Adventures of the Newlyweds

This past Thanksgiving marked the first official holiday Anthony and I shared together as Husband and Wife.

(As I have said before - technically, it is the second holiday... I seem to remember spending 4th of July with him... ;-) But I still don't count that as our first official Holiday together, seeing as how we were celebrating our Marriage that afternoon, rather than INDEPENDENCE Day!)

I was so happy to be in Carson City, NV with my mother's side of the family. Don't get me wrong - I loved Thanksgiving last year with Anthony's Family. It was a blast and I learned a lot! But I missed and longed for my own family and our homegrown traditions (as I'm sure Anthony expeirenced this year).

Thanksgiving is so wonderfully predictable and dependable at my Grandmother's house. Cooking starts at 9am. The Parade is on - if you don't like it, go away. Dad BBQ's the Turkey. Mama and Granny rule the kitchen - what they say goes. What they ask for (nicely, of course!) gets done. The "Kids" set the table. Everyone contributes something. This year I did the ham, but usually I do the Jello Salad. New Tradition this year = Anthony contributes, too!!! He brought one of his favorite family traditions to us. Every year his mother makes cardamom bread for Thanksgiving. It is Anthony's favorite. Anthony learned how to make it this year from her! He made it and brought it for everyone to try. Everyone loved it! He has been told he is expected to provide it from now on. That made him smile. A little part of him is now officially part of us.

"Dinner" is really "Supper" as we eat around 4:30pm. PopPop says the prayer. Dinner always lasts a rediculously long time as we are all eating and talking and laughing, and eating some more. Clean up is a team effort - everyone has a job. The table and kitchen are 85% clean before dessert is served (always several types of pie and hand made whip cream, which I got to make this year).

I LOVE our Thanksgiving. It is one of the few times a year I get to see my Mom's side of the family, and I always miss them more when I have to go home. But this year, it was so special - Anthony was no longer "The boy Jen brought" or "Jen's Friend." He was just Anthony. And more importantly, a member of the family. Not that he hadn't been welcome or anything before now - he was! Everyone loves him! But this year was different. The jokes were no longer "inside jokes" as he was in on them. He participated, rather than obverved. And, as always, he made me feel incredibly lucky to have him by my side.

(Ok, everyone, all together now - Awwwwwwww.)

Oh - and Anthony and I got to share a bed this year! Thanks to Alyse being gracious enough to give up the sofa sleeper, Anthony and I didn't have to sleep on the air matress and non-fold out couch (respectively). So Thank you, Bug! It made our first Holiday together that much more special. 

Now to my favorite part of T-day weekend. Seriously people, the BEST part of Thanksgiving weekend for me has NOTHING to do with Thanksgiving. True, I love T-day and all of its traditional glory. But Black Friday - now THAT is something we do right. Shopping, you say? NO WAY!!! Dude, after all that tryptophan, we sleep! We wake up no earlier than 9am. This year I slept till 10! Lunch is left overs. YUM. Then, the family - the WHOLE family, Granny and PopPop included - goes bowling. Joey, my 3 year old cousin, loves to bowl. And we all have a blast watching him. Let's face it, we know my dad is going to win, closely followed by my Uncle John. But we play! And we cheer each other on, and have a grand old time. Black Friday rules in my fam!

Ok - Time-out must be taken this year to adress "The Bet."

My father is a logical, level headed, incredibly smart man. But every now and again, he does something totally out of left feild that ends up biting him in the butt. This is one of those times.

My dad was observing my cousin Alex bowl. Alex ended up with 2 pins, close together, but not next to each other. My dad said he'd give Alex $10 if he could knock down both pins. My father knew that the chances were VERY slim, and that $10 wasn't that big of a loss, if somehow he did make the shot. As my father predicted, Alex didn't make it. "Awwwwww," we all said. "Good try, Alex!" Then, Alyse went up to bowl. After her first turn, she ended up with a 7/10 ish kind of split. Super difficult shot. Dad said, 'Whoa! That is a $50 shot. If you make that, I'll give you $50."

Guess what happened...

She made the shot. And Dad had to pony up. One of those stories we'll be telling for a while...

Anywho - after we are done bowling, the whole gang treks back to Granny's house for Taco night. Let me tell ya, peeps - I don't care how good that Mexican place is down the street. These are the BEST tacos you'll ever have. Period. We love Taco Night. Pan fried corn tortilla tacos, lightly salted, with perfectly seasoned ground beef. Add the "fixings" to your liking and dip in home made green or red sauc. Have some authentic Mexican rice (also home made) on the side, and you've got a recipie for the best dinner on the planet.

Mine always looks a little bland - all it is in there is meat and cheese... but still soooooo good!

Taco night ends our festivites. We go home on Saturday so we have Sunday to rest before the world goes back to normal on Monday. It was truly a wonderful holiday filled with family, fun, and amazing food. Can't wait to do it again in 2011. Now onto Francis Family Thanksgiving this year! Woot!

Oh yea - did I mentioned it snowed while we were there?

Love it.

-Jen

Expanding our horizons

Anthony and I recently started to really look at our daily diets and how it effects our lives. If you weren't already aware, I am SUPER picky. I don't eat things that are green, except for green apples and celery. I don't eat vegetables except for corn, celery, & carrots. I don't eat seafood of any kind. I don't like potatoes, or meatloaf, or most soups. I don't like tomatoes, or onions, or mushrooms. And I'm not a big cheese person at all. But I still HAVE to have cheddar cheese on my hamburgers and Parmesan on my pasta. Oh - and my foods are almost never allowed to touch each other on the plate. I hate that. Bleh.

When Anthony and I met, I felt wonderful because I'd finally met someone who ate a lot like me! Plain, simple, and carbo loaded. But a few years ago, Anthony started to branch out, and he has FAR surpassed me. But maybe not in a good way - he hasn't been eating all that healthily. So we decided 2 things. That I needed to branch out more, and Anthony needed to eat better. So, we've been trying. And it's been going well! We've almost totally cut out Soda (and Anthony has already lost a pound or two because of it!) and there are more fruit and veggies in the house now than I think there has ever been.

So, in honor of making this new lifestyle a routine, Anthony (the cook between the two of us) made us dinner last week in our brand new wok! (Shout out of Thanks to my parents for buying it for him for his b-day! It's coming in handy!)

We marinated lean steak strips in a Baja Chipotle sauce overnight. Anthony threw the meat, along with an orange bell pepper and some shrimp into the wok, and voila! A pretty hearty meal! We put that over rice, and had at it. It was so tasty! And much healthier than what we normally eat! Check out the pics!


Now, I could just stop there and pretend I ate it like it looks above. But let's not kid ourselves here, folks. First, I don't eat shrimp. Second off, I'm pretty sure I don't like bell peppers. And third - IT'S ALL TOUCHING!!!!

Nope... This is what my plate looked like:Now, I did eat the pepper! I didn't like it enough to say, yea - I'd eat that all by itself! Or even enough to say I'd eat a lot of it in one dish! But I can tolerate it enough to eat them if they were mixed in with a dish, say at a Chinese restaurant or something. So that is a start. I didn't get the shrimp down. Smelled it and gagged. So Anthony ate it for me. But the meat and the rice were great together! And no soda, either. I had propel water. So while I'm so not saintly yet, I'm doing well on the trying new things!!! Let's hope I can keep it up!

-Jen

Art & Wine Festival

Two Weekends ago, Anthony and I traveled up north to visit friends and attend the Annual Santa Clara Art & Wine Festival. We flew up to NorCal on Friday night, spent Saturday in San Francisco with Anthony's parents and good friend, Danny Greenia. We went wine tasting, had lunch at our favorite diner in Geradeli square, and wandered around for the afternoon. Saturday night, we went to the Sharks Vs. Cyotes Pre-Season Hockey game at the Shark Tank. Sharks won!!! Woot!!! (Sorry I don't have any pictures of that! Left the camera at home).

Sunday, we attended the Festival. We met up with Danny again, along with our friends Kim, Morgan, & Mariel, and enjoyed the music, the food, and the art! It was great fun! And Anthony ran into many old firends (or their parents) and got to introduce me all day as "My Wife, Jen." It was so cool to hear. Hahaha. Enjoy the photos!!!

Danny's Great Smile to start off our day!
Beautiful San Fran.
On the way to the Wine Cellar, we saw this in a store window. Lauged really hard and agreed that this is the kind of thing we'll probably dress our kids in when we have them. Too funny.
Ant & Danny in front of Cellar 360.
The View from our table:
The Boys, settling in.
:-) Great photo of Ant and his Mom laughing at something they were talking about.
Gaby loves to share wine!
Here we go, people! I'm trying wine!! Well, sniffing first...
Savengion Blanc - I actually could tolorate this one. It tasted like grapefruit.
Check out the spread! 2 different kinds of goat cheese and one kind of cow cheese - the cow cheese (the really thin one with the purple line) is "Drunken Cheese" which means it is soaked in wine. And those crustini's... OMG to DIE FOR!!! So Good. They were drenched in some buttery, salty, garlic-y goodness and we ordered a second plate! We ate every last one! Can't wait to go back, just for those!
Some artsy photos Ant and I took of the glasses:


Ant trying wine. Also a big step for him. Niether of us really like wine.
Oh, Danny - my wino friend. He and Gaby loved trying them, and discussing them.
Second one I "liked" (which really means that I can handle/tolorate it enough to drink a glass - I still don't actually LIKE any wine). It was about the 5th or 6th wine I tried. It is called Nightengale, and it is a dessert wine.

Napkin. Looks cool.
Wandering around SF means a trip to Boudin!!
The boys, checking out MORE wine. Hahaha.
Meet my new friend!
Segway Tour!!! I want to do this someday!
Sigh. I love San Fran...
Trolly!!!
Sunday, on our way to the festival.
How cute are parents? I love pictures like this of them and of my parents. I sneak them in whenever possible.
GIANT spider. Bleh!
Danny stole the camera for a while! It was a beautiful day, even if it was too hot!
Mr. Anderson's Band - we always watch them.
Oh Morgan... Never without the Iphone.
Anthony (wearing Kimmi's hat) and Kimmi!
The Group! (Minus me, the photographer)

We had such a great time visiting with everyone. A weekend up north after 6 months (or more for Ant) was a great treat! But it reminded us of how much we loved living up there, and now we miss it. Not that we didn't miss it before - we are just more aware of it. We love the people here in SoCal - they are one of the greatest reasons for being down here! But we know where we want to end up, long term. In the meantime we'll enjoy our mini vacay's to visit there. It was a great weekend! Can't wait for New Years!

-Jen

Lovin' the married life!

Anthony and I have been married for 25 days already! Where does the time go?

Ok, so I always knew I was going to love married life. But I really didn't know just how much I was going to love it. I especially didn't know if it was going to be all that different from the relationship Anthony and I had just 26 days ago.

And then I look at this picture:
This is just ONE of the many amazing pictures that our photographer, Brienne Shepard, took on our wedding day. But this one is my favorite (so far, as we haven't seen them all yet!) of just the two of us. Not only is it a great photo, but I see more than most people see when they look at it. I go straight to our smiles and our eyes. I know what those smiles mean. I know what that look says.

I can't remember a time that I was happier than I was on my wedding day. And I can't remember a time I saw Anthony happier, either. It was a wonderful day. And now that it is over and the honeymoon has come and gone, we are left with the "back to reality" feeling. It's the everyday stuff that is no where near as exciting as being surrounded by 150 people in fancy outfits and our own paparazzi. But I gotta tell ya - I love it. I love going to bed at night and saying good night to my husband, as opposed to my boyfriend. I love his kisses (which seem to be more frequent than they used to be... or maybe I'm hallucinating) and his hugs. I love cooking dinner for us. I love just hanging out with him.

Neither Anthony or I have changed as people in the last 25 days. Same old, same old. But we have become a family - an official one - and I am loving every minute. Can't wait to see what comes next!

-Jen

(And just because I love these 2 photos so much - I'm posting them too!)