Weekend Update: Happy Birthday Jay!

We started off the weekend Friday night with my work holiday party. It was held at the delicious Chart House in Scottsdale - we enjoyed great food and took home some wine from the gift exchange :)

Saturday was the big day. My wonderful, generous, funny, handsome, talented - need I say more? - husband turned a year older. I gave him his birthday present early in the morning - an acoustic guitar. I'm so excited to watch him learn and get the hang of it! Here he is watching an instructional video on the computer - learning some chords :)
We eventually left the house for wings & football for lunch, and then did a little shopping before heading home to prepare for the big game. Kiera, Joe and Kate came over (with Joe's guitar of course - yup, I planned that) to help us cheer on the Cornhuskers. We had (just enough) pizza and then since Jay doesn't like cake very much, fruit tart for dessert.

I have always wanted to make a fruit tart for Jay, so this was the perfect occasion! Without going into detail, let me just say that it's not the easiest thing in the world. I made the shell from scratch, then there is a layer of chocolate, then a layer of pastry cream (basically a custard) I made from scratch too, then the fruit followed by an apricot glaze. The hard work totally paid off - it was delicious!
Happy Birthday my love!!!
Here Joe is giving Jay some pointers...I think he's getting the hang of it!
What a beautiful family - sporting red for Nebraska!!! Thank you so much for celebrating with us and for being such great friends!
Here's another shot of Jay playing his new guitar. Special thanks to Joe for his shopping advice as well as for teaching Jay some Metallica - my favorite!