Happy 9th Anniversary!!

Nine Years!!!  I can hardly believe it.  It just doesn't seem possible, but the calendar does not lie.  We have been married for one year shy of a decade.  Crazy.

It's just kind of another day.  My sweetie is working and I'm working feverishly on my annual quilt mystery along with the mundane stuff of life.  At some point, Mister tells me that we have dinner reservations for the evening.  Yay!!!  On the way, he shares that it is something new.  Even better.

Our stop is at Yoshi --- a Shabu-shabu restaurant.  If you are like me, you have no idea what that means, but let me tell you --- it's a blast.  Come along and feed your eyes.  Shabu-shabu is a Japanese hotpot dish of thinly sliced meat and vegetables boiled in water and served with dipping sauces.  The term in onomatopoeic, derived from the sound emitted when the ingredients are stirred in the cooking pot (i.e. swish-swish).  The food is cooked piece by piece by the diner at the table.  As we are seated, this is what our table looks like.  The large square is a burner and the pot has water and a small piece of seaweed in it.

Dipping sauces are brought to the table.

Our selection of spices are added to the water and the burner is switched on to bring the pot to a boil.  It's crazy hot so doesn't take long.

Two beautiful platters of vegetables appear next.

And the first one is added to the pot to cook and enhance the broth.

It's looking fun now.  But wait ----

Our next arrival at the table is this lovely platter of the meats we selected.

Using chopsticks, we now "swish-swish" each piece through the broth, cooking it super quick.  At this time, we can also enjoy the vegies and everything can be dipped into the wonderful sauces at our disposal.

This process continues until we have enjoyed all of the meats.  Then our lovely server comes along and adds our choice of noodles to the broth AND the rest of the vegies.

A few more flavors are added and it is all brought to a boil once again before being scooped into bowls of amazing noodle soup for us to enjoy.  Oh goodness, this is just so good along with being a ton of fun.

And that's it.  Nine years.  Life is good together --- what more can a girl ask for?