A Long (overdue update on) December 2016

Holidays 2016!

At work we continued our tradition of attending a cooking class at Sur la Table. It's an excellent time and I definitely end up using the recipes and techniques again. This time we did a fall meal with steak and squash and an apple greens salad. 

Rachel jokingly put Lauren R on my nametag. Quite the prediction.

This gratin squash dish is amazing.

Herb butter on steak. Bomb.

Pot de creme and whipped cream. Whoa. So so good.

Anthony had a little out patient surgery one day. Poor thing. He ended up crazy bruised and sore after. I tried to be a good caretaker.

Another annual trip to see the Lower Lights Christmas concert. So many people on stage.

Anthony and I took Azhar to see the lights at Temple Square.

I debated getting a tree, and then one day I decided I really needed one. Thanks, Home Depot. Perfect size for my little apartment.

Day date to the movies with my dream guy. We saw Manchester by the Sea, which I'd missed at Sundance.

Holiday sweets!

 

The little ones saw Santa. H was fine, the next photo after this one, her little sister was not. 

 

Spotify stats. Yeah.

I didn't have any Christmas wrapping paper. Anthony thought it was weird I used this instead. Whatever. We did Christmas a little early since I went home to Oklahoma and he did not come with me. I'll just say I pulled off a great Christmas for him. And he was worried about making mine nice, and he did a great job.

Home! Oklahoma! I met the new-ish dog, Sadie.

Mom made Mexican food.

Braum's is the best. Dad and I took a little trip one night.

These are my favorite!

Got to drive this ole truck around for the week.

Out at the farm.

Mom and I made a snack mix that, while cute, was labor intensive.

You dig Bugles into red candy coating to make santa hats, before adding to the full mix.

Sadie got a Christmas sweater.

A couple days before Christmas, Mom, Kimber and I drove up to Pawhuska to see the Pioneer Woman's store. It's a tiny town and kinda in the middle of nowhere. Interesting to think about all the TV crew that comes here to film her show.

I was a fan of the bathroom.

And there she is! She happened to be around and signing books that day.

So we bought some books....

The wait for the PW restaurant was a couple hours, including a long line outside on a cold day, so we grabbed bakery goods instead for the drive home. These cookies are awesome, but tons of butter makes anything awesome.

Christmas puzzle tradition continues.

Got to hang out with these two cute mutts.

Prepping the prime rib for Christmas dinner! We had it a couple days early since I had to leave on Christmas Eve.

I made the squash dish from cooking class!

Time for gifts!

Mom and I pack heat now.

 

While home, mom offered up this family ring in case Anthony needed it later on. Kinda freaked me out, but I'm writing this at six weeks married so....

Time to fly home to Utah. Easiest airport and nicest chairs.

Came home to this. Ugh.

I flew home on Christmas Eve, so I got to spend Christmas Day with this guy.

He was very excited about my new acquisition.

Hallie was excited to give me a present.

Hallie picked out a puzzle for me, and we've done it together a couple times now.

I made lasagna, apparently. Which I also want to do again this week.

Mom and Dad got me and Anthony some gift cards to REI. I researched tons of backpacks, since that's what I decided to get.

He couldn't make up his mind what to get. I think we did a couple trips to the store.

Family hang out time on New Year's Eve.  Hallie showed us her new scooter.

We played the mashing game. I won!

Mom and Dad celebrated in OK.

And we watched a late showing of La La Land to ring in 2017. Bring on the best year!