Happy New Year. And now for the sake of prosperity...

...here are some photos from christmas 2012.  i know, i'm a little late.  but better late than never, right?  john and i spent christmas eve in the bay and christmas day in san diego.  enjoy.

first up, christmas eve in the bay.

husband and brother.

husband and cousin

i'm sitting on my niece's lap 32 weeks preggo, lol.

please excuse the hair.  i just worked a 12 hour shift and threw on
some clothes.

handsome nephew biting his lip.

cute couple.

niece opening a big present.

i'm not sure where my pop is...

next, we have christmas day in san diego.

what a cute baby.

sister and brother with nephew

sister with her daughter and our nephew.  he's part filipino if you can believe it.

we wanted to illustrate their sizes against each other.

"dad of the year" mug.

he's currently reading this book.

the huge christmas tree at the san diego zoo.

i hope you had a great holiday season and a safe and exciting new year.  hello 2013 =)

Christmas decor circa 2012.

2 days ago, i had asked the husband to take out our christmas storage box from the garage so that i can evaluate if i needed to buy wrapping paper and gift tags with the intention of wrapping all my gifts that day.  being a good husband that he is, he gladly obliged and then off to work he went.   i started to rummage threw my old christmas decorations and ornaments of the past with no intention of actually decorating our house.  but as i sorted threw things, i had a sudden urge to whip them out and display a few christmas-y items around our abode.  no, we did not get a tree.  but i do have a humungo wreath on my stairs that can be 1/4 lit up!  does that count?

i used to hang this wreath on the outside of our previous house.
since we don't have an outside banister, i hung it inside.
it's several years old, hence only 1/4 of the lights work.
i think i'll be retiring this one after this year.

i also decided to use my old outdoor lights and wrap them around my stairs.

please don't mind my treadmill at the bottom
left hand corner.

next up, we have our stockings.  it just wouldn't be right without stockings hung on our fireplace.  to think, at this time, next year, our 2 stockings, will grow into 3 =)

here we have my 3 little angels that i bought on clearance post holiday season from pier 1 imports a long time ago.

and here is a photo, to keep things "real" of my christmas mess that i have accumulated which consists of boxes, gifts, wrapping paper, etc.  this is on my to-do list.

after all that decorating, hitting the gym, and running errands, i had the energy to whip up dinner!  i wanted something easy so i initially settled with chicken afritada made in my crock pot.  recipe adapted from here.  but, by the time i got home it was too late to wait 4 hours to finish cooking dinner.  so i just threw everything in my big, black pot and cooked it for 1 hour.

i added salt, more soy sauce, and some sugar to taste.  and since i love carrots because it adds sweetness to any dish, i dumped the whole trader joe's baby carrots bag into the pot.  husband loved it, brother loved it, and so did i.  i ate mine with quinoa since i'm trying to stay away from rice.  here is my plate:

 husband's contribution to our dinner, was a fresh strawberry and orange drink via our vitamix!  it was so yummy and refreshing!!

it does feel good to make a home cooked meal for my loved ones.  i'm trying to be more consistent and better at it.  once gabriella makes her grand entrance into this world and starts eating solids, cooking   nutritious meals for my family will be one of my top priorities.  what are your top go-to meals?

2012 Christmas card outtakes.

with john working 6 days a week, mondays being his only day off, i was pressed for time to take some photos for a christmas card this year.  i usually don't send holiday cards out, but since we are "expecting" i thought it would be a nice way to let our family and friends in on the great news.

i still have all my christmas decorations in a box in the garage.  i am hoping to whip them out soon, but with work, and all the things on my to-do list for december i'm not holding my breath for a very festive house this year.  BUT (and that's a capital B-U-T), i ran over to michael's today and bought some stencils, twine, and red ribbons and conjured up my very own homemade merry christmas sign to use as our backdrop for our christmas card.  my brother's gf graciously obliged to be our photographer.  let's just say, taking pictures with our fur babies was an "experience".  here are some outtakes.  enjoy!