Month: December 2012

little christmas/big gift

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IMG_4803(our tree and wrapped presents)

Last night we had little Christmas at our apartment.  We exchanged gifts, ate a ridiculous amount of Italian food, and watched a movie.  Though I’m sad we won’t be together on the actual day, it was a lot of fun to have our first Christmas living together and with Rondo.

IMG_4784(rondo “helping” me wrap the other day)

We exchanged gifts and I didn’t know what to expect from Jay…what he gave was more than I could have imagined…8 days in Punta Cana at this crazy luxurious resort!  You can check it out here!  How did I get so lucky?!  I can’t believe in just a couple weeks we will be sitting on the beach relaxing together with nothing to worry about…now all we need is a puppy sitter…Mommmmmm :)????!!!!

Here are some more fun ones from present time last night:

IMG_4804(rondo’s daycare gave him a stocking! they are the greatest!)

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(rondo hiding all his new toys behind the pillows of our bed & our mantle full of cards)

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(jay opening, rondo loving his new metrocard toy…such a new yorker)

IMG_4827(the boys tuckered out from playing/opening…so cute)

My favorite gift I got Jay was this custom made poster since he loves Game of Thrones so much…

House Peckham

Pretty cool right?  With his real family saying too!

Almost time for 11 days off from work…11! Looking forward to spending time with so many friends and family at home, in Boston, and back in Brooklyn next week. Wishing everyone happy, healthy, and wonderful holidays!

xo-j

 

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bon appétit

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IMG_4636(frozen hot chocolate at serendipity)

Lately we have been on an endless journey of lunches, dinners, drinks, and holiday parties…not that I’m complaining, but we have been busy and completely stuffed for the past two weeks!  Nothing like the holidays in NYC to fill you up…

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(lunch at serendipity…erin and i dressed the same by accident!)

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IMG_4641(more serendipty & dylans candy bar!)

IMG_4617(holiday lunch with all my girls from work!)

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(rolling stone holiday party)

IMG_4732(i had 3 of these this week and a countless amount of cookies…oh dear)

Jay’s cousin from Italy came to visit NYC with his girlfriend and we had a great dinner at 1 or 8 in Williamsburg…so yummy…

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IMG_4775(nyc skyline from our rooftop)

Now just a couple more days until Christmas and a whole lot more eating to do in the mean time! Can’t wait to do little family Christmas tomorrow with these two bubs…

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xo-j

 

 

 

Visitors

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This weekend Jay’s friends came to visit from Cali and boy did we party…seriously, I’m still tired!  Here are some fun pictures from the weekend in Brooklyn with our friends…

FRIDAY

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(out in manhattan for the night)

SATURDAY

IMG_4662(rondo in bed still at 11am…he was up playing until way too late)

IMG_4674 IMG_4671 IMG_4668(hanging before starting our day)

IMG_4672(rondo falling asleep sitting up in the sun)

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(first stop of many at Spritzenhaus…the kale salad is seriously unreal)

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(goofing around with em at surf bar for dinner)

IMG_4709(probably my favorite from the weekend.  i somehow got the boys to take this one with the trees)

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(last stop at lucky dog. rondo came for that one!)

Now it’s time to start my last week of work before the holidays!

xo-j

 

 

 

 

Home For Good Dogs/Looking Down On Us

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581170_10100650831285903_1591221667_nI think you all know, not only by the name of the blog, we are kind of (ok totally) obsessed with our little Rondo.  I thought today I would share the story of how we brought home this guy and the amazing work Home For Good Dogs is doing!

We had been looking for a puppy for a while….we used Pet Finder, looked through tons of sites, and sent countless emails to both shelters and breeders.  Then one day Jay found Rondo (who was listed as a girl!) and we fell in love with his picture.

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Then life took a turn, as it does, and I lost my cousin.  It couldn’t have been more tragic and is something I still can’t comprehend…the day after as we were making plans to travel home to be with my family, HFGD called and told me we were approved for Rondo (who at that time we thought was a girl and we were going to name Cholula).  I told them I wouldn’t be able to come get him as we had a horrible loss in the family, but thank you so much…

As I was talking to Toni from HFGD (amazing woman!) it turned out HFGD is located in the town where my cousin lived.  Again, I told her how I would love to meet the puppies, but I wouldn’t be able to.  She understood, but as we were about to hang up she asked where I lived in NJ (about 45 minutes away from my cousins house and HFGD) and she said “no problem! we will just bring the dogs to that petsmart for you on Sunday”.  And quick as that everything changed.

That weekend I went to meet up with Toni and the puppies.  She picked them both up and that’s when we realized that though they were both listed as girls, one was most definitely a boy!  I held them both and didn’t know how I could possibly decide who to bring home…then Rondo licked my face and I was sold.

I like to think my cousin was looking down (and even though she wasn’t a pet person) she sent us Rondo.  I’m always calling Rondo my little heaven angel…

047(rondo’s first day home sleepy in his bed)

I can’t say enough about the amazing work Home For Good Dogs does.  They are non-profit full of loving, helpful, warm volunteers who only want the best for their adoptable dogs.  Look at some of these cuties who need homes now…

Adoptable BlytheAdoptable GarrettAdoptable Jen

Adoptable Curtis

Please take some time and like their Facebook to continue support for this wonderful place!  If you know of anyone in the area looking for a loving pet to bring home please look to them!  They have adoption events in Milburn throughout December.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and this story brings a little bit of light to your day, as Rondo does with us.

xo-j

3 Years

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Last night Jay and I went to dinner for our 3 year anniversary at Marlow & Sons. Everything was so delicious and it was really nice to go out to dinner alone (we’re so busy it doesn’t happen too much!).  I took some pictures but they all turned out dark…bear with me here…

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(duck leg with green apples, spinach, onion, and so many spices mmm. sweet sunchokes with bacon. crostini with feta, fennel, and red onion salad)

IMG_4593(my man loving his chicken/lemon/rice soup.  if you know jay, you know his world revolves around soup.  look at the concentration!)

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(table settings, menu, chalkboard menu)

IMG_4588(attempt to take a picture of us)

It was a really nice night, followed by the 12.12.12 concert, a double overtime Celtics win, and this little guy doing this all on his own after a walk in the cold…

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He cracks us up!

xo-j

Butterball Cookies

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IMG_4518 (rondo investigating the cookies…good thing they were covered!)

This weekend I made my favorite cookies for Christmas/Doug’s Birthday!  They are so yummy and beyond easy.  I thought I would share the recipe with you today.

What You Need

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1 stick butter
1/4 cup powdered sugar + some for rolling
1 cup flour
1 tsp water
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)

Directions

Preheat to 250

1. Cream the butter and powdered sugar together in mixing bowl
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2. Make sure that is all mixed up well…

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3. Now add the flour, vanilla, water, and nuts.  Continue to mix…I use a spoon at first then my hands for this part because I think it works better than the mixer.

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4. Once it is all mixed up start rolling the mixture into about tsp size balls…

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5. Place balls on a cookie sheet.  No need to space, they don’t rise.  Cook for 30-40 minutes.

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6. Get your powdered sugar ready for rolling!  The second you take the cookies out of the oven, roll them into the sugar…

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7.  Let cool…and you are done! Tasty simple butterball cookies!

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I hope you enjoy this recipe!  One of our close family friends always made them for us when we were kids and they’ve been my favorite ever since!

xo-j

ABC

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This weekend we had our Anniversary, celebrated 2 Birthdays, and my Mom had her Concert!IMG_4456

Friday we had our friend’s (also called Justine!) birthday at Stand4.  It was so yummy!  Boozy shakes…mmm…

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Saturday was our anniversary!  I got Jay a bunch of game of thrones glasses for our apartment since he loves the books/show and I keep breaking all our glasses…whoops!

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That night we went out to celebrate Jay’s brother-in-laws birthday!  Look at this perfect couple…

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Then Sunday I went home to see my Mom’s chorus concert.  They were wonderful…especially Mama!

concert

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I also got to meet my brother’s new kitty Caesar…I tried to steal him…

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Some other randoms from the weekend…

  IMG_4459 IMG_4528 IMG_4438(sleepy boy, hair for dinner sat., orchid has 3 new blooms…how it is still alive idk)

IMG_4525(the city from the pier saturday night)

Now it’s back to work…how is it Monday already? Hope everyone had a great weekend!
xo-j

Lately…

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Wild weeks at work mean lazy nights at home.  I did however do some quality wrapping while Jay was out at his basketball game last night!  Here are some things from around the city and home in the past couple days…

IMG_4396 (walk in central park in the weird warm weather monday)

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(columbus circle christmas shopping)

IMG_4407(snuggling my boy enjoying our tree)

IMG_4401(the rock tree is up!  it really never gets old…the crowds do…but not the tree)

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(my sweet boys playing together…they’re too cute)

yay almost friday!

xo-j

Another Rainy Day

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A yucky morning in NYC…but it is supposed to be 60 this afternoon and sunny!  I’ll believe it when I see it.  Some rainy pics from my morning…

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(dark street & mural by my apt)

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(even the park looks sad it’s raining)

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The good news is words with friends has decided Rondo is a playable word…clearly I am way too excited about this!

Also, you can see more of my photos on Instagram!

xo-j

 

Christmas Mouse

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It has been Christmas around my office for the past couple weeks, and now it seems to (finally) be Christmas all over the city!  Tress and decorations are everywhere!  Look at the beautiful trees above…they made my trip to buy a mouse trap a little bit better.   We are trying to pretend it’s a Christmas mouse and not freak out…but it isn’t working too well….I’m freaked out there is a mouse in our apt.

Otherwise we had a pretty calm weekend.  We did some quality lazing….

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We went movies Saturday to see Life of Pi (which was great!).  We went downtown to our favorite secret theater.  Here are some pics from our stroll after the movie…

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(the new tower disappearing into the clouds)

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(Jay got this app that swirls your pictures…here is one he took from our walk.  Cool right?!)

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I did do one successful thing this weekend…got our Christmas cards done!  Woo!  December 3rd and they are already mailed out.  If I only had the same motivation to swiffer…

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

xo-j