And so I'm back, from outer space

Two months without a post is a long time. I have a lot to say. I have some projects to show you. And some pictures that I want to share.

First I want to say Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Anniversary to TC, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year.

Whew! I covered a lot of ground there.

This is us on our anniversary. We eked out a few minutes to walk to Temple Square and enjoy the lights.

Thanksgiving was nice. We spent it with my family. 

After Thanksgiving our pre-Christmas/pre-trip rush started. TC worked mucho overtime to prepare for our upcoming trip to Argentina, we had our Christmas shopping and trip shopping and other trip prep to work on. Plus we had church related stuff. I was in charge of putting on an activity for the ladies in my ward (congregation) on the 14th of December (our anniversary and the day before we traveled). I get short of breath just typing this out. It was busy, stressful, but thanks to great people that helped with the activity, and a great husband that helped and supported and listened despite his own busy-ness, the activity was a success.

And afterward TC and I took some time to walk around Temple Square and reflect on our 12 years together. 12 years people!! I've started telling people that I got married when I was 14. 12 years is just such a long time. But it's been 89% joy. And it keeps getting better.

So after our brief jaunt we returned home and finished packing, preparing the house for an extended leave, washing clothes, etc.

The next day, the 15th, we traveled. We flew from SLC to Dallas/Fort Worth to Buenos Aires. True story: there was an elderly flight attendant on our flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Buenos Aires who was especially crusty and rude to the passengers. I realize the working for an airline right now isn't the best of jobs, but really? You're going to snap at us with a sarcastic remark about not having 300 pens around your neck because we asked to borrow A pen (one)? And really? You're going to yell at people to sit down when the seatbelt light isn't even on and they are heading toward the lavatory? Yikes. 

Anyway, besides the crusty flight attendant, the trip was uneventful. I slept a lot and TC... well, he didn't. He can't sleep in moving vehicles. We had some trouble getting through customs in BA, and immigrations took forever, but we made it, and Carlos, el suegro, was on the other side waiting to drive us home.

While there...

We went to a Parrilla (where they serve all sorts of grilled meats). It's funny because as a kid I hated red meat. And my Mom, hoping to encourage me to like meat, said, "You're going to get married and your husband is going to like meat, and you're going to have to make it for him. So you better like it now." How right she was that I would marry a man who likes meat! (For the record, I do not "have to make it for him.") I have found my love for meat.

Beatriz, la suegra, and I are ready for meat!!

MEAT!!

TC enjoying his asado.

Besides the asado, we ate and ate and ate all kinds of delicious foods, like empanadas, and roasts, and mignon, and media lunas, and ñoqui, and facturas, and alfajores, and sandwiches de miga, and milanesa, and fruit salad, and ice cream, and matambre, and cantimpalo and the cheese! and ... and I'm getting fatter as I type this out. Yum.

This is one of TC's awesome panoramas. He takes a series of photos and stitches them together in Photoshop. It's his specialty.

We also spent some time at the beach. Not much, however because we both got sunburned. I know what you're thinking: use sunscreen you doofus. Well, this doofus did. 45 spf. This doofus spent 20 minutes making sure that every last inch of her body was covered in sunscreen because this doofus has been burned by the sun a few too many times before. This doofus remembered the skin right under her heiny because she forgot that area before and couldn't sit comfortably for days. This doofus remembered the tops of her ears, and the back of her neck, and behind her knees. But this doofus somehow forgot her arms, and, more painfully, the skin that connects one's arms to one's torso. So I spent the next several days groaning in pain whenever I had to move either arm. TC also got sunburned, which is odd because with his complexion he rarely does. But this time his shoulders, neck and chest were in bad shape. We spent a lot of time rubbing aloe vera on each other (believe me, it was not, in any way, erotic).

TC and I at the beach almost one full week after our terrible burns. Now we are molting and shedding. It's pretty gross.

Our Christmas Eve involved delicious food (again with the food, I know), gifts and firecrackers.

 

Papa Noel brought TC a book about Utes fans. Man, that Santa knows his stuff!

Gordita scored an awesome studded leather belt.

Carlos lighting a firecracker.

We lit firecrackers on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve. I was mostly behind the camera, but I even got to light a few myself (no photos).

TC shopping.

We went shopping. I got some great accessories that I'm excited about, including a gorgeous green leather purse.

We spent a lot of time scanning photos. We scanned 2000 photos in total from one grandmother. And we scanned 300 works of art from the other grandmother. Now that all those photos and works of art have been scanned, I have some major cropping and organizing to do. 

I managed to hold down my non-alcoholic cider this year (unlike in past years). I suffered no ill, nor funny effects from enjoying some.

We came back last week, and unfortunately the next TC had to start work. It was admittedly hard to go from spending 24/7 with each other to 14/7. I miss him. 

Now that the trip deets are all posted and shared, I have some projects to post about, a year in review that I'd like to share and some other fun stuffs. I hope your holidays were happy.

love, Gordita

So I'm back

Christmas was lovely, the weeks leading up to Christmas were lovely, and now it's all over. I'm always a bit blue after Christmas. I don't want all the loveliness and coziness to go away.


Here a few glimpses into our celebrations.




Swanky Work Sponsored Date


At the beginning of the month TC's employer held their annual year-end dinner and got rooms for all to stay at the Grand America Hotel. It was quite exciting!

TC got dressed up, which we all know I really enjoy. He cleans up nicely. What can I say?

Here is the obligatory "we are in the elevator of a fancy hotel and are super excited, but we're trying to keep it on the down-low, but since there's no one else in the elevator with us we are going to show our excitement" photo. 

And here I am chilling in the living room of our suite. My wardrobe included my Vince Camuto shoes, and my hot pink paper sack skirt. 

In the morning we had breakfast at the buffet and positively filled our gullets. Then we walked around and browsed in the hotel shops. Lastly, before checking out we bought gelato. 

Holiday Baking

I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen, but for some reason did not photographically document any of it. 

I made Puppy Chow (could the name be any stupider?) for TC's coworkers and put them in cute little cellophane bags with green polka dots. All very cute, no photos to show off my handiwork. Also, I really wanted to write on the tag the following: "Allergy warning, may contain peanuts and Christmas cheer." I thought it was very funny. I was outvoted by the sane and left it off.

I made Muffins that Taste Like Donuts with the intention of including them as gifts for the coworkers, but they did not turn out. They taste fine, but looked like mutants. I might have left out some, or all, of the salt. They may or may not have been raw in the middle and severely concave. Sigh. And TC didn't like them because they had too much cinnamon for his taste (I say, "Too much cinnamon? Impossible.")

I made Pan Dulce with chocolate chips substituted for the dried fruit (TC HATES dried fruit and cannot emphasize this enough). It was tasty, but dry. So if you ate it with hot chocolate and dipped it in the hot chocolate it was great. Double sigh.  

I made wheat bread, and it was dense and heavy. 

I planned to make the following items, but did not get around to it:

Garrapiñada (sugar coated peanuts), a traditional Argentine Christmas treat

Fruit Salad, another traditional Argentine Christmas treat

Sugar Cookies, a traditional American Christmas treat

But alas, I did not find/make the time. 

Christmas Cheer

And for our celebrations, we spent time with my family, TC's family, and ourselves. 

Photos from the festivities:

TC and I in front of a beautiful tree in our Sunday clothes. 

 

Just because red and white are pretty colors.

Our tree, Eileen.

Us in front of our tree. By the way, we did not have a white Christmas, but it was lovely nonetheless. And it is supposed to snow today. So yay!

Me at my parent's house with one of my awesome gifts. Mom got me a Cricut cartridge.

TC with his favorite gift of all Christmas. (The previous statement may be infused with slight facetiousness.) 

It turns out that all the manly men in the family got Eclipse, so here they are showing that real men love shiny vampires.

And here they are showing their more feminine sides.

Muscular nephew Derrick showing his muscular muscles.

Me looking demented.

In a nutshell, Christmas was lovely. I have been listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing Christmas music on Pandora for weeks now and I'm not quite ready to switch over to non-religious, non-Christmas music just yet. I want to draw out this peaceful feeling, the quiet remembrance of the Savior and all He did for us, that man that was born just a tiny little baby in a manger. 

Merry Christmas all. 

5.7 million minutes

This man and I have been bound together in holy matrimony for over 5.7 million minutes, or 11 years, today. Happy anniversary to us!

Thanks for the giving

This year Thanksgiving was longer than usual. For the first time in my life I hosted. I have always been a guest, except for my first Thanksgiving as a married woman when TC and I tried to have our own celebration, but in the end found the cost of a turkey prohibitive and decided to forego in favor of chicken breast, which ended up shrinking in the oven. Except for that time, I have never hosted my own Thanksgiving feast. This year, we invited TC's sisters and their families, and MIL.

I found recipes for the foods I wanted to make, made up a shopping list, created a cooking schedule that started on Tuesday, and then stressed like crazy. I kept having bad dreams that unexpected guests came (like random members of my family and distant cousins and the like), and came too early, and that I had forgotten to do essential things like, um, put the turkey in the oven. I start to feel the panic coming on when I just think about the panic I felt. Goodness.

At any rate, all went well. No uninvited third cousins twice removed came over, and no turkeys were left uncooked. I came out of it all with a cut on my thumb (from shattering glass all over the kitchen and living room and then hurriedly cleaning it up and finding a tiny shard of glass embedded in my finger), and minor burns on the palm of my hand (from taking the turkey out of the oven to baste with only a small hot pad).

To sum up the holiday, here are some photos taken by SIL 2.

TC and SIL3 making mashed potatoes and squash.

Get your butt in the kitchen. Ha ha. Ha. (Mine is on the right, in case you wanted to see it.)'

SIL1 tossing a salad. Please, please ignore my double chin in the background. And the horrible hair-do. In fact, focus all your energies on the beauty tossing the salad. 

Me, carving the turkey. I feel like I've set the standard high for myself on this blog, and here I am, letting all of you, my dear readers, down with my lameness in appearance. I have an excuse: the cooking of it all, and taking breaks in between basting to play PS3 with the Huz took precedence over fixing my hair and putting on clothing that was actually sort of flattering. So there you go. But at least in this photo you can't see my double chin, so that's good, right?

One of the little ones enjoying rolls.

The little ones with their Tio Van, playing Lego Indiana Jones.

The littlest little one with SIL2.

The spread: rolls, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and squash, cranberry sauce, and Ferrero Rocher. 

And don't forget the dulce de leche apple pie (on the top of the microwave), Coca Cola and Sprite.

Parade Geek Presents Mustaches

The part of the 24th of July that makes me smile the most has to do with mustaches. The Salt Lake Motor Squad usually open the parade with a ride on their motorcycles down the parade route. They turn tight circles, and sound their sirens, and most of all wear mustaches.

The officers that don't have real mustaches wear fake ones, really obviously fake ones.

And here you have a hermit beard.

Here they are showing off their cycling skills.

Even the lady officers get in on the mustache action.

Makes me laugh every year.

Parade Week Continues with Clowns and Characters

So today I have for you clowns and other characters for your enjoyment.

Clown 1 rode a unicycle.

And juggled.

Clown 2 rode a motorized cart.

And called himself Bobber the Clown.

Clown 3 rode an uber tall bicycle (and helmet; safety first).

Clown 4 rode a tricycle (no photo of it) and loves tips.

Clown 5 rode a scooter and was a patriotic type.

Clown 6 was, well, a clown.

And this clown really needs no introduction as famous as he is.

And then there was a mime, which actually did no miming, but walked around the parade greeting people. Maybe he was miming cordiality?

Now we move on to characters.

The Dude with the Parrot. He's at the parade every year. 

He kind of reminds me of Coach Red Beaulieu.

The Real Salt Lake Lion. He rocks!

Woo!!

The UVU Wolverine. He rides a scooter. Sweet.

High five man!

And then there's the Salt Lake Community College bear. He may not look like much, but kitty cat can DANCE!

He's shaking his tail for the crowd.

Work it bear!