It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!!

What a weekend!!!  Seth got off early on Wednesday and Thanksgiving officially began with making some pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and cranberry sauce!  Spent the evening (and pretty much most of the weekend) chillin and relaxing and enjoying our time together :)  Got up on Thursday, made some baked mac'n'cheese, and went to pick up Andre at the airport to head down to Mom's for a gluttonous Thanksgiving meal!  Turkey, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, sweet potato pie, cranberry sauce and stuffing, rolls, cake, pie, and cookies...yeah, and only 5 of us to eat it all!!!

Yeah, this about says it all...Dad resting up after the meal!!!

Anyway, had a really nice weekend with the fam (and some good Thanksgiving Skype action with the Utah fam!) and even celebrated Dad's 70th birthday on Friday night at his favorite buffet :)  Dad, I hope you had a great birthday and enjoyed your 10% discounted meal hehe - I love you Poppy Seed!

The rest of the weekend has been spent gearing up for the...wait for it...END OF THE SEMESTER!!!  Hooray!!!  This is my last week of classes...and then come the exams...crazy!!!!  Anyway, I LOVED this little break for Thanksgiving but am SOOO looking forward to a real break over Christmas :) :) :)  Speaking of which, today Seth and I took time to decorate the house for the Holidays and we are officially ready :)

Seth putting up the tree <3

Well, like I said, this next two weeks is gonna be pretty crazy with the end of the semester looming ahead, so I just figured I'd take on last second to tell you all how thankful I am for each and every one of you! While I hope you know every day how much you mean to me, the Holiday season (which for me begins with turkey and last til January!) is an especially important time for me to remind you all how grateful I am to have the amazing family and friends I have been blessed with - so thank you for being YOU...I love you all!!!  :) 

Happy Birthday to ME!

First, I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to all of you who helped make my birthday so special with your gifts, cards, and love...you are all SO amazing and I love you so much! 

Well, to kick off the weekend, I met Seth downtown at his office for a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant in DuPont.  Had some yummy food and a nice bottle of wine and then went for a 'walk'...until the walk turned out to be a surprise!  Seth had made reservations at the Hotel Palomar in DuPont and got a 'spa suite' room with a large soaking jet tub!  Needless to say, we spent a relaxing evening over some champagne and loved every second of it...thanks Panda - I love you!

The tub...AMAZING!!!

Seth in another fancy robe :)

After a refreshing and restful night, we got up, grabbed a danish and coffee, and headed to Alexandria for a day of eating, shopping...and eating with Mom and Carol!  So much fun!!!  We spent the day at Tyson's Corner Center Mall and Mom bought me some new shoes...yay for no more holy shoes :)  Came back to Carol's at the end for some pizza, cake, and presents to wrap up a wonderful day with two of my favorite ladies!  Thanks to Mom, Carol, and Dad for your wonderful gifts and remembering me!

Last but not least, to round out the wonderful weekend, I got to have a virtual b-day celebration over Skype with the family in Utah!  Thank goodness for technology...we were able to Skype Jack, Mindy/Chrissy, and Jay/Tina all over one call...and so much FUN!!!  I even got to open my gifts over the call so they could see my delight with all of their wonderful and thoughtful gifts!  Thanks to you all to for being the most wonderful family I could have ever married into - you're the best!

Me with my BLOG Book and mints :) :) :)

Anyway, as you can see, I am one blessed boy to have so many wonderful people in my life!  Thanks for all the wishes via text, facebook, etc... from all my friends, and thanks again to my family for being the most amazing people in the world!  I love you all!!!!  Now who's ready for some Turkey!?!?! :)

One Down, Three To Go :)

So, for those of you who may not know, my first semester of law school is winding down (and I'm counting the days til break!!!) and this past Friday was my first exam!  Our legal rhetoric program is structured in such a way as to pound you with work in the beginning of the semester so that it can end two weeks before your other classes and allow first year students a little more time to prepare for their other exams.  Anyway, although I don't have my score yet, I am pretty confident that I did well on the exam and can officially say I have completed my first class of my law school career...hooray!!!  What a way to kick off my birthday weekend!!!

My cupcake from Emily!

PB Rice Crispies from Beah!

It's World Pneumonia Day...literally!!!

So this weekend our friend Kody came in from Salt Lake.  He got in on Thursday and we were all ready for a good weekend...but do you believe in foreshadowing?  Well on Friday Kody went out exploring and came home to tell us that it was World Pneumonia Day and people were down at the Mall telling tourists about it...and wouldn't you know that he ended up getting really sick on Friday night and had to cut his trip short :(  I felt so bad that he would come all this way to see us and get sick...but at least we got in some fun times before the cold kicked in!  We went out in DuPont for Bar Review on Thursday night and then Friday headed to Old Town Alexandria for sushi and a walk through Georgetown...fun while it lasted but still had a blast with Kody even if it was only 48 hours :)

Seth and Kody outside an AMAZING wig hope in Old Town!

On Saturday, with Kody sleeping off his cold, Seth and I went to Maria's (my Dad's first wife) house to see some family over dinner and a good visit!  I love living back here cause it seems like we always have people coming to visit (especially my family of course!).  For example, Seth's old boss, Erni, was in town this weekend and, although we didn't get to see her, it's still cool to know that we live in a place that so many people pass through...and will hopefully say hello too while they're here :) (hint hint to you all!)  Anyway, it's about that time to sign out and get some sleep...I need to be rested up for my LAST FULL WEEK OF SCHOOL!!!! 

Me, Dad, Sophia, Jay, Maria, Tita, Maritere, Alvaro, and Sebastian at Maria and Jay's.

Terrifc Taco Tuesday!!!

So...this was my last week of Rhetoric...hooray!!!  I turned in my memo and am SO relieve that the semester is winding down...crazy!!!  To celebrate Seth, some classmates, and I all went out to Guapo's for a drink and some yummy comida after class and enjoyed knowing that we've almost made it halfway through the crazy year that is 1L of law school!!  Anyway, just a quick mid-week update with lots of love to all of you...and lots more to come next week since our friend Kody is coming for a fun weekend :) 

Our fiesta at Guapo's to celebrate our memo!

Almost couldn't resist celebrating by jumping in these leaves!!!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Not much new this weekend...just been working on finishing my last memo of the semester for legal rhetoric (yay!) and getting a little ahead on things since our friend Kody from Salt Lake is coming to visit next weekend!  Went to a career/networking event at school on Saturday - crazy that it's already time to get the resume looking good and ready for job searching!  Spent the rest of my time resting up for a busy week and enjoying our beautiful casa!  Anyway, that's about all from our neck of the woods but just wanted to send a little lovin to you all before another week begins!  xoxo