Happy Holidays!

Welcome! You've made it to our Blog!  We wanted to be able to create something that would allow our friends and family to stay connected.

Our blog started back in June of this year with a "re-cap" post from our wedding in April.  We tried to keep up on our postings but sometimes life just gets so busy and I only managed one post a month! Hum, do I perhaps see a New Years resolution is in order here? Haha.

I'm sure a lot of you want to know how married life has been.... IT'S BEEN WONDERFUL! Alicia and I have a had a great time enjoying each others company, furnishing our home, making plans for the future, and even just figuring out the daily housekeeping tasks.

For those of you who don't know, we live in the Temecula Valley which is about one hour north of San Diego. On our days off we love taking a quick drive to the local area wineries!  If any of you every want to come and check those out- we would be happy to show you the best of what Temecula Wineries have to offer! Lake Skinner is also just a few short miles away from us. Besides taking the pups (Ella, Bentley, and Rocco) out to expend some of the never-ending supply of energy that they seem to have, we love just hanging out at home. Alicia has this new found addiction to Pinterest, and she always has some new home improvement or recipe for us to try!

After the wedding, Alicia said goodbye, a sad goodbye, to Loma Linda University Children's Hospital- PICU and began a new job at Loma Linda University Medical Center - Murrietta in the Emergency Department. It was definitely a change, but the staff there welcomed her with open arms and the good friends from PICU provided much support and encouragement. I started my second year at Kaiser Fontana in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. It's great to see how far we have come in just one short year. Both the PICU and the ED are growing every day. It has been such a great experience to be apart of a new and growing unit. We both are learning so much everyday.

As this year comes to a close and the Christmas season is upon us we reflect on all its' unforgettable moments - Our wedding, trips and vacations, quality time spent with family and friends, and learning to be a husband and a wife. Christmas is such a wonderful time of the year, it's cliche, but it would be cool if Christmas was everyday! well... minus the crowded stores and long lines of course. We hope this holiday season brings you, your family, and friends closer together and that new memories and traditions can be made.

We're looking forward to 2012 with much joy and anticipation as a every new year brings new adventures, new memories, and opportunities.

Continue to check back in and read our blog as I'm sure we'll be posting more in the weeks and months to come.

May God bless you and your loved ones this holiday season!

With Love,

Aaron and Alicia Akamine

Remember, Remember... something November

Happy November Everyone!

It seems that this month has come and gone all too quickly. I tried to think of a clever title for this posting, but I think it's suppose to go "Beware Beware..." I don't know, so I left it as is.

November 2011... What is there to say? First off, it was my brother Tony's 24th birthday! I can't believe that we're officially in our mid twenties... or, well that he's in the mid and I'm in the late. I bet our parents can't believe it either.  November is also when our dog Rocco was born, I think he was born on November 2nd actually. He's officially two human years old.

This month we also got to participate in Alica's uncle, Sybren's annual cook off. This year the theme was salads. I'm just now realizing that we didn't take any photos that night! Bummer. Well to describe it as best as possible.... There were about 30 salad entries and everyone got to partake of each others entries making for an amazing and healthy dinner! There were two winning categories, Most Original and Best Overall. Alicia and I put together a gourmet salad - Salmon and Hearts of Palm with a lemon caper vinaigrette.

Unfortunately we did not win, nor place in the top three... But it was such a great time! It was fun seeing all the different types of salad and meeting new people. We're definitely looking forward to next years competition.

November is also the start to the holiday season! We spent our Thanksgiving day at my cousin's house in Westlake, CA. It's quite a drive but it's worth it. After picking up my mom at her house, we loaded the car and drove out. We had a delicious Thanksgiving lunch consisting of two types of turkey, smoked and oven baked, the traditional fixings, then of course the Asian fixings. I think that's one of the best things about our Thanksgiving meals, it's always your traditional eats and then some.  Lisa and Craig recently renovated their house with a brand new kitchen and wood flooring, we appreciate them opening their hour year after year for family get togethers.

My uncle also decided to break out his mochi maker (It's a Wikipedia link, but at least you'll get the gist of it). He had everything prepared the night before and it was just a matter of steaming and then impelling the rice into a sticky white gum paste. We had little to no idea what we were doing... But after about four rounds we got the hand of it! We made some plain and we also made some that were stuffed with azuki bean! Delicious.

Hope that this month has treated you well and that you're prepared for the holiday season! Alicia and I are excited to be celebrating our first holiday season together as a married couple. We were just talking the other night that in just about four more months we will have been married for one year! Man, time really does fly when you're having fun with your best friend.

Happy Holidays!