A Reminder to Give Thanks

It’s been just over one week since Thanksgiving, and I’ve spent the week trying to truly hold on to the gratitude I felt on that day. It’s always so easy on a holiday, with no work and the prospect of delicious meals and family time, to feel thankful for the things and people in our lives. It’s a lot harder after the fact, when we’re too full and back to the daily grind. I want to be appreciative more often, if I can. We only get one life in which to show people they matter to us, and I want to use mine. I hope you’ll join me in this quest: to be thankful every day in December leading up to Christmas and the New Year. I’m going to start trying to post to my twitter account each day with the hashtag #ThankfulDecember to remind myself that no matter how cold it is outside or how hectic it is at work, there’s always something to be grateful for. I’d love it if you could post, too, and we can help inspire each other!

 

 

Snapshots of Our Wedding

I can happily report that my marriage to Todd on Saturday was one of the best days of my life! The entire weekend was a whirlwind of activity—from the rehearsal dinner at our favorite pizza place to Sunday brunch at the hotel where the wedding took place. Today I returned back to work, but on Thursday we leave for our honeymoon to Paris, Budapest, and Barcelona!

My Bachelorette Painting Party

In the time since my last post, we’ve mostly been busy with wedding planning. We finalized the music selections for our ceremony and reception. We organized our seating chart and coordinated with the florist. We ordered our cake topper, created a program for hotel guests, and figured out our favors. We sorted hundreds of pearls based on size and shape: flat-bottom, large, medium, small, very small. But the best part of the past two weeks was the one thing I didn’t plan: my bachelorette party!

Making Some Wedding-Planning Progress

I’m a big planner: lists, colorful charts, detailed itineraries. So you can only imagine the zeal with which I’m planning what will probably be the biggest day in my life—my wedding. Luckily we started way ahead of schedule, since Todd proposed in Disney World two years from the date we planned to marry. We booked the venue, Nicotra’s Ballroom in Staten Island, as soon as possible, before the date could fill up. Then we made our way down the checklist:

Wedding Venue? Check.

It seems like I’ve been doing a lot of celebrating lately. I got Shake Shack after my first week at my new job as a teacher, and last weekend I went to Denino’s, a delicious pizzeria in Staten Island, to celebrate putting a first payment on a wedding venue. Todd and I had a nice time eating shrimp parmagiana, fried calamari, plain pizza, and meatball onion ricotta pizza with our parents.

My First Ever (Hopefully My Only) Engagement Party

Nothing beats celebrating life milestones with family and friends, and that’s what I did this past Saturday. My parents hosted an engagement party for me and Todd in our backyard and decorated with balloons and streamers. My mom and Todd’s mom cooked all of the food; although I forgot to take pictures of it, I can tell you that it all tasted delicious, from the baked ziti and eggplant parmigiana to the glazed corn beef and roasted Brussels sprouts. We finished the celebration with a huge napoleon cake—my favorite! Because it gives me so much joy to think about how many people care about us and how nice it was to spend time with all of those people, I wanted to share some photos from the event with all of you.

Returning Home Sweet Home

Engagement ring

I love traveling, from flipping through magazines on the plane ride to exploring new places and having incredible adventures. My recent trip to Disney World with my boyfriend checked all of those boxes. We ate at some delicious restaurants, like The Wave; we ventured on Disney’s Wild Africa Trek in Animal Kingdom, which I’ll hopefully get a chance to review in a later blog post; and I saw my first Cirque Du Soleil show ever. Todd and I even found time to exercise by doing yoga in our hotel room, riding surrey bikes around the boardwalk, jogging around our resort, swimming in the pool, and walking pretty much from the moment we woke up to the minute we collapsed in bed every night. Of course, I can’t forget the most exciting part of our trip: our engagement. Todd popped the question on the observatory deck of the California Grill restaurant, right before we watched the fireworks exploding over Magic Kingdom. As you can probably guess from the picture, I said yes. After our stay in Disney World, we visited my grandparents and had a great time cooking Hungarian food like palacsinta and chicken paprikas with them. We also went bowling (they won) and played cards (they won again).

Congratulations to My Dad

When I was a baby, my dad sang me to sleep. In elementary school, he played Barbie fashion show with me and helped me study. In high school, he picked me up and dropped me off and never complained. In college, he supported my decisions and put up with a series of questionable boyfriends. These days, my dad sometimes tries to convince me to move out of the house (I know he doesn’t mean it!), but he’s always  there for me–whether it’s building me a garden box or offering up his support. Today, I was proud to be there for him and show my support at a luncheon thrown by his coworkers to wish him luck at his new job, which he starts later this month.

Taking It Back … to the Day I Met My Boyfriend

I decided to do another #TBT post this week, taking you back to the day I first met my boyfriend at a Gogol Bordello concert at the Williamsburg waterfront in Brooklyn.