Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday, and I pretty much wrote it off this year because we wouldn't be with our family to celebrate. I am very happy to say that I couldn't have been more wronger.  This was one of my favorite Thanksgivings ever.  Also, I fell in love with New York a million times over.  I always say CJ dragged me here, but he is also going to have to drag me out of here.  Kicking and screaming.

On Wednesday night we went to see Romeo and Juliet starring O R L A N D O B L O O M. The Channing Tatum of my generation! (Okay, maybe Channing Tatum is the Channing Tatum of my generation but YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.) It was so good! I have always really liked Shakespeare but I still have a hard time following it word for word on stage. The set and music were incredible and I mean...Orlando Bloom. Bye.

Then we were on the train home and started talking about whether or not we wanted to go to the parade...aaaaand neither of us really wanted to. Ha! Too cold and too many people! So we split-second decided to hop off at 81st street and see the balloons live and in person all ready for the parade! It was so cool and they are so much bigger than I thought. Did you know Macy's is the country's second largest consumer of helium?? The first largest is the government...figures.

Hannukah in our apartment lobby...LOLZ. So many variations of tile. Just imagine...this is one small corner of the lobby and you can see four different types!!!

This is the pumpkin cream pie that I actually SLAVED over just for the sake of making something for Thanksgiving. I wish I could properly express the labor that went into this pie, mainly four different grocery stores and a trip to Bed Bath and Beyond. And then I had to actually MAKE IT. But it was so so so so good. Thanks again, Pioneer Woman. You are everything.

This is my hubsband at our Thanksgiving dinner. We went to a restaurant called Jacob's Pickles on the UWS and it was so delicious.  They typically serve delicious southern fare like fried chicken and biscuits, cheese grits, etc. so I mean...we knew it was going to be good.

The first course was pickles (they are fms for their pickles, hence the name) and a deviled egg which I loved because I'm hood like that and CJ did not love so I ate his.  The second course was this lovely potato soup with leeks and bacon and probably lots of butter and cream.  And it was served in a mason jar and it was delicious.  When I saw how small the soup was I was like "WHY SO SMALL" but I later realized that they were just looking out for me because...five courses.

Good salad with rocquefort and beets. I love beets.

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THE MOTHERSHIP. Course four...a turkey leg (makes me feel so barbaric), stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, gravy. Perfection. And yeah I had a diet coke...

Cannot even attempt to explain the eyebrow/squint situation happening here but I promise I did not get botox.

I know what you're thinking...chicken nuggets with honey mustard sauce?  NOPE.

Deep fried oreos with pumpkin spice creme for dipping. Currently salivating...heaven help me.  I will probably crave these every day for the rest of my life.

After dinner we went to Hunger Games at a move theater with recliners and let me tell you.  I don't typically love going to the movies but recliners are a game-changer. 100%.  I suggested we go to the movies probably 5 times this weekend because I liked those recliners a lot.

This is my train to work Friday morning.  My morning commute is usually body-to-body sardines packed onto the train! It was like I was the only person in the whole city going into work on Friday. Oh wait, I was.

On Friday night we ended up doing A LOT of shopping and it was really fun which is weird because I usually hate shopping.  We bought these little elephants from the Bryant Park holiday village.  They were hand-carved in Kenya and I loveeee them. Elephants are my favorite animal besides bears.  We also bought some handmade pillow covers from India and a bunch of stuff from the home section of Anthro.

CJ trying to take a picture of me at Persian dinner...and I did not like it.

But I eventually kind of complied. Kashk Bademjan is like, my favorite food at this point.

The pumpkin cream pie two days later...I was afraid we wouldn't be able to finish it by ourselves.  Understimation.  CJ got me this pie dish with matching rolling pin from Anthro for my birthday.

Saturday we began our apartment hunt.  Our sublet contract is *finally* up after December so we'll be in a new place by Jan 1st!! ...or homeless. Whichever.  PLZ SEND UR GOOD VIBEZ.  This building was actually not that pretty but I'm still not over all the art deco that's rampant in this city.  I LOVE IT.

WEEKEND UPDATE

Went to the mall by CJ's work to look at the stars. And J. Crew.

Trekked down to the LES for the pudding from Sugar Sweet Sunshine that I like with all my heart. (I am trying not to say "love" about things because one time in testimony meeting this guy got up and said something about what a kid must think when he hears his dad say "I love you, son" and also say "I love fishing." SO THOUGHT-PROVOKING I CAN'T EVEN.)

This is a candy store that has every candy you can imagine including all the retired candies and old-fashioned nasties like Necco, Circus Peanuts, and those foam saucers with the little balls inside. So gross. We got sour tape! Which we ate in Spain all the time.

I saw this in SoHo and nearly cried because POOR DROSE!

We went to Crate and Barrel because we had some time to kill before we met up with friends. We sat on pretty much every couch in the whole place which is why C&B is the best place to go in the city in the winter when you have time to kill. It's warm and there are couches. Don't know why I thought we would leave without buying something???? P.S. I like this picture of CJ because he is making the SASSIEST face! Haha!

We ate Korean BBQ with our friends Chelsea and Russell. I don't like Korean food that much.

And then we went to karaoke. No trip to Koreatown is complete without a round of karaoke!

Sunday was the Primary Program and I cried pretty much the entire time.  They sang all my absolute favorite songs...this was my year, you guys. Plus CJ is a primary teacher so it was even bettahhh. They hung this banner in the hallway and the kids wrote how they know they're children of God.

My cousin Kai was born and he is the most adorable thing I have ever seen.

On Sunday CJ cleaned the whole apartment while I did nothing. See? There's me being useless. On FaceTime. These are the only pictures you will ever see of our current apartment so really let them sink in. That's our bed........and it has always been like that. And we sleep on it.

I will never have a stainless steel fridge because I absolutely love magnets and hanging things on the fridge. Maybe tacky, I don't even care.

As I was sitting on the bed while my husband buzzed all over the place cleaning E V E R Y T H I N G I realized that it had been 6 months since our wedding.  And I started to cry because I have the best husband and I am not always the best wife...like when it comes to cleaning. I AM the best wife when it comes to cooking though. You win some, you lose some.

The fabulous and excellent grand LES food tour 2013

On Saturday while we were at the MOMA* CJ and I decided, on a whim, to take a food tour** of the Lower East Side a la this BuzzFeed article.  We don't really frequest the LES so it was fun to explore a new part of town. (We also stumbled upon Babeland which is a really tame, non-embarrassing, classy sex shop for mature adults but even so I turned around and left pretty much as soon as I walked in because I felt I might faint. Basically I suck the fun out of everything.)

The first stop (after taking world's biggest detour which involved me swearing and a bus full of 100+ y/o Chinese people) was Vanessa's Dumplings.  Last weekend we went to Korea Town and got dumplings that were really good and cost about $8 for 8.  These were even better than those and we paid TWO DOLLARS for 8. This place is magic. We sat next to some people who ordered 50 dumplings (apparently you can buy them frozen...genius) and they paid only $9!!! The ladies who work there are all kinda mean and there is always a line but it's like WHO CARES.

I want these so bad right now and it's 10:30 AM.***

Next we braved the weirdo-ridden streets of the LES and walked to Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery.  We got the Chocolate Chip Extravaganza as per the BuzzFeed article and even though it looked so weird it was nothing short of divine.  Smushed up chocolate chip cookies + butterscotch pudding + whip cream all mixed/mashed together= heaven.  And they have cupcakes for $1.75.  I dare you to find a bakery anywhere that sells cupcakes (NOT MINI) for that cheap.

droolz

Then we decided to walk to Joe's for a slice  the best slice in the city, and we accidentally ended up in the shop where CBGB used to be (Hollaback Rufus and Lily!!) and that was cool but neither of us really care about punk music so...not that cool. Anyway we took our time strolling to Joe's and then we saw Mighty Quinn's BBQ (^__^) and we were like OHHHHHHHH now I know where we are! And I saw a guy come around the corner with a cone of them Pommes Frites and I said "WAIT CJ NOT JOE'S, FRIES" and he said "YES FRIES FIRST JOE'S AFTER" and so we found the fry place and those were also delicious. But I did not like them as much as the frites at Bruges, my one true Salt Lake love. And we didn't even go to Joe's after 'cause now we were too full.

we did not get cheddar cheese as pictured we got parmesan peppercorn dipping sauce.

We did all of this for only $12!! We didn't even need dinner after, it was all sooo good. And then we were like, what are we going to do when we live in California and we really want Vanessa's dumps? Cry? Then we laughed about how when we grow up and have kids and bring them back to New York they are going to think we are crazy because we are just going to be running all over town stuffing our faces with the best food in all the world.

At the end of it all CJ said "Today was really fun" and I said "Yeah" and he said "Would have been funner with friends though..." and I said "Yeah..." BUT then Sunday came and now we have some friendships in the works so STAY TUNED.

*We both get into the MOMA for free because of our jobs. On Saturday the woman at the desk said to me, "You can actually bring guests for free too, just so you know." Which I take to mean I can bring 20 guests for free if I want. So if you come visit we can all go to the MOMA for FREEEEE.

**I use this term pretty loosely. We only went three places, after all. If you come to New York I will take you on a for realz food tour.

***Yes, I took all these pictures straight from BuzzFeed. Yes, that is incredibly lame. You can criticize me for not taking any pictures ever once I have an iPhone, okay thanks.

DC TRIP

We started our 4th of July at the National Archives where we saw the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Magna Carta. COOL! I signed the Declaration! We waited in a long line for this but I thought it was cool to see the original docs. The handwriting was so pretty!

Then we went on a tour of the Capitol. I never knew but during the war of 1812 the British set fire to the Capitol and burned a lot of it down. There is also a statue of Brigham Young in the Capitol because each state gives a statue of a person to display in the Capitol so Utah naturally chose BY. There is also a portrait of Joseph Smith in the National Portrait Gallery and a sunstone from the Nauvoo Temple in the Smithsonian Museum of American History soooooo IDK.

Then we took the tunnel/secret passageway (!!!) to the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building which was probably my favorite thing we saw in DC! I hadn't been before and it was just gorgeous. We learned a lot of fun little facts about it from the tour...we always try and take a tour if it's free because you learn so much more! The building was absolutely beautiful. Bury me there, plz.

Then we traipsed over to Capitol Hill for the "Capitol Fourth" concert on PBS. It was pretty cool..........I thought Barry Manilow was pretty terrible. The best part was when Neil Diamond sang Sweet Caroline and all the drunk Americans + me were like "BAH BAH BAHHHHHHHHHH." I embarrassed CJ by dancing a lot and getting really into everything. Honestly if you ever go to DC for the 4th skip this though because you will not be able to see the fireworks. How lame is that? We only went because we assumed it would be the best place to watch the fireworks from. Not so. We ran out once they started and got down on the mall where we could actually see them.

The next morning we went to Old Town Alexandria which was honestly probably my favorite part of the trip. We ate at The Majestic and it was sooooooo good. That fried green tomato was to die for, best cheese of my life. I also had a BLT which is my favorite food basically and it was just divine. I recommend this place if you are looking for a cute classic place to eat but we paid a little more than we usually would for lunch. ANYWAY. The whole town was just so adorable. For example, this house with the 13 original colonies flag...I die! We also visited a beautiful Episcopal church which George Washington and Robert E. Lee both attended and that was very cool. Much of it is original which was awesome. Also, Queen B on Queen street.

Then we went to Arlington. Not much to say about this except that CJ and I got into a heated discussion about when war is justifiable and when it isn't and how I hope my kids never join the military and if they try to I won't let them, etc. Beautiful trees, this is just one example.

For the evening we headed up to U street to explore and eat at Ben's Chili Bowl! This is a historical black neighborhood where Duke Ellington got his start as well as many other jazz greats. Ben's Chili Bowl was fun, all I ate was a milkshake because I still wasn't very hungry. Ben is a smart man because chili is basically the cheapest thing you could ever make and he charged $5 for a bowl. 

CHA CHILI CHING. You have to go though. For the experience. CASH ONLY.

Lincoln Memorial! I don't particularly love Abraham Lincoln as a president (not going to elaborate..ha) but nevertheless this is a very historic site. March on Washington, anyone??? Not to mention it's gorgeous at night and you have a great view of the national mall.

The next day we went to brunch at Founding Farmers. YUM. Dat bacon doe....I wish I could express how delicious the bacon was. Recommend but you have to make a reservation.

We went to the White House. I told CJ that when I'm president he will be known as the First Gentleman. Don't think he liked that title much. The cool thing though is that across the street there is like this little peace camp set up and it has been there since 1981 as a protest against nuclear arms. Led by a woman named Conchita who has been carrying on the longest continuous act of political protest in the United States. Go, girl.

This is probably my favorite piece of art we saw. It's called "Electronic Superhighway" by Korean-born artist Naim June Paik. I loved all of his work but this one was soooo cool as the TVs in each state represented that state. So for example in this picture you may be able to see the potatoes on the screens in Idaho or the Golden Gate Bridge in California. Pictures really don't do it justice because the screens are constantly changing and I just love the depiction of American culture. After this we went to the Smithsonian Museum of American History which was soooo crowded but we did see the ruby red slippers and Kermit.

Then we went to Geogrtown. So adorable but we were sooooooo exhausted as it was the last day of our trip and DC involves a lot of walking. Sometimes the thing you want to see is like a mile away from the nearest metro stop which...I don't think I have ever been a mile away from a metro stop in NYC haha. We got a cupcake at Baked and Wired which was sooooooo good. I didn't want to go to Georgetown Cupcake because we have one in SoHo and I think their cupcakes are dry. Sorry not sorry.

P.S. I am really proud of myself for planning this trip because CJ is the master trip planner (he planned our trips to Paris and Lisbon and he is really good at picking out what to see and do) but I did it this time since I have way more free time than him right now. And we had fun! And ate good food and saw a good balance of touristy and not so touristy stuff. YAY ME.