A Christmas Birthday!

Today is my Mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom! In honor of her, I cooked family dinner tonight. We had the Pioneer Woman's Pot Roast, Brown Rice, Balsamic glazed Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Pear Tart for dessert. 

 Mom and my Gram at our wedding in October. Everyone says they look exactly the same. In fact, when I see pictures of my Gram when she was young, she looks exactly like my Mom did at the same age! It's uncanny.

 Mom being escorted down the aisle by my cousin No. Doesn't she look ravishing?

 As we left the church and hopped into the limo :)

Her and my Dad at dinner that night. 

My Mom is feisty, passionate, loves God with all her might, compassionate, caring, extremely generous, warm, hilarious, witty and creative. 

Happy Birthday to an incredible woman~my Mom!

Love you,

Aim

A Youth Christmas

Got to spend some time with these people last weekend...it was a blast-we ate yummy asian potluck, played a fun Christmas-themed gesture game and had a hilarious white elephant gift exchange. The best part of the day, though, was when we went Christmas caroling at some of the Senior Adult houses in the neighborhood. It was such a blessing to be able to sing to them! They were thrilled that we had come, and I think we were more blessed than they were to be there!

Singing at one of our dear Senior's houses. Special moments!

Can you see "Santa's elves a'workin'?!?"

No? Can you see it here then? Haha. It was a fun game.

I am unsure what our guys are doing in these pics. Oh how I love our guys :)

More game hilarium. I work with a bunch of awesome youth. They really are the cream o'the crop.

One crazy group picture. No people were harmed in the making of this photo. ;)

Merry Christmas from our crazy house to yours!

Aim

The Trim on our Tree

Have I told you lately that I love Christmas?!? Yesterday we got 20 Christmas cards in the mail. (*Aimee does a little dance) Made my week! It was neat because although most of them were picture cards, a few were good, old-fashioned Christmas cards from some of the seniors at our church. I loved them all!

In honor of Christmas this week, I wanted to give you a little lowdown on our Christmas tree decor this year. We started with a pretty clean slate (it is only our first year married, after all) but ended up with something quite full and beautiful. Check out some of our faves~

 The ornament on the left I like just because it encompasses the true meaning of the season.

The UCLA musubi on the right is a gift from my Mom-in-law. No matter how bad our athletics may be, I'm still a bruin-for-life!

 On the left is a Christmas card one of my youth made for me last year. Erika, you're so talented! On the right are two ornaments my Mom brought over from her own collection. The silver ball was Linda's and it makes me happy to have one of her ornaments on my tree. Oh how she loved Christmas! The embroidered candle on the right was made by an older man that my family used to know. Apparently when I was little and a shy thing, I liked this older man and was okay with my parents leaving me with him. Strange, but I've always had an affinity for Seniors so maybe it started young :) haha.

I love these two~bride and groom musubis! Another MIL gift from the Asian Craft show. Score!

 An ornament from Mom commemorating our engagement from last year and a "Love" ornament that I spray painted for Blane, also a momento from our engagement in NY last year.

 On the left, a souvenir from our honeymoon in New Zealand and on the right a locket ornament from Leah and Sherwin commemorating our first home this year. So sweet of them :).

 A personalized "Our 1st Christmas" ornament from Lola & family (they are so sweet to us) and a silver mercury ornament that my Mom bought us at Target because our tree looked "so bare" haha.

 Then there's these guys-my Mom gives me a Mousie ornament every year and these are some of my faves. They have their own little red tree in our living room.

 The ornaments my MIL got us at the Craft Show are so so cute. My favorite is this one on the right of the little clay musubi bride and groom...complete with veil and tux! I have to get a small enough pic to put in there from the wedding. 

 That little red Mousie tree also houses my annual Starbucks ornaments. Can't be me without coffee something right?!?

 I love our tree and our mantle and I could sit for hours in the living room because it's so Christmasy in there! I'm going to be so bummed next week when Christmas is over. Man, time flies!

 Last but not least, our mistletoe! What Christmas decor would be complete without mistletoe? Ours hangs on the bottom of our chandelier in the dining room and it looks pretty sparkling off the chandelier prisms. 

Do you have any favorite ornaments?

Every tree tells a story...what's yours? 

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly, falalalalalalalala!"

Aim

Book Club Moment

My Mom passed on this book to me last night and I read it from cover to cover. I love it when a book is that good! You know the type-"you can't put it down, don't care if you lose sleep, get sucked into the story and characters, wake up thinking about it" type of book.

It's simple writing, but the storyline is really good. And it's not all bogged down by too much passion or lust. If you need a good read, try Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman. It's a winner!

"No matter how busy you may think you are, you must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance."

-Confucius

Happy Reading!

Aim

NZ Honeymoon: Queenstown Hilton

Welcome to our final destination! We arrived in Queenstown in the late afternoon and hopped onto a shuttle that took us to our home for the next six days, the Queenstown Hilton.

Our room was the last one at the end of the building. How pretty is the setting of this place?

 As per his usual, my husband got us upgraded to a mini suite complete with a private jacuzzi on the balcony and a lake view. To be honest, I was a little apprehensive about staying at a Hilton when we booked it originally because I had had a not-so-great experience at the Hilton in New York (think a live cockroach. Ewww!) Thankfully, we got a free voucher from the NY experience that we got to use in NZ so we didn't have to pay for one night! Woot-woot!

The Queenstown Hilton blew my socks off. It had just opened six months prior to our stay there and it had oiled out most of its "new hotel" creases by the time we got there. The location was beautiful, the staff personable and kind, and the room gorgeous. They made us feel special by leaving chocolate and water in our room each day, comping us with free champagne to celebrate our honeymoon throughout or stay and greeting us by name whenever we saw a staff member. Yes, I said "by name." Hello luxury living, I like you :)

There was a special feeling about this place and Blane and I were excited to start exploring Queenstown. But how to get there? We didn't have a rental car and our hotel was a good 10-15 minutes outside of the town center. The Hilton offered a solution for guests like us. What was it? 

Next up~off to town we go!

Mrs. S

Bday Love

I love birthdays! :) Every year I say it's not a big deal but to be honest, who doesn't like being a little celebrated sometimes? Ewww...raw honest emotion right there people!

My nearest and dearest never fail to make me feel special year after year. I know they stress about it because I'm normally the party queen, but they underestimate themselves.

The day started when I woke up to this:

My sweet husband left me a note to find when I woke up, along with an ornament fitting for our year. He can be such a sweetheart sometimes :)

Then I had a lunch date with these two at one of my local faves-the Metro Cafe. We stuffed ourselves with the always yummy Bern Special (chicken sausage, spinach, mushrooms underneath an omelette with a side of potatoes and fresh baguette) and their infamous Sauteed Banana House Special Pancakes. Mmmm good baby.

 Later that afternoon my in-laws dropped by with birthday loot aplenty. On the right is my Mom-in-law's homemade Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing. It is absolutely delicious. I still have some in my fridge and I have no shame about the piece-a-day habit I've formed. On the right are the pink roses that she arranged for me. Have I said lately how awesome my in-laws are?

Quiddie came over to hang with me and we ate Carrot cake (obviously) and had Starbucks Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate that I bought from Target. If you see it, buy it, I promise you won't regret it.

 Then my never-silly parents stopped by. After posing for this pic they also unloaded the birthday loot. Mom bought me a clear covered cake dome (yay! I'd been wanting one), a card perfectly picked by Dad (with an added "Yes! &Mom" scribbled inside after Dad's signature, haha) and a surprise...

 Cookies from my beloved sister and bestie! :D They had slaved away the Saturday before my bday making these beauties for me and my Mom was tapped to hand deliver them to me on the actual day.

 Don't they look professional? I was so impressed. These could be straight out of Bakerella or I am Baker for sure! 

 See that blue cookie on the left? Funny girls, funny ;). Grace and I were laughing because it's our two ages exactly-it's the cookie we're holding in the pic above.

 My sister also had this gift for me-12 Days of Christmas ornaments from Pottery Barn! I love that she gets my love for Christmas :). I've never been one of those December birthday people who is adamant about separation of bday and Christmas. The more Christmas the better in my book!

Blane came home and picked me up to have birthday dinner at Katsuya. Mmm...sushi :). Bonus that we had a gift card from the princess to use too! Overall I'd say that if you want a trendy "Hollywood" sushi experience, then Katsuya is your place. The food wasn't bad, but it wasn't the best fish that I've ever tasted either. Blane and I agreed that Nobu in Malibu was the better choice overall. It was a fun experience though and we were glad that we tried it. :)

 After we got home, Blane surprised me with this ornament. It was the perfect gift for our first Christmas as husband and wife. I know, cheesy, but that's how I feel! Haha. The little heart crystal in the middle was an added bonus-it matches our mistletoe! (hopefully there will be a Christmas decor update soon :)

I was very thankful for all the texts, calls, facebook messages and cards that I received too. Very thankful for the family, friends and community that God has given me. 

What will 32 bring? We shall see, won't we ;)

Aim