The Most Lovely Dinner

I know, I know, I already posted about how awesome my Valentine's Day was, but it just didn't seem complete without adding a note about dinner. Ryan kept the surprises rolling and fixed this heck of a meal:



"Claire, have you ever heard of a... wedge salad?"

Ryan and I LOVE Modern Family and one of our favorite episodes revolves around a wedge salad. In a nutshell, Claire is upset that she introduced her husband, Phil, to the wedge salad with no affect. But, when his friend introduces it to him he acts like it's the best thing since sliced bread. Ryan tends to do the same thing.

So, for Valentines Day, he started off the meal with none other than a wedge salad. Thanks Ry.



He also made NY Strip with sauteed veggies too. I swear, he makes a better steak than any I've ever tasted in a restaurant. I mean he pan seared the NY Strip steak (from the NY Butcher Shop here in little 'ol SC) in bacon fat before popping it in the oven to finish perfectly.



Ok and he didn't just stop at two courses my friends, he even made dessert. Yep, Mr. Meat Man himself made dessert. And it was pretty darn good. We even ate on it a few days after he made it.

Now I'm done talking about how great our first Valentine's Day was as a married couple, promise. Hope yours was just as sweet!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Best. Valentine's. Day. Ever!

And it's not even the end of the day yet! Ryan sent THE best gift to my office for Valentine's Day.. a singing quartet! See me posing with the lovely gentlemen below:



A coworker also posted the songs on Facebook here.

Hope everyone else is having a lovely day and as a closing, I "mustache" you to be my Valentine :)

(these were created by a designer at my office!)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

We had a FANTASTIC Christmas this year, I hope y'all did as well! We got to see some of you, but for those that weren't able to join us, here's a recap:

Two days before Christmas, I met my family at Ice On Main in downtown Greenville for some ice skating, we had a blast!

The dog's best doggie friend, Lola pug, got them a Christmas surcie. Thanks Lola!

After Christmas morning at my parent's house, we headed to Spartanburg to visit Ryan's family. The dogs came along with us and were more than thrilled on the car ride up there.

Needless to say they had a great time and so did we!

We next headed back to Greenville to Nana's for Christmas dinner.

Completely wish we could always have the house looking this festive year-round!

Ryan got the honors of cutting the roast beef.

Time to eat!

The food was really, really good. And managed to feed all 23 family members with left overs!

So Merry Christmas everybody! I hope your holiday was filled with as much family, food and fun as ours was.

Merry Christmas!

WHITE Christmas Baking Extravaganza!

Ok so I LOVE Christmas, I wouldn't go as far as saying it's my favorite holiday, but it's pretty far up there. Each year all the women in my family (the White family) get together for a day of making Christmas candies and other baked goods. Here's a peek into all the festivities!

I think we should start a family bakery! But then again, after the day is coming to an end and we're all covered in chocolate and sugar, I always think twice.

Here is the beginning of this year's bake fest!

We even got Ryan involved some this year making homemade Reese cups.

Some of the end results (there were two more refrigerators full of candies too)!

My Aunt Kristin packing up some of her goodies. She's due in January, we'll have to wait and see if she has a Christmas baby!

My little brother kept our cousin Preston entertained by sharing some treats.

Caught ya! My Mom and Dad during the baking extravaganza, of course Dad was doing his job of just eating everything we made.

Ryan thought I wouldn't catch him either when he snuck in to grab a bite.

I always have so much fun doing this with my family. If you want any of the recipes or how-tos on any of the things we made, just let me know and I will post them. Here's a little list of the things we made this year:

-  Chocolate Covered Pretzel Sticks  -  Chocolate Covered Small Twistie Pretzels  - White Chocolate & Semi-Sweet Chocolate Reindeer Poop  -  Chocolate Covered Peanuts  -  Chocolate Covered Raisins  -  Spritz Cookies  -  Chocolate Oreo Truffles  -  Homemade Reese Cups  -  Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles  -

Oh Christmas Tree

We got our first Christmas tree!!!

We ventured out one late, blistery night to the glowing and tree-filled land of Lowes to get our tree this year.





We opted for the Fraiser fur of course and found the perfect one to load up and take home with us for our first Christmas as husband and wife.



See more our adventures below!

Cutting and bagging our tree.

Almost forgot a tree stand.

We grabbed a wreath, poinsettias and other Christmas necessities as well!

Perfect fit in the back of "the dinosaur"!

They let me take our left over branches, plus a few extras, to put around the rest of the house as garland.

This is the first ornament we put on together, courtesy of Nana.

Aaaannnnnndddddd drummmroooollll plllleeeaaasseee.....

We're so happy with how the tree turned out!

We're ACC Champions!

This past Saturday the Clemson Tigers won the ACC Championship against the Virginia Tech Hokies. Ryan and I made the short drive to Charlotte with two of our friends and proceeded to tailgate for a good 8 hours before the game started. It was a very eventful and successful trip, filled with memories that will last forever and take too long to explain here.

I can't wait to see the Tigers play in the Orange Bowl in January (from my comfy living room), but here's a recap of our ACC Championship victory!

This is how real men carry coolers.

The stadium and our tailgating spot!

Magnetic koozies are the best when tailgating, highly recommend them.

Love tailgating with old and new friends!

We lucked into some great seats!

WE WON!

My little brother found us after the game!

Excessive celebration!