The month of December has been crazy so far, but also lots of fun! We have had a great time decorating for Christmas and participating in all kinds of festivities. We have also been busy juggling work and school! Ricardo officially finished his semester on Friday and he is excited for a little break. Since I live in the real world, I don't get a Christmas break, but I do have quite a few days off due to my erratic work schedule, so we have some fun things planned for those days!
On December 5th was Ricardo's 26th birthday. He is officially closer to 30 than 20 now, which I will be gloating about until I hit that mark next August. He had school that day, but I was off of work so I was able to cook all day and make him all of his favorite things. We had crepes with nutella for breakfast and for dinner we had delicious spinach artichoke pasta and carrot cake, one of the few desserts he actually likes. Otherwise, his birthday was pretty low-key. We opened gifts, talked to family, and he studied for finals while I cleaned up the mess I made making dinner.
Breakfast:
Ricardo with his birthday gifts, which mostly consisted of warm clothes that he needed. He especially loves his Temple Dental school sweatshirt.
My delicious dinner. Highly recommend-we had leftovers for 4 days and were so sad when it was all gone. The link is above.
Happy Birthday! Apron courtesy of Jocelyn Shaw :)
The following weekend we were in charge of a huge Christmas event at our church. Ricardo was volunteered to be the ringleader of the operation because it was a missionary activity, but we were both kept pretty busy for weeks leading up to it. It was a crazy weekend, esp since I worked nights the whole weekend and just got catnaps when I could. Our church is right in downtown Philly so we had a big Christmas Open House with live music, as well as displays of Christ and Nativities. A ton of people put in a ton of effort and it turned out wonderfully.
Pictures of Christ room. One of the girls in charge of this room brought in the couches from her living room so people could sit and look at the pictures for as long as they wanted. It was great!
Missionaries and other ward members singing Christmas carols outside.
Our church is on Chestnut Street, so the name of the event was "Christmas on Chestnut."
Nativities
My room! I was in charge of the crafts for kids, with the great assistance of my mom who sent me a ton of supplies and all of the ideas. Unfortunately Ricardo took these pictures before I got there on Saturday so I don't have a photo-op. Special thanks to the friends who manned the room when I couldn't be there!
This Saturday was Ricardo's first day off of school and I was off as well, so we got to do a bunch of fun things. In the morning we went to the Italian Market downtown, which just sells a bunch of cheap produce and fish, meat, etc. We went with our good friend Stuart and had a great time. We got one of the most delicious pineapples I've ever had for $1 and enough jalapenos to last us til next year for another dollar. It was great. We also drove around the city for a little while afterwards.
Ricardo and Stuart behind the famous art museum.
Ricardo and I in front of the Schuylkill River. I still mispronounce this word.
We are missing our Florida Decembers right about now!
On December 5th was Ricardo's 26th birthday. He is officially closer to 30 than 20 now, which I will be gloating about until I hit that mark next August. He had school that day, but I was off of work so I was able to cook all day and make him all of his favorite things. We had crepes with nutella for breakfast and for dinner we had delicious spinach artichoke pasta and carrot cake, one of the few desserts he actually likes. Otherwise, his birthday was pretty low-key. We opened gifts, talked to family, and he studied for finals while I cleaned up the mess I made making dinner.
Breakfast:
Ricardo with his birthday gifts, which mostly consisted of warm clothes that he needed. He especially loves his Temple Dental school sweatshirt.
My delicious dinner. Highly recommend-we had leftovers for 4 days and were so sad when it was all gone. The link is above.
Happy Birthday! Apron courtesy of Jocelyn Shaw :)
The following weekend we were in charge of a huge Christmas event at our church. Ricardo was volunteered to be the ringleader of the operation because it was a missionary activity, but we were both kept pretty busy for weeks leading up to it. It was a crazy weekend, esp since I worked nights the whole weekend and just got catnaps when I could. Our church is right in downtown Philly so we had a big Christmas Open House with live music, as well as displays of Christ and Nativities. A ton of people put in a ton of effort and it turned out wonderfully.
Pictures of Christ room. One of the girls in charge of this room brought in the couches from her living room so people could sit and look at the pictures for as long as they wanted. It was great!
Missionaries and other ward members singing Christmas carols outside.
Our church is on Chestnut Street, so the name of the event was "Christmas on Chestnut."
Nativities
My room! I was in charge of the crafts for kids, with the great assistance of my mom who sent me a ton of supplies and all of the ideas. Unfortunately Ricardo took these pictures before I got there on Saturday so I don't have a photo-op. Special thanks to the friends who manned the room when I couldn't be there!
This Saturday was Ricardo's first day off of school and I was off as well, so we got to do a bunch of fun things. In the morning we went to the Italian Market downtown, which just sells a bunch of cheap produce and fish, meat, etc. We went with our good friend Stuart and had a great time. We got one of the most delicious pineapples I've ever had for $1 and enough jalapenos to last us til next year for another dollar. It was great. We also drove around the city for a little while afterwards.
Ricardo and Stuart behind the famous art museum.
Ricardo and I in front of the Schuylkill River. I still mispronounce this word.
We are missing our Florida Decembers right about now!
That night we headed back downtown-it's just a few miles, so pretty convenient for us to do stuff. We walked around the University of Pennsylvania campus and it was beautiful. The buildings are so old and historic and they had a ton of beautiful Christmas decorations everywhere. There was this one bridge that had tiny lanterns hanging overhead and it looked like a fairy tale. Unfortunately, none of the pictures I took on my phone really worked out, so I hope you can imagine it. Then we went to Bobby's Burger Palace for dinner, i.e. Bobby Flay below. It was delicious and fun to go out to dinner- we haven't done that in ages!
We are looking forward to Christmas next week and have some other fun things planned for Ricardo's break from school, which I will try to post about when we do them! Hope everyone is enjoying the Christmas season so far!
Ahh i love that you still use that apron!
ReplyDeleteAlright, I have a few questions for you. First off, why are you in the Chestnut building? The Broad and Wyoming building is tons closer to you (and the best building in Philly). Second off, don't feel bad for mispronouncing Schuylkill, I still can't say it correctly. And have you had a steak from Tony's Palace on Broad and Wingohicking (I think that is the cross street, but it might be Lindley). And Kylie, how do you Einstiens's? I taught a few lessons in there :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you had a great birthday Ricardo. Nutella crepes for breakfast? Brilliant!
Ha, Andrew, we were just talking about you this morning because we were downtown sightseeing and wondering what areas you served in now that we know our way around! The chestnut building and broad street buildings are actually about equidistant from our house. Since we live west of the river we are in the Valley Forge stake and meet at Chestnut. We have a bunch of dental school friends that meet in the Broad street building, which is very close to my job, as you know. :) Did you really teach some lessons at Einstein? It is crazy, but I like it. We have had quite a few cheesesteaks, but haven't been to Tony's Palace yet. Sounds like you need to come visit after your sojourn in London!
DeleteYou guys look like you are having a blast!!! I am glad you guys are liking it up there :) Do you guys like Temple University?? That's on my list of dental schools!!!
ReplyDeleteRicardo loves it! They have one of the best dental clinics in the country. Feel free to call if you have any questions about it! When are you applying? So exciting!
ReplyDeleteThat's great!! I still have a year until I need to take the DAT so I have time but I like to do research. How fun would it be for us to be out there too!!!
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