Beer?

If you know me you know that I am not picky. However beer? Not at all my thing. There’s just something about the smell that I can’t get over. Blech.

Until now.

Ladies and gentlemen I have big news. I have found a beer that I can not only choke down. I actually enjoy it. Seriously this is a big deal. My beer of choice?

Allagash White

I’m told this is a girly beer.

Again, if you know me that should not surprise you. I tend to like girly drinks.

And I’m totally cool with that. If this “girly” beer is what transitions me into a beer drinker then all the better. Not that I plan on making beer part of any kind of regular habit. It’s just much easier (and way cheaper) to have a beer with a bunch of friends then to have to try and find some kind of cocktail.

So, exciting stuff. Or at least it is for me.

Mmmm falafel

We went to the Greater Chicago Jewish Festival in Cook County Forest Preserve today. There was music, art and the best falafel I’ve ever had. I mean, seriously so good…. ::daydreams about the delicious falafel:: It was Joel’s first time trying falafel and now he is completely spoiled. That falafel is not fair to all the other fried balls of chickpea. Nom.

Anyway, we made a little video. Hope you enjoy it

Christmas Baking

Today we went to my Grandparents house to bake Christmas cookies. Yum!

My Little Dutch Holiday

I was feeling rather “homesick” so I decided to take a trip over to my second home, The Netherlands. Reason number 53 why I love my job: I fly standby and was lucky enough to get seat 1F. Yeah that’s right, first class baby. Ah! It was amazing. I ate a delicious meal, watched a movie and then laid my chair back and slept like a baby until it was time for breakfast. This is how an airline can treat their employees like crap and still keep them around because once you’ve flown somewhere like that it’s hard to imagine going back to seat 36E, back of the plane, middle seat.

Anyway, I got there without a hitch and feeling very rested I hopped on a train and made my way to Rotterdam to see my lovely Dutch family. It was a really fun, relaxing several days where I was able to just blend into their everyday life again and hang out with my girl. It was great. Then at the end of the week we celebrated Sinterklaas with Ineke’s sister Thea’s family. They were the family that I helped out three and a half years ago in Romania when their youngest was born.

Here are a couple pictures from my days there:

My little princess loved playing with my hair. She actually wasn’t bad at doing braids.

One of my favorite winter time treats over there is an oliebol. It’s a deep fried pastry dusted with powdered sugar and it typically has raisins in it although you can get many different varieties. It’s kind of like a giant donut hole actually. They only make them from mid November to early January.  They are absolutely delicious!

My iPhone was very popular with the kids because of the games. I barely got it back from them, haha. (I guess we know what will be on the list for next Sinterklaas, huh Ineke? *wink*)

For those of you who don’t know about Sinterklaas you can read about him here. Basically, Sinterklaas hands out gifts on the eve of his birthday in sacks like these.

Sinterklaas hid these in the basement of Thea’s house and left a note so the kids could discover them later.

Think there were enough? Sinterklaas even knew I was there somehow. Thanks again for all my beautiful presents Sinterklaas *wink*.

Another tradition is writing poems that tease the receiver of the gift and/or hint at what the present is.

Caroline is getting so freaking big! When I first got there she was only one, now she just turned six and she could read her own poem (with just a little help). *sigh*

Speaking of growing up, here is little Sam who I last saw when he was born! Now he’s three and absolutely adorable. If you look carefully at his mouth you can see he’s already had plenty of the candy that he’s eyeing.

So my visit this time was short but sweet. It was great seeing everyone again and hearing Dutch all around me. It just feels like home over there. As icing on the cake I even got a first class seat coming back home! It was a lot of fun and hopefully it won’t be too long before my company sponsors a trip back there for me. *crosses fingers*

Anniversary Vacation Part One

This month was Joel and my second wedding anniversary. I can’t believe we’ve been married for two years already! In celebration we decided to take a little vacation down to Buenos Aires, Argentina. We had four beautiful days together and had an amazing time. There is too much to put into one post so I will spread it out over a couple posts.

We left Dulles Airport late Monday night and were seated in business class. I definitely felt like a rock star sitting there with my husband and it enabled us to get some good rest on the ten and half hour flight down there. We arrived Tuesday morning and were greeted by our driver who had been arranged by our hotel to pick us up at the airport. We chose to stay at the Claridge Hotel which is a five star hotel in the center of the city and we were not disappointed. We had a very comfortable room and we spent the first day doing nothing but settling in and ordering room service. Hey, it was an anniversary trip after all. *wink*

The next morning we enjoyed our delicious, complimentary champagne breakfast. I very rarely get up in time to enjoy breakfast but this was not to be missed. We then went out to explore the city.

We started out on Florida Street which was just a block from our hotel. It has a lot of great shopping and is one of the busiest streets in the city.

We made our way past the Obelisk, which is a defining land mark of the city.

Evita!

Look, we really were there.

Here are several more pictures of the streets of B.A.

There are lots of cute, brightly colored buildings like this scattered throughout the city.

We wandered down to the water where we picked up some delicious ice cream and enjoyed the sun and the view.

A nice refreshing treat on a warm, sunny afternoon.

Part of our view of the water.

After we had seen all we wanted to see for the day we headed back to the hotel to enjoy the warm evening air by the pool and send some postcards to people back home.

We’ve got a lot of family!

Writing home.

Later that evening we decided to try one of the things Argentina is most famous for: steak.

We went to a place just around the corner from our hotel called El Establo. It was a traditional, little steak house. The menu had easily two or three dozen different options for the cuts of beef and how it was prepared. Our waiter obviously saw our overwhelmed looks as neither Joel nor I are experts on the different cuts of a cow. Even though he didn’t speak any English he did a great job of helping us pick out which cut we should get. And let me just say he knew exactly what he was talking about. Best. Steak. Ever!

I am not kidding you this may have been the best thing I have ever put in my mouth. I am completely spoiled when it comes to steak now. These cuts of meat made every other steak I’ve ever had look like hamburger, no kidding.

Here we are enjoying our amazing dinner.

After that we headed back to the hotel to get rested up for our next day of adventures which will be part two. Stay tuned!