Christmas Pictures

So there isn't much that's very Christmas-y about these pictures, other than that we're wearing red and used them for our Christmas card! 


But anyway, Chelsy Hulet from our ward took these for us for free! She's awesome. Check out her blog at chelsyannphotography.com .

We went down to Provo Canyon sometime in November and took these. I was hoping for some snow but I love the warm glow of the pictures. And, I'm grateful that we haven't had snow period :)

Here are some of our favorite shots!

Thanks Chelsy! 

First Presidency Christmas Devotional

One of the things that I look forward to the most during the holiday season is the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. This year, I made sure that I was going to watch it in person! To my surprise, both Nina and I were selected for tickets. Together, we had a total of 10 tickets! We invited some of our friends and made it one, big date. 

Dawson's, Anderson's, Stevenson's, Monson's, & the Simmons'!

I love hearing the members of the First Presidency speak on Christ and the true Christmas Spirit. It is always a wonderful reminder, right at the beginning of the month, to keep it all in perspective. All of the talks were amazing, but President Utchdorf's talk really hit home. He spoke about how we all have the "perfect" idea of Christmas and that it never turns out that way. The busy-ness of the season isn't mistake/chaos-proof. Something always goes wrong. And it's ok! Because Christ is the reason for the season. I also enjoyed the special viewing of the free videos on the life of Christ. I had goosebumps the whole time. I loved hearing President Eyring quote the scriptures on the birth and life of Christ. It is always so powerful when they quote scripture from memory. You hear the conviction and truth in their voices! Finally, I always look forward to our dear prophet's Christmas talk. President Monson always references the poems and books that he likes to read every Christmas. He recites several lines and quotes, again from memory. I'm thinking of reading adding "The Mansion" by Henry van Dyke and the traditional "Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens to my Christmas reading list. My favorite quote from the whole devotional was this one: “A wise Christian once urged, ‘Let us not spend Christmas … but let us keep Christmas in our hearts and in our lives.' This is my plea tonight, because when we keep the spirit of Christmas, we keep the spirit of Christ, for the Christmas spirit is the Christ spirit.” 

Finally, I loved hearing the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing Christmas songs. I couldn't choose a favorite, but I did enjoy singing along to the third verse of "Silent Night." It was a great devotional, and it left all who attended (members and non-members alike) with a greater appreciation for the birth of the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ. If you missed it, you can watch the devotional here. 

After the devotional, we ran across the street to view the lights on Temple Square. I loved seeing Temple Square lit up! As if it isn't beautiful enough already! We walked all around, took some pictures, and headed back home. It was a great night! 

"Christmas, Christmas Time is Here..."

And I am SO excited! We have had some fun so far this wonderful holiday season:

1. We put up our Christmas tree together as soon as we returned from Idaho.

2. We hung our stockings and all our trimmings...

3. We went to Spanish Fork's "Festival of Lights" with our good friends, the Stevenson's. 

4. We've drank a ridiculous amount of hot chocolate and listened to Christmas songs for hours on end (our favorite albums are by Josh Groban, Michael Buble, the Elf Soundtrack and Glee!). 

5. We've baked yummy reindeer cookies (thank you Pinterest). 

6. We attended the lighting of the Riverwoods. There were Christmas lights everywhere, Christmas music in the air, ice sculptures, cookies, and Santa! 

We're also reading a chapter a day from Luke to remind us of the true reason for it all - Christ. This is something that my old institute teacher (the amazing John Hilton III) started and I've always wanted to implement as a tradition in our home. It has been a wonderful experience so far! 

We are so excited for our trip back east (exactly 1 week, 2 days, 9 hours, and 47 minutes till we're on our plane). Yes, very excited. Christmas isn't Christmas without family! 2 more days left of class and then it's time to study, study, study! 

Hope you're all enjoying the holiday season so far! 

My Personal Cuban Chef

So for the last two days, I've been pretty sick. It's no surprise to me. The stress of finals always does this to my frail body. Anyway, since I've been sick Blaine has done most of the cooking. Today, he really really made my day. He started cooking before lunch and forbid me to watch. All I knew was that it had chicken, was made in the crock pot, smelled amazing, and I didn't have to do a thing. I didn't resist.

Dinner comes around and this little white boy surprised me with Cuban chicken fricassee. It was SO good! It tasted just like my mom's food. The only suggestion I would make would be to add Sazon Completa seasoning to the chicken before throwing it in the crock pot. No real Cuban dish is complete without some Sazon Completa! Other than that, WOW! Maybe this is such a big deal to me because I haven't had Cuban food in forever and I haven't been too successful every time I attempt to cook something Cuban. But anyway, I will definitely be making this often since you really can't fail with a crock pot.

I'm so grateful for a husband who takes care of me while I'm sick, and goes beyond that by making me food that I miss so much! Who knew that Blaine would turn out to be my own little Cuban chef :)

One More Thing to Be Grateful For...

THE NBA LOCKOUT ENDED!

We are so excited for this season, even if it's a short one! We're ready to cheer on our team. 

GO HEAT! 

Thanksgiving

Every year since we've been dating, Blaine and I go to good ol' Declo Idaho for Thanksgiving. Blaine's grandparents and aunt and uncle live there. We absolutely love visiting them. We always look forward to Aunt Jan's amazing cooking, Uncle Lynn's neverending jokes, spending time with Grandmom and PopPop and playing with the kids. This trip was so nice because Blaine and I haven't left Provo since our summer vacation. We usually visit Vegas and Idaho a lot but this semester has been different since Blaine works on Saturdays. So we were really looking forward to getting away for a couple of days.

Tuesday night we arrived, had dinner, and enjoyed talking with our family. The next day, I started helping Jan bake some pies for Thanksgiving. She makes the best coconut cream pie ever. So in the process of making them, I messed the cream up by not stirring the eggs fast enough into the hot, smooth cream. We had to go get more ingredients. I felt so bad! But this mistake really helped me learn how to make my favorite pie ever -Aunt Jan style. I also discovered one of Aunt Jan's secret ingredients - Madagascar Vanilla Bean paste. YUM! I will never go back to using regular vanilla again.

We all helped with Thanksgiving preparations. Blaine and Grandmom were in charge of peeling the yams for the sweet potato casserole. This dish is Blaine and I's favorite. It's what we look forward to the most for Thanksgiving. Before I met Blaine, I absolutely hated yams and sweet potatoes. But one Thanksgiving at Aunt Jan's changed all that. Now I eat all things sweet potato. This trip, I also learned to like something that I've never been a fan of. I don't like banana bread. I have problems. I don't like a lot of fruits but I do like bananas but I hate banana bread. Makes sense. Anyway, I've tried chocolate chip banana muffins and all kinds of banana breads. I just don't like it. But Aunt Jan made some banana bread Tuesday night. She shoved a piece into my mouth before I could protest (in her defense, she didn't know that I didn't like banana bread). I tried it and LOVED it! So I stole her recipe :)

Anyway, Thanksgiving Day was great. We ate so much food and were surrounded by family. Blaine and I also talked about the many things that we are grateful for. We really are so blessed! We had leftovers for days. It was so yummy. We watched classic Christmas movies - Home Alone, Christmas Vacation, and Elf (my personal favorite). We usually help Aunt Jan put up her Christmas decorations the night of Thanksgiving, but she had them all up before we arrived! 

So Blaine and I left at 9:30 PM to begin our Black Friday shopping. Aunt Jan had to work the next day and gave us her shopping list. It was crazy. Walmart was like a jungle. People were going wild and it was packed! I thought that it wouldn't be so bad since we were in middle-of-nowhere Idaho, but I was oh so wrong! We were able to grab everything that we needed in less than an hour and left in time to drive an hour to Twin Falls Idaho for some more shopping. We waited in line at Best Buy for an hour to grab the Xbox 360 Holiday bundle. Blaine's broke that week so we decided that this was a good deal. We had about 500 people in front of us and didn't think we were going to get one. To our surprise, we grabbed one of the last ones! Blaine was one happy guy. The rest of the night, we were in and out of stores. At around 2:00 AM - 3:30 AM, we became extremely tired. There weren't any stores open that we wanted to go to, so we attempted to take a small nap before more stores opened at 4:00 AM. It was cold and uncomfortable so we didn't get much sleep. Our car was so packed that we couldn't recline our chairs! After realizing that taking a nap would be  impossible, we grabbed some breakfast at McDonald's and headed over to more stores. We didn't finish shopping till around 7:00 AM and didn't make it home till 8:00 AM. Uncle Lynn had some more breakfast ready for us, we ate and went to bed by 9:00 AM. We were so exhausted. I didn't wake up till 5:00 PM! Although we bought a lot of great things, my favorite Black Friday deal was the marble Christus statue. I've always wanted one and really think it's a beautiful piece to display in any Christian home.

That night, we watched the LDS film 17 Miracles. It was such a good movie. It's based on true accounts of the pioneers in the Willie Handcart Company. It made me feel so grateful for the pioneers, the gospel, for being born in this country and during these times, and for all the things that we have! These people had so much faith. I had chills throughout the entire movie. I highly recommend it! Even though we slept till 5:00 PM that day, Blaine and I were still pretty tired. We had no problem going to bed at our usual time.

Saturday was a great day as well. Aunt Jan is a Beehive advisor and taught a class in church on Sunday about heritage and traditions.  So Saturday we made some traditional Christmas cookies that Blaine's great grandmother would make for the whole family as a treat for the class. We made chocolate crinkles and almond crescents. They were so so good! It was fun learning more about Blaine's family and their traditions. I am so grateful that I married into a family that is so great. I love them all so much and it's always fun to get to know them better. Jan's class was great and the rest of Sunday was a typical family gathering. Everybody came over for lunch. Blaine played games with the kids, I curled Aidan's hair, we played with Rusty, Jan's dog. We talked and just lounged around - not doing much but having a great time. Unfortunately, our relaxing break had to come to an end. But we had a great time with our Idaho fam! We love them so much and are so grateful to have them near!

(I always forget to take pictures while we're in Idaho! I promise to take more pictures on our next trip).

Wait Your Turn!

I loved this. I am crazy about Christmas. I have been thinking about it all year long. I do look forward to everything about it. I've been stocking up on Christmas decor. BUT, I do want to start appreciating and equally celebrating the great holiday of Thanksgiving! It really is a wonderful thing to have a designated day in the year to sit with family, eat delicious food, and just ponder about all the things that we're grateful for. Too often we start worrying about the traveling, gifts, and shopping for Christmas. We start thinking about all the things that we don't have, so that we can put them on our wish list. And we totally don't even think about (really think about) and celebrate Thanksgiving. Yes, it isn't the most exciting and fun holiday of the year, but it's an important one. And I love it. This year, it is a family goal of ours to celebrate and value Thanksgiving for being as awesome as it is! We have so much to be grateful for, that it'd be a shame not to.

Happy Month-Long Thanksgiving! 

Halloween

The whole month of October this year has been a lot of fun. We have been celebrating Halloween since October 1st. We started by decorating our little apartment with Halloween decor, inside and out. We visited Cornbelly's with Damaris and did the corn maze. We've watched several scary movies with the Stevenson's. Blaine and I don't really love scary movies so we rarely watch them. But it was fun watching them with the Halloween spirit in mind!

On the 21st, we went to the temple with our friends, the Slaugh's and the Bennett's. Afterwards, we carved some pumpkins together. This was my first time ever carving a pumpkin. I know, it's pretty ridiculous. But I was a brat growing up and thought that pumpkins were nasty :) After experimenting with some recipes for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and pancakes, now I think that pumpkins are yummy. Anyway, it was still pretty hard for me to clean the inside. Blaine ended up doing most of it. I did the fun part of carving the outside. Overall, it was a lot of fun and I'll get over it as I do it more :)

The next day we went to SLC with the Stevenson's. We ate Chipotle and went to the U to watch "Thriller", a Halloween-themed dance show. Nina and I saw it about 2 years ago, but we wanted to take the guys with us this time. It was such a good show. Before it started, they had "zombies" walking around scaring people. I'm a huge scaredy cat, but I managed to not scream when one sneaked up behind me (I jumped in my seat). I was even brave enough to take a picture with this creepy chic.

The show was great. It was funny at times, scary at others, and above all, very creative. I didn't think that the dancing was top notch, but it was good. They had numbers on Jason, the Salem witch trials, Chuckie, Frankenstein and his bride, children of the corn, and other traditional Halloween stories. Of course, they opened and closed with Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Michele came over on Wednesday and did my nails. She could've done something more extravagant but I just  wanted a small ghost. I love ghosts! (Fake ones, of course).

So, I was really wasn't sure if we should dress up this year. We didn't have much going on the weekend of Halloween and our apartment isn't big enough to throw a party. We were pretty discouraged. But of course, the day comes and you want to dress up. Blaine and I went to the D.I., (as did all of Provo) to find our last-minute costumes. I found a white dress and Blaine found an old suit. In less than an hour, I quickly transformed us into a zombie bride and groom. I thought it was a fun idea to do this year since it's our first Halloween as a married couple. I've never dressed up as anything scary or gory before, but it was a lot of fun! I was so surprised at how cooperative Blaine was. When we first started dating, he wasn't crazy about dressing up for Halloween. I feel that my enthusiasm has rubbed off over the years :)

Nina's friend threw a small party Friday night. Afterwards, we went out to eat at IHOP with our costumes. Nina and Matt were nerds. Steph was Lady Gaga and Zach was an Indian guru. We went to a dance party after, but felt that it wasn't the place for married couples to be at. We ended up playing Monopoly Deal over at the Simmons' place (yes, we've gotten them addicted too). It was a fun night!

Saturday night, Blaine and I stayed home and watched Hocus Pocus together. It had been forever since I've watched it. As ridiculous as the acting and effects are, it reminds me of my childhood and will forever be a Halloween classic. For lunch on Halloween day, I made ghostly pancakes with bloody scrambled eggs (bloody as in "ketchup") haha. We also had a jack-o-lantern pizza for dinner and watched Casper together!

And of course, the whole month has been one of eating a ridiculously unhealthy amount of candy. I really missed trick-or-treating or having kids come over and handing candy to them. I'm looking forward to the Halloweens when we have kids to go trick-or-treating with! Hope you all have had a happy and safe Halloween! 

Damaris Visits!

So my lovely sister visited us for 6 days. They were some of the best days of the year! After some awesome family time in August, I was really homesick for a while. Having her here was just amazing - I really can't put it into words.

Wednesday night we picked her up from the airport after Blaine's birthday dinner. We hugged and she gave Blaine all his gifts from the Miami clan. Immediately, we started yapping away about this and that - the way we do when we talk on the phone. By the time we got home, it was pretty late. We talked a little more and went to bed. But I was so excited that Damaris was over in our living room, that I could barely fall asleep. The next morning, I woke up without a problem. I missed class (it's not everyday that your sister comes to visit you) but I did have to go in for work. I was SO bummed. But I went to work, completed an inspection, and an hour into my shift, my boss said that there was nothing else for us to do and that we could do homework. I asked her if I could leave early and she said yes. I was ecstatic. Blaine and Damaris picked me up and we went for some lunch at Cafe Rio. Cafe Rio is the first place Damaris goes to every time she's in town. Cafe Rio is a special place for me because it was the first place/time that I saw Blaine after the mission and, guess who was with me? Damaris! (She was in town shopping for her wedding dress). We had a great time there and decided to go shopping in the outlets of Park City.

I'm surprised that Damaris hadn't been there before. But this trip made up for all the times she hadn't gone. We went into every single store. Damaris bought me some beautiful shoes and a jean jacket. Blaine got some jeans that actually fit him (he gets skinnier everyday -_-) and Damaris got a lovely dress from BCBG. While we were in Levi's, Damaris and I experienced a hysterical laughing attack. I've been wanting a jean jacket for a while. It's a must in every closet. So I tried one on and decided that it was too much money and that it was okay. I didn't need it. Damaris nodded her head in agreement and I left to go help Blaine pick out some jeans.  I turn around to find Damaris sneakily carrying the jean jacket to the cash register. I caught her gaze and we both burst out laughing. And it didn't stop for a while. The cashier looked at my sister like if she was crazy. We even cried of how much we were laughing. By the time we got out of the Levi's store, my stomach was hurting. I don't know what sparked the laughter, but it was one of those things that just happens when we're together. On the way home, we picked up Limitless to watch together. It sucked. Don't ever watch it. It was confusing, gory (for my taste), and just a waste of time. We ended up falling asleep watching it.

Friday we skipped breakfast to prepare ourselves to eat at Tucanos. This is another stop for Damaris when she's in Utah. Also, Blaine had a meal there for his birthday. By the time lunch came around, we were starving. We walked around The Riverwoods until we were called to be seated. It wasn't long before I was already too full for any more meat. Also, I usually tend to fill up on the salad bar. Not the smartest choice when you're at a Brazilian grill but I became obsessed with their pesto pasta salad. Damaris and Blaine were troopers and encouraged me to eat more and more. They're hilarious. Being very financially-minded, they wanted to get their moneys' worth of meat. And they did. Blaine didn't stuff his face as bad as last year though. We went for his birthday and he looked like he was going to blow up. Literally. Anyway, we were so full that we decided to go home and let our food settle. We laid down in the living room. Blaine immediately passed out, while Damaris and I talked and talked and talked. We talked about our future, babies, family, school, life, food, marriage, the gospel, fashion, our hair, this and that, everything, girl stuff...sister stuff.

Blaine and Damaris at Tucanos. 

Once Blaine woke up, we decided to head to University Mall. We didn't shop tons (due to University Mall's lack of EVERYTHING) but I did get my first Yankee candle ever! It's delicious. Damaris was surprised how the Nordstrom here is so small and, basically, sucky. We also went to Michael's and bought some things for Halloween and Christmas (I started buying Christmas ornaments! :]). Once at home, we realized that we were still pretty full from Tucanos. I had wanted to make cake batter pancakes for breakfast on Blaine's birthday but he had to work early and we didn't wake up in time. So we decided to have a dessert-like, breakfast for dinner type of thing and made Blaine some cake batter pancakes! He loved them. He loves anything cake batter flavored. They were a lot of fun and I see myself making this a birthday family tradition. While Blaine played video games, Damaris and I made some Halloween ghost lanterns. I saw them on pinterest a long time ago and loved them. It was fun, cheap, easy, and fast (like 10 minutes fast). Damaris also helped me put up the rest of my Halloween decorations in time for October 1st.

Saturday, General Conference started and we watched the first session at home while I made some breakfast. It was nice to be making breakfast for my sister. Every time we're in Miami she's always cooking for us, treating us, and taking care of us. It was my turn for once! We got ready and headed up to Salt Lake City for the afternoon session. Damaris had 2 tickets already so we needed to get one more. This year, it was a lot harder to find tickets for Conference. I go without any tickets every year and get some without a problem! Anyway, we were able to get one more ticket for Blaine and got pretty awesome seats. Conference was amazing, as always. But it was even better with Damaris around!

After Conference, we went to The Melting Pot for dinner. It's Blaine and I's favorite restaurant and we've never been together. Damaris decided that she needed to fix that. We had a wonderful time. The food was delicious and the company was even better. We didn't make it in time for Blaine to go to priesthood session, so he stayed with us while we shopped at The Gateway. We quickly went to the stores that we wanted to: Anthropolgie and Ann Taylor Loft. Damaris bought me a couple of shirts and my first Anthropologie dress. She spoils me too much.

As if we didn't do enough on Saturday, Blaine had proposed the idea of going to Cornbelly's after shopping. We had packed a change of clothes so that we wouldn't have to drive back to Provo and then back to Thanksgiving Point. We had a good time. It was Damaris' first time in a corn maze. There aren't many fall activities or festivals in Miami due to the weather, so it was a different experience for Damaris. We went from station to station, doing as much as we could. We went on a hayride, through the insides of a monster, observed awesome pumpkin carvings, crawled through tunnels of hay, competed in duck races, and took pictures. The corn maze took us a while, even with the clues and text message-helps. Damaris and I gave up after some time and left Blaine to figure it out. He really enjoys corn mazes and didn't mind at all.

The next day we woke up early in order to make it on time to Sunday's morning session of Conference. We didn't have tickets so we needed to stand and ask. Again, tickets weren't being given out as much this year. Unfortunately, we didn't get in. But we did watch the session in the Tabernacle. For lunch, we had a little picnic in a park. We had sandwiches, fruit, kettle corn chips (yum), and some sweets. A bee was bugging us the whole time and it was pretty annoying. Aside from that, it was a nice little picnic. The weather was very cooperative, unlike other General Conferences. I told Damaris that it would be cold and it was sunny and beautiful. But every General Conference, whether in April or October, the weather is cold! Damaris brought good weather our way. We didn't have tickets for the afternoon session either and we were determined to get in. We were posted outside early and had our little signs up. Damaris was the only one that got tickets. But it took us a while. Again, we got good seats and enjoyed hearing the messages of the prophet, apostles, and leaders of this Church. I'm excited to listen and read them again until next General Conference. I know that the inspired messages are what we need to hear for our day and time! After Conference, we visited Bruce's family in Sandy for dinner. It was great seeing them again!

Sunday night was a sad one. I didn't want Damaris to leave the next day! Monday, I helped Damaris pack up and we ran some errands together before she left. We dropped her off at the airport and I cried like a little girl once she was out of sight. I knew I was going to be sad, but I didn't think I was going to cry as much as I did. I went to work after we dropped her off and that helped me forget that she wouldn't be home later on. I had such a great time with Damaris here. It wasn't hectic or stressful. I didn't feel like I needed to have all these cool things planned. We didn't do everything that we wanted to, but I realized that all I really wanted was to spend time together. We just did the things that we would do together if we lived closer (running errands, cooking together, doing crafts, talking, eating out, etc.). It was just what I needed to hold me over until December. It was different having her here without Bruce and the rest of my family, but it was great nonetheless. It was a nice change to having sister time in person instead of over the phone (I treasure those phone calls like crazy!). It was the perfect visit with my bestest friend.

P.S. 57 days till winter vacation! :)

P.S.S. Thanks Bruce for surviving 6 days without your wife!

Blaine's Birthday Celebrations...

I'm pretty crazy about birthdays. I enjoy them. I enjoy my own. I enjoy making people feel special on theirs'. I feel that it really is such a special day! Anyway, my dear grandma really had this whole birthday thing down. When she lived with us, she'd spoil me to the max on my "birthday month." All throughout February, she'd do little things like make me my favorite food or buy me a small present. So I've been doing the same for Blaine. He loves it! It  kind of got out of control this year. He'd wake up everyday super excited to see what surprise I had for him. I've created a monster! But in all seriousness, I love making him feel extra special in September.


I bought Blaine little practical things that he wanted throughout the month. He complained one day that he didn't have like a travel mug or water bottle to take on the go. So I got him a Tervis tumbler of the Miami Heat with a lid on it. He is now obsessed with it. It's hilarious. He loves the fact that it really does keep your drinks hot/cold and that there isn't any condensation. Like I've mentioned before, Blaine is one particular guy. For his actual birthday, I got him a Blu-ray player. He's been dying for one for a while now. He has always said that with a Blu-ray player, he would be able to use the full capacity of his TV. We found a good Panasonic one on sale at Best Buy and also got a free Blu-ray movie with our purchase! Blaine was really happy with his gift. We also went looking for any Blu-ray deals. Apparently, Blockbuster has some pretty cheap Blu-rays! We bought Inception for $10! Blaine also enjoyed receiving cards and gifts from family in the mail. Thanks to all those who remembered him on his special day!

Usually, we go out to eat quite a bit in September. Blaine gets all these birthday club deals and we put them to good use. But we saved  most of the eating out till the end of the month, so that my sister could tag along in her visit. But we did go to Tucanos, Cafe Rio (twice), and The Melting Pot (thanks to Damaris). The only place (that's a usual birthday dinner for Blaine) that we didn't go to was Happy Sumo. For Blaine's actual birthday dinner, I surprised him. I told him that he had to dress nicer than usual and that it was in Salt Lake. At first, he thought we were going to The Melting Pot. The Melting Pot is both of our favorite restaurant and we hadn't been together. But I told him that it wasn't it. About halfway to the restaurant, he figured out that I was taking him to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. He was oh so excited. We have been wanting to go for a while, but that's a pretty expensive place! Luckily, I found an amazing deal on Travelzoo a couple months ago for Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. I was so excited. I don't know how I held it from Blaine this whole time. 

It was a great experience. We were welcomed warmly by all the staff. Everybody kept on saying "Happy Birthday" to Blaine. The service was incredible. Our table was simply decorated with large confetti circles and a card from Ruth's Chris. We were so hungry and excited to eat! We ate like 2 loaves of their sourdough bread before our appetizer came out. Not a good idea. We needed to save room for the good stuff! Anyway, we shared mushrooms stuffed with crab meat for our appetizer. The mushrooms were jumbo and the crab meat was so fresh! We each had a pretty large caesar salad, that we devoured entirely. We ordered cherry cokes that were out of this world. We're cherry coke fans but we never knew cherry coke could be that amazing. Our entrees were the best part of the whole meal. We each had a petite filet. I had mine with bleu cheese, garlic and panko crumbs. Blaine had his Oscar style (Crab cake, asparagus and béarnaise sauce). The steaks were so perfectly tender. By  now, we were pretty stuffed but there was no way we wouldn't finish our meal here! Our sides were a large amount of mashed potatoes and creamed spinach. They weren't anything amazing, but they were the perfect compliment to the flavorful steaks. We could barely finish them. The plates come out being 500 degrees. You literally see and hear the steak sizzling on your plate. I asked why they do this and our waiter replied that it kept the steak warm throughout our whole meal. Genius. For our dessert, we had the Chocolate Sin Cake. It was a flourless cake that was really good. I quietly sang "Happy Birthday" to Blaine and he blew out his candle. It was the perfect ending to our dinner. We had such a wonderful time being together, eating good food, and just talking. 

This is Blaine's "this-is-amazing" face. 

We were done around 10pm (it was a late dinner). We walked to our car and just reclined our seats and looked at the stars through the sunroof. We needed to kill sometime before picking up Damaris from the airport. We held hands, talked, and I gave Blaine his birthday card from me. I love birthday cards. One of us always gets teary-eyed at one point or another. We hugged for a good minute and realized that it was finally time to pick up Damaris! We were both really excited. Blaine was especially excited since she was bringing him his birthday gifts from Miami. He said that he felt like Damaris was Santa Clause or something.


Every year, I try throwing some surprise party or get-together for Blaine. But this year I just wanted it to be simple and private. I'm glad I went this route. It was such a memorable night and it was everything that I imagined it would be!