Truly honored

My boss's son is a Navy Seal. He sounds like one of the neatest, gifted kids and he has chosen to give his life to service, service to our country. My boss loves to talk about him and the small little bit of info we are allowed to know. For me, it is fun to hear the inside scoop and learn about his team mates, their training, their proposed missions. What amazing men we have serving us.

So, giving that my boss has a stake in the Seals, he has donated a bit of money to their foundation. The foundation provides support for the families that are temporarily or permanently left behind. My boss invited his assistant and me to join him in their annual benefit. (Sadly, they had the two extra tickets because his son got deployed the day of and his wife was seeing him off.) This night was so humbling and inspiring, I am a better person for simply attending.

Off to the right in the top pic was a bracelet they gave us with a Seal who has passed away this past year. My guy was pretty amazing it sounds like. He was from Philly, loved cheesesteaks and wanted to be a nurse when he was finished serving.

They also gave us all these coins and pins. Fun to also read about their inside ways.

Dennis Leary was the host, and he is so talented. He was funny and respectful and at times appropriately off color when talking about how amazing these guys are! We got to see the dogs that help the Seals out, their training, their talents and I saw a video where they literally sky dive out of a plane with their human partner. UNREAL! His twitter quote the day after

Was at the Navy Seal Foundation dinner last night. Wanna talk about courage? They have DOGS w bigger balls than me.

Our table had about ten people sitting with us and one was an active Seal and one was retired from 15yrs of service, and they talked to us about life. General McChrystal spoke, Rear Admiral Pybus spoke and after all the talking-by the end of the night, I wanted to be a seal too. (too bad they don't take girls!)

 Hard to see, but even the candles were red, white and blue.

All I can say is Thank You to all who serve and to my boss for opening this door for me!

Randoms

J has been quite the little social bug lately. Once the door was open with the park, I can't get the kid away. He now goes to the front door and taps on it to let me know he wants out! Here's his buddy Wilson (actually one of my bosses dogs that ate two sticks of butter and 12 cookies while being babysat by Marley's dad for the weekend, and yes, he did get sick in their house!)

 J off leash, he is so well behaved! He pays attention to me, he is nice to others and his mom is blissfully happy with the new changes. Have to thank Craig the dog walker and Marley's dad, Mike for helping.

J and I were out walking and we could not imagine what in this city was so amazing for these pigeons to be so focused. Notice that none of the other trees have a single bird-just this one. There are probably 100+ birds. When we got close, guess what we found-nothing. Strange birds

 Here's my entry for Christmas. I love the festiveness here!

Here's a shout out to my brother in law-Steven. He is studying for his boards right now, which are crazy hard-so I try to keep him in my prayer list. I saw this window display the other day and thought of him instantly. I don't think in his neck of the woods, this would work, but here in NYC-it does. I want to take J to a cute place like this! YAY for Christmas time in the city.

Finally, here is my second Christmas present. Clearly my mom has heard my worries about how cold this winter will be!

Birchbox.Com

I can't brag about this place enough!!! This company has what they describe as beauty samples (as well as the real product). Plus, they give back to children on certain purchases. I got a subscription for monthly goodies from Stacy for my bday. I got my first supply this past week. Look how neat even the box is.

This is a great gift or place to shop. It is so fun to get great little treats to try them out with no hassle to spend all day in Sephora or the department store of your choice. Or money wasted for that matter!

Check out birchbox.com










In my first box-I had nail polish, nail polish remover, hair ties, hair oil, eyeliner, perfume and a card to tell me about each product. That way, if you want to order full sized products you know the exact name and price.






Here's my eyeliner, please forgive my ignorance with application. It is waterproof, but peels off with just your hand. Kind of loved it!

Korean Round 2

One of my bosses is so generous. She is always asking to take care of us, take us to dinner, take us out etc. So, last weekend she offered to take us to Flushing for Korean food!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flushing,_Queens. Fun to learn the history, but I have to be honest-I definitely did not see one dutch person the entire trip.

This round was more extravagant than the last time. The amount of food was more than we had table space for. We ate two types of beef/short ribs, squid, tofu, seafood pancakes, and massive amounts of pre-fixings.

One of our workers from "the office" and her daughter joined us. Here is a pic of Rebecca

 And here is the front of the restaurant

Sorry I was actually never told the name of this place, but I'd recommend it to any and everyone!

My first present

I asked for a coffee maker for Christmas this year. I figured I spend enough money daily that I could easily curb some spending by doing it home. My dad and Kim are so generous.

This thing is so fancy, I think it may be smarter than me. I also realized that I have no idea how to make coffee prior to getting this. I had to actually read the instructions to figure it out. After a few trial runs, the home brewed coffee is quite good!!! Yay for my first gift!

Lights

One of my favorite things about home this time of year are the lights by Chesapeake. We went out in the city while we were home and I made Bryan drive me by the lights-Love it!!

Crazily enough, the day I got home I was walking J at night and one block from me I found this.

Not quite the same, but sure is nice to have a little connection to home that I see daily.

Thanksgiving

This was my first trip back home since moving out here and can I tell you how good it felt!! I told everyone before I left that my cup was running a little empty-it truly is overflowing after this vacay. Everyone I loved was there, and I got quality time with them (not just time!). I should, in keeping with my food blog, mention that the night I arrived I had my first home cooked meal and after that so many more to follow! I appreciate the space that home provides, the slower life style, the friendliness and mostly the since of "home". Here's a pic of Bryan and I from Thanksgiving.

For us, we had Thanksgiving twice-once with my dad and once with my mom. Lots of great food, tons of fun catching up. Just plain perfect coming home!

My only tiny bit of sadness was leaving this little man...

This pic was while I was working and packing. Sad little eyes.
















Luckily, I have great friends here and they offered to watch my buddy. They don't know all of J's history, so they comfortable with him in all settings. So, while I was away they took him to the dog park several times. Word was that he was super good and enjoyed it tremendously. They even sent me video updates and pics of them. Here's a pic of Marley and Jackson.

Pretty sure he's content! Glad to have friends to share the load and make my holiday fabulous!