Til Kingdom Come: It's a Wonderful Life

Wow. I've been meaning to blog for so long! Now weeks have past and I don't know if I can catch this thing up to speed!

So just hours after my last post my wonderful husband took me out for a birthday "dinner". Thinking we were on our way to downtown Seattle for a bite to eat, we pulled into the Westin for a night on the town with a shopping package to Pacific Place. A shopping package? A hotel? SO the way to my heart! What a guy I married!

Views from our room at the Westin!

The next day, we hung around Seattle for a while, got brunch at the Icon Grill which was A-MAZING! It was totally decked out in Christmas-ness. It was YUMMY FOOD! There was a guy on a piano playing all kinds of Christmas music, it was the perfect way to get me in the holiday mood!

We headed home shortly after and walked into our condo. My jaw dropped while the rest of my brain tried to understand what my eyes were seeing. While we were gone, my cousins, sister-in-law, and brother came over and beautified my home! Now, if you remember my prior post, I had talked about having bare walls, and yada yada yada. They bought different things that I had wanted, but didn't know where I'd put them...and they put it all together and made it so so pretty!! It was the PERFECT present. What a wonderful, amazing, fun and loving family I have. I'm still giddy sitting here admiring my cute little condo:)

Living room lit by Christmas tree

Been wanting this for months! Places in London I visited.

Hallway

Kitchen!

That night, my girl friends came over and we all hung out and went to a new restaurant in Edmonds to celebrate once again:)

Santa in India!--Birthday present from Chinu--fresh off the boat!

This birthday was especially sweet to me, the best birthday yet! If you know me, you know that my birthdays have been filled with HORRIBLE memories. But nothing quite as heart breaking as my last birthday. Check out my cousin, Bina's blog, for more details on our dear friend, Luke, who we remembered and missed on the anniversary of the day he went home to our Lord.

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The next weekend we flew out to Austin, Texas, for Owen's cousin, Valerie's wedding! It was a BLAST! A short trip, but so fun nonetheless. It was wonderful meeting Owen's family and learning they are just as big and loud and fun as us:) I really hope this is just the beginning of many more years of getting to know this side of the family. They are an awesome bunch!


The Driskell Hotel--where we stayed!

Wedding Venue

Valerie and O

Me and Valerie

O's dad, Haley (Matt's wife), Matt (O's cousin), O's mom, O and Me:)

BEST COVER BAND...EVER!

James (Meredith's husband), Meredith (O's cousin), Me and Owen

A night on 6ith Street

Meredith and Me

Photobooth Fun!

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Finally, our friends are home! Some of these friends we saw for the very last time on our wedding day as we left our reception! Oh how I love the holidays, to be able to see everyone again has been a wonderful gift!

Amy spent the day with me on Monday and we got to hang out at my place and hit up a few restaurants in downtown Edmonds. It was wonderful to have my PIC with me once again!

The next day, our group went out for little Jessi's birthday to a sushi place called Japonessa! Was yum and pretty. Conversation was the best part though. I love my girls:) And Monica was SO SWEET. At the end of our meal we were served cupcakes to honor each of us in some way...The Amy's being home, mine and Jessica's birthdays, etc. They were some GOOD cupcakes.

Amy sandwich

Sidhu sandwich with an Uppal on the side

Red Velvet Cupcakes!

And we topped off the week with a white elephant party at our place with all our WG buddies! The Lapps' and T-Smith are home! Zach got an Easy Bake Oven, O got a pocket knife, Storer got a Christmas tree pen, Gina got a sword, a clapping device, and glowsticks, Heather got a New year's Eve party kit, Sam and Chris got coffee thermos's', Hector got chopsticks, a panda bear and a makeup pouch, Ty got scone mix, Ty Hanson picked his own gift--chocolates, Teg got vanilla wet wipes, I got a belt and wallet from Uruguay.