We Survived Birthday Week

That's right, folks!  Sarah's Birthday Week is upon us!  I say that simply because over the last five years, she has managed to stretch out the celebration to just over a week.  Seeing as this was one of our last big hurrahs here in Arlington, we decided to go all out, starting with birthday party with tons of food.

 

We had a pretty tasty greek yogurt parfait-type-thing, along with a salad with tons of bacon, and some goat cheese tartlet things.  

Oh yeah, and some "Irish" scones (apparently some special type of butter, not alcohol, makes them Irish), candied bacon, and white chocolate and apricot oatmeal cookies.

Along with a gigantic three-tiered homemade caramel chocolate cake.  It fed twenty people and we still had enough leftover to last us the rest of the week.  Overall, the party went great.

Ellie Goulding was also in town the week of Sarah's birthday, so we went to a concert at the Fillmore in Silver Spring, MD, as well.  She put on an awesome show.

Sarah and I must be getting old, because rather than the stand with the masses in front of the stage for three hours, we paid a couple extra bucks to get actual seats on the second level.  Sadly, we're not as hip as we used to be.

But wait, there's more.  Sarah's actual birthday, the 26th, happened to coincide with the J.Crew Warehouse sale down in Lynchburg, VA, where they open up their entire warehouse and sell tons of stuff for about 5% of the retail price. As you can imagine, people getting pretty pumped for this thing, which means you need to show up early to get in line.  Sarah played the "I'm getting over the flu" card, which meant I got to camp out in the snow for four hours.  Is Birthday Week over yet?

Not quite.  The sale was a success, and Sarah found plenty of nice stuff, while I found some new shirts to wear to work to impress the fine people of Ciudad Juarez while I deny their visas.  After that, we spent the afternoon with Sarah's family and opened presents.  Finally, when we got back to Arlington, one thing remained; the annual birthday dinner.  This year we made beef bourguinon and potatoes au gratin, which has been a favorite of ours for years.  And with that, Birthday Week drew to a close.  Happy birthday, my love!

An Ode to Jean the Honda Civic

Dear Jean,

How can I put into words what a wonderful car you have been.  I've done my best to take care of you since the day I brought you home from the dealership.  I was so excited about my new little 4-cylinder.  And look where we are eight years later; we've been through so much together.

We spent a horrible summer together in Gilbert, AZ, selling Living Scriptures DVDs.  We survived the ice storms of Utah, and a cross-country trek to Virginia.  You've rear-ended someone in Utah, been backed into in Arizona, been run off the road in Kentucky, and been scraped by a garage door in Virginia.  Who knows, maybe there were even a couple speeding tickets along the way.  You did always like to go fast.

I wish our days together could last forever, but alas, Ciudad Juarez is no place for a Honda Civic, even one so brave and sturdy as you.  Believe me, we're saving you from a worse fate.  Juarez is filled with potholes, flooded streets, crazy drivers, and car thieves.  It's better that you stay here in Virginia.

Jean, please don't think for a second that we're trying to replace you with something better.  Sure, the new Rav-4 is cooler, newer, has more bells and whistles, and is all-around awesome, but you will always have a special place in our hearts.  May you bear your new owners well.

Sincerely,

Ryan & Sarah Peterson    
 

Dear Ravi the 2011 Rav-4,

Welcome to the family! We are excited to take you down to Ciudad Juarez.  The Mexican government requires that we bring a vehicle no more than five years old, and the Consulate recommended an SUV, so you fit the bill perfectly.  Sorry we're taking you to such a crazy place across the border, but you were bred for adventure. We look forward to working with you for the next few years!

Ryan & Sarah Peterson

P.S. In case you were wondering, you were named in honor of one of our favorite Arlington restaurants, Ravi Kebab.  It suits you well. 

Christmas in Arizona

In case you haven't been watching the news lately, the East Coast is under some sort of FLU EPIDEMIC!  Run for your lives!  Anywho, three of the four people in my Spanish class came down with the flu on the same day, including me.  As a result, I have been sitting at home for the last two and a half days.  On the plus side, I've been reading a lot, and I finally have the chance to update the blog.  We had a great time visiting my family in Arizona.  And for the record, I put this sweater on first, so it's technically Sarah that copied my outfit.  We weren't trying to dress as twins, I swear.

Most importantly, we got to meet the newest member of our extended family, Penelope, who was born a few months ago.  She's pretty cool, although she doesn't do a whole lot right now. 

Sarah and I gave each other some pretty rad gifts as well: an iPad mini for me,

And a pair of Tory Burch shoes for her.  Woohoo!  Arizona Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays, everyone!  Sorry there haven't been too many updates as of late.  In all honesty, Sarah and I have been taking it easy for most of December.  After the madness that was the month of November (see below), we were glad to have sometime to relax and bake some cookies.  At the very least, however, we did go out and get a real Christmas tree this year, which is a first for us!  Even better, the Christmas tree lot was just down the street from our house, which meant I could just carry it home.  This is a visual approximation of how I looked:

Anywho, we hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.  We're headed out to Arizona, but will be back to celebrate New Year's at home.

Thanksgiving at Our New Place

At the end of our insanely crazy month of November, Sarah and I decided we should also host Thanksgiving at our place.  "What were we thinking?" you might ask.  Well, in all honesty, Sarah has a pretty small family, so it ended up being only three guests (sadly, the fourth got sick on Turkey Day).  So it really wasn't too much work.  I thought it went great, but this photo of Sarah's parents indicates they seemed only mildly pleased by the whole event (joking, of course).  At least Sarah and her Grandma had a good time.

Clockwise from the top left we have: my family's awesome dinner rolls, homemade stuffing, the most moist and delicious turkey you'll ever taste (I highly recommend brining your turkey in the future), mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, and candied sweet potatoes.  Thankfully, we are still eating the leftovers three days later. 

Elysa's Baby Shower

As I mentioned in the previous post, our good friend Elysa Dishman is having her second baby, so Sarah threw her an awesome baby shower at our new place.  Since I am the only person in our family who actually takes pictures of events, and I also wasn't invited, that means we have no pictures of the actual party, just the food that we made beforehand, which consisted of:

 Bacon, cheddar, and chive biscuits

 Candied bacon

 Lemon curd tartlets

And a big ol' chocolate cake.  We also made a fruit salad and a savory cheesecake which basically tasted like a gigantic Christmas cheese ball (i.e. delicious).  Overall, I think the party was a success, and the food seemed to go over well.  Maybe Sarah should start catering these types of things.

Our New House

Well, it looks like the dust has finally settled at our new place.  After moving in on Saturday, November 3rd, Sarah and I quickly set about trying to put the house together.  Sarah was throwing a baby shower for a good friend of ours on November 17th, which gave us two weeks to get everything unpacked, painted, and hung up.  Here's a picture of our new living room.  As you can see, Sarah managed to find a place for all of her Jonathan Adler figures she picked up in Peru.

This is the other side of the living room, complete with a couple leather chairs Sarah found at a pretty good price.  She could tell you what they are actually called.  All I know is that they are black and leather.  And comfy.

Also, here's a quick shot of our new living room, complete with new dining table and chairs from Ikea.  We also painted the buffet a new color.  Any long-time readers may recall that this is the same buffet that almost destroyed our marriage (as described here), but fortunately this new project wasn't nearly as frustrating.  I'll see if I can post a few more pictures of our townhouse when I have time.