Beat in 3 large eggs, one at a time, until blended.

With mixer on low speed, beat in half the flour mixture, then the sour cream mixture.  Beat in remaining flour mixture until just combined.

Bake 18 to 20 minutes.

FROSTING:  Beat 1 cup softened butter, 1/4 cup honey, and and 1-1/2 Tbsp. lemon zest about 2 minutes.  On low speed, beat in 4 cups confectioners sugar until blended  Beat in 7 to 8 Tbsps. lemon juice.

Frost and enjoy!

First Projects of 2011

Here are some pictures of our first projects of 2011.  Actually, the bedroom by the stairs was the first one, but that was more of a repair than a redo.   It's all finished and Kara is moved in there.  It's the same color as it was before, just a new carpet.  It wasn't done by us either.  Insurance helped pay for someone else to do it all.  

It took three Saturdays to pick out paint and do the painting.  The bathroom color is called "smoked oyster", and the bedroom is called "Scotland Road".  The bed is new as well - from IKEA - not too hard, not too soft.  Goldilocks would love it! 

Downstairs bathroom

Downstairs bedroom

Things I Learned in December

1.  Playing keyboard in the pit orchestra for a high school musical (White Christmas) to be performed mid-December precludes doing a lot of the usual December activities.

I never got a picture of the whole cast, just one of the scenes with most of the main characters.

2.  It's Okay to put up only a limited amount of Christmas decorations if you're going to go to Utah for Christmas.

3. It was great spending a Saturday in Charlottesville having a fun day with Ryan and Dara doing Christmasy things like opening gifts, making gingerbread houses, and going out to eat.

4. Sending e-cards is the latest thing.  Here's my favorite:

5. Even though we didn't send any Christmas cards, I loved getting them from others.   Maybe next year...

6. It still snows a lot in Utah.  (Snowing when we arrived, more snow before Christmas, more snow after Christmas, snow on our way out of Utah).

7.  The snowy mountains are beautiful when you can see them.

8.   The best part of the movie "Lilo and Stitch" is the music at the end of it.   It's very fun to dance to.

9. Christmas Eve with Kart's family is amazing.

                

There's lots of food.

Piano playing, singing, violin and cello playing

            

Pretty decorations.

Dancing around the house!

10.  No matter how hard I try, there's always wrapping to be done after midnight.

11.  The magical looking tree on Christmas morning is always worth it.

 

12.  Christmas morning is usually more fun with children and toys.

13.  Owen had a lot of fun on his first Christmas trying to eat everything in sight.

14.  Sing-a-ma-jigs are hilarious.

15. Swedish pancakes for Christmas lunch is a yummy tradition.

16.  Bowling at the Wilk on the Monday after Christmas is crazy fun.

 17.  It's fun to do yoga with a sister, but it's also fun to take pictures of them doing it.

18.  It's a blessing to have beautiful daughters that are not just sisters, but friends.

19.   It's never easy to say "see you later" to family that you've had such a wonderful time with.

20.  Driving home to Virginia from Utah can be cold, lonely, and sometimes scary, but Kara, New Year's Eve in CO with Jamie and family, White Castle in the middle of the night, and sunrises over St. Louis sure helped to make it less so.

Eating Our Dessert First

While I was in Utah, Laura decided we really needed to eat at this cool place called The Chocolate located on State Street in Orem.   So while Laura's downstairs neighbor watched the kids.  (Thanks, Hillary!), Natalie, Kara, Laura, and I went to get dessert there around 2:00.    The actual place is a pretty old house.   This is a picture of the sign. 

It's a small bakery/cafe. The rooms are simple yet beautifully decorated with sofas and tables.   You order your food, find a room to get comfortable in, and they bring your order to your table.

We relaxed for awhile on the sofa in the "blue room" until our food came.  Yes, we only ordered desserts!

First we had a mint brownie, turtle brownie, fruit tart, and caramel tart. Then two glasses of milk to go with a cookie baked in a little pan with a scoop of ice cream on top.   It's called a cazookie!

Boy was everything delicious!  Needless to say, we were pretty full and not really ready to eat dinner at the usual time.   Eventually hunger won, and besides, there was another new place in Orem we just had to try, so we went to Cafe Paesan, a unique Italian Bistro where they serve cafeteria style, and everything is fresh.  I love eating in Orem.   Of course the best eating of all is right there in Laura's kitchen.  Among other things, she makes some amazing pizza!   We also had some delicious fajitas one night.  Laura got the recipe from Real Simple.com.    It's definitely one I'd  love to try again.

Halloween With the Barnetts

Kart's family has an interesting tradition of dressing up on Halloween and going out to dinner.   I'm not sure the history of that tradition, but it's been fun to see some of their pictures over the last few years of their whole family in costumes.  Since Natalie and I arrived in Utah on the 29th, and their Halloween dinner was going to be on the 30th, we spent a lot of the next day shopping for and putting together costumes so we could join them for dinner.  

After seeing a cowboy hat in the craft store, I decided to be a cowgirl, which was nice because Owen was already planning to be a little calf:

Emma was Princess Tiana from the Disney Movie, "The Princess and the Frog":

Aiden was a fireman that got into the face paint did his own makeup (I love the green eyebrows!):

Kara and Natalie were Salt and Pepper:

It was tough getting her hair poofy enough, but Beth was a beautiful Sarah Palin:

Laura was a cat, and Kart was Papa Smurf:

We all arrived at Red Robin before Kart's family and took several pictures while we were waiting.   The Barnetts arrived in their costumes, and we had time for lots more pictures, since the hostess told us it would be another hour before we could get a table:

Here's a view of the dinner table:

It was fun being part of the Barnett's crazy tradition!