Christmas is over, and I am kind of fat.

Christmas was wonderful, but as usual was over and passed far too quickly. I only wish Christmas was longer.

The treats, the dinners, the time with family, the warm glow of the Christmas tree... I'm not ready for it all to be done. I COULD stand to go without treats for a while, however.

When all the anticipation of Christmas is over, what do you do with all that pent up anticipation that now has no focus? If you're me, you obsess over goals for January 2010. And that's what I've done. I have a list of specific things to accomplish (about 40 of them), as well as an overview for the month (things like how many times per week I'll exercise and how faithful I'll be in tracking my points on WW).

One of the planning tools that I came up with the other day is a weekly dinner planner. There's a spot to write in the menu for each day of the week, complete with a line for appetizers, main course, sides and desserts (as if ANY meal I ever make actually has all four items planned and prepared and all).

My favorite part is the grocery list on the side. As I'm writing down the meal I'll make and from which recipe book and page it is, I can write down the ingredients that I will need to buy in preparation for the week. When I'm ready to go to the store, I slice off the grocery list and shop away.

So this is my first week using the weekly dinner planner, but so far I'm loving it. I planned on Saturday, went shopping on Monday, and here we are. Yesterday, since I knew what we were going to have for dinner, I was so excited for it and looked forward to dinner all day, even purposely not eating treats beforehand so I could really enjoy the ñoqui (or gnocchi) and marinara sauce. Being excited about dinner really worked for me yesterday. That's not to say that it will work again today... But I AM pretty excited about the bean and rice burritos on a whole wheat wrap that we are having tonight.

The results of pent up anticipation lead me to fruitful things this week. Keep it up, I say to myself.

Gotta stretch my arm now. Sometimes it gets all cramped up from patting myself on the back so much.

P.S. if you're interested in having a pdf of the menu planner, e-mail me or leave a comment or whatever.

One week

Wednesday's highlights:

Leave this:


Arrive to this:


Two hour shuttle ride from the airport to our hotel (should have been more like 20 minutes). It was cheap, but slow.

Checked in to lovely hotel, Hyatt Regency (thanks Priceline).

That's the view of our hotel from the beach. We were on the mountain-facing side of the hotel, but on the 24th floor. Great views of the mountains and the "strip."

Dinner at Rock Island Cafe.


Read all about the possible insects.

Thursday's highlights:

Woke up early (5am island time).

Found a few insects staying in our room.

He looks unassuming and small, but let me assure you that he was actually fairly unassuming and small. I actually found him kind of cute. Hopefully he was harmless.

We set out to find the hotel that we stayed in ten years ago and found a Trump Tower in its place.

We walked down to the beach to see where we hung out so long ago. (We are sentimental fools.)

A few hours at the beach swimming in the ocean (TC), and trying not to get sunburned (Gordi).

A long walk to the grocery store to pick up some breakfast foods.

Dinner at Planet Hollywood (we HAD to stick with tradition).

We're out of focus. We haven't quite figured out the whole arm-stretched self-photograph thing.

Friday's Highlights:

A few hours at the beach.

Polynesian Cultural Center.

Canoe Pageant

Visiting the islands.

This was in Samoa. The guy climbed the coconut tree. Holy moly.


This was in Tonga. Any instrument you can play with your nostrils is my kind of instrument.

The luau.




The show.

Saturday's highlights:

Beach.

Shopping.

Resting in Fort DeRussy Park.

Sunday's highlights:

Church at this beautiful place.


A long drive around the island.





Surfers on North Shore.

Monday's highlights:

A private tour given by a local, native Hawaiian who is passionate about Hawaii's history, language, and culture.

Brother DuPont took us to high places that overlooked gorgeous valleys and explained what we were seeing, and what we might have seen anciently.


He explained the overthrow of Hawaii's last queen Lili-uokalani. This was her palace.


Anniversary dinner at Orchids.

Our table was right next to the water. We saw the sunset and ships go by.


We got all dressed up and everything. Eating at Orchids was a life-changing experience. For reals.

Tuesday's highlights:

Beach.

Bumming around.



TC captured this photo of the sunset from the pool terrace of our hotel while we were waiting for the shuttle to come get us to take us to the airport.

Flight home.

So we're back

from our Honeymoon Take 2. It was decidedly better than the first. Both of us have been crazy busy since we returned, so I haven't had time to properly document our trip. Above you see the one photo I took from my phone and therefore can post it on the blog. In the meantime, I'm trying desperately to figure out why I am apparently incapable of taking a photo without the perspective being skewed somehow. Every photo I took of any water/sky is insanely tilted. Maybe it's my posture? I don't know. But it would seem that in my world, the horizon goes from the upper right corner to the lower left, and sometimes just the opposite. All that being said, I spent some time this weekend straightening out and color optimizing many of the 500 photos we took. Only 238 to go! :)

Update soon, hopefully. In the meantime, Merry Christmas. I'm excited. Are you?

3,654 Days.

Happy anniversary to The Compensator, the big man, the family doctor, Sr. Hotstuff. It's been 3654 days, and you're STILL awesome.

Here are 10 years in photos.

Engaged.

The wedding day


The honeymoon.


2000



2001



2002



2003



2004



2005



2006



2007



2008



2009

Caviar Dreams and Hawaii Wishes

We're here: the scene of the crime. Ten years ago, two days after our marriage, we traveled to Honolulu. The trip was a wedding gift from TC's father.

It was warm and humid. I was chubby and unprepared for the heat. Our hotel was one block from the beach. Location wise it was awesome. Otherwise, it was a bit sub-par. But who cared? We were in Honolulu, on our HONEYMOON. So exotic. And so grown up.

Did we explore the island? Did we attend a Luau? Did we get leied? Did we get amazing tans? The answer is the same for all four questions: no. What do I remember from our ten days there? Sleeping in, lazing about, sleeping in, doing what newlyweds do, eating, arguing, and window shopping.

So this time we have vowed that things will be different. This will be Our Honeymoon Take 2: More Money, Less Fighting. We WILL attend a Luau. We WILL explore the island. We WILL get leis. We WILL get amazing tans (not me, but TC will). And we'll do some of the things we did last time (I'll give you a hint; it's not the arguing).

And this time, we'll take an obnoxious number of photos. Because what's a vacation without photographic proof?

Here are some of the scarce photos we took the first time around:

O tannenbaum!

This is our illustrious Christmas tree.

I didn't capture the top because frankly, the tree has no top. It's too tall for our apartment, so there's no room for a top of any sort.

Our tree is a mish-mesh of ornaments that we've been given or bought. There's no theme, no coherence, no design. We get the tree out, slap on the ornaments, talk about why we love (or hate in the case of one ornament) each one, then admire for a month until we take it down.


My favorite ornament is this little Pinocchio that we bought in Rome last year. So adorable. And look! He dances. I like to make him dance at least once a day, with theme music and everything.



Shake shake shake. Shake shake shake...


Then you have this ornament, a gift on our first Christmas together from my oldest sister.


Then you have a fish that a friend of Ivan's gave him. I wonder if that friend even remembers getting Ivan a fish ornament?


This Santa I inherited from my parents. I have no idea where they got it or when, but I know that it's been around since I can remember.



This year I made a garland by cutting out a bagillion flowers on my Cricut, then taping two together, then punching holes in the ends, then stringing them together with twine. It's kind of rustic and whimsical all at the same time.


And here you have a bonus picture that I accidentally took while jerking the camera around. It turned out pretty festive, so I share it with you.


What do you put on your tree? Do you decorate with a theme, or with memories, or with whatever you've got?