Wednesday, December 26, 2012

bad bloggers forget to charge their cameras

bad bloggers bring their sony nex-f3's 600 miles home for christmas with 4% battery.

bad bloggers don't take pictures of their parents wonderfully-decorated trees (that look better than mine from being carefully curated for the past few decades)

bad bloggers don't take a single family photo at their significant others house (or get a decent picture with their own family... there was one with my mom on my iphone, but it's certainly not blog-worthy)

bad bloggers leave their readers for an entire week because they have to do christmas-y things (or, maybe that's a good blogger? spending time with family trumps blogging? yes, that's a good blogger thing to do, it would only be a bad blogger thing to do if blogging was my day job... sigh)

however, i did get some photos from the weekend before the camera crashed....
christmas 2012 1 christmas 2012 2 christmas 2012 3 christmas 2012 4 christmas 2012 5 christmas 2012 6 christmas 2012 7 christmas 2012 11 christmas 2012 9 christmas 2012 8 christmas 2012 10 christmas 2012 12 christmas 2012 13 christmas 2012 14 christmas 2012 15

1. fixing the korean soon doo boo that our bodega lady made for us the night before we left for ohio
2. me and mr smiley ;)
3. proud parents
4. he's gonna be a good daddy someday!
5. mr p's pops was having a good christmas!
6. snuggling up before unwrapping presents
7. miss ellie girl
8. mr p's pops and little bro
9. the ladies of mr p's family
10. matching gucci bracelets... thanks mama p!
11. matching christmas socks (thanks to me :P)
12. mussels... MMmmm
13. banh bot loc
14. finally some greens! (i mean, where's the cookies?)
15. spaghetti and meatballs

there was family time, there were mussels the size of your head, there was catching up with old friends (and non-so-new baby... he's only 9 months but he's walking and talking!!) there was a new delicious sweet onion salad dressing (stay tuned for the recipe!), there were homemade spaghetti and meatballs, there was laughter with friends, a night of youtube-watching with the parents (who initiated the youtube-watching marathon), there was skyping with family in florida, and lots and LOTS of hours on the road... 600 miles is too far to live from home (when are we moving to chicago again??)

last but not least, we were introduced to some DELICIOUS locally-made cookies! mr p and i came home to at least 6 packages of flour loves sugar cookes displayed on the dining room table when we got home... after eating at least half of the stash in a day and a half, we opted NOT to take the rest home with us (what were we THINKING!?!?) we might buy some for ourselves soon, the cranberry loves white chocolate ones were to... die... for!!

in true jenn & mr p form, we're busy bees through NYE, and have another 10-hour drive home for another wedding 2 weeks from now... i guess it's the price we have to pay for living in such a great place!

cheers, everyone, and happy holidays :)
 

Thursday, December 20, 2012

holiday stress

clean out the car
pack the bags
pack the laundry
(no, we're not in college, but yes, we still bring out laundry home when we can :P)
make food for the road
pack food for the road
pack blankets and warm clothes for the road
(hellllooooo winter storm draco)
buy presents
wrap presents
pack presents in the car
send out the last holiday cards
(whoops! some of you are getting it late)
get to bed early to wake up at 4:30am to hit the road and drive 2+ hours for work
work outside in the cold and wind all day
drive 2+ hours home
pick up mr p
drive 8+ hours to ohio in the middle of a winter storm

that was the to-do list i wrote for myself before i left work... while still in my cubical... 45 minutes after i was allowed to leave...

where did the week before christmas go???
tiny bit of holiday stress is starting to set in....

but it will be all worth it when we get to see our families :)  ...and it helps that tonight we got homemade korean food from the lady at our bodega (wait... what?? what kind of grocery store do you go to!?)  apparently mr p told her yesterday that he liked one particular type of korean dish.  today when we went there to pick up things for the road, she gave us THAT dish already prepared, all we had to do was put it on the stove with some water and tofu!! they are just wonderful people.  she didn't even know if we were going to stop by or not! she just made the dish on the chance we would stop by...

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...and we are SO happy we did!

we're feeling very loved this holiday season... it's the only time of the year when i LIKE getting mail... i get all warm and fuzzy inside when we get christmas cards from many of those we won't get to see during the holidays...

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wish us luck driving back to ohio on the day the mayans say the world will end driving through winter storm draco (again, why are we naming all these storms again??)

cheers!

Monday, December 17, 2012

elf on the shelf at santacon nyc

 
i can say that out of the thousands of santacon participants last saturday, i was the ONLY elf on the shelf that i saw!! there were plenty of girls with next to nothing, plenty of drunkeness, plenty of almost-accidents between pedestrians and cars, plenty of over-crowded bars with lines out the door...
 
i DIYed my costume last year but couldn't participate in santacon because we were dealing with our water to the building being shut off !  the costume was simple though: i cut the biggest circle i could out of white fleece material, then cut a smaller (12" diameter) circle in the middle, and made 1 cut from the inner circle to the outside.  i cut and hot-glued red felt flower petals to the white fleece, and i was done! red tights, red turtle-neck, red and white hat, and some red shoes (i already had some red corduroy toms )
 
luckily we found a bar with no lines, not too crowded, snagged seats, and enjoyed our $3-4 beers (crazy cheap price for manhattan on a saturday!), got our street meat afterwards, and headed home to finish making pom garland and buffalo chicken dip  (not our exact recipe, but this is the easy version :P) before taking off again for our friends' holiday party at the beacon .
 
definitely a busy, but fun weekend!
only a few more days until we get to see our families for the holidays!!
(...so much to do before now and then though :/)
 
cheers!  

Friday, December 14, 2012

paninis and a party


the night started off with gin and tonics.
we moved on with panini-making on our panini-maker:
baguette with:
special buffalo sauce (see below)
thinly-sliced fresh mozarella
roasted chicken (we picked up a rotisserie chicken that night)
frank's red hot
red onions
crumbled gorgonzola
smash inside panini maker/george foreman/hot pan with brick on top until cheese is melty
done!

i opted for a kale and red-leaf lettuce buffalo chicken salad instead, using the special sauce as dressing

mr p's special buffalo sauce
(to be used as a thick and creamy salad dressing, or as a spread for sammiches with a kick, or dunking celery sticks)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup miracle whip
1 cup greek style plain yogurt
1 tbsp spicy brown mustard
3 tbsp Frank's Red Hot
2 tbsp ranch dressing (could achieve similar taste by omitting the ranch and adding ing some spices, but we had this on hand already)

whisk all ingredients together in a bowl and it's ready to go!

after we devoured our sammiches and salads with the new favorite sauce, we headed on over to our local barcade for some brews (think walls lined with 25-cent arcade games and an always-changing, extensive list of craft beers on tap)
we saw lots of friends
we celebrated a birthday
we drank lots of beers
we may or may not have taken a shot of tequila
we scarfed down two boots pizza

then...

i went to work the next day.

was i feeling 100%? no.
was it worth staying out late with fun friends? absolutely!
it's so hard to say no to a night on the town at a place that's merely steps from my front door... gosh i love this town.

cheers to the weekend! what are your plans!?
we're going to santacon and a friend's holiday party :)


p.s. i'm obsessed with my new wedge sneakers , even though mr p says with hesitation "...i guess... they're sorta growing on me..."
p.p.s. santacon is this weekend!! you betcha we're doing it!

Thursday, December 13, 2012

jenn styled: holiday party update

 
 
never again will i make fun of those tweens and sorority girls taking bathroom mirror pictures.
after trying to take a photo of myself in my holiday party attire, i realized those girls truly have talent. i mean seriously. this is the best shot i got out of at least 20...
(no, that's not why i was 10 minutes late to the party, it was late because the 63rd st F train subway stop is practically 10 stories underground...)
 
anyways, it was a great party, at a great restaurant, with wonderful people. it was a much more intimate setting that my company's holiday party, and i kind of liked it that way!!
 
 
cheers!

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

jenn styled: holiday party

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 1. H&M dress (basically this dress for the 90% of us who would just look hideous in it)
2. green tights (mine are opaque solid teal though)
3. vince camuto abril boots

mr p's holiday party is tonight, and this is a VERY close replica of my outfit. i think it's a perfect mix of not showing too much because it's a work event, but it's also a night on the town in manhattan, so it's gotta have a little bit of style. also, at my holiday party i kept it a little more professional because i was the employee... i'm the guest at this one, so it's ok to bring the hemline a wee bit shorter ;)

stayed tuned for the final product tomorrow!
...because we all know that after a work holiday party is NOT an appropriate time to be documenting anything on the internet :P

cheers!
 

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

lately




DSC03315   DSC03318

DSC03326   DSC03330

DSC03331   DSC03332


DSC03341   DSC03350

DSC03346.5   Photobucket 1. creamy avocado pesto pasta with roasted spaghetti squash instead of "actual" pasta
2. chocolate italian ice from torico tastes EXACTLY like a fudgsicle, AND it's dairy-free, AND it's sitting on top of...
3. spicy eggnog ice cream (move over, McD's eggnog shake, this one takes the cake)
4. this is the view you'll get if you try to go to the union square holiday market on a satuday at 2:30
5. a healthy lunch: arugula, spicy meatballs, brussels sprouts, wheatberry salad, and coconut red cabbage salad from dig inn... followed by
6. the only thing ever to win in the battle of my sweet tooth vs. sweets: choco chip cookies and hot chocolate from city bakery...
7. fishs eddy... i could live in that store.
8. hot chocolate from westville (chelsea, manhattan)
9. totally "not" posed.
10. market sides from westville
11. chorizo, egg, and gouda burrito and greens salad with lemon-dill dressing (westville)
12. empty subways when it's a rainy day.. apparently new yorkers don't like to go outside in the rain
13. always amazed at the mosaics in the subway stations
14. brooklyn tabernacle christmas show (it's free! you should go see it!)
15. brooklyn tabernacle christmas show
16. unexpected, incredibly delicious, and certainly appreciated sweets from the first day of hanukkah
17. pretty christmas tree at brooklyn tabernacle
18. kodak moment with the bride to be :)
 
last weekend left us exhausted, but thankful for having so many friends who want to spend time with us! we were able to spend a night in for dinner and a movie (even though i fell asleep, sorry babe), go to kickboxing, shop in the city with the girls, go to an engagement party, get christmas card photos taken, have brunch with 4 out-of-towners and 4 in-towners-that-we-haven't-seen-in-a-while, and see a christmas show with friends we hadn't seen in a LONG time.
 
jersey city & new york city, you've been good to us!
weekend. deemed. a success.
 
cheers!