Three...Two...ONE!!! HAPPY FOOD YEAR!!!

Yellow!

It's finally the new year and I was fortunate enough to ring in 2011 with some of my buddies and of course my hubby!

I started the night cooking with my new Sous Chef Miss Irish. I Heart her to pieces!

The Menu consisted of

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Baked Cheesy Macaroni and Cheeeeese

and....wait for it.... Buttermilk Waffles! This beautiful couple was nice enough to waffle maker the whole sha-bang. They did a remarkable job!

So why this menu? I was craving Roscoe's. If you don't know about this place... you bettah ask some-bah-dee..

Oh, but friends.... don't be confused por favor. Waffles are not the dessert in this dish, but the side. Dessert, yeah, I covered that. (Jill, if you're wondering, I vacuum sealed all that!)

See that beautiful tower of cupcakes? That is my Kuya's Birthday Cake! He specifically requested lemon cupcakes. So I made them, and drizzled them with lemon glaze!

Happy Birthday Kuya Bear!

Before, during, and after dinner, there was a ton of this...

and this...

Xbox Kinect...so fun! And boy, what a workout!

THEN, it was White Elephant Game. If you've never played, there's a lot of stealing, trading, and broken hearts. FUN! This year the theme was FOOD!!! The rules were to interpret that however they wanted...

Some got yummy food items.

 They stole this In-n-Out gift card from me. I'd hate them, but they're some of the sweetest people I know. Jerks. ;p

There were some practical food tools.

And not so practical food tools.

Then there was this...

Dog food

And...brace yourself...

My friend Ashley... see that in her hand? That's a breast pump! I guess someone interpreted food....with that. I love my friends.

The fun continued with...

NERF GUN WAR!!!!  This is normal behavior right?

After about an hour running through the streets like maniacs...we rang in the new year.

Kisses and hugs all around.... I really love these people.

We ended our night playing Taboo until 3 in the morning.

Le EPIC!

The next morning was anything but.... I woke up to this...

and this monstrosity

uhhhh...the clock is wrong btw... I didn't wake up that late?

Luckily after the cleaning and Christmas decor tearing down... Hubs treated me to a date night at my FAVORITE Thai place in Riverside, Table for Two!

Since college, I would order Pad Thai, and convince the other person to order a rice dish, then we'd split our plates in half and share!

Some things never change.

Happy New Year Everyone! I wish you all a blessed year filled with love, laughter, and good eats! Thanks for reading, friends!