My 2014

Another year has (quickly) come to an end. I'm so looking forward to what 2015 will bring. I'm sure it will be a year filled with happiness and adventures and unexpected moments. I'm thankful for every new year, just as I'm thankful for every year that we say goodbye to. Now, I'm excited to look back on 2014 and look forward to the what comes next.

We started off the year with a trip to Minnesota in the middle of their coldest winter to date. We went to The Mall of America and visited family and friends. We'll go back again soon, but hopefully in warmer weather this time. 

Also in January, we took our engagement photos, which also just so happened to fall on the coldest day of the year. I couldn't feel my toes by the end of the shoot! But the photos are still great. 

We celebrated our one and only Valentine's day as an engaged couple this February with a fancy dinner at a dimly lit Italian restaurant and a lovely cake made by my MIL. 

In March, AJ and I moved to Boston for his final internship before his graduation. He worked a lot and determined that he did not love working in an out-patient facility and I read, wrote, and worked in this lovely city. 

I turned 22 on April 10th while we were still living in Boston. My mom and godmother drove up from CT to be here and a few friends from the North Shore came for a dinner of pizza from Fig's. 

May was a busy one! First, I celebrated Mother's Day with this pretty Mamma in Boston. We did all her favorite things, which included relaxing in her apartment in the morning with coffee, followed by a walk through the Public Garden where we sat and people watched from many different benches, book browsing at Barnes & Noble, and pizza from Upper Crust.

 Also in May, I graduated from Fairfield University! I really graduated in January, but I walked with my class in May. Luckily, it was a beautiful, warm Spring day and all my favorite people were there to watch me walk. I was also treated to a delicious brunch at my favorite restaurant in Connecticut, Centro.

AJ graduated, too! After a few years of constant studying and working, AJ graduated with a degree as a Physical Therapist Assistant. He then passed his licensure exam and was offered a job in Boston!

Every year in June, we go to Chatham for a relaxing week and this year was no different! This was AJ's second time joining our family trip to the Cape and I think he's starting to love this beach town almost as much as I do! I can't wait for our next trip out there to eat lobster rolls and Chatham Candy Manor chocolate and to sit on the porch for hours every morning, reading and watching the gentle waves get closer and closer. 

We celebrated our fourth 4th of July together with a family barbecue at my cousins' house and reminisced about the past four years. 

At the end of July, we celebrated our four year anniversary together with an al fresco dinner of finger foods followed by a movie and macaroons. 

In August, I finally visited my sister in New York City and spent a weekend with her and her friends all around town. 

I was also lucky enough to celebrate my wedding with the best bridal shower, thrown by my mom and sisters at my mother's house. All of my favorite ladies were there to help me celebrated and I was so generously gifted beautiful gifts along with a delicious brunch followed by cake and cookie trays. 

At the very end of August, AJ and I moved back to Boston for his new job and for me to start school. We are so happy here and were so excited when we moved back!

AJ turned 24 in the beginning of September and we celebrated with a delicious Italian dinner in the North End and some gifts, which included a magic bar cake. 

I also started grad school in September and quickly got to work reading, writing, and figuring out how to balance my classes and my teaching job. 

October was the most important month of the year because we got married! We had a lovely ceremony in New Canaan, Connecticut and had the best time at our reception in Darien. Every time I watch our wedding video, I wish we could have the exact same party all over again! This was definitely the highlight of our year. 

In October, we also did some festive, New England activities, such as eating apple cider donuts and picking apples at an orchard in North Andover and visiting Salem the week before Halloween.

In November, we celebrated Thanksgiving on our own. I cooked a big meal and we happily ate together before taking a nice walk through the Common and Beacon Hill before we started decorating for Christmas! 

And finally, in December, we decorated our cozy apartment for the holiday. We baked, watched Christmas movies, and burned candles that smelled like pine to get in the spirit of Christmas before heading home to celebrate with our lovely families. 

It was a crazy, amazing, and fun year and I'm so thankful for all of it. This was a big year of change for me but I had family and love surrounding me every step of the way and it could not have been better. I hope all of you had a wonderful 2014 and I wish you all a very happy new year!

A Very Cabrera Christmas

Even though our short trip home felt very short, we had a wonderfully fun time with our families and celebrated Christmas to its fullest!

Christmas Eve morning and afternoon was spent eating fish and lots of fish at my mom's house and enjoying the company of family. 

Then at 7, we joined AJ's family for 7 o'clock Christmas Eve mass. The church was decorated beautifully and I was so happy to hear Christmas Carols sung during the service. After church, we packed up the gifts we brought for the Cabreras and brought them to AJ's uncle's house. There, we had a big dinner of turkey, ham, green bean casserole, potatoes, and Panetone. We opened gifts around 11 at night and had fun watching everyone enjoy their presents. 

At about 12:30 on Christmas morning, AJ and I drove back to my mom's and promptly fell into a deep sleep in bed. I woke up around 7 and put on A Christmas Story and turned on the fireplace, enjoying the tree and the lights and the look of wrapped presents beneath the green pine. Once my grandmother came over, we all sat around the tree opening gifts and being happy to be together. 

Around 2 in the afternoon, we had our Christmas day meal of cavatelli pasta with meatballs, sausage, spare ribs, and beef followed by ham, sweet potatoes, and veggies. My mom made pie and we had many cookies to munch on the rest of the day. 

The following morning, my mom and sister drove AJ and I back to Boston. Even though Christmas is over, this time before New Year's Day still feels festive because its that in between time where not much gets done and everyone is still in the holiday mood. 

Close to Christmas

My recent blog-silence is due to a few different factors. The semester just wrapped up so I was busy working on my final projects and grading final exams for the class I assisted. Christmas shopping. Spending two days straight baking for a Christmas party (because the first day was a failure). Wrapping presents. Writing thank you cards. And watching Christmas movies.

I'm not complaining  though, it was all fun stuff. In two days, AJ and I will be taking a late train to Connecticut two spend two short days celebrating the holidays with our families before coming back up to Boston with a few family members in tow.

The city has been feel pretty festive lately. After a pad thai dinner on Boylston the other night, AJ and I walked home down Comm Ave. It's filled with lights and we spent the whole walk pointing out pretty Christmas decorations on the exteriors of buildings and noticing lit up trees in windows. We did the same in the North End last night, there are some beautiful wreaths along Hanover. And today, walking down Newbury among Christmas shoppers, it started to snow very lightly and carolers were singing in the distance. It couldn't feel more like Christmas if it tried.

Christmas in Connecticut

My blog-silence over the weekend was due to the fact that, after working for two weeks without a day off, AJ took a few days off so we could spend a long weekend in Connecticut with our families. After a yummy dinner at Boloco, we hopped on Amtrak and got to Stamford around 10. AJ's dad picked us up with Christmas music on the radio and took us to his house where we slept and caught up with AJ's family.

The next morning, I ran some errands with my mom and had lunch with her before we picked up AJ again and headed to Kiwanis Park in New Canaan for our tree! This has been our tradition ever since we moved to CT. Everyone at Kiwanis is a volunteer and the money you spend on the trees all goes to donation. The trees there are all perfect and we usually end up buying the first one we see. This time, we got one that's about 6 feet tall and very full! The volunteers strapped it to the top of the car and we headed to my grandmother's house nearby to pick her up so she could spend the night at our house.

Once we headed home, we realized that the tree was probably not going to make it home so AJ opened the sunroof, grabbed the tree by the trunk, and held onto it that way for the rest of our drive home. It also started hailing at that point so we all got a bit pelted with ice but it's all in the name of a good tree!

We spent the rest of the day decorating the tree and my mom's house while watching Elf. My sister came home from Manhattan, too, to help decorate.

I'm really glad that we were able to go home to pick a tree and help my mom set it up. It's one of my favorite things to do and AJ and I have been doing it every Christmas since we met. I'm glad we could keep it up! I know my mom appreciated the help, too, and it wouldn't have felt like Christmas without picking out a real tree and stringing it with lights!

We had so much fun being home with our families and tried to fit in as much fun time with them as possible. Thankfully, AJ was able to workout his schedule so that we can be home for Christmas, too! We'll head home late on the 23rd, spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Connecticut and head back first thing on the 26th. I know we're lucky that even though we live in a different state than our families, we're still relatively close to them and it's an easy train ride to get home. But we are both so close to our parents and siblings that we feel we can never see them enough! We're very lucky to be able to go home when we can and we are especially blessed to be able to spend this holiday with them.

I hope all of you have great plans for this Christmas!

A Successful Day Off

Wednesdays are my day off from babysitting. I like to take advantage of them and fit in as many fun things and activities possible.

Yesterday I started the day early, drinking coffee with my mom on the porch. At 9:30, I met my cousin Maria for a Zumba class which completely exhausted both of us and made us feel sadly out of shape.

From there, we drove to Orange to a store called Plato's closet. They buy and sell clothes and I had a suitcase full of clothes I've been wanting to try to sell for months. We dropped off the clothes and headed to the nearest Whole Foods for an early lunch which happened to be one of the yummiest lunches I've had in a while.

I take the girls I babysit to Whole Foods once a week, usually, and I tend to stick to the salad bar because there are so many options, I get overwhelmed and fall back on the familiar. This Whole Foods, though, was a bit more spread out and it was pretty empty so I didn't feel rushed to pick something. We took our time walking around, looking at the options before deciding what to get. Also, this has got be the cleanest and most well kept Whole Foods I've been to. Usually, the hot food bar and salad bar get messy and aren't correctly labeled and such but this store had so many more options than I've seen before and each section was filled and looked fresh.

I gravitated towards the hot food bar and filled my container with a little spring greens salad with walnuts and goat cheese, then I added a piece of herbed chicken along with steamed broccoli, summer squash, and zucchini. On the side, I had to add the grilled pineapple and grilled peaches (something else I've never seen at the Whole Foods closer to me) and it was all delicious! It was a bit pricey for lunch but it kept me very full for a long time and it all tasted great.

We went back to Plato's Closet and the store only took 4 out of my many, many items but they gave me $18. Not much, but better than nothing!

From there, we drove to New Canaan to visit my mom at her volunteer job at the thrift store and we ended up shopping more than we meant to! I got a cute Lilly Pulitzer dress for around $30 among other things. They have such great steals! The sale special for that day was one bag of clothes for $25!

I ended the night at the beach in Norwalk with my mom and some family, looking out at the water and listening to the ABBA tribute band that was performing. The weather was beautiful all day and night, it was perfect for an evening at the beach.

Today, I'm back to babysitting and the Westport Library and Farmers' Market are on our schedule for the day!

Westport Farmers' Market

It was a warm but breezy afternoon yesterday, perfect for strolling through a farmer's market which is just what I did with my babysitting girls. Westport's spring farmer's market is located right in town near a library and with a view of the river. 

Our first stop was to the library, and we took a nice walk around the river to get there. When we got to the library, the girls were more interested in playing on the computers than looking at books, but I suppose that is more of the norm these days!

After spending about an hour in the library, we headed back to the market to grab lunch. The girls got pizzas from Skinny Pines and I got a farro and vegetable salad from The Back Forty Farm. There were so many things we wanted to try and so many stands with fresh produce and organic teas and juices, we'll have to go back to buy more!

When we finished our lunch, we grabbed some sweet pastries from The Sono Baking Company stand for the girls to take home. 

Sometimes I Babysit At The Beach

I've been babysitting for close to 10 years now. I enjoy the job because I find playing with kids to be fun! There's a lot you can do with them and most of the time, it does not feel like work. I'm so lucky that I found a great family to babysit for out here, although, with them we don't call it babysitting. The girls are older, 11 and 9, and don't need a babysitter as much as a play pal and chauffeur, so we call it hanging out. Living and babysitting in a beach town has many perks and yesterday we took advantage of them!

I picked the girls up at their house to take them to breakfast at this cute little bakery on the main road in Westport. I had a delicious fruit cup and the girls got croissants, almond and chocolate. We sat at a table outside for a while and then decided it was time to go to the beach.

We set up camp near the water, covered ourselves in sun screen, and got into the water as quickly as possible. It was freezing, but the girls were brave and ducked their heads under right away and I'd been wanting to get into that salt water for a while now. We played in the water for a good chunk of time and the girls practiced their swimming before we headed back to the towels, laid in the sun, and ate our way through half a bag of baby carrots.

One of my favorite parts of this job is that the girls are so chatty and mature so we can hold long, adult conversations and I really enjoy that. They're smart girls with good, kind, and attentive parents and you can really tell how well they are being raised.

The girls got hungry after a while so we walked to the other end of the beach to the little food place that's there. It is crazy expensive, especially for beach food, but since it's the only place to buy food at the beach, they can charge whatever they want and people will buy it! The girls got fries, ate some, and decided it was time to hit the water again.

We walked all the way down the length of the beach where there were hardly any people because the tide was out and the girls could walk out far and the water was still really shallow and warm. I was on left-over french fry duty, carrying them and protecting them from seagulls. The girls walked through the water all the way back to the other end, where our towels were, and I walked along the shore line, waving at them and watching them have a blast!

I didn't even sneak one fry! We stayed at the beach as long as we could but had to be home in time for their next babysitter to take over watching them. I have so much fun with these girls and I'm glad it's my summer job for the next few weeks until school starts. The back seat of my car is now filled with sand but that's what summer is about!

A Wedding and Breakfast

June is off to a great start! I spent the last day of May with AJ, celebrating the marriage of our friends, Tyler and Melissa. It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful day.

We danced and shared a delicious meal with their family and friends. It was touching to see such a loving and devoted couple to be surrounded by all of their loved ones. You could truly see how happy everyone is for them and how supportive and hopeful everyone is for their marriage.

They are a lovely couple who have a blessed future ahead of them! We were so fortunate to be able to share the day with them.

The wedding reception was over by 9 (the happy couple had to be up at 3 am for their honeymoon flight!) so AJ and I went to bed early to rise early on June 1st.

We went to 7:30 mass in the morning at a church in Saugatuck that overlooks the water. After church we swung by Dunkin Donuts. I got a bagel with strawberry cream cheese and an iced French Vanilla coffee—black. AJ got a Coolatta and chicken salad on a croissant. The man loves chicken salad.

I love spending time on the beach, it's such a luxury to have the shore and the Long Island Sound just a five minute drive away. It was before 9 o' clock when we got there so it was still quiet.

We ate and talked about the wedding the night before and about our upcoming wedding. It was a wonderful way to start the day and a great way to start June.

It was an ideal example of what I talked about in yesterday's post. If this morning was any inclination of what June and the rest of the summer holds, I can't wait.

A Bit on Peruvian Food

AJ is Peruvian and it was not until he introduced me to the cuisine of his fine country that I realized just how delicious Peruvian food is. I grew up in Minnesota so I was never introduced to exotic cuisines. Italian food was the usual in our house because we are Italian. Now, I can't get enough Peruvian food and I love eating at AJ's when his parents cook. When we first started dating, I was obsessed with the rice his mother makes. It's just regular white rice, but she uses the perfect amount of oil, salt, and garlic. I think she thought I was a little odd because for a while, all I wanted was rice!

So, AJ also introduced me to what is now one of my favorite restaurants, Fiesta Limeña, a Peruvian place near his house. The food is consistently delicious, the portions are almost too generous, and it's a nice, simple place that is no fuss and so easy to go to. A few years ago we were going too often and AJ had to impose a once-a-month rule on how often we could frequent Fiesta!

The food is the real deal, Peruvian food and I always have AJ order for me since the staff speaks Spanish. We always get anticuchos for our appetizer (beef hearts) and we either order a chaufa or lomo saltado for our entrees. Sometimes we'll get this drink called chicha morada that is made from purple corn!

There are three different Fiesta restaurants in Fairfield County, and I bought us a Groupon to one in Stamford. We went the other night and were so disappointed by the terrible service and waist staff that the moment we sat down, it was clear we will never again stray from our Fiesta restaurant.

But just to give you an idea of how delicious Peruvian food is and how big the servings are, here's a photo from our dinner the other night:

Huge, right?! AJ got the chaufa de mariscos, it's the Peruvian version of fried rice made with seafood. You can also order it with just shrimp, chicken, or beef. 

I got a dish I had never tried before called tallarines verdes because AJ's sister gets it all the time and loves it. It's the Peruvian version of pasta with pesto sauce but you can taste there's a difference between their pesto and Italian pesto. It was so tasty! And it also came with a huge portion of pepper steak which I had to share with AJ. I didn't finish all of my pasta either so I left it in the fridge at AJ's house—hopefully his sister will find it and eat it!

And because I can't resist, this is AJ's 'don't take a photo of me' face. Dinner was a disaster but the food was perfect and that is what matters the most. Also, we were both able to laugh off the ridiculousness of the experience and have fun anyway and I'm so glad we could do that. 

Plus! We also ended up ordering dessert which we never do at our Fiesta. We got a big slice of flan and an alfajor, which I still can't say correctly. 

Because Peruvian food is so delicious and there are so many different types of dishes—all of which I have loved so far—I'm sure I'll be posting about it many more times to share all of the interesting, yummy foods from AJ's home country!