Since We Last Chatted…

I celebrated Christmas…

So what if I wore yoga pants all day? I wanted to be comfy while I unwrapped presents and stuffed myself.

I made a lot of fun recipes that I can wait to share with you. I copycatted the Okonomiyaki that Carter and I had at Xia Bao Biscuit.

And the Basil Honey Vinaigrette I love from Five Loaves. (Ignore my half gone tattoo – I’m still in the removal process.)

I also made blueberry pancakes using Greek yogurt and cottage cheese.

I continued making healthy recipes like Spicy Lentil Patties…

and a vegan tofu scramble.

I celebrated winning The NYE Challenge with an IceDream from Chick-fil-A…

…and made a lot of cookies.

Seriously, so many cookies.

But it’s okay, because I did a ton of running…

including another 10 mile run on NYE…

and maybe a little trespassing.

And finally, I rang in the New Year with some of my favorite friends.

Cheers to 2013, getting back into regular posting, and sharing lots of recipes! As always, thanks for reading and staying caught up in my very hungry and healthy life. XO!

Happy New Year’s Eve!

It’s time for this:

and this:

and most definitely this:

Have a safe and happy New Year’s Eve!

New Year’s Eve Outfit, Makeup, and Hair

I have a confession. I am not a huge fan of shopping, hate putting outfits together, and swear I don’t know how to match. For an event, I usually find a dress I love then beg Kaye and Amanda for outfit inspiration. That said, I’m pretty excited to have my New Year’s Eve outfit already planned, 20 days ahead of time. Who am I? The older I get, I swear, the more and more of a (gasp!) girly girl I become.

I forgot to tell you what happened with all those NYE dresses I ordered. Three of the four were from ASOS.com, a European site. When I ordered them, my credit card had a seizure and my bank immediately called me about fraudulent charges. Even though I approved the charge with them, it didn’t go through. By the time I could reorder, two of the dresses were gone in my size. Praise Jesus, I had already ordered the one shown below. It arrived yesterday and fits perfectly. I’ve had some good karma lately.

 

New Year's Eve 2013 by christinaorso featuring steve madden shoes

Back to the outfit. Do you think that is too much gold? It is NYE after all, and I do love to sparkle. I will keep my earrings and ring very simple and definitely wear a very delicate necklace.

Makeup is easy. I’ll just throw all this on my face:

 

MAC & MUA Makeup by christinaorso featuring mac cosmetics

The next issue is my hair. Do I ever do anything different with my hair? Nope. The beauty of having an angled bob is that it doesn’t need much styling, but it is at a length where I can change it up. Here are some ideas I’m pondering:

That was exhausting. How do you ladies plan weddings?

And because I know you’re dying to ask, yes, my date is planned too. He’s a cutie, can you guess who? ;)

Are you ready for NYE? What are you wearing/doing?

Happy Chinese New Year! 新年快乐

Look at those fancy symbols, you guys! That’s Chinese for Happy New Year. This is the year of the Dragon, so you Dragon babies should have a lucky 2012. Want to know  your Chinese zodiac sign? Take a gander at this chart.

My zodiac animal is the Rat. Lovely.

To celebrate, I hung out with my one and only Chinese friend, Boding. When I told him that I thought I might have another Chinese friend he told me, “Well go ahead and just unfriend them because I’m the only one that matters.” Boom.

Before our celebration, we started off Sunday with a matinee showing of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. When I first saw the preview a couple months ago, I cried, replayed it, and cried again. Wait, what? I cry like twice a year and a movie trailer was making me produce tears? No way. Needless to say, I was dying to see it.

I assumed that I’d become dehydrated from crying so much, but in reality, it wasn’t even that sad. Or that good. It wasn’t a bad film, but I think I set my expectations too high. I didn’t regret spending $7.50 to sit on my behind for 2 hours and 9 minutes though. Especially because I was quite comfortable wearing my snuggie in the theater. Boding was impressed with my “lack of dignity” as I walked back to the car like this.

For dinner we made, oh, you guessed it, Chinese food.

NY strip + bok choy + snow peas + red peppers + water chestnuts + carrots + onions stir-fried in a sesame ginger marinade.

That is one happy Chinese man.

Before cooking, we stopped at a nearby Chinese restaurant to purchase two fortune cookies. I always hope that cracking open my cookie will reveal one of my life’s burning questions, but it never happens. This fortune is 100% inaccurate.

I am an impatient mess. That didn’t stop me from eating the cookie though. It was one of those orange flavored fortune cookies. Have you ever had one of those? They actually don’t taste like crap like the regular ones.

For those of you who have been slacking on your New Year’s resolutions, you can just say you’ve been waiting for the Chinese New Year and start NOW!

2012 Is the Year I…

…run a half marathon. I mean why not? I may have short legs, but they are strong and will take me far. Hopefully 13.1 miles.

….read at least 12 books. One per month is not asking a lot. Why I still haven’t started this book, I’m not sure.

…use my camera more! And I don’t mean this one.

…have less stuff. Clutter drives me crazy and as mentally unstable as I am, I think less tangible goods will make life easier. I just called myself mentally unstable. Do you still love me?

…date more nerdy guys. I mean there is no way any not nerdy person can handle me so…ok, bring on the geeks. #geekchic

…be a better listener. I like, no love, giving advice, but should hone my listening skills. I want to start a column called Ask Xtina. But that sounds semi inappropriate, so let’s go with Ask Christina.

…eat less crap. I consume wayyyyyy too much sugar for my own good. Candy is fun but my teeth and waistline don’t appreciate it as much as my brain does.

…compliment people more. If I have a nice thought about a person, I’m just going to go all word vomit on them.

…be a better blogger! I love you guys. I do! So much. I’d marry my blog and all of you followers if that was legal.

…eat more pickles. Duh.