Monday, December 28, 2009

Holiday Hike

After we opened presents and ate breakfast, we decided to make Christmas Day a productive one. We headed to the Middlesex Fells, just north of Boston for some hiking. And yes, we even brought Max along.

Please excuse the plethora of pictures. My favorite Christmas present? An awesome pink, hard core tripod so that I don't always have to be behind the camera during our hikes!
Nice family shot taken via timer and tripod!!
Nate took on Max duty, probably to make it easier to go uphill.
Max likes to pull.
I think Max is trying to figure out what's taking the rest of us so long!
Family shot number 2
Oh Nate... How I love your sense of humor!
I think they should frame this one anyways!!
Me first!! Max always has to be in the lead...
and will sprint to catch up to whoever is in front.
Max and me
Trying to be a tough dog
After we were done hiking, we drove to Nantasket Beach to show my family what a real beach looks like. Our awesome friend John had taken our Christmas pictures there, so we wanted to show it off. It was pretty cold and windy, but the waves were worth it. Oh yeah, and there was some crazy surfer out there. 
I guess Ron didn't feel the cold, he was out picking up seashells.
Max was trying to figure out what that water was... 
and wanted to go by Ron. He kept crying for him! 
 Nate was obviously very cold, and went back in the car right after this photo.


Unfortunately it was a short trip, but we were glad they could come out. I think Christmas in Boston should become a tradition. Between the presents, breakfast, hiking, and dinner at Legal, it was definitely the most productive Christmas ever!!



Sunday, December 27, 2009

Our Christmas Visitors

We were blessed to have some visitors for Christmas. Ron, Mom, Nate, and Max made the 16 hour drive out to spent a few days with us. They were excited to see us, but Nate and Amit were mostly looking forward to playing with Nate's PS3 (his Christmas present) on our big screen HDTV. Max was very excited to see Amit for the first time since July and spent most of his time laying close to him.
All three of them hung out in front of the TV every night.


Max loves to be the center of attention and does the craziest things to get it. He was much calmer than we thought he would be on the elevator, but he had a hilarious obsession with the trains that run behind our building. He would stand, looking out the window, waiting for and watching as the trains would go by. We had to clear a path so he wouldn't knock anything over.

Where's the train?


We were so happy that they brought Max with. We've missed having him to cuddle with, although I personally am glad that we do not have a dog who needs to go out bright and early every morning!


Saturday, December 26, 2009

Snow Day Fun Days

So last weekend we had the first big northeaster of the winter. Luckily the snow held off until we got home from our concert. It snowed during the night and well into Sunday morning. When it was all done, we ended up with about a foot of snow.
 I love the view from our apartment!

Santa came a little early to the Patel home this Christmas... Amit had decided that he wanted to get cross-country skis this year and how could I say no to a good winter workout? Since the northeaster brought us so much snow, it was the perfect time to try out our presents!! Lucky for us, our friends Seth and Kirsten also got cross-country skis before Christmas. It was even better that I had the two days off of work following the snow storm!!

On Sunday afternoon we headed to a local golf course, since it had been snowing all night. There were lots of kids sledding, but we were the only people out skiing.
Here's my "artsy" shot of the skis
Amit was a little concerned because I was so far behind... 
I can't help it! I like taking pictures...
Here's an action shot
The golf course was beautiful covered in snow!

Happy skiers
 
We even got Seth to pose for us...
Amit even did a little down hill skiing
It was a fun time! Kirsten, ever the fantastic planner she is, even brought hot chocolate!! We finished the evening by watching a movie (inside, of course).

On Monday, we had some last minute Christmas errands to run, so we decided to head to the Arnold Arboretum to get in some more skiing. It was sunny and gorgeous out, a nice change from Sunday's ski.
As you can tell, Amit loves his new hobby
Some beautiful scenery
Our trip to the arboretum was a lot of fun, we'll definitely be skiing there often this Christmas. So our favorite sandwich place, The Real Deal, is right down the street from the arboretum. Seeing as we had already gotten our exercise in, we had gotten our exercise in for the day, we decided to grab some lunch. This is what we looked forward to all day...
A steak bomb for Amit
A buffalo chicken wrap for Heather
Chocolate-peppermint sandwiches were waiting for us at home
 

It was a great anniversary, snow storm, cross-country skiing weekend! We'll definitely be exploring new places by skiing. Hopefully I will finally get a trip to the Cape!!


Sunday, December 20, 2009

Time flies...

...when you're having fun. In honor of 6 amazing years together and 6 months of married life, I thought I'd blog a little about our story...

So we first met during our sophomore year at SHS. We had World History together and ended up sitting close to each other (P and R are awfully close to each other in the alphabet). I thought he was really cute, but he definitely didn't notice me for any other reason than to recognize that I was smarter than him. (He's probably going to hate me when he reads that.) One day, his football coach ended up subbing for our teacher. It was right before homecoming and neither of us had a date. His coach said we should go together... but we didn't. (Ha, almost had you there, didn't I?)

So we each had our own crushes/relationships that year, but still had fun together during class. It turned into a definitely competition as to who would get the better grade (I believe I won). This is where the story gets interesting... Amit swears that he liked me all during the summer before Junior year... I think he's just trying to make me feel guilty or something. So after he supposedly spent all summer pining for me, somehow, miraculously, we ended up in the same AP physics class. Now he'll say that he still liked me, but it took until December for him to realize that I was flirting with him.

Anyways... He asked me out on December 20th and the rest is pretty much history. We've survived numerous high school dances, high school and college graduations, a move to the east coast, and numerous PMS episodes (he's so patient!). Our life isn't perfect, or always fun, but these last six years have been amazing and I'm so glad that he's been with me through it all!

Now to get over the mushy part... Here's a little historical photo tour for your enjoyment...
One of our first "official" photos... after a baking adventure and flour fight! 
Even now, we still enjoy being in the kitchen together.
So only six months after we started dating, I headed to France with our exchange program. 
For some reason he hung around... Here's why - 
Yep, that boy loves my dog! Max loves him too... Probably more than the rest of us. 
But seriously, Amit was happy to see me and life had more fun adventures in store for us.
We camped, we fished, we hung out, and we attended many a HS dance...
We taught the French kids how to line dance (that's Nate on the left!)
 
 We went to homecoming, turnabout, and the best one? Prom!
Amit had a top hat he wore both years, he loved that top hat...
Here we are at Prom our Junior Year - 

Senior year... Told you he loved his top hat!
 
 Did I forget to mention that I loved big poofy dresses?
So we graduated high school and headed off to college...
Where we stopped taking as many pictures,
except for the rare occasion when we remembered our camera.

Most importantly, we remembered our camera on Dec 20th, 2007.
Between the time we got engaged and married we graduated and found our new love...
Boston!
And before we knew it, it was the big day!
We've loved exploring Massachusetts and getting to know our new friends. We've been so blessed and can't wait to see what else will happen to us! I'm sure the next six months will be full of new adventures and experiences!





Saturday, December 19, 2009

Anniversary Date Night

That's right... We're celebrating a big anniversary tomorrow... It has been six years since we started dating and six months since we got married!! Wow. Six and six, pretty cool, huh? I think it is awesome! (I'm a pretty good planner ;-) aren't I?)

So we celebrated by going out for dinner at Olive Garden, because I can never turn down their salad and breadsticks. They are fantastic! (Plus it never hurts to fill up on salad and breadsticks, so you can take home more leftovers!) We treated ourselves to a drink as well, we were big spenders!

After dinner was our real anniversary present. We bought tickets to see Straight No Chaser at Berklee, because we love Christmas music and holiday shows. We've already seen Trans-Siberian Orchestra and loved them, so we wanted to change it up a little and try out SNC. In case you haven't heard of them, check out their rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas here. (Jump to 1:15 if you want to skip the talking.) It was FANTASTIC!! I mean seriously, any acapella group who can do some Beyonce and Amy Winehouse must be pretty talented. I think my favorite part of the night, besides the 12 Days and the Christmas Can Can (another You Tube must!!) was their second encore. They came out, with no mics, and sang an absolutely amazing version of O Holy Night. Definitely the best one I have ever heard and I'm not easily pleased, O Holy Night is my favorite Christmas song, so I have high expectations.

All in all, it was a great date night. Now we're at home, waiting for the snow to fall so that we can go skiing on our actual six month anniversary! Let's hope we get a lot of snow!!


Friday, December 18, 2009

Hooray!



Amit took his last final on Wednesday, so he's officially on break. He's definitely making the most of it and enjoying not having to study anything. He not only doesn't have to study for classes, he found out today that he will definitely not have to retake his board exam. How do we know that?


Because he got his results in the mail today! Its official, he passed NBDE Part 1!! Yay!!!!  Funny story about today, Amit said when he checked the mail we had one envelope... from the board of dentistry. Pretty scary! He passed though... and he said that he started yelling after he realized it. He's so funny!

I'm so proud of him... He did great!!


Monday, December 14, 2009

Christmas Craft Time

Yeah, so I have totally been slacking with the blogs. I apologize... It'll pick up in a couple days. Amit takes his last final on Wednesday, so for most of our free time he has been studying.

So I got a little ambitious with my some of my present ideas... I decided to make them. Yikes! Christmas is only 11 days away (boy did that time fly by)... That means I really need to get them done!!

So the last few nights I have spread out my craft supplies so that I can work on multiple things at once (I promise I will post photos of the finished products)... So tonight after work, we went grocery shopping, but when it came time to eating our pizza, we realized that we had no table space... So what did we do?

We had a makeshift picnic on the floor!!
Note the craft supplies to the left of dinner... Christmas crafting has definitely taken over our home! Thank goodness it will all be over on Wednesday, as long as I actually finish everything!

Saturday, December 5, 2009

So much to be thankful for...

We've had a year full of blessings! Married life in Boston is fantastic. We love New England and have the best time exploring all it has to offer. Amit's almost halfway done with school and just finished his first board exam. The best part of Boston, though, is the amazing group of people that we are blessed to call our friends!

So to celebrate our first Thanksgiving as husband and wife, and to give thanks for friends, I offered to cook the turkey and have everyone who was still in town over for some food... oh, and of course some Rockband!
John is always up for some Rock Band... 
and his kids are following in his footsteps!
Aiden even tried to sing and play drums at the same time...
We just didn't tell him that the drums/mic were actually off when he did.

So I definitely figured out the best way to keep hungry boys from getting impatient when waiting for dinner... Turn on Rockband. They probably played it for a good two hours before we ate.
I even got a chance to play in between turkey checks... 
although Abby enjoyed stealing my mic!


We got lots of quality Rockband time before our big meal... Now its time for the big reveal. Yep, the first turkey I have ever cooked on my own! It was a 21 pound turkey, stuffed with citrus and onion, with an herb butter rub. Sounds good, right??
My fantastically delicious turkey!
There was a LOT of food!
Tamsen made pumpkin cheesecake for dessert... Yum!
So all of us adults were in a food coma after dinner, but the kids were still full of energy. Aiden kept asking over and over again when we could play Rockband, but Abby amused herself for a while... Amit's shark oven mitt came in handy! (I definitely never expected us to use it this way when he put it on our registry!)
Abby came up, would bite us and say "Gotcha!"
So the big kids finally gave into Aiden (I mean, come on, who could really say no to him?) and started up again with Rockband. They put on quite a show! Here are some of my favorite random shots from the rest of the night... 
Amit admiring his handiwork... or maybe just wanting to eat it? 

Aiden has some real Rockband star potential!
Abby fell asleep on Tamsen, so John took this picture... How cute!!
Then when Abby woke up, I stole his camera to get this shot!
I think I'm getting pretty good at action shots...
Abby enjoyed playing with my stuffed animals...
this is her "Amit don't you dare touch my toy" face!
 
Here's a great shot of my handsome husband
 
Melissa took this picture of John "attacking" Tamsen!
She turned into our official Thanksgiving photographer...
Celebrating after Abby hit some notes when singing!

So that was our awesome Thanksgiving... Hopefully getting together like this will become a tradition, at least for the next two years!