Belated Christmas antics

So Baros and I were super delayed on Christmas antics this year.  We did not decorate our tree until the Saturday before Christmas.  Now, we could say that we were waiting for Baros' brother to arrive since he arrived on that Saturday... but no, we just got busy and ran out of time.

We made time when Burak arrived to stay with us!  It was really fun setting it up.  We used our blue ornaments from last year but we got a new little tree since our white one from last year got super discolored from the sunlight.

Our tree is beautiful and we've added some new ornaments from the mamma bear.

For Christmas itself, I had to get up for work like usual.  So I left at 6:40 in the morning for a half day of hectic! It was a quiet, yet busy day and then I made a mad dash to the train station to meet the boys to get to mom's.

We arrived by just around 5 and had a feast.

Mom ordered and made food.  She's so Italian sometimes.  As far as I know, all Italians know how to feast.  In fact, it's an important part of our genetics.

Our original Christmas feast was supposed to be 6 people (Mom, my brother, my brother's girlfriend, Baros, Burak and me).  So my mom ordered enough food for 15 people and still cooked additional food... because you know, my brother, my husband and my brother-in-law all eat for 2 people...

So needless to say, I cracked up when we decided to invite another couple of friends and my mother panicked.  Because even with 9 people... apparently the food for 15+ wouldn't be enough.  The restaurant even gave my mom 30 rolls so it's not like we were lacking food.

Mom just wanted to make sure everyone had enough to eat...  It's part of her genetics to want to overfeed people.

One of mom's friends joined us for dinner and my friends Angela and Evan also joined. Andrea joined us for Christmas day.

Of all of the food, we only got through the appetizers and first course. We didn't even get to try the second course.

Appetizers:

• Cheese
• Pepperoni, salami, prosciutto
• Hummus 
• Salad
• Olives 
• Other appetizer food that I can't remember

First Course:

• Mussels fra diavolo 
• Pasta with shrimp and tomato sauce
• Manicotti
• Fried Fish

Second Course: 

• Chicken Francese 
• Spinach 
• Eggplant Parmigiana

I think there was more food but I can't remember.  

There was so much food that we barely made a dent.  We finished a lot of the appetizers and made a minor dent in the first course.  

We gave up and did not touch the second course because there were also 3 pies for dessert!  

Oh man, we were all in food coma.  

So, my mom's worry was needless.  We didn't even have to worry about the Christmas day meal because there were so many leftovers.  We had the same amount of people and we could just have eaten the leftovers.  

Instead, Evan (a professional chef and friend) made a roast (that mom had wanted to make but we convinced her to let the chef cook), spinach pie, zucchini pie and various other sides, in addition to the leftovers. 

That was our second amazing, crazy meal in two days.  

So mom successfully stuffed everyone.  

We ate our weight in food those two days.  And we still had plenty to eat the next day.  

Our trip was great and relaxing.  We took silly pictures and exchanged gifts early in the morning.  

Baros, Burak and I stayed an extra day and went shopping down by mom.  Then we headed home in the afternoon to relax before I had to head to work. 

Anniversary Antics: 1 year

It's been a crazy hectic year.  I seriously can't believe that it's been well OVER a whole year since we got married in court!  (sooo I wrote this in November... and just haven't had a chance to post it!!!)

We got married officially on November 13th (and yes I know I'm much delayed).  It's been a whirlwind year, planning our bigger family wedding, dealing with crazy quantities of paperwork and just living in general.

We've done an incredible amount together this year, from travel, to Broadway to family fun.  I think we've done a little bit of everything.

And so for our anniversary we did a little bit of everything too.

A couple of days before our anniversary we had dinner with some of our close friends who had been at the court wedding and who had celebrated with us in the city afterwards.  It was a mini reunion for all of us with music, dinner and laughter.

Then on the 13th, I took off the day from work and we went into the city for a full day of relax and together time.

We did some shopping.  I needed a winter coat and boots so we got those (just in time for the snow storm 2 days after!)  We shopped our essentials before grabbing lunch near Union Square.

We shared a Lobster Roll, a Crab Grilled Cheese and Lobster Bisque.  So yummy on a cold and blustery day.

Sooo Delicious

Definitely try Luke's!

Afterwards, I wanted to go over to The Strand.  I love that book store.  Outside it has all the books you could want for between $0.50 to $2.50 each.  And inside it has almost every book imaginable at full price. I had so much fun browsing outside.  I picked up a crazy quantity of books.

The gift for a first year anniversary is supposedly paper so it was very fitting that Baros' got me a bunch of books.  I was such a happy camper!  I got 5 books (I've since read 3 of them). 

From there, we went to Chocolate by the Bald Man (Max Brenner's).  I've been wanting to go there for ages so Baros' humored me and we went for dessert and got a Ice Cream Waffle Sampler.

My first time at Chocolate by the Bald Man

We sat by the kitchen to watch the waffle making!

Waiting for our yumminess

And there it is! Definitely a sparkly surprise!

Selfie with sparklers!!

The first involved nutella, the next was berries and the last Strawberries and Cream...
So freaking delicious!

My shot of chocolate nutella

 It was beautiful and delicious to boot.

As if the day wasn't perfect enough, we walked to Bryant Park and did some window shopping and visiting of the tree.

Fountain Selfie

The coolest shop in Bryant Park

We grabbed some dinner to go and went home to relax for the rest of the evening.

That would have been the end of our anniversary celebration, except through the antics of the day I decided to play some Broadway Lottery.  I didn't win anything for that Tuesday night... but the next morning when I got an email!  I had won tickets to see Aladdin!

Oh man, I was so excited!  I'd seen Beauty and the Beast and Lion King as a kid, so this was my third Disney Broadway.  So much nostalgia with the songs and characters that I grew up loving.
And the tickets were my paper anniversary nod to Baros.  I'm so happy that I played and somehow managed to win!

So at 4:45 I ran out of work and caught my train to the city.  I met with Baros and we grabbed a quick snack before heading over to the theater.

We had great seats and the performance was magical.  It was a stunning set up and some of the songs were just incredibly well-done, both in performance and set-up.  I even loved the songs that weren't in the original movie.

Thank goodness for Broadway lottery!

We had great seats

A great way to end the night

It was such a fun show and a great evening overall.
I would say that Kinky Boots is still my favorite of the Broadway we've seen more recently, but this was so nostalgic and adorable.

Baros and I had such a wonderful time for our anniversary.  Next year, maybe we'll top it but I don't know how.  But I know that we have a whole year to figure it out together. <3

New Year, New Adventures to come

Happy New Year everyone!!

We had a pretty chill New Year's Eve. I had to work until 2ish, came home and napped. Then Baros, Burak (Baros' older brother) and I went to Jeremy's house for a laughter filled New Years.  I caught up with Jeremy's mom and dad since it's been some time since I've seen them.  Then we all ate delicious food, watched some funny movies, and watched the ball drop.
It was a great start to the New Year.  Welcome 2019!

New Year's Kiss

Burak and I

Jeremy and I

All of us! 

Yay for New Year's Celebration!

2018 was a pretty great year for us but I'm happy to welcome 2019.

In 2018, Baros and I got married in front of our family and friends in April.
I was a bridesmaid for one of my best friends and Baros saved the day at the end of the night.
We got to celebrate with my cousin Vinny and his beautiful wife Corryn as well.

We traveled to 4 different states together: Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  (Plus, of course, NY and NJ... but we're there all the time). And I'll eventually post those pictures!  One day!

We've had countless adventures and tried so many new things together.  We've been to museums and restaurants and apple picking and gone kayaking to name a few!

Miami! 

Philadelphia!

We celebrated our 1 year court marriage anniversary and our 2 year first date/kiss anniversary too.

Anniversary antics!

2019 I hope, will be equally amazing.  Maybe less of a whirwind explosion of events!

I'm looking forward to some amazing adventures.  There are a couple of out-of-state weddings we'd love to celebrate with our friends and family.

We'll hopefully be taking our first trip to Turkey together, which will also be our first trip out of the country together.

We have so much more to check off of our bucket list and I can't wait!

I also can't wait to keep writing here.  It's been a couple of hectic months, so I've had to take a break, but hopefully life will ease up and give me some time for writing and picture editing!

I still have sooo much to post from our adventures in Boston, Providence and Pittsburgh.  And some NYC adventures too!  Not to mention Christmas! I'm so behindddd!

But it's okay, life goes on and I'm excited to see where this next year leads us.

I don't want to make any resolutions, because at the end of the day I'm terrible at keeping them.

However, I'm hoping that Baros and I will keep up with our healthy eating and add in some more gym time.  We went for the first time yesterday soooo YAYYYY!

I am Queen of the tomatoes!!

I hope we'll keep checking off from our Bucket List and living life to the fullest together.

I can't wait to see where we go and what we do and I can't wait to keep updating you all!