Diving Into the Holidays, Treats First

I really can’t believe it’s already well into Monday afternoon and the start of a new week! Time just seems to keep on flying by, doesn’t it?

I spent the morning working at the computer, lunch at the gym and am currently eating  a scrumptious salad at my desk to chat with you all for a bit before heading out the door again. (For those of you who are curious as to what’s in it, I’ll be sure to share the details in this week’s WIAW!)

I also might be listening to the Justin Bieber Holiday station on Pandora. What can I say? I seem to have been bitten by the holiday bug early this year.

The highlight of my weekend was for sure decorating the house with bright lights, stockings and tinsel. Before we get into that, I want to recap the weekend first.

Today I am linking up with Katie and many others to share what made my weekend marvelous. Lots and lots of (yummy, sparkly) things!

Friday

I feel like this could get quite lengthy, so I’m going to try and quickly cover the highlights.

From late afternoon on, I kept busy filming and editing a How I Curl My Hair Tutorial. (<- finally!) A lot of you have showed enthusiasm and have actually found it helpful, which makes me really happy. If you ever have any questions or suggestions for beauty/hair tutorials, give me a shout!

We had already made plans with a friend of ours to grab dinner, but when she expressed her interest in laying low and watching a movie in, we were all for it. I quickly talked Scott into running to the grocery store on the way home to pick up ingredients to make homemade butternut squash soup.

I have never cooked with them before and it was a nice surprise when Scott just took over the job of recipe creating and making for the night.

I always joke with him that I am the “super speedy and healthy chef” and he is the “gourmet chef.” While I bypass more involved recipes, he flocks to them and appreciates extra steps for extra flavors. The result turned out delicious!

(Recipe coming soon, friends!)

Dinner in also included this corn and pepper feta salad I will be sharing with you later this week as well.

He also brought home Only God Forgives from Redbox at his trip to the store. Neither of us had ever heard of it, but figured it was worth a shot since it stared Ryan Gosling. (<- swoon)

Eh, not so great you guys. The middle of it skipped, which meant we missed a few chapters, but even so I don’t think I will ever be putting that flick on again. We found ourselves laughing at parts that weren’t supposed to be funny and confused majority of the time. Regardless of the film, it was the perfect Friday night in. Hats off to the (gourmet) chef!

Saturday

Saturday turned into an unexpected work day for Scott, which meant an excuse to organize and clean the house for me. It had been a while since I dedicated an entire day to house chores and projects, so I really didn’t mind.

Before he left, I made another batch of Fiber One pancakes I have been loving the past few weekends.

The mix is ridiculous easy, and I quickly added some flavor by a generous sprinkle of cinnamon, a sliced up Granny Smith apple, and agave nectar. I got really excited when Scott approved of the “healthier” taste and will for sure be making this combo again!

I spent most of the afternoon organizing my Game Day dance bag, cleaning out my closet and getting the guest room ready for Scott’s parents visit next week.

It’s still a work in progress with the hodge podge decorations and random side tables I’m pretty sure are from Scott’s college days, but it will work for now!

I took a break from the indoors and took advantage of the “warmer” weather outside with a run with this guy in the late afternoon.

Both of us appreciated the fresh air and I hope to sneak in another few outside runs with him before it gets too chilly! Scott got home around 5:30 p.m. and once again, we didn’t have much but laying low on our brains.

I look a tad annoyed here, but I really was enjoying the quality snuggle time with all of our fur babies.

Sunday

Sunday turned into another spontaneous Sunday Funday. After practice, two of the girls met up with me, Scott and a few others for lunch at Mi Zarape. I ordered the chicken fajitas with corn tortillas and split them with a friend.

We ended up chatting the afternoon away at our booth for two hours! Finally, we left and I was more than glad to hear someone else mention they wanted chocolate.

My sweet tooth has been stronger than ever the past few weeks, and we tried out a new-to-me frozen yogurt spot to hopefully tame it.

It’s called Cool Yo and I thought the inside was pretty cool, yo.

It had the standard set up of most serve yourself yogurt spots, but I was highly impressed by their selection of toppings.

When I saw a few unique ones I made it my personal goal to get all of my favorites into one bowl. Mission accomplished!

You can’t even see it, but there is a mix of chocolate and pumpkin frozen yogurt as the base. Toppings include Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies (!!!), cheesecake bites, chocolate covered pretzels, and crushed Andes Mints. The mint chocolate lover in me left very, very satisfied and full.

We got home with just enough time for me to shower and get out the door for a new Sunday night church service with Scott and another friend. Since we both have Sunday morning rehearsals, we like to take advantage of night time services in the area. This was the first time I have ever been to this kind of service that actually turned the lights out for the music worship!

It’s called Lighthouse and is meant for a young adult audience. I enjoyed the message and the music and will be sure to return from time to time.

We got home around 9 p.m. and while we could have easily turned in for the night, I got a second wind and was dyyying to decorate the house in holiday flare. I know it’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but I wanted to get most of our decorations up before Scott’s parents arrive and this week is crazy.

I finally convinced Scott to participate when I mentioned we could put on Christmas tunes and drink eggnog. He took the liberty of pouring a premade mix and adding rum and a sprinkle of nutmeg to the top.

I guess I am a bit of an eggnog snob because I prefer it to be mixed with some kind of milk (this time I used unsweetened almond) and served really, really hot. Is that weird?

I’ve always been a hot coffee/tea/cider drinker and I guess it’s the comfort of it that has me set in my hot eggnog ways. Both versions were really tasty.

When we told our plans for decorating to our friend Kylee (who joined us at church), she was all about helping and brought her cute little dog named Kobe over to join in on the fun too. Roadie loved his tiny play buddy!

Since we were all still full from the fro yo, we ended up snacking our way through dinner with a variation of crackers dipped in this cream cheese hot pepper jelly dip Scott whipped up.

It wasn’t as fancy as our Sweet & Spicy Cream Cheese Dip, but it was enjoyable and slightly addicting nonetheless with this homemade jalapeno pepper jelly from Scott’s step-mom.

Eventually, we got around to putting the tree together. I let Scott handle the tree and lights and I decorated the rest of it. (Works for me, since the ornaments are the best part of it all!)

We didn’t get too crazy, but here’s what our living room currently looks like.

I always love seeing the ornaments we have collected throughout the years, on our own and together. One of my favorites has always been The Rockettes dancers, from my trip up to see my friend Lauren perform in the New York Broadway!

I got a question as to what happened to my fall decorations this year. Welp, here’s the extent of them. I guess I was too excited for Christmas to get here to dwell on it too much this time.

And that was our weekend in a nutshell! Friends, laying low, and lots and lots of yummy food. Good thing I made that trip to the gym today! 😉

Off to go get a flu shot and run some errands before practice tonight. I have a lot of fun things in store to share with you this week, which is what really makes this Monday not so bad. Hope you all have a great rest of the day!

Question of the Day

Are you ready to get into Holiday decorating and traditions, or still holding onto fall as long as possible?