Couples Shower - Luau!

Our ever-fantastic friends threw us a couples shower with a luau theme! The backyard was filled with tiki torches, orchid leis from Hawaii, paper umbrellas, pineapples... you get the idea. We also had lots of family join us from Texas, Hawaii, and California. Mike and I had such a great time! We couldn't ask for better people to celebrate with us!

A weekend's worth of recipes!

Our great friends threw us a luau shower over the weekend (stay tuned for pictures) and we had lots of family in town to celebrate with us. I made lots of yummy things to have on hand for our visitors including classic chocolate chip cookies, salsa, sonoma chicken salad (I actually swapped out 2/3 of the mayo and used low-fat greek yogurt to decrease the fat content), pancetta and green onion tart and finally buttermilk cheddar biscuits made mini-style.








Ok - that sounds (and looks) like a lot. But I planned ahead and got to spend lots of time with the fam while having a kitchen full of goodies. I prepared the cookie dough the weekend before, rolled it into an easily sliceable log and froze it. Thursday night, I sliced the dough into about 3 dozen cookies and baked them. I also made the salsa Thursday night. Saturday morning before our company arrived, I chopped and crisped the pancetta, chopped green onions, grated cheese for both the tart and biscuits and chopped the butter for biscuits. I put all that back in the fridge (all measured and ready to go!) All that planning made Sunday morning much easier on me. I woke up and was able make a great brunch for me and Mike; my parents, sister and her boyfriend; my grandparents; my aunt, cousin and baby G; and Mike's mom and 2 sisters! We definitely had a full house!

Thanks to everyone for coming to visit and making the shower special!

The next 67 days.

Thanks to any and all (basically daily) communication I receive from either the knot or Bed Bath and Beyond, I'm reminded that the big day is 67 days away. Meaning, honeymoon in 78 days. Meaning, house shopping in 84 days. (Think I'm excited much?)


Now - the to-do list for the big day and honeymoon is big. Not unachievable but big all the same. And while all this is going on, I can't lose sight of all the other GREAT things going on in the next 90 days or so. So, after reviewing my calendars (yes, plural) I've come up with a "short" list of things I'm eagerly anticipating...

1. Couples shower + family visit this weekend
2. Birthdays - MANY - Kelley, Maren, Kristin, Sonja, Ann, Paige, Kaili and finally baby Grace (almost within 90 days so I'm counting her anyway - its the big ONE!)
3. Bachelorette weekend
4. Jen's bon voyage
5. Cuban cooking class
6. Jack Johnson concert
7. Trip to Austin to see family, choose wines and visit the best man
8. Flea market outing to see Ann & sister's booth
9. And, a staycation scheduled somewhere in the midst of all of this - thankfully

Lots going on but loving it all!