Valentines Day

Since Christmas, things have been pretty quiet around here. I think this is the time of year that i hate the most: New Years through February...it's just so cold and gray and just gross. The one good thing about the month of February is Valentines day. I've been trying to do a few things to be festive this month. Last week i made red velvet heart shaped whoopie pies with marshmallow frosting. They actually turned out really well. Here is a picture and the link
I got the recipe off of pinterest. Pinterest is my new found obsession. For those of you who have never heard that word, the best way to describe Pinterest is to think back to the days before we had internet and how we used to cut out magazine pictures for outfit inspiration, ideas for hair styles, home decor, crafts, outfits, etc. and pinned them on our push-pin cork boards. Now… imagine doing that but without the magazines and without the cork board...all virtual. It is basically just a website for sharing good ideas. I have found tons of great recipes that I can't wait to try. Here is a link to my boards. Let me know if you want me to send you an invite!
Last night we had an early Valentines day celebration. Jeremy got me some really pretty flowers
and we to dinner at the Melting pot. It had been a long time since either of us had been there and we had a great time. I think the cheese fondue is my favorite. I could eat that stuff all day.
Happy Valentines day!

Christmas with the Kuhres

This year, Jeremy's family flew in from Provo and Texas for Christmas. It was great to have them here. On Christmas Eve, Jer and his family (I had to work) went to the Franklin Institute. They have a lot of really awesome, interactive exhibits there. One of them gives you age enhanced photos of yourself. This is Jeremy at 70 years old.

This picture scares me. Apparently this is best care scenario, without obesity or sun damage...love you Jer. We had fun doing all of our Christmas traditions with Jeremy's family. We went to look at Christmas lights, read the Christmas story, watched a Christmas Carol, and had a yummy Christmas dinner together. I made garlic prime rib, homemade rolls, asparagus and red mashed potatoes (it was the first time I had ever made prime rib and it was actually pretty easy).

On Monday night, Jer's dad took us out to a Italian restaurant in Philadelphia called Vetri. According to a couple of reviews, Vetri is the best Italian restaurant on the east coast. They only have a "grand tasting menu." They just bring you out random plates from the menu. Here is a link.
Some of the more adventurous items we tried were texas antelope, black angus tar tar, and chestnut fettuccine with boar and cocoa. It was quite the experience. Really yummy but I don't think my palette was quite refined enough for some of the items on the menu. We took our Christmas decorations down a couple of days ago and now our house is empty, sad and naked. At least there is Valentines Day to look forward to in a month.

Holiday Time!

It's crazy that it's almost Christmas again. I thought I would catch up with a few pictures that we've taken during this holiday season. We had our friend Sam over and had a nice Thanksgiving at home

I made a caramel apple pie for dessert and I was pretty proud of how it turned out. It was delicious!
It's been really fun having a house to decorate for Christmas this year. The day after Thanksgiving we went out to pick out our tree. They always look so much smaller when they are in the lot...we cut a bit off of it and it ended up looking great!
One of my favorite ornaments from this year...excuse the nudity
Here are a few more pictures of the house decorated for Christmas...
found this cute card holder
We did peppermint cupcakes for our neighbor gifts this year. Last weekend we went to Longwood gardens to see their Christmas display. The theme this year was "gingerbread fantasy." They had a couple of pretty awesome gingerbread replications of the buildings at longwood
all of the windows were made out of sugar, I wanted to poke one really badly! Here are a few more pictures of longwood
Have a wonderful Christmas!

Colonial Williamsburg

Last weekend we took a little mini vacation to Williamsburg, Virginia with my parents. The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time. The first day we visited colonial Williamsburg. In the early 1900's, the historic district of Williamsburg was restored by the Vanderbilt family to look like it did during the revolutionary war. A lot of the buildings are original. It is pretty amazing (we are big history nerds). We went to the reenactment of a trial in the old courthouse, went to the actual jail where blackbeard's pirates were held, and toured the governor's mansion


They also had a bunch of cool reenactments, like when the town was captured in the war by Benedict Arnold. The next day went to the battlefield at Yorktown, where the last battle of the revolutionary war was fought. We went on a pretty great ranger tour of the battlefield (I do love those rangers!). We also went to the original settlement at Jamestown. My family is pretty big into genealogy and family history and while we were there we saw a picture of one of the ancestors on my dad's side, one of my great great (lots of greats) grandfathers, Thomas West the 3rd "Baron de la Warr."
(can't you see the family resemblance?)I didn't know anything about him and I guess he was the first Governor of Virginia and was a big reason that the Jamestown colony didn't fail. Thanks mom and dad for a really fun weekend!