Christmas & New Years

Happy New Year!  I cannot tell you how ready I was for Christmas break.  Even though I had Christmas Eve and Christmas off, I still ended up clocking 52 hours that week.  Blech, I'm ready for residency to be over.

Headed to my friend's amazing Christmas party.  Top Forever 21, midi skirt Express.

Christmas day was spent at my parents.  For the first time, I helped with the Christmas dinner.  I made mashed potatoes  and broccoli casserole.  In the past I've struggled to get my potatoes creamy and adding the cream cheese was the key.  I forgot half and half so I just added milk and it was still delicious.  I like my potatoes with skin so I only peeled half and next time plan to peel less.

 My dishes in the center

:-)

Christmas selfie 

Everybody's Christmas tree is different, but my mom and I love collecting ornaments over time.  She has a lot of Hallmark ornaments as well as school-made ornaments from my siblings and myself.   My tree is a little sparse now but I know the collection will grow in the years to come.

A past instagram of some of my ornaments

Remembering Grandma T & Papa :-)

The following week I had completely off, so we visited Aaron's side of the family in Gastonia for a few days, then met some friends in Asheville.  Aaron and I love Asheville.  We honeymooned there and visit at least once a year.  6 of us met there on New Year's Eve to bring in the new year.  On a whim, we chose to eat tapas at Curate, only to be told by locals later that it's their favorite restaurant in town.  It was amazing - pork skirt steak!  Sorry I don't have photos.

We went to a party on NYE at Asheville Music Hall which had different bands and DJs in each room.  By far the best room had The Empire Strikes Brass performing, they were amazing.

chopppy cell phone video

We spent the rest of Asheville checking out the Grove Park Inn, taking the Christmas Candelight tour of Biltmore, some light hiking and enjoying good food downtown.  It was 2 of our friend's first time in Asheville so we had to take them to Tupelo Honey!  We also did a LaZoom tour (mixed reviews - I liked it though).

Our crew

Gingerbread houses don't look like gingerbread houses anymore, apparently.

My favorite

Downtown

Dogs like Asheville too!

  

 Rahsaan & Kristina in front of the Biltmore

We had to continue our tradition of staying at bed & breakfasts, especially in Asheville.

Sweet Biscuit Inn 

Breakfast

Poached egg on savory toast, roast beef with tomato compote

And crepes for desssert!!! :-D

Now I'm back at home and already back to work.  I'm working night float for the next 3 weeks 7pm-7am, so it'll definitely be rough.  For dinner, I'm exploring different crockpot recipes and I can't wait to share them with you.  Happy new year!!!