Date Night

JP has been typing his fingers off for the past month writing a huge memo for his law school writing class (it's due today, so yay! I get my husband back!) but I decided he needed a break, so I took him on a little date last night!

It started off with attended the grand opening/christmas tree lighting/fireworks show at the Outlets at Traverse Mountain! Which are really nice, by the way. 

We sort of bought ourselves lots of early christmas presents from the J. Crew there... but everything was an additional 40% off so can you blame us?!

Then we stopped by Chipotle for some steak burritos and onto see Skyfall 007 at the IMax theater with a large diet coke and crepes (with gelato on JP's... yeah, he's heading straight for diabetes, it's fine).

Pretty good date if I do say so myself. 

:)

Hot Chocolate Party

This past weekend, in light of the freshly fallen snow, JP and I decided that we really needed to have a gourmet hot chocolate party. 

So we bought the fanciest chocolate we could find, whole milk, and combined this recipe and this recipe into our own high-calorie, incredibly rich, delicious hot chocolates. 

We had dark chocolate, white chocolate, and a milk chocolate option, just in case one kind didn't suit all tastes haha. 

Feelin' Crafty

Yesterday was a great day. 

I decided to abstain from doing anything school related and instead filled my time with french toast from kneaders, some much-needed time at the gym (its been months... literally), and a little crafting! I am determined to get better at this sort of thing, and I do think it is happening... slowly. Baby steps over here. 

My cousin always wears the cutest hair bows in her gorgeous long hair and come to find out, she makes them herself! So we decided to monopolize her saturday afternoon and have her teach us how to make some hair bows. It was hilarious, and so much fun. And fairly successful! I now know how to make my own hair bows, so I have something in the homemaking department to pass on to my future daughters haha. 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

JP and I have officially began the christmas music battle. 

I say there are few things that make me happier than christmas music, so why on earth would i not listen to it in november when it snows? But he insists on a no-christmas-music-until-after-thanksgiving rule. 

We might need to start driving separate cars. 

A Wedding and A Reunion

This past weekend I had the privilege of attending my friend Jen's wedding reception!

Her dress was gorgeous -- I have never seen lace like that!

I loved her reception too. First of all, it was at the Zion's Bank Tower in Salt Lake City and the view up on the top floor there is unbelievable, and second of all, she had this fabulous pasta bar where you could build your own pasta dish, which I have never seen at a reception before, and it's not often I see something I haven't seen before... I thought it was such a good idea! 

She's a gem. I just love her. 

 

After the reception I convinced Mr JP to run over to City Creek for a couple minutes (haha) so I could check out the new Anthropologie store location! Which didn't disappoint, I am pleased to report. 

And THEN (we were all over the place that night) my London study abroad group had a reunion that I LOVED!! We reminisced about memories including this, this, this, and this, while the husbands were good sports and indulged us/took pictures for us for over two hours! 

And we missed everyone who couldn't make it! I love these people, I feel like we will always have a bond with one another, they're each really amazing individuals and I feel lucky to know them!

The best professor in the world right there!

Hooray for Voting!

Today is the very first time I was able to vote for a president of the United States. 

I loved feeling like I actually have somewhat of a say in my country, and although I've really enjoyed learning about all the different views and policies and plans each candidate has for our country, I am so anxious for tonight/tomorrow morning when it is finally over and we get to see who is going to be our president for the next four years. 

So hooray for voting!

(and if you're in Provo, Einstein Bagels is giving away free bagels to those who have a voting sticker!)

Halloween 2012

I had a slightly better attitude about Halloween this year (you might remember last year's rant) mostly because Mr JP took it upon himself to make sure our costumes weren't thrown-together at the last minute. 

We heard the words "costume contest" and we delivered! My cousin and his cute wife threw a Halloween party this past weekend at their new house and although we only caught the very end of it,  it gave us a good excuse to go all-out with our costumes. 

We were Danny Zuko and Sandy from Grease!

Mr JP grew up watching the movie, and loves it, so I think a childhood dream was fulfilled as he was slicking his hair back. 

sidenote: we decided to be super accurate in our representations of the characters... so that meant a "pink ladies" jacket for me (see below) and a *gasp* cigarette for Mr JP -- BUT NOT TO SMOKE. Danny Zuko always has one behind his ear in the movie... so off to the gas station we went to purchase a pack of cigarettes... and I just about died with mortification/crisis of conscience. 

And the kind cashier helped us out by directing us toward the cheapest brand since we didn't have a clue what we were doing...

Anyways, it was a very successful Halloween. And I don't know if my hair will ever be the same!