let the holidays begin!

{advent calendar (each box is filled with chocolate!) from the best clients ever, the folks over at la maison du chocolat}

Guys, I took my last (if I pass, that is) ARE test yesterday and it is such a weight off my shoulders! No more studying! I'm so excited to read fiction, peruse magazines, watch TV shows, and most of all, go to all the upcoming holiday parties! I'm going to be that girl inappropriately sitting on Santa's lap at your office party and dancing on tables with tinsel in my hair. Believe me, I've earned it. I've got eight parties in the next nine days. Let's hope I don't die or get fired :)

Here are a few events and parties from last week. We'll call it a warm up :)







Jenn and I attended LEGO-thon put on by Architizer at the GD Cucine showroom. That's right, a Lego party. Sadly we were double booked that evening and only stayed for a glass or two of prosecco, but teams of people were crowded around kitchen counter displays building something? Anything? I'm not sure there were really any rules. But there were eventually winners and prizes etc. Next year we're in!



After the Lego party, Jenn and I headed over to the Van Alen Institute to party with the landscape architects at the NYASLA holiday soiree. They had a DJ! And lights! And cheese plates galore! Thanks for letting us lowly architects crash your party!



Oops, this is not a party, but this house has occupied about two years of my life, so it's progress is pretty exciting and worth celebrating. A roof terrace is going in on the Upper West Side.



So is some groovy entry tile.



And a kitchen is getting installed near Union Square. Ok, enough work stuff...

Kurt and I recently spent an evening in Williamsburg. I had just found out I passed test #6, so Kurt said he would treat me to a dinner of my choice. I have been hearing so many amazing things about Pies 'n' Thighs that I couldn't pass up the opportunity. It was worth all the hype and then some :)

I was pretending to only take a photo of the cute interior here but was also trying to get the shot of the couple on a date wearing matching sweaters. Kurt and I are on a mission to start dressing alike :)



He complains about the South a lot (especially our dominance of college football) but he sure loves our food :)



OMG. The food. Kurt had a pulled pork sandwich (NC style) with half a plate of coleslaw. I had a chicken biscuit (slowly finding replacements for Chick fil a) and hush puppies. [You know how there are some things you just have to order when they are a menu? Hush puppies are one of those things for me. Love them. They remind me of growing up in VA and this seafood buffet my family went to all the time.] Anyway, the food was delicious, too much even, but I finished every last bite out of principle. I might have been a bit more conservative if I knew I was supposed to save room for a donut dessert. Luckily, our waiter kindly wrapped one up for me to-go.

After Pies 'n' Thighs  we headed to Brooklyn Bowl and met up with Christian to see Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. The show was okay. The band is great, and I really like them, but the venue is weird. There is too much going on (bowling, the bar, a restaurant, etc) that the focus isn't 100% on the music, so it's a kind of watered down experience. Too much of a good thing, I suppose. It was still good but not all-consuming like you get in some teeny music halls.



You better believe I broke out that donut on the cab ride home! Chocolate peppermint. Delicious. It was so dense though. Kurt and I couldn't even finish it together. Thanks for the tip, Colleen! I'm making my list of
more NYC donuts to try!



In other news, (1) I made a huge crock pot full of Santa Fe Soup recently. I was lazy and just bought a box of Jiffy Mix for the accompanying cornbread. It was so good! Much to Kurt's chagrin, I'm never making it from scratch again! (2) Kurt and I had an intense study date over the weekend (me: ARE, he: GRE/grad school applications). It was a pretty lame Friday night other than our burger dinner from Burger Bistro in Park Slope. (3-4) A couple of Kurt's Ohio State friends recently had a small destination wedding at Lake Tahoe and were back in NYC to have a mini celebration with friends. We were more than happy to help celebrate their union at 11th Street Bar and Jimmy's 43 in Manhattan. Congratulations, Scot and Kelly!

So, my Christmas cards just arrived, I've got my Pandora station set to Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (please watch this version!), and I'm counting down the days until I head down to Alabama for a loooong vacation! I hope you are all enjoying the holidays as much as I am!