New Year's Eve

So I know I'm a little late posting this but we had such a special last day of 2011 that I couldn't not post something.  We started with a beautiful morning run on the beach and it was amazing!  We ran right on the sand close to the water and saw a family of dolphins swimming right alongside us.  We could not believe it.  We were right next to them for a pretty long time and it made both of us think about our little family of three and how happy we are.  2011 was a monumental year for us and it was great to be able to reflect on it in such a gorgeous setting.  We lost our beloved Aunt Jane, but just a month later we welcomed our amazing daughter.  As we ran, we talked about the year that was coming to a close and the one that was about to start.  We batted around a few ideas for New Years resolutions and realized that most of them had to do with improving our home and home life; we want to make our home as comfortable and beautiful as possible while also doing things like cooking healthy meals, growing our own vegetables, and eating dinner together as a family as often as possible. 

That night, Tory made a reservation at an awesome restaurant in Santa Cruz and my Dad watched the baby.  Before we left we took some spectacular pictures of the sunset from our deck:

We drove over to Santa Cruz and I snapped a few more shots of the sunset along the way:

I knew we would love the place because it's called Cellar Door; one of our all-time favorite movies is Donnie Darko, and there's a scene in which his English teacher tells him that a famous linguist once said the phrase "cellar door" is the most beautiful in the English language.  (That's debatable.  We all know the most beautiful two-word combo in the world is Skyla Belle).  When we got there we were blown away by the atmosphere and decor.  The restaurant is connected to Bonneydoon Winery and the whole place was decorated with artwork made from wine accessories and old wine barrels.  Even the seating was one of a kind: they had a few booths up front that were carved out of massive old wine barrels that went almost all the way up to the ceiling.  I got a few shots but they don't really do it justice!

We had one of those dates like you see in the movies -- we were totally that couple you want to be in the restaurant.  We were talking, laughing, and even feeding each other (I know, yuck, but we don't get out much without the baby!)  The waiter was very patient with us and helped us pick out food to share plus wine pairings for each course.  The food was so good that I couldn't resist taking pictures.

If you look closely at the bowl on the left you can see that we actually ordered brussel sprouts.  We figured we needed to be adventurous and the waiter told us we would not be sorry.  Still, I was a little apprehensive.  But I was pleasantly surprised with how delicious they were!

We finished off the evening with one of our favorite desserts that we used to get all the time in Boston: profiteroles!

We went home and put our beautiful girl to bed.  Then we actually stayed up to midnight on the West Coast!  That is definitely the latest we've stayed up since she was born and it was worth it.  We popped some champagne and counted down.  Of course I was blubbering like a baby, saying the year she was born was over, and Tory just laughed as usual.  We nibbled on some leftover carrot cake from Gayle's and wondered aloud once again how we got such a gosh-darn beautiful, sweet daughter.  It was a perfect evening and a perfect end to 2011.