Christmas in NJ - December 2009

We spent our first Christmas at home in seven years.  The following show homemade dishes from my mother who does the seven fishes tradition on Christmas Eve.  I've learned everything from my mother and I just wanted to share why I am who I am. 

Baby Steps Baby Shower - March 2009

This was one of my first of many baby showers thrown at work.  The ideas and decorations were just the start to many more fun parties!  Linda was just so excited for the party, she only gave 2 suggestions - purple & blue.  So I took that and created what you see below.  We did flower pots with seeds for favors with a poem that read "Please plant these seeds so they will grow just like baby girl Tsoi".  We had a baby bottle drinking / sipping race where we filled the bottles with apple juice (harder than you think), baby food tasting game, "water breaking" babies in ice (first that broke out of the ice won), and then diaper cakes for centerpieces.  Very fun shower which was very much appreciated by all!

Superbowl 2009

Sadly this superbowl was a tough one for us.  The Philadelphia Eagles made it all the way to the NFC Championship Game in Arizona, which we attended in January, but didn't make it past the Cardinals.  We were lucky enough to have our friends help us through the dissapointment...and we had some great food too!  My favorite was the signature drinks & jello stadium (with vodka)!

Christmas full of Cookies 2008

I carried over my creativity to this Christmas and made a ton of cookies...tried to be like my mother I guess this Christmas, but I only made maybe 15 different cookies - she makes 26!

Thanksgiving Football Fest - November 2008

Thanksgiving in 2008 was a big deal because the Philadelphia Eagles were playing for the first time in a long time.  So we decided to host it at our place and have as many East Coast or West Coast friends over for breakfast, lunch, and dinner during each game.  Here's the menu we created:

The day before Thanksgiving was another special event.  The New Kids on the Block were playing at the Nokia Theater in LA and my friend Christine and I were lucky enough to go to the concert.  Here's a picture of us right before (and yes - we're big dorks, but no we didn't bring the signs to the concert):

Here's pictures from Thanksgiving:

"He's her lobster" Bridal Shower - August 2008

I am a huge fan of the TV show Friends so when my sister's to be husband (at the time) suggested Friends as the theme of my sister Marie's bridal shower I was very excited.  I didn't want to be too cliche' with huge coffee mugs as centerpieces and Ross and Rachel t-shirts so I dug deep and thought about "The one with the prom video".  In this episode Ross is upset about Rachel not wanting to be with him (again) and Phoebe tries to calm him down with the explanation of why Ross & Rachel belong together, because she's his lobster.  See the following youtube clip (click here if video below does not work: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iU39sqEQOms).

    

So we went with a "He's her lobster theme".  Here are some pictures of the invitation, centerpieces, decorations, etc. I created with the help of my husband and mother.

Our Wedding - June 2007

I married my husband, Matt, at the Church of the Assumption in Wildwood Crest, NJ.  We celebrated at our reception at the Grand Hotel in Cape May, NJ.  I planned all of the wedding details and with the help of my husband, mother, sister, mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, brother-in-law, and friends.  All photos were taken by Tim Joyce Photography, http://www.timjoyce.com/.

One of the key vendors we hired was our day of coordinator, Marissa Mortimer from Lavish Occasions, http://www.lavishoccassions.com/.  She made sure every detail we dreamed of ran flawlessly the day of with the help of the Grand Hotel staff (http://www.grandhotelcapemay.com/) and all of our other vendors, including Manic Botanic (http://www.manicbotanicweddings.com/), makeup artist & hair stylist Claudia Seyler (http://www.claudiaseyler.com/), Elite Entertainmen DJs (http://www.eliteentertainment.com/), etc.  Here are pictures of most of the things I created by hand for our wedding:

Here are some pictures from the planning stages of our wedding.

Event Details from 2007 until now

My first posts will be devoted to special holidays and events I've been involved in from 2007 until now including:

Our Wedding - June 2007
"He's her Lobster!" Bridal Shower - August 2008
Thanksgiving Football Fest - November 2008
Christmas full of Cookies - December 2008
Superbowl - February 2009
Valentine's Day Dinner - February 2009
Baby Steps Baby Shower - March 2009
Thanksgiving - November 2009
Christmas at Home - December 2009
Crabby Crab Birthday Party- April 2010
Green Friendly Baby Shower - June 2010
Star Wars Baby Shower - July 2010
Philadelphia Eagle's Retro Football Kickoff Party - September 2010
Car Birthday Party favor bags - September 2010
Baby's got Buns Baby Shower - October 2010
Paws Birthday Party Invites & favor bags - November 2010
Baby girl Onesies - December 2010
Christmas Cards - December 2010
Sugar Coated New Year's Eve Party - January 2011
Sugar Coated Office Holiday Party - January 2011