Christmas at the Nassars

We're really excited about spending our first Christmas together in our home. You probably all knew that already b/c I've mentioned it a bajillion times but we're just so excited! When we were deciding what to do for a Christmas tree, we both thought it would be fun to get a real tree. I was especially excited because I'd never had a real tree before. I had so much fun picking it out and taking pictures of them tying it to our car. I felt like we were in a Christmas movie.

Getting ready to take our tree home!

We got it up the stairs and in the stand! I forced Jonathan to be in the picture if you can't tell.

Check out our tree!

My favorite ornament on our tree! It was a gift from my aunt, uncle, and cousins.

That's not our only Christmas tree though. We still have my fake tree from before we were married and our first floor has the perfect nook for it so we decided to put that one up too! While we decided for our big tree to be red and gold, we chose red and green for this tree. It makes our entryway so much prettier when we get home.

It's kind of a puny tree but it works!

To make sure we decorated our whole house, we decided to put up one more tree in our bedroom. That way we have a tree on every floor! It's only about 2 feet tall but I like turning on the lights every morning and evening. The other day Jonathan left the Christmas tree lights on and a radio station playing Christmas music as a surprise for me when I came upstairs. We like to be cute like that :-)

Today we started making all our Christmas goodies and will hopefully finish everything tomorrow! I hope you're enjoying the holiday season and aren't too stressed out. Just remember what's important: Jesus is coming!

Merry Christmas!

-Chelsey

New Orleans Weekend

Ok my goal was to get in this post about our Thanksgiving New Orleans trip before Christmas! It may be only 4 days until Christmas but I made it! We had a great trip. I'd only been to New Orleans once (but it was before I was 21 so I'm not so sure that it counts) and Jonathan had never been! We got a great deal on a hotel in a great location, right on Canal St. at Bourbon St., meaning that we got to stay in the French Quarter but were close to the bus stops so we could also get to the garden district easily. Friday we mostly spent the day roaming around the French Quarter. We went to a burger place for lunch that was recommended to us by a friend and then immediately headed to Cafe du Monde. Yummy!! We each got our own beignets since we definitely wanted 3 each, and I got an iced cafe au lait and Jonathan got a hot cafe au lait. So good! I'm craving them now... So after that, we walked along the water and walked to the River Walk. It's a cute little mall along the river and they have outdoor areas that were pretty to sit and enjoy the view. The rest of the afternoon we spent going in almost every art gallery we saw. We saw such amazing pieces! Then, we decided to go have dinner early because we wanted to go to Acme Oyster House. We tried going there for lunch and they had a huge line. Apparently they just always have a huge line because they're so popular. We made sure to go back early for dinner before the line got too long. We only had to wait about 30 minutes before getting a table. They are known for their grilled oysters and they were delicious!!! It was my first time to have oysters that I actually liked. I've tried raw oysters and oyster stew and gave them both a chance but they're just not for me. However, I could eat the grilled oysters at Acme all day. I kind of wanted to haha. Jonathan said that they're raw oysters were great too if you were wondering. Those were just the appetizers...for our entrees I decided to get my cajun fill and got etoufee and Jonathan got soft shell crab. Definitely hit the spot!

The heart of the French Quarter: Jackson Square! The historic St. Louis Cathedral is in the middle.

Andrew Jackson statue in the middle of Jackson square.

Cafe Du Monde!

 

It's always super crowded. You have to literally run to your table before it's taken haha.



My deliciousness!



Jonathan's beignet art haha.

The river!



The aquarium is also along the river and they have an area with birds that's visible from outside!

 

A nice area with a fountain in the River Walk.

 



Oysters! Yummm!

After dinner it was still kind of early since we'd eaten so early but we decided to head to Bourbon St. to see if we could find some good bars. We wanted to find some good jazz and have a hurricane to check both off of our New Orleans bucket list. We first went to Pat O'Brien's because everyone told us we had to go there. They didn't have jazz but they did have a piano bar so we sat and enjoyed the music while I had a hurricane and Jonathan had a mint julep. The drinks were great and the music was fun! They took requests so everyone was singing along and a lot of people got up and danced. Pat O'Brien's also had a traditional bar area and an outdoor patio with a water fountain/fire pit. That's right, water fountain and a fire pit in one. That's a first for me anyways. We then decided to see what else was happening and if we could find some jazz. Bourbon St. was considerably busier but we survived. It's not hard to find jazz in New Orleans so we popped into a few different bars. It was nice to stop and listen to music for awhile and then stroll down the street to the next place. After awhile we started to get a hankering for some coffee so we stopped at PJ's which is a New Orlean's original. It was pretty good and it was really nice to get out of the Bourbon St. craziness for a little bit. After that we stopped at the Musical Legends Park. It's a small outdoor area off of Bourbon St. that usually has live jazz music. There's nothing better than sipping on coffee outside while listening to some good music! We probably didn't have the typical experience that most people have on Bourbon St. but we definitely had fun.


My hurricane from Pat O'Brien's!



The piano bar!



Jonathan's hot mocha and my iced mocha from PJ's!

The entertainment at Musical Legends Park!

Saturday we decided to take the bus through the Garden District and then walk down Magazine St. and check out all the shops. If you don't know, the Garden District is known for their beautiful houses. We were definitely wowed. I was picking out different houses for us to live in haha. It's a really fun experience because you get to ride a trolley through the area. At the end of the trolley route we stopped and went to eat at Cooter Brown's, another suggestion from friends. They are known for their oysters too. Jonathan got raw oysters and I got fried oysters. Both of ours were really amazing. We also both tried a local beer which is something we always like to do when visiting somewhere new. They were showing a college football game and even though the teams were nowhere near Louisiana, everyone was really into the game. Apparently Louisianians really love football no matter what team is playing. After that we took the trolley down toward the main area on Magazine St. and shopped shopped shopped. We even found some painted vases for our house.

We're on the trolley!



Look at how pretty! I was taking notes for our future house!

Raw oysters for Jonathan and fried for me!

We headed back to the French Quarter after a few hours of shopping to go to mass at the Cathedral. The Cathedral is beautiful. It was really cool to not only go and see it but to also celebrate mass there. That night we went out for a nicer meal at a place called La Petite Grocery. Our friend, Robby, used to be a chef there. We loved the appetizers and desserts the best. I mean, who doesn't? Our favorite appetizer were the crab beignets. Sounds weird but they were great! It was a really nice meal and a great end to our trip.

Inside the Cathedral



Everything was so beautiful.

 

St. Joan of Arc, my patron saint.

Sunday morning was pretty laid back since we wanted to leave to get back to Houston after breakfast. We decided to go back to the Musical Legends Park because in the park was a place called Cafe Beignet. While we were listening to music there Friday night we noticed that there was a sign saying that it was on the Food Network show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." I was shocked and didn't really believe it because everyone always raves about Cafe du Monde. We looked it up and sure enough Alton Brown said that it was the best thing he'd ever eaten. Jonathan said that we had to try it so we went back there Sunday morning. I was really glad we did because we got to listen to more jazz and sit outside! We both got beignets and mochas (made with chicory coffee). It was good and I really liked the coffee with the beignets, but I have to say, the beignets weren't as good as Cafe du Monde. They were crispier at Cafe Beignet, but Cafe du Monde's beignets just melt in your mouth. So just in case you were going and weren't sure where to go, now you know (and sorry Alton Brown if you read this...but if you do I love your show!)


Cafe Beignet still must have been pretty good if I didn't remember to take a picture before almost eating it all!



The traffic wasn't fun on our way back to Houston but at least we had nice scenery!



Lots of trees!


So we had a fun trip! We were glad to be able to go on a long weekend to make it worth the 6 hour trip. We got back to Houston around 6 and then immediately headed to our friend Josh's house to celebrate his birthday. He grilled his amazing burgers for us and we made a bonfire and smores! We had the best time but after a few hours I definitely was ready for bed! It was full weekend. We never have a problem finding something to do haha.

Until next time!
-Chelsey

A Bridal Shower Fit for a Princess

So I'm sorry that I'm taking forever to post about our New Orleans trip! Of course the holidays sneak up on us and make everything so busy. It has been especially busy for me since I've been busy planning a bridal shower that I threw on Saturday at our house. So although I'm going out of order, I decided to do a post on this weekend since I still need to upload the New Orleans pictures to my computer. Who cares about being chronological anyways?

The shower that I threw was for Katie who is a friend of ours from Jonathan's work. Katie started at BG shortly after Jonathan did and they shared a cubicle. Katie used to tease Jonathan that he was taking forever to propose and made a bet that her and her fiance Todd would get married before us. Sorry Katie! They're not very far behind us though because they're getting married in March. We're super excited to go to their wedding in Austin! Katie asked if she could hold her bridal shower at our house and we were thrilled to do it! I also helped with a lot of the planning because unfortunately most of Katie's bridesmaids are out of town. Katie chose a Cinderella theme which made it a lot of fun. Take a look at some of the pictures:

Katie's cake and cupcakes for everyone else!

The bride!

Playing games! Lauren (in the champagne dress) was the host and did pretty much everything!



Do you like our fancy shoes and dress?? We were told to dress like princesses!

 

The guest book: everyone signed a shoe and glued it to the poster!



I think the shower was a success! Everyone had a great time and Katie especially loved her shower. Of course now Jonathan's not too happy because our place is covered in glitter but he should have known what he was getting into when he offered our place for the shower.

Is everyone ready for Christmas?? It's only a week away! How did that happen? I'm looking forward to spending Christmas with my new family, although I'll of course be missing my family in Iowa! Marriage brings new changes and new traditions though! Plus, there's always skype...

If I don't post before Christmas, Merry Christmas! Happy (belated) Hannukah! Happy Holidays!

-Chelsey

Color-filled Art Weekend!

The weekend before Thanksgiving was jam-packed with lots of fun stuff around Houston so I thought I'd share it with you! Jonathan and I went to three art events throughout the weekend. Who knew that Houston had such a big art community? On Friday we went to the Winter Holiday Art Market or the WHAM! We had a friend, Stephanie Clark, who had a table and was selling some of her pieces. Her twin sister, Allison, works with Jonathan. Stephanie had really cool pieces. She does photography but it's really unique. She uses paper to create different environments and photographs them in different ways. I know you have no idea what I'm talking about so you can check out her work here! She did amazing and sold all her pieces! We had a lot of fun walking around the market. They had free drinks and food, although there was mostly only dessert left when we got there. Not that we minded! There were so many amazing artists and beautiful pieces. There were definitely some pieces that we loved but of course they were not in our price range. We did find a photography piece that we bought. It's a picture of downtown Houston taken from a pretty bridge. We're probably one of the few that really like Houston so we're glad to have a nice picture of downtown for our home.

Saturday, there was an art crawl all around downtown. We didn't get there until after dinner so some things had started closing down but we did find Mother Dog Studios. It's the oldest and largest artists studio warehouse in Houston. It was pretty massive. Each studio belonged to a different artist so we got to see all sorts of pieces. We even saw John Runnels' studio who did the metal sculptures along the bayou.

Amazingly, we found a piece that we both loved and could afford! The artist was Wendy Wight and you can see all of her pieces here. She was really nice and we really loved all her pieces. This is the piece that we bought:

When we looked it up on the website we found out that it's a part of her creation collection which is even cooler! Although she named it "Animals" and I don't really see it in the painting lol. I wish I'd known so we could have asked for her interpretation of the painting. Maybe we'll visit her studio again and get the chance. We're really excited to hang this baby up in our living room!

Finally, on Sunday we went to an event called Via Colori. Via Colori is a street chalk competition that benefits the Center for Hearing and Speech. Participants had all Saturday and Sunday to make their piece using only chalk! We were blown away by all of their artwork and took too many pictures to post them all. Of course I'll show you  our favorites!



This one was 3D!



They even had an area where kids could purchase chalk and draw their own art on a little square. I definitely wanted to participate! Next time I'll have to borrow someone's kid. Any offers?

So you'd think that'd be enough for me to call it a color-filled weekend...that wasn't even the colorful part! On Saturday, Colleen and I participated in the Color Fun Fest Run! It was a 5k run around Reliant Stadium where we were pelted with powder of color. Take a look:

There were 5 stops along the run, each with a different color. Afterwards we all got our own color packets and got to throw color on ourselves and each other! It was so much fun! Hence, all the pictures lol!

So as you can see, I wasn't kidding when I said that it was a jam-packed weekend. We had a blast! Feel free to leave a comment with your favorite thing to do in Houston!

-Chelsey