A Christmas Weekend

Christmas season is here! It is finally starting to feel like the holidays here in Dallas. It's actually cold (25 degrees this morning!) and it even snowed a little bit. Feels like Utah all over again. We went to our first Christmas party of the year on Friday night at the Pelfry's house, and it was easily one of the most fun Christmas parties we've been to in a long time. There was even a photo booth with props, and you can see we are both looking good with our hats and mustaches! 

As always with the parties we go to, the food was delicious. We had traditional stuff, like cake, fruit, cinnamon chips, and chips/dip, but there was also some great fondu and raclette. Everything was amazing! 

The white elephant gift exchange was fun, as they always are, and everyone went home with some pretty awesome gifts. We brought a head massager and a suitcase weigher, both of which were successful. Taylor ended up getting a water bottle and some gummy bears, and I got really lucky: Justin Bieber duct tape! Who knew they even made that? There was also "that present" that everyone wanted,  and this time is was a $25 gift card to a gas station. We, sadly, were unable to obtain said gift card. 

What made the night really fun, and unique, was the couples competition that went on throughout. There were different games, including a "Newlywed Game" in which the guys answered questions about the gals, a donut eating contest, and a vote on the best white elephant gifts. Taylor and I dominated the Newlywed game, failed at the donut eating, and then did okay in the gift vote. In the end, it resulted in a 2nd place finish and a reward of delicious treats! Ironically, the winning couple were on a blind date, and they had just met 6 hours earlier. Every other couple had been married for at least 2 years. 

Our second Christmas party of the weekend was with the branch and it was a Hawaiian Christmas. We got to hang out with all our friends for the second consecutive night and got some live entertainment. To make the Hawaiian experience authentic, our branch brought in a native Hawaiian dancer to perform. It was pretty exciting! 

Here's the extent of our Christmas decorations! We need to be more festive! We got this cute little tree from our friends and have put it to good use, but someday we will have a real tree, no matter what Taylor says :) 

The new week started off on a bright note at work when a customer rejected one of our truckloads and we all got a few boxes of free basil! So, naturally, I went to work blending up some delicious pesto, which we now have sitting in the freezer. Thanks National Carriers! 

Thanksgiving Update

It's been awhile since we updated our blog, life just gets so busy! To follow up our last post on Pie Night, we had an excellent Thanksgiving. Taylor was thankful to have Wednesday-Friday off and we were both thankful that we got to drive down to Waco on Thursday to spend the holiday with my cousins. Taylor and I both agreed that the food was the best Thanksgiving feast we've ever had. It was a nice, relaxing day, since we just had to drive, then ate and played some games before driving back. It was nice to get out of the big city for at least one day.

Thanksgiving weekend continued the relaxing trend. Taylor surprised me on Friday after I got home from a long day at work with some delicious homemade bread! I didn't know he had it in him to take on such a task but it turned out amazing! We spent Saturday with some friends up in Arlington and then just had a typical lay around Sunday. The break was so nice, but now we are in the midst of that long road from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

This week felt like it lasted forever but was still fun. Taylor is assisting with the football offseason program while getting the track season started as well. He loves ending every day in the weight room at the brand new Sunset Fieldhouse.

Another high note from this week: Seeing The Silver Linings Playbook. If you're not someone who is really into movies, you probably haven't heard of it, because it's in limited release. But it stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, and is best movie we have seen in a very long time. It's funny, sad, happy, sentimental, and features a moving story, great acting, and a terrific ending. We highly, highly recommend it. And if you're into the Oscars, you should see it, because it's sure to be nominated for quite a few.

We are also now the victims of true Texas-only problems. Our apartment complex has one major switch that turns on the heat or the AC. They just recently switched over to the heat, preventing us from turning on the AC. The problem: The last 3 days it has been around 85 degrees outside, making it nearly 80 degrees in our apartment! We have all our fans on full blast all day, but haven't gotten it to cool down a whole lot. And to think, last year at this time we were battling through the snow in Utah!

TK's Food Reviews

This week the review goes to our favorite place in Dallas, Jonathon's. We've eaten there a number of times but this will be the first of several reviews that come from our favorite restaurant. We went to Jonathon's the night before Thanksgiving, you know, just to make sure we were ready for the big meal the next day. I got a burger called "The Nooner", which is in competition for the best burger I've ever had. It featured a huge, delicious patty, eggs, bacon, cheese, and all the regular burger toppings. Absolutely incredible. There is no other way to describe it. Again, possibly the best burger I've ever eaten, although it faces stiff competition from Chop House in Arlington, which will be reviewed soon.
Grade: A

Skyfall + Pie Night = :)

Another great week in November has passed! The week seemed to drag on FOREVER and now the weekend has flown by, as always. But Taylor only has 2 days of work this week and we get to go to Waco for Thanksgiving on Thursday. So this week should be awesome! 

The week started on a foul (smelling) note when the guy that lives below us got his apartment painted and all of the fumes drifted up throughout our apartment. It was so bad we had to spend the night at the Coxs' house, and they were nice enough to let us come over and crash there even though we didn't call until almost 11 p.m. We have such great friends! 

Luckily the fumes cleared out the following day and we survived the night. We eventually made it to Friday and headed up to Arlington to celebrate birthdays with some friends. There was a ton of delicious food and we played Quelf, the most awkward/random game ever created. But we had a great time! 

Saturday we finally got to see Skyfall ... and Daniel Craig ;) !! It lived up to our expectations, especially mine! I love the James Bond movies, which Taylor especially appreciates when I choose to see that instead of Breaking Dawn Part II. Taylor got to enjoy a Saturday night home alone while I went to my first Dallas Stake youth dance to chaperone. We decorated in a black-and-white theme, but sadly I didn't get a picture. 

The highlight of the entire week had to be Sunday night, when we attended our first ever Pie Night. Casey and Brady Cox hosted and 8 or so families came and everyone brought at least one pie (plus one cheesecake and one plate of brownies). It was absolutely amazing. Possibly rivals Thanksgiving as our new favorite holiday in November. Everything was delicious, but it was hard to have any self-control with that much pie available! Making it even more fun, there were tons of kids running around, which was quite hilarious, especially since we weren't personally responsible for any of them! 

Before

After

TK's Food Reviews

This week we tried our first ever authentic Greek restaurant. Simply referred to as the Greek Bakery and Cafe, it is located in the Bishop Arts neighborhood near our apartment and is a tiny place run by a Greek family. I went with a Chicken Gyro and Sweet Potato Fries, and snagged some Baklava to go. The gyro was incredible. All the veggies were fresh, the chicken was moist and delicious, and it was huge, which is always important to me. Small portions just don't get it done. 

The fries, however, fell victim to the small portion problem. For $2, we got what seemed like a handful of fries, and they weren't that great. Wouldn't order them again. The Baklava was very small as well, but it was freshly baked and fantastic, so that made up for the small size. Overall, I would order the gyro again tomorrow but will probably stay away from the fries and would only order the Baklava if I was really craving it. Grade: B- 

End of 1st Texas Football Season

Sunset High School is different from any high school Taylor and I ever attended. That was confirmed this week when a student, who said Mr. Wilson was her favorite teacher, brought him a pickle soaked in warm Kool-Aid as a gift. Mr. Wilson, being a good sport, tried the pickle before she left the class, but couldn't quite manage to finish it. Description: warm, mushy, and oddly sour. Never again haha! 

This was the last week for regular season high school football in Texas. We knew our Bison weren't quite going to make it to the playoffs, so we ventured 20 miles south to see Sunset take on Richardson Pierce in the last game of the season. As always, the halftime show was incredible. It was Senior Night and there were tons of parents there to support the band, cheerleaders, and dancers. It was an exciting halftime show and was a great way to end the football season. Unfortunately, the team lost 58-0 :(. That means they ended the season without a win, at 0-10. The head coach is already recruiting Taylor to coach next year, but I think he likes doing strength and conditioning and track. 

This was the opposing team's mascot. This isn't a great picture, but it was a really tall, goofy looking red horse! 

Before the game on Friday Taylor took me to Norma's, a cute little diner in Oak Cliff. It has the BEST BACON EVER!! I love bacon, and there is none better than at Norma's! Friday night was the best night of the week because Saturday Taylor had to spend the whole day in Teach for America meetings while I cleaned, ironed, and cooked a delicious roast/mashed potato dinner. Then we went to a baptism (which was great!). Afterwards, Taylor said he had a surprise for me and we jumped in the car and headed to an unknown location. The surprise turned out to be a trip to see Skyfall, a movie I've been waiting for all year. Sadly, he didn't think ahead enough to buy tickets in advance, and we drove all the way to our favorite theatre only to find out it was sold out. But he did his best to make up for it by stopping at the Cheesecake Factory on the way home to buy us a piece of delicious Oreo Cheesecake! 

TK's Food Reviews 

This week the review comes from Norma's Cafe in Oak Cliff. It's a classic diner, filled with checkered booths and floors and features a menu full of massive (mostly unhealthy) portions. The service is everything you would expect from a homestyle diner, with personable, mildly hilarious waitresses. I went simple with the order: a short stack of pancakes. In addition, we got an appetizer of onion rings (Maddie's favorite) and Maddie ordered her Eggs 'n' Bacon. 

The pancakes were the best I've had at a restaurant, or very close to it. They were moist and tasted delicious even with a minimal amount of syrup. The onion rings were solid too, and were not too big and not too small. I don't enjoy them quite as much as Maddie, but they're still a solid choice. The highlight of the meal was the bacon, which is thick, huge, and just plain fantastic. If I was grading it simply against other diners, it would deserve in the A- range. But against all Dallas restaurant choices, it gets a bit lower. Overall Grade: B

Scares and Laughs

Monday got our week off to a bloody start when I picked up the meat I ordered at work. Because National Carriers is owned by National Beef, we get a huge discount, which is awesome. But the one disadvantage is that we have to cut the meat up ourselves. We got 10 lbs of hamburger, which came in one massive tube, and 15 lbs of roast, which came in a giant bloody bag. I didn't mind cutting it, but we almost lost Taylor when he saw the bag 'o' blood. I thought it was a perfect way to start Halloween week!

Yummy Blue Bell Ice-cream! Gingerbread House flavor :)

This is my result from attempting the panorama feature on Taylor's iPhone

On Friday night we went to dinner with our friends at Twisted Root Burger, a downtown bar/restaurant that had an awesome atmosphere. Taylor will write a little bit more about that at the bottom of the page. But dinner was fun, as was the rest of the night, which was spent watching YouTube videos at the Lawlers' house. Most of the videos were of a guy from BYU that films awkward situations throughout campus. Some are pretty hilarious!

TK's Food Reviews 

I decided I wanted to start contributing to the blog, but didn't know how. Then it came to me. I love food. I love taking pictures of food. I love trying new places. So I figured I would start including pictures from wherever we eat every weekend and including a short foodie review, so if anyone visits Dallas you will know where to go!

In my inaugural post, I'll look at Twisted Root Burger Company, a neon-light covered bar in the Deep Ellum neighborhood of downtown Dallas. As you could guess, the place is known for its burgers. But they don't serve just any burgers. They have an array of unique options, so it was tough to choose. I went with the Philly, which was a burger with grilled mushrooms and onions, and an ample amount of cheese whiz. The picture isn't super clear but it was incredible. The meat was great, not quite as good as some other burger joints in Dallas, but the toppings and toasted bun, along with the ballin' fries, more than made up for it. Plus, I had to give bonus points for the Chuck Norris quotes in the bathroom. Overall grade: B+ 

Way Out West Weekend

Another fun week in Dallas! Taylor is still loving Sunset High School even though he has some rough days every once in awhile. He really likes being the strength and conditioning coach and is getting excited for track season. I am still having a great time at National Carriers and my co-workers are awesome! This Friday was Breast Cancer Awareness Day at the office so everyone wore pink. I think we looked good!

Friday night was our first date night in awhile. The Sunset football game was really far away, and it was really cold (aka 50 degrees ... we are already to used to the Texas heat) so Taylor said we didn't have to go! Instead he took me to our favorite Oak Cliff restaurant, Jonathan's. Then we had every couple's dream Friday night activity: grocery shopping at Wal-Mart! Woo!

We continued the shopping Saturday morning at Costco, which Taylor enjoys much more than Wal-Mart due to the large number of samples. But our journey to Duncanville ended up being an adventure when we decided to go search for an iPhone 5, which we have been looking for for weeks. We were searching for a Best Buy, ended up at a Sprint store (which has them on 3-week back order), and then got really lucky when we ended up at another Sprint store just down the road that had received a random shipment of white and black iPhone 5s! So Taylor is now officially the proud owner of the first smart phone in our family! Hopefully that means we will have more pictures in the future.

The first picture taken with the iPhone

Easily the best part of the week came Saturday night when we went to Brady and Casey's house for a "Way Out West" murder mystery. There were 19 people there and it was incredibly entertaining. Everything was super detailed and everyone really got into their parts. Taylor played the sheriff's deputy Dan Fairweather while I played the tomboy and Lucy Calhoun. And it was even better, at least in Taylor's eyes, because everyone brought amazing food!

Family Comes to Town

What a great week! Taylor finished up his first six weeks at Sunset High School last week and only had a four day week this week because DISD gives all its teachers and students Friday off to go to the Texas State Fair. We didn't quite make it to the fair but we still had a really fun weekend.

Taylor's parents came down and visited us from Kansas City for our three-day weekend. They got in late Thursday night/Friday morning, long after I fell asleep. But just before they arrived we had a little adventure in our apartment. Taylor went to take out the trash just after midnight and a gecko snuck into our apartment. It took awhile for us to find the little guy but we finally did, trapped inside a stack of printer paper. Taylor solved the problem by leaving him trapped and tossing the entire stack of paper outside the apartment, where it sat all night.

Friday morning we finally got to take advantage of our apartment complex's Free Breakfast Friday (we are usually at work when they serve it at 9), which got the day off to a great start. We went on a long walk to show the Wilsons our neighborhood, then took off for Arlington, where we ate at the BEST burger place in America, Chophouse Burgers. After Chophouse, we stopped by Cowboys Stadium, checked out the store, and drove past the Ballpark at Arlington. We also found Taylor's dream apartments, which sit in the parking lot of both the Cowboys' and Rangers' stadiums.

The highlight of the weekend for Gregory was an amazing three-hour trip to the North Park Mall. We originally didn't plan on spending too long there and just wanted to look around before the Sunset football game, which was nearby. But we got there must faster than anticipated and the game started 30 minutes later than we originally thought. Keri and I loved spending our time looking through the Michael Kors store and H&M, while Taylor and Greg watched the Yankees v. Orioles game in a frozen yogurt place.

By the time we arrived at the game the night had become perfect for football. Unfortunately, Sunset struggled once again and lost 50-0 to drop to 0-6 on the season. But the halftime show was amazing, as always, Taylor got to see some of his students, and I got some popcorn from the concession stand, which made everything worth it!

Since we spent 3-hours in a mall on Friday, we let Gregory guide our day on Saturday. We woke up early, went on another long walk, and headed downtown to the Sixth Floor Museum. It's a memorial to John F. Kennedy and is a self-guided audio tour through his life and the details of his assassination. It's not something Taylor and I would have gone to on our own, so we're both really happy Greg wanted to go, because it was a great experience.

After the museum, Greg and Taylor spent the afternoon watching BYU football while Keri and I went grocery shopping. After BYU finished up another disappointing game, we headed to Jonathon's, our favorite restaurant, to give the Wilsons a taste of Oak Cliff. We all ordered something different and it was all absolutely delicious. Taylor is in heaven when he has good food in front of him, but the most impressive feat of the night was Keri eating her entire plate of Chicken and Waffles!

The weekend ended calmly on Sunday, when we went to church and had another delicious meal, this one a prime rib roast that Gregory brought from Kansas City Steaks. They took off at 2:00 and are still driving home as we write this. We are so happy they could come to visit and had one of our best-ever weekends in Dallas!