highlights of 2011.

i love reading the yearly highlights on other blogs & thought it would be especially fun to catch up on the entire year since i didn't start blogging until the fall.

{via google}

january: we had a mellow start to the new year that was highlighted by starting the last semester of my law school career.

february: we celebrated our 6 month anniversary on the first (cheesy, i know). we hosted a celebration party at our townhouse which included my turning 26 (yikes!), a very belated housewarming & of course, our 6 month anniversary. aaron took me away to whidbey island for a romantic weekend to celebrate my birthday and valentine's day, and we went to serafina (my fav) for dinner!

march: my last official spring break (probably ever) which was spent studying (papers & oral argument) & working on my Bar application. i submitted my Bar application. we were surprised by the early arrival of baby cambridge: franklin pierre cambridge.

{via cari cambridge}

april: we attended the Barrister's Ball (a.k.a. law school prom) which was held at the EMP. we drove to ritzville, WA to meet my dad & brought home the newest member of our little family, sadie. we had a date night at The Pink Door during Seattle Restaurant Week.

{taken at photobooth}

{the very first picture of sadie & aaron at the columbia river - taken with holga 135}

may: my last official final exams period: one final, two papers & a project. i painted our office a soothing blue in preparation for my bar exam studies. we attended Baccalaureate Mass at Seattle University & my Law School Graduation at Key Arena. we flew to indiana to see aaron's family & to attend aaron's ten year reunion at Culver Military Academy. we continued east-ward to Paris where we spent a week of celebration: graduation & aaron turning 28! we spent our first day in Paris with our good friend jerry who acted as our translator & tour guide.

june: i started my bar prep studies on the first; this marked the beginning of eight grueling weeks of 80 hours a week cramming. aaron interviewed & was offered a program manager position (still at microsoft). 

july: we saw Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows Part II at the IMAX. i sat for the WA Bar Exam on July 26, 27 & 28; i wouldn't have made it thru those three days without my friend miriam, three-evenings-in-a-row massages, jimmy john's delivery service or the sheraton hotel in bellevue. we got celebratory pedis at my favorite spa Julep. 

august: on the first we celebrated our one year anniversary at Rover's. we dropped off sadie with nanny lisa and headed east for a lower family vacation. we spent the bookend weekends in charlotte, NC with aaron's brother david & his family, but spend most of the vacation in charleston, SC on the beach at the Isle of Palms. lots of sun, sand & air conditioning. sadie & i drove to boise for a quick trip home to visit my family & to get a haircut (yes, i go to idaho to get my haircut). we waited in anticipation for baby lower who was born shortly after we left NC: landon neal lower.

{via jodi lower}

september: we saw maroon 5 & train in concert at the white river amphitheater. we drove down to salem for a weekend to see old family friends & so aaron could skydive; we saw our friends but had to cancel the skydiving due to weather conditions & miscommunications. we attended a surprise dinner party for sami, one of my very old friends from idaho, who now lives in seattle with her husband, brandon. on the 26th we celebrated sadie's 7th birthday.

october: i passed the bar exam! we celebrated our four year dating anniversary with dinner at the melting pot. we attended Ghouls Near Greenlake, ben & sarah's annual halloween bash as aladdin & jasmine. we ate our way thru seattle & bellevue during Seattle Restaurant Week. aaron ran in the warrior dash. i started a little blog called emerald city diaries to keep family & friends updated on the lower family.

november: i was sworn in as an official King County Bar Association member. i was rear-ended. we celebrated the baptism of baby herschel, the son of one of my law school friends. we celebrated thanksgiving with my grandmother & friends in seattle. we bought doug the douglas fir, the second annual lower family christmas tree. aaron took me to the nutcracker for an early christmas date.

december: we celebrated the engagement of our good friends andy & hailey. we attended a champagne brunch fundraiser. we got an SLR camera. we drove to boise in a rental car. i got a haircut. we flew to vegas. we attended the nuptials of scott & kelly at the chapel in the clouds. we cheered on the boise state broncos to victory in the las vegas bowl. we attended a christmas reunion of the CBC (my dearest high school girlfriends). we celebrated christmas! we drove back to seattle. 

whew, what a year! every year i think "this has been the best year ever!" and i think this is totally true about my 2011.

how was your 2011 - was it a year to remember or are you itching to start 2012 already?

M

my weekend in pictures.

{b.l.a.t. at oddfellows. it was time for a change-up from turkey.} 

{does anyone know how to darn a mitten?} 

{pouring down rain = wellies.} 

{apple cup. bow down to the huskies!} 

{thai take-out.} 

{you know it's the holiday season when TJ's carries candy cane green tea. my fave!} 

{thanksgiving leftovers.} 

{hot cocoa & a walk around the neighborhood. don't know what we would do without a coffee shop right down the block!} 

 {baking the apple pie.}

{this is how sadie sleeps. all. the. time.} 

{after making turkey stock, we made turkey stew with wild rice, pancetta and crimini mushrooms.}

{date night at the nutcracker.}

we had the laziest weekend ever. but then today i got a million-and-a-half things done before noon. does that ever happen to you? how was your weekend?

M

the day after thanksgiving.

or black friday. or the day that you can officially put up christmas decorations and listen to the christmas pandora station, and not get crazy looks.

but back to thanksgiving. yesterday was such a wonderful day filled with family, friends & food! aaron and i started out the day with a little breakfast, knowing that we would be eating a big turkey dinner. though probably not the healthiest - hey, it was a holiday!











then i got to the baking & cooking stage of my day. i promised our thanksgiving host (my grandmother) that i would bring two pies and cranberries. the first of my pies was the pumpkin pie. (sidenote: i actually baked the pumpkin pie on wednesday night.) i was a little nervous since i normally don't make the pumpkin pie in my family (mom usually does, and an amazing job at that), and i was using the TJ's (that's Trader Joe's for you that are not in the know) recipe on the back of their canned pumpkin and not the recipe on the back of the usual canned pumpkin that you buy at the regular grocery store. everything went well and the only difference between the usual pumpkin pie and the TJ's pumpkin pie was evaporated milk versus whole milk & half-and-half. i served the pie with creme fraiche as opposed to cool whip mostly because my grandmother thinks that all whipped cream is "shaving cream." (this is totally true even though it sounds like i am making it up. when we are out to dinner and she orders an irish coffee, she will tell the waiter "now i don't want any of that shaving cream on the top," and we have to explain to the waiter that she actually means whipped cream in a can. but i digress.)











the other pie that i made this year was an apple pie, which is the kind that i normally make for holiday meals, so nothing too tricky about it.

i also decided to make cranberry sauce this year. cranberries are one of my favorite parts of the thanksgiving meal (do people really use cranberries outside of thanksgiving and christmas? i think not.) and when i saw a simple recipe for fresh cranberry sauce in the november cooking light, i knew i had to give it a try. plus, the recipe specifically said that cranberries are one of the easiest sauces to make. boy were they right, it was so easy - you basically just add things together and boil them. the color was gorgeous and the sauce was so tasty! (plus, there were no ribbed "can lines"!)

as i had mentioned earlier, my grandmother was hosting thanksgiving this year. she has always loved hosting dinner, especially thanksgiving. she makes the most beautiful centerpieces you have ever seen, and always with food (her fave!) - plantains, grapes, clementines, pineapple. we (aaron, my grandmother and i) were joined by old family friends for the evening which we spent a lot of playing cards (spite & malice, a family favorite). it was such a great evening, though aaron and i were both missing family celebrations in other states (idaho and indiana).

the turkey continued as a theme even into the day after thanksgiving thru leftovers (yum) and a very successful attempt at  making turkey stock out of the turkey carcass. i have to admit that we were a bit peer pressured into taking the rest of the turkey home, but after a little chopping and straining, we have some amazing homemade turkey stock. we are planning to make a delicious turkey soup for tomorrow night's dinner. (and the turkey theme continues!)

despite the turkey-themed weekend, we also spent today doing a teeny bit of shopping. it is black friday after all, right? after aaron and i were in paris this spring and borrowing my parent's SLR camera, we decided that we were going to get one for ourselves for christmas. we spent some time looking at the different cameras available a few weeks ago - nikon, canon, sony - and decided that the sony a55 was the one for us. while it isn't a nikon or canon (which is what most SLR choices seem to be), the sony just felt perfect for us - not too bulky, good grips, nice swivel screen. we bought the "black friday edition" of the seattle times to scour what the deals would be, but aaron ended up finding the best price online. though there won't be any surprises as to what christmas has in store for us this year, i am still so stoked to get this camera!

what a great thursday & friday. can you believe we have the entire weekend still? bliss.

how was your thanksgiving? did you do any damage during black friday, or avoid the crowds?
M