chocolate chip cookies

A Very Special Package & A Holiday Survey

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Happy Friday everyone!! Hope you’ve all had a great week so far and I’m more than ready to get this weekend started! 🙂

Is it just me or did this week fly by? Lately I’ve been taking Monday’s and Tuesday’s off from the gym (it feels so good to take two days off back-to-back), and I’ve noticed it really helps make the work week move along that much quicker.

And last night we had our company holiday party (dinner at Spiedo) so that too made the work week that much more tolerable in having a nice dinner out with some good food, wine, and of course, company. It was definitely a fun time and it’s always fun to get a lil tipsy with your coworkers – especially since mine are pretty awesome 😉

And then, yesterday was made even more special with an extra special delivery that I was greeted with when I came home on my lunch break…

Remember that lil barter I mentioned here about getting the Biscoff Spread and Cookie Butter for the lovely Ashley? I originally thought of this barter since I had heard that no where near her offers Biscoff and she doesn’t have a Trader Joe’s in her area (I know – the travesty!) so I offered to send her a couple jars since she’s been such a very sweet, supportive friend to me. Well in return I received the most sweetest, delicious package ever. I felt that it was extra special since she baked up some of her hubby’s favorite cookies, and I feel baked goods have a more warming touch and sentiment to it that I love…

Two of those dipped in milk were consumed last night once we got home from the party – it was the wine talkin’ 😉

And let me tell you. These cookies are AMAZING!!! And to confirm just how amazingly delicious they are, I’d like to quote the hubby who instantly texted me when he got home and was greeted by the cookies in saying, “Holy Moses!!! These cookies are crazy good!!!!!” Yep, I declare these cookies definitely have the husband seal of approval. I suggest you click here and check out her recipe so that you can make some extra special cookies for your hubby or S.O. 🙂

She also gifted me with this delicious looking muffin mix from a local bakery of hers that I can’t wait to bake up …

And an extra special lil something that was a surprise for me…

Cupcake Soap!! Is that not the cutest?!

Thank you so much again Ashley!!! I love my treats so much and I can bet already the cookies will be gone by this weekend 😉

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So a fun lil holiday survey is going round the blogosphere and you know how I love participating in these so without further ado –

25 Questions: Holiday Style…

  • Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Definitely hot chocolate – unless Starbucks Egg Nog Lattes count? 😉 Now those I love!!
  • Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Wraps presents! And my parents (Santa!) would always add a tag to the present that would say “From Santa”
  • Colored lights on tree/house or white? Growing up we always had colored lights on both the house and tree – but now my parents do white and they ponded off the colored lights to us so we’re taking over the tradition 😉 But to answer the question, I love both!
  • Do you hang mistletoe? Nope. But my family always did, and it’d always be placed in an entryway that you’d have to walk through so everyone would walk under it one way or another.
  • When do you hang your decorations up? This year I started mine a couple weeks before Thanksgiving since I knew we’d be busy with being in New York, but typically it’s always the day after Thanksgiving.
  • What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Ooo that’s a toughy since all my favorite dishes are dessert based – obviously. So in this case, I’d have to go with my mom’s cheesy veggie baked casserole…it’s amazing.
  • Favorite holiday memory as a child? My parents are so amazing and really did such a wonderful job in bringing the fantasy of Santa Claus come alive – and they kept the streak going for quite a long time! I’ll never forget every Christmas Eve we’d set out gingerbread cookies and milk for Santa and his reindeer and the next morning being so excited to wake up and see his dessert was gobbled up! I’ll always remember the excited and happy feeling I felt and how real I felt Santa was – I always wondered too how Santa got his big butt up and down our chimney 🙂 I’m so grateful for all the hard work my parents did into making Christmas such a memorable, special holiday for me and my sister, and I can’t wait to pass on these traditions to our little ones ❤

See, Santa is for real!!!

Christmas Eve Circa 2009

  • What is on your Christmas Wish List? A new Laptop or iPad (!!) My family is gifting me gift cards to Best Buy so we’ll see what I like after some comparison shopping.
  • Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Yes! We always kept this tradition while growing up – but now we save them all for Christmas morning.
  • How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Except for this year, in which we did mini trees, we like to string colored lights around and hang all my ornaments I’ve collected throughout the years – the majority are from Hallmark since my mom owned a Hallmark store (it was the best job ever – having a mom as your boss and discounted stationary products was awesome). I love opening each ornament as it’s so nostalgic for me and brings back so many wonderful childhood memories.
  • Snow? Love it or dread it? Well, since we live in California and never get snow I would love one year to be somewhere and experience a white Christmas. But live in it and deal with it for all the months of winter? Never. I’ll just take one day of it, Christmas Day at that, please.
  • Real or fake tree? Growing up we always had real, and hubby and my first tree we got together was real, but ever since then (although I do love the pine smell!) I was highly annoyed by the mess it made. And ever since my parents made the move to fake I was then hooked. So I have big plans this year to scope out some After Christmas Sales and score us a fake tree.
  • Do you remember your favorite gift? Oh yes I do!! My 2001 Ford Convertible Mustang that I still drive to this day. It was the.best.gift.ever. I’ll never forget too how my parents put the car keys in a box in my stocking and I’ll never forget the scream I let out when I realized what it was. Didn’t I tell you how amazing my parents are? ❤
  • What’s the most important thing about Christmas for you? Being with family. Nothing else brings me more joy, happiness, and fills my heart so very much.
  • What is your favorite holiday dessert? Most definitely my mom’s Pumpkin Chiffon Pie. It’s a Thanksgiving dessert too, but we love it so very much that we make it for Christmas also. This time I’ll be sure to snap a pic of it!
  • What is your favorite tradition? Me and my hubby having a sleepover Christmas Eve night at my parents house, and waking up to a tree full of presents and stockings full of goodies. And we always always do stockings last!
  • What tops your tree? An angel!
  • Which do you prefer: giving or receiving? As a child, let’s be real, receiving! But now that I’m an adult, nothing brings me more joy than the act of giving. I love seeing the joy and smiles on people’s faces when they open their gifts – warms my heart so much.
  • What is your favorite Christmas Song? O Holy Night. And I gotta add this one in – ‘NSYNC’s “Kiss Me At Midnight” Love it!
  • Favorite Christmas Movie? National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. It’s a tradition for my dad to pop in the movie and have it playing all Christmas day while we open presents 🙂 A close second is the original Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and A Christmas Story.
  • What do you leave for Santa? I touched on this one above – we would leave out a glass of milk and gingerbread cookies.
  • Do you have a Christmas morning tradition? Yes! We always sleep in and immediately start opening gifts. Then we take a breather, eat some breakfast with coffee and mimosas, and then open our stockings – we like to prolong the event as long as possible!
  • Do you prefer to shop online or at the mall? When I was younger (especially in my teenager years) I loved going to the mall – the best spot to scope out any cute guys 😉 But now I’m all about convenience and love to online shop – in fact I bought ever single person’s gift this year (except for my sis, Todd, and coworkers) online.
  • Christmas letter or Christmas card? I always do Christmas cards – but one childhood friend of mine who lives in Utah does a letter and I love hearing about what her family and their 3 kids are up to. I also love getting photo cards of my friends with their S.O. and/or children/fur babies – so cute! Todd and I have never done a photo card but I really want us too one year very soon!

Questions:
Answer any of the above!
Does your company have a holiday party?
Any fun plans for tonight or this weekend?

This entry was posted in Musings and tagged , , , , .

Early Holiday Spirit & East Coast Clothing Suggestions

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Whew that’s a long title! I’ll get to that in a sec, but first I want to say a huge thank you to you all for sending me “get better” wishes because I think I finally kicked this cold out of my system after having a nice, relaxing weekend with the hubby. We pretty much did absolutely nothing Saturday and Sunday and I think it’s just what the doctor ordered 🙂

Friday evenings we never particularly feel like putting that much effort into a meal so we went for a tasting plate of sorts…

Bagel chips, sliced baguette, white sharp cheddar cheese, salami – we also had a plate of veggies and hummus

This salami was a lil too fatty for my liking but still pretty good

Since we were still recovering from our colds we wanted to soothe our souls so chocolate chip cookies it was! Now, this lover of sweets here does not have a mixer – I know, the horror! So when I say we baked cookies, I literally mean that, just plop ’em on a baking sheet and bake! 🙂

I had two right out of the oven – there’s really nothing better than warm ooey gooey cookies…and this kind was pretty good but a lil too healthy tasting for Todd’s liking – it did the job though 😉

Saturday morning I was starting to feel a bit better so I went to my spin class to sweat out the remnants of my cold – felt so much better afterwards! Then ran a few errands to the grocery store, got my car smogged, renewed my car registration, came home, ate lunch, then sat on the couch with Todd for the entire rest of the day. It was so nice to relax and catch up on some shows we had recorded like The Walking Dead and then watched an old favorite Office Space – love that movie!

We were feeling something super easy for dinner and I decided to continue our love for Mexican food and made ground turkey tacos. I just browned the meat, then added in a chopped red bell pepper, onion, and a packet of McCormick Taco Seasoning Mix, simmer for 5 minutes, and tada!

Soft for me, hard for him – that’s what she said 😉

x 2!

We also continued our love for sweet treats, you know, to feed that cold 😉 So we broke out the good ole Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls and baked those for a fun dessert! We rarely eat packaged desserts like this, but it’s what our souls needed that weekend 🙂

We each had one and it was glorious

Sunday was another relaxing day filled with a quick gym workout with Todd and then a couple errands were ran. It was another evening of not wanting to put much effort into dinner so it was Mollie Stone’s sushi and salad bar to the rescue…

My salad – kidney beans, garbanzo beans, croutons, beets, and veggies

Todd’s sushi, which I took many bites from 😉

Sunday also consisted of me getting into some major holiday spirit. I don’t know why but this year I’m especially getting into the holiday spirit super early. I think the older I get, the more nostalgic I become so Sunday I got my small collection of Christmas decorations up – I hung our wreath on our front door and got out our holiday penguins…

P.S. ‘9ers won!! Whoo hoo!!

And I even picked up a couple Advent Calendars for Todd and I…no matter how old I get, I will be doing this tradition forever. My parents always got me one and it’s a tradition I want to keep for our children as well…for now Todd and I will just enjoy the chocolates 😉

Are any of you into the holiday spirit early this season?! Or will you be waiting until after Thanksgiving?

I especially can’t wait for us to pick up our Christmas tree once we get back from New York. Speaking of New York, we’re headed to my in-laws next Thursday to upstate New York (super excited!) and I need some clothing suggestions from you all on what to wear. This California girl has no cold weather clothing whatsoever. I’ll be borrowing some from my sis but I really need some long sleeved tops like thermals, and comfy bottoms to wear with my Uggs like leggings – any of you have some suggestions on where I can get some affordable (cute!) cold weather clothing from? Todd suggested Target and I’m also thinking of checking out H&M. I also want to get some infinity scarves – any of you know where I can find some of those?!

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Hope you all have a great day and if you get a chance hop on over to Caitlin’s blog at Healthy Tipping Point to wish her a congrats on some super exciting news! I’ve never met Caitlin, but I’ve been reading her blog since the very beginning and have always loved it. Her blog helped me in many ways in inspiring me to get healthy during my eating disordered/overexercising days…and now that she’s expecting I couldn’t be more happy for her and to follow her along on this journey. It’s so exciting to see so many bloggers that I’ve followed for the past 3+ years get married then pregnant and to be able to celebrate these milestones with them – it’s such a great community to be a part of and to follow everyone’s lives through the internet is a pretty amazing thing 🙂

This entry was posted in Weekend and tagged , , , , , .