Staying Young is Expensive...

The day after Christmas Eddie and I went to Isaac and Courtney's to exchange gifts. Eddie is what you would call a hot sauce connoisseur and they bought him a little suitcase full of all different types of hot sauces, so cute right?! Perfect for Ed.

Gracie seemed to like her gifts too:

 

We also bought Grace a dog, Violet, who is programmed to know her name, favorite food, color and animal - pretty impressive. Grace's grandma bought her a wagon and she likes to go for rides with Violet:

After we were done exchanging gifts we started to make a pot of chili and cupcakes in celebration of Kasie's birthday. Once the cupcakes were done, we frosted them and threw on a 25:

When Kasie and Jeremy arrived we ate chili and sang to Kasie:

Happy Birthday Kasie - You are such an awesome friend and I am truly blessed to have you in my life. I don't know what I would do without you or your family in Vegas. You make me feel at home. I love you!!

December 27th is also my Moms birthday so Happy Birthday Mom!! I wish you could have been here for the birthday celebrations too. You're truly the strongest woman I know and I love you so much!!

While I'm on the subject of birthdays, my birthday is just around the corner and I'm starting to feel VERY old, 24 years old to be exact. I've been taking very good care of myself (eating healthy and working out), but apparently I can't stop my internal aging clock because I've recently gotten my first gray hair AND I've noticed wrinkles under my eyes. I know... embarrassing, right?! So this year for my 24th birthday I'm making a birthday wishlist and here it is:

1.) Fresh: Creme Ancienne Skin Creme - $135

2.) Fresh: Creme Ancienne Eye Creme - $95

 3.) Anything Nike to keep me in shape (Nike is my favorite).

The Fresh Creme Ancienne skincare products are expensive; however it's hand-made and if you read about the product it's pretty remarkable. We also sold it at the boutique I worked at and it sold out like crazy. Staying young is expensive; if only I could just be a vampire...

SURPRISE: Breakfast in Bed!

 

 

We spent Christmas Eve with The Cantor's at their annual Christmas Eve party where we ate lots of food, drank and horribly sang karaoke. If you know Jeremy you know he's not one to sing karaoke, but we got him to sing all right... he sang the "Humpty Dance". Miraculously he knew ever word and therefore it was one of the highlights of my night. I believe Kasie even has it on video so now she has blackmail on him so it was an even bigger score for her.

I just love this family to pieces...

they sure know how to make a holiday special!

This year was our eighth Christmas together, but it was our first Christmas as husband and wife so I wanted to do something really special for Eddie. I went grocery shopping earlier in the week and got orange juice (his favorite), stuff to make egg soufflé and cinnamon rolls. I also bought a heart shaped cookie cutter so that I could shape everything like hearts. I put everything in brown bags and hid it in the back of the refrigerator the day before Christmas Eve so that he wouldn’t see it. It was hard to keep the secrets from him, but I managed. Since the egg soufflé had to sit in the refrigerator over night, I told Eddie he had to go in the bedroom and shut the door when we got home from the Cantor’s on Christmas Eve because I needed to make something that was a surprise for him. By the time I was done in the kitchen it was after 12:30pm! When I got into bed Eddie said, “It smells like bacon in here… can I have some bacon?” I just convinced him that he was crazy and that it was NOT bacon and he went to sleep...

I woke up around 8am to put the egg soufflé in the oven and started making the cinnamon rolls. When everything was finished I put it on a tray and carried it into our bedroom and served him breakfast in bed. This is how it turned out:

Close Up:

It turned out sooo yummy (extremely filling) and he was even surprised too! I know it's not a new car or a new game for him to play, but I could really tell that he appreciated all of my effort and that he really loved the thought I put into this. The meaning of Christmas really changed for us this year and we are just happy to have each other and appreciative that we are both healthy. This was my way of reminding him that it's the simple things in life that keep me happy... even on Christmas day! :)

When we were done eating I cleaned up and we went on Skype with my niece and nephew, Christopher and Jayla, while they opened our Christmas presents. Seeing them on Christmas was a gift all on its own. Once they opened their gifts we finally got to open the gifts under our tree from Eddie's parents and from each other.

Pearl was first, of course:

Then we got some good gifts as well:

 

Eddie and I decided not to splurge on each other this year so I bought him a new pair of tennis shoes (his old ones were gross and his new ones are Steelers colors... muahaha!!) and he got me two nike dri fit shirts, the movie Despicable Me and the Black Eyed Peas CD. Not to mention his parents sent us a cookbook, food processor, ornaments, etc. It was thee PERFECT Christmas!

Christmas Cook-a-thon

This year we decided to bake cookies to pass out at my work and bring to The Cantor's as treats for everyone. Let me just say... it was A LOT more work then we thought it would be. What we thought would be a one day thing turned out to be a three day cook-a-thon, but it was fun and they turned out so cute!

On Tuesday we started to make the cookies. Ed did the manly things like rolling out the dough for the sugar cookies and checking the basketball scores in between, while I balled up all the chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter blossoms and prepared them for the oven. Then, on Wednesday I frosted and decorated all the snowmen cookies with Ed's help on the regular sugar cookies.

Pearl helped out, too:

These are ALL the cookies we made:

Snowmen With Earmuffs:

(idea from Courtney)

Chocolate Chip Cookies With Walnuts:

Peanut Butter Blossoms:

The baking/cooking continued well into Thursday as well... now that the frosting was dried, I packaged the cookies onto Christmas plates and made everyone name tags. Once that was done we were on to the P's - Pumpkin Pies and Pierogies!

Once again, Ed stuck to the manly chore of rolling out the homemade pie crust:

I was in charge making the pie filling and filling:

The Finished Products:

After we were done with the homemade pumpkin pies we started making my Grandma Sophie's homemade pierogies because Christmas Eve just wouldn't be the same without them. Homemade pierogies are tradition in my family and I've been making them ever since I've moved to Las Vegas. Each year they seem to get easier, but it sure is nice to have Eddie there to help me roll out the dough while I stuff the pierogie with the mashed potatoes and cheese.

We ended up getting 45 pierogies:

We finally finished after 11 pm and needless to say we were EXHAUSTED.

(Pearl too!)

Hope everyone enjoyed the goodies! :)

Let There Be LIGHT!

Each year we pile in the car with a cup of hot chocolate and go searching for Chirstmas lights. When I think of Christmas lights in Vegas I usually hear ::whomp whomp whomp:: in my head... nothing seems to compare to seeing Christmas lights in Ohio on snow covered homes; HOWEVER these past few years we've been finding some neighborhoods that go all out! There's a neighborhood by Ventano's that has cars lined up to view their houses and this house was by far my favorite this year:

It was football themed: Steelers vs. Patriots (BOO!!!!) and the roof was decorated like a football field with the players on it, including my favorite - Troy Polamalu!

Grace's favorite seemed to be the Alice in Wonderland theme:

Courtney and Isaac also found a neighborhood by their house that was really pretty as well. Not as grand, but still gave us Christmas cheer. I really liked this house because of the white tree:

When I have a house to decorate I will probably stick with a classic theme like the picture above as opposed to the football theme, depending on the neighborhood I live in. It sure is fun to drive around and see all the different ways people decorate!

Icing On The Cake

Since my whole family couldn't be in Vegas to celebrate my graduation my mom had each of them write me a letter; which was the most touching and emotional time of my mom's whole Vegas vacation. My cousin, Sara, had a very interesting letter... it looked like a scroll and was tied with a little black bow. Inside it read, "As I was writing this, I almost wrote Kelli Brooke. I guess it just shows how much you've accomplished and changed this past year." After reading that, I felt such a sense of accomplishment not because I got married this year, but because I graduated while planning a wedding, working full-time (sometimes more), supporting myself, AND living approximately 2,195 miles away from my family. Sometimes I forget how much hard work I put into graduating and I'm so glad I stuck it out because waving to my mom while I sat with my graduating class was definitely the icing on the cake.

I can honestly say I would not have made it through UNLV without Eddie. There would be days that I would work from 8am-5pm then go to school from 5:30pm-9:45pm and I'd come home to a warm meal on the table. Then after I'd eat he'd keep me up if I had to study for a test the next day. I really don't know what I would have done without his continuous support... thanks, Ed!

A special thanks to this lil' cutie for 

always wagging her tail when I come home.

And of course, many thanks to my wonderful mom 

who has inspired me to want to make her proud.

Pics From Commencement:

FUN FACTS OF OUR CLASS PROFILE:

2011 Graduates

Largest Winter Graduating Class

58% Female (Heck yes ladies!)

42% Male

Youngest Graduate: 20

Oldest Graduate: 72

Average Age: 28 (I'm only 23!)

Students came from 38 states (I'm from Ohio).

A grandmother and her grandson graduated together.

Our class was the MOST diverse graduating class at UNLV to date.

After Commencement, we headed to Red Rock Resort to check my mom into her room. The hotel was decorated beautifully for Christmas and we took pictures in front of their Christmas tree:

It was hard to say bye to my mom, but it was a trip I will never forget. Although it would have been nice to celebrate with my whole family, I know they were all thinking about me. This day was very important to me and I was looking forward to it for quite some time. I was fortunate enough to share it with my devoted husband and amazing mother; I couldn't have done it without them. Thanks to all my family and friends for the support over the years! :)

Fremont Street

Eddie is always asking me, “where did you come from?” because my mom and I are so different, but we’re really so much alike at heart. My mom has thee worst sense of direction, I mean she could get lost on a one way street that she has traveled on everyday of her life, but it’s a quality I love about her very much. My mom has also feared driving on the freeway for as long as I could remember, like full blown cigarette in the hand panic attacks (I know, nasty, right?!). So my crazy little mom meets me for lunch and tells me she drove the rental car to meet me and here’s how the conversation went down:

Me: “Oh. My. God. You drove on the 215?”

Mom: “Is that a freeway?”

Me: “Yes, it’s our major freeway.”

Mom: “No, I didn’t take the freeway.”

Eddie: “Yes, That’s how you got here!”

See, no sense of direction and driving on a three lane freeway without even knowing… gosh, I just love her! I must get my sense of direction from my dad and my humor from my mom because she always makes me laugh.

Every time my mom comes to Vegas it’s become an inside joke about the places she likes to frequent… my LEAST favorite, Fremont Street. We parked at the Golden Nugget and I'm glad we did because we got to see their amazing pool for the first time.

The center of their pool is a shark/fish tank that has a slide going through it. Ed and I saw it on an episode of CSI: Las Vegas, but it was interesting to see it in person. It was really neat!

After checking out the Golden Nugget we went outside to check out the light show where they played music by The Doors. It was a really good show and I got some cool pics:

I must say we had a good time and most importantly, my mom enjoyed herself. My moms visit just keeps getting better day-by-day.