Weekend Things

Hello and Merry Christmas Eve! (Or is it Happy Christmas Eve?) I’m just coming at you with a later-than-usual “Weekend Things” post, because tis the season to be shorter on time than you thought, right? I fully intended on posting yesterday — I even made sure to upload my pictures first thing in the morning — but then… I don’t know what happened, but posting didn’t. I’ll try to keep it short and sweet as I’m sure you have better things to do on this holiday eve 🙂

We headed into Boulder on Friday night, in an attempt to hit up Happy Hour at the Med before checking out yet another potential wedding band, but there was an hour and a half wait so we wound up at West Flanders Brewing Co. (of our engagement photo fame) and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked their food.

For the record, we thought the band was just okay but the guy putting on a modern dance performance (complete with lots of rolling on the ground!) in the audience was A++.

My cousin is coming in from NOLA this Friday so we are frantically trying to pull the house together (semi-together at least) before her arrival. Which means that’s basically what we did all day Saturday. Things are looking really good! But we did call it quits around 5 for our annual “Couple’s Christmas.” Every year, we put aside a night to have our own two-person celebration and exchange gifts, as it’s usually pretty hectic come Christmas Day.

We made this (highly recommended!), this (also, highly recommended!), these (so cute) and some simple broiled asparagus. Enjoyed in front of Love Actually. By far our best feast ever! We got each other a new range for Christmas and got to enjoy cooking on it together 🙂

I spent a majority of the day Sunday at my parents’… doing laundry. Our dryer just suddenly stopped blowing any kind of heat… so that’s just great. I hauled our clothes over and hung out with my parents while they washed and dried. I felt like a college kid home on Christmas break. I helped my mom plan her Christmas Eve/Day menu and I’m so.dang.excited. to taste it all tomorrow.

Finished off the day with the first yoga studio class in months, which left me totally devoid of any energy, and a dinner of homemade falafel and couscous tabbouleh. I’m just now realizing that the only pictures I took this weekend were of food. And that this post wasn’t exactly short. Hope you didn’t mind!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Whew! Do you ever have a weekend where you end up feeling more tired than rested? Because I just had one. And I’m kind of excited that it’s Monday and I have to be sitting at my work desk. Emphasis on sitting. We did so much house work this weekend. But first! A fun Friday.

P.S. This is a food-heavy post. You’ve been forewarned.

Guys, I got contacts on Friday morning! I’ve had glasses with a minor prescription since college but I rarely wear them because I hate seeing the frames in my periph so I’ve just been squinting at the TV guide and missing turns because I can’t read the street sign until I’m passing it. I finally got contacts and life is easier now. I took my fully functioning eyes to a concert on Friday night to celebrate. Or because I was already planning to go to that concert.

To say I’ve been excited to see The Head and the Heart in concert would be a huge understatement. I adore this band and I’ve been anxiously awaiting the day I got to see them live. I’d like to pretend we got there early because we were that excited, but it was like 10% excitement and 90% wanting to get one of the few seats so I wouldn’t have to stand for 3 hours. And that’s what we call adulthood.

Anyways, they were every bit as good as I thought they would be. No, wait, even better! Call me a uninformed fan, but I had no idea they had two male singers. Totally thought it was just one voice on their albums. Oops! I’m so glad we got to see them. My heart was soaring when I got to hear “Shake” and “Rivers and Roads” in person. Chills just thinking about it 🙂 Also, some guy got on stage and proposed to his girlfriend, didn’t invite her on stage, then proceeded to celebrate and hug all the band members while she just stood there in the crowd. Dude, come on.

Saturday involved lots of house work — we picked paint, got to work on the kitchen and the living room and hooked up our new range! — and take out. We tried this pizza place down the street for the first time and despite not having stellar reviews, we actually thought it was really good. I’m a fan of anywhere that offers a bunch of veggie-licious whole wheat dough options so this was a win for me. Then the annual viewing of my favoritest Christmas movie. You think I would be sick of it but no. Not even in the slightest.

Sunday started with this bad decision.

Dear body, please have a more consistent reaction to caffeine. Love, Lauren.

This was my attempt at having a super productive day and don’t get me wrong it was super productive. It was also super jittery and anxious. I will never learn. After I had more than adequately caffeinated myself, we tackled more painting, a trip to Ikea, a trip to the grocery store, cooking in our so-close-to-being-back-in-one-piece kitchen, un-packing boxes of kitchen stuff and a shower where I’m fairly sure I forgot to rinse the conditioner out of my hair… Oh, and our Christmas lights are finally up. Yay!

Then my parents came over to see all the progress at the house and to take us to dinner for their anniversary. If that sounds backwards to you, then that makes two of us. I tried to encourage them to enjoy a night out on their own but my mom insisted and I’m not one to turn down dinner. Plus I suggested they make reservations at a restaurant we had tried to go to on Wednesday night, only to find there was an hour and a half wait. If that kind of traffic on a week night isn’t a sign of a good restaurant, I don’t know what is.

I think the popularity might have something to do with these little margaritas.

Turns out it makes more sense to order the large margarita and share it, rather than all order a small or medium for ourselves. Joey tried to convince both my sister and I to order a large and both share with him. Yeah, nice try. Mass consumption of chips, guac, enchiladas, rellenos, burritos and sopapillas ensued. And by the end of dinner, a majority of the table felt sickeningly full. Who ordered those sopapillas?! Oh, right…