What have we been up to?
Well, right after my last entry, Stephanie and I headed up to downtown Portland to celebrate our 12th anniversery. I surprised Steph by booking a room at the new Hilton Executive Tower, right next to Pioneer Courthouse Square and Pioneer Place (not real big attractions for me, but I figured Steph would like it). I did like the valet parking at the Hilton, as well as all the little details -- chocolate covered strawberries and champagne (sparking cider for us) in our room, soft terry cloth robes, and breakfast in bed Sunday morning... very nice.
Our view from the 16th floor of the Hilton:
Dinner on Saturday night was at Caprial's Bistro. We had wonderful 4-course dinner, and we got to meet Caprial (she was helping out because they were so busy).
We started out with a slightly garlicky spinach appetizer (I can't remember the name of the dish) which was served with fresh bread... if spinach always tasted that good, I would eat it like Popeye does! Next was the Smoked Salmon Salad for me, and the Soup for Steph (I can't rememer what the soup was). The salad was incredible... the tangy horseradish-buttermilk dressing was a perfect match for the smoked salmon. The salad was enormous, too... if I hadn't starved myself all day, I would have been full after the salad course. For the main course, I got the Flat Iron Steak and a glass of the Ravenswood Cabernet Sauvignon, the two were an excellent match. Steph had the fresh Salmon, which was my other choice... it was delicious as well. Dessert really topped off the evening. We split a slice of the Chocolate Turtle Torte... and oh, was it ever fabulous... rich yet smooth as silk... the perfect compliment for a cup of coffee.
We made it back downtown in time to do a little shopping, mainly just some decent gloves and hat for me so I didn't freeze. We returned to Pioneer Place after breakfast the next morning, and were actually able to get some Christmas shopping done. Then we headed home in attempt to beat the approaching WINTER BLAST... which arrived ahead of schedule. By the time we made it to Canby to pick up Noah, we were driving on a thin layer of ice... but we made it home safely.
Since then it has been a flurry of Christmas shopping, wrapping presents, and celebrating with friends and family.
We had a good Christmas, but Noah still wants to open more presents and he seems quite sad that Christmas is over. We still have Steph's cousin Christmas gathering to attend this weekend, so he will get one more present to open... after that, he's just going to have to wait until his birthday... and he's going to have to endure new baby sister getting lots of presents... I don't think he knows what's going to hit him!