Yum!

My mother and I went cake tasting this morning at the most amazing little bakery in New hampshire.  Look at some of the previous cakes they have made. Can you believe they are cakes?

A wedding lobster pot

Chinese Take Away

A whole FREAKING Lighthouse- Sooo amazing

The chef was sooo lovely and brought out so many different cakes for us to taste. To be honest, it was really overwhelming- buttercream frosting with black cherry filling? Chocolate cake with lemon curd? After like fifty bites, I couldn't tell the difference anymore, but we settled on some flavors.

First Tier- Vanilla cake with chocolate ganche and raspberry filling
Second Tier- Chocolate cake with Irish Bailey's cream filling (BF represents!)
Third Tier- Vanilla cake with Black Cherry filling ( I thought it was weird too, but it was AWESOME!)

Mother after all the cake tasting

Happy Birthday Jesus...

and Happy Birthday to my dad too!

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

Oh So Holy!

Considering I walked the Station of the Cross this year AND chilled with the pope, my sister asked me to be Carson's godmother. Yes, please!

Off I went to mass (again for the THIRD time this year- impressive) to teach him Holy things. Look at his swarmy face- so happy to be chilling with Jesus.

He was really well behaved during the baptism and totally chilled when it was his turn. He was baptised in the same church that myself and all three of my sisters were baptised- a tradition continues!

ROAR!!!!!!

After the excitement of buying the wedding dress, I went to meet up with my friend Leslie for a long overdue date. She was an old roommate in Boston, but recently moved to New Jersey. Since she's living close to NYC, she said she'd come meet me in town to see the Lion King on Broadway along with her husband and our friend Priya and her husband. (Yes, I was indeed the fifth wheel!)

I've NEVER been to a broadway show before and this one certainly didn't disappoint. I was weary about going to see this show because, the movie is just meh (and sad!) but it was awesome! The set and costume were amazing! I wish I could have taken pictures, but no dice. Besides the show being awesome, the setting of the theater was amazing too. Here's a view of Time Square from the top floor of the theater.

After the play, we found a small bar for a quick drink but it felt like we were able to spend two seconds together :( 

YES!!!!!!!!

So it's been a busy past couple of days, flying home, meeting up with family and friends (yeah!) and baby Carson's baptism (more on all of this later), but I went wedding dress shopping for the first time as well.

I wanted to wait to have all my sisters and my mother in one place, so on Saturday we headed into New York to go shopping at Kleinfeld's (of Say yes to the dress fame). I had done a lot of research prior to going shopping so I knew what I wanted.  The place is awesome- just filled with tons and tons of dresses. I can't imagine what their stock room is like as they say they have over 2,000 dresses. We arrived at 4:30 and was whisked away to one of the private dressing rooms. Our sales lady Alison was awesome- so nice! I tried on about 15 dresses but bought the very first one I tried on! We were done by 5:30- so efficient.

I'm so so excited about buying the dress, because it makes the wedding feel really real (even though the venue has yet to be booked)!

The judging panel

My Mother and I in front of Kleinfeld's (How cute and little is she?)

So excited after finding the dress!

I'm dying to tell you all about the dress, but I want to keep it a surprise. However, it is definitely big and poufy like I wanted, and it's created by Reem Acra. She's an amazing designer and has created wedding dresses for one of my favorite celebrities.

BARBIE!

Christmas comes early!

Since I'll be away for Christmas, BF and I decided to celebrate last night. I made a Christmas dinner with help from the Italian recipe book that my Secret Santa gave me. It actually turned out amazingly well (if I do say so myself). I went the full nine yards, roast chicken, mashed potato, stuffing, brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce - everything required for a lovely Christmas dinner.

Since we celebrated early, we exchanged gifts as well. I selflessly gave BF a couple's spa date (I know... I'm a saint.) as well as new work clothes and shoes (that was a request, so boring).

And here's the present BF gave me.

That's right kiddies, an Hermes gift bag. I swoon and inside? This lovely guy. WOOP! Isn't she cute?

Secret Santa

It's been Christmas activity after Christmas activity all week! Last night, I was at the Fitzwilliams square Christmas markets, and it's so cute and cozy - much more quiet then the one in the IFSC. Sunday, we had our CDWM Christmas dinner at Fallon and Byrne. We traded secret santa presents which is an annual tradition. Below is what I received.

A lovely Italian cookbook and some amazing olive oil from my Irish friend who has family from Italy. I'm constantly saying that I only really know how to cook Asian food so to shut me up, she bought me this fab book. I'm using a recipe from it tonight for BF and my Christmas dinner.

We also had a Secret Santa at work, and I received this lovable guy. You can heat him up and cuddle with him to stay warm (which is desperately needed in our FREEZING house). I also received a gift voucher for a fish pedicure. Have you heard of these? You stick your feet in a pool of fish and they EAT your dead skin off. GROSS and AMAZING. I can't wait to book my appointment!

y.

Winter Getaway

With the deary weather plaguing Ireland this winter, we had a spring/summer themed Christmas party this year at the Dublin Convention Centre to lighten up the mood.

There was some of this:

In heels!!!

And a lot of this

And the best treat... My Favorite 80's cover band, Springbreak. I've seen these guys tons of times. It was sooo amazing though because it was a little private concert for us!

Finally one normal picture. I STILL don't have my camera so all of these were taken by lovely friends.

That Christ-massy Feeling!

It's getting closer and closer to Christmas, and I just can't WAIT to be home. This past weekend, BF and I invited friends over for a mulled wine, yummy bites and X factor. It was so very lovely!

And we decorated for Christmas! I really wanted to get our very first proper Christmas tree; however, since I'll only be in Dublin until next week and BF doesn't really care about the tree, we decided to skip it for this year. Sad. We did put up Christmas lights in front of our fireplace and hung up Christmas stockings which I found in Stockholm. I love them!

Excuse the picture (I STILL haven't gotten a new camera after it was stolen so this is from my Zack Morris era phone.)

Child Labour

Baby Carson is barely 6 months, but my sister has him working for his milk. He's on the cover (with my sister!) of the Babies R Us ad this week. Can you see them on the bottom, right hand corner?

Here's an enlarged picture. How cute is he? (She's not looking too bad either!)

Initially, he was working the picture on his own, but then my sister was asked if she was a model (which she is) and if she would be in the picture with him. It's their first mommy and Carson photoshoot. 

Two feet of snow

BAHAHHAHA! This was actually from New York but by the way everyone is acting in Ireland, you would think two feet of snow has actually fallen. It started snowing over the weekend and has been snowing on and off since. Honestly, there's probably about 5 inches of snow MAX on the ground. Transportation hasn't been too terrible. I've been getting the bus to work and back without too much fuss thankfully! It's suppose to keep going throughout the weekend though :(