Quick Christmas (and New Years) Recap

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday! I really took the time to immerse myself in the spirit of the season which felt fantastic because it is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of it all. As I had mentioned, I had last week off and unfortunately I spent a couple of days sick on the couch with an awful cold. It was nice to have a reason to relax and we still fit in so much great food and fun with friends and family. I figured it would just be best to let the pictures do the talking.

We kicked things off on the 22nd with “lasagna night” at our house where the lovely (and talented) Natasha taught me how to make her amazing lasagna. Lots of laughs (and wine) were had that evening 😉

Christmas Eve morning began with a new tradition of preparing eggs benedict for brunch followed by the not so new tradition of making deviled eggs to enjoy later that evening at Grandma’s house.

Please excuse that all of my photos are from Snapchat. My phone storage is full and it’s the only way I can save a picture 🙂

As many of you may know, Christmas Eve is probably my favorite day of the year as it is filled with so many traditions and we get to see lots of family and friends!

Christmas Day we opened presents at allll the places and enjoyed a delicious roast at Grandma’s. Dan received reindeer footie pjs from me for Christmas and he wore them for most of the day. We had Chinese food at my sister in law’s house with Dan’s family (another tradition) and ended the night with many drinks with Dan’s half sister and half brother. It was a packed agenda but I enjoy it so much every year.

Our niece Aubrey

The rest of the week consisted of Dan, my Dad and some of our friends installing a new back door and screen door for us which I absolutely love. We also spent Thursday and Friday in Newport which I will recap in another post. Friday evening was spent at Dan’s aunt and uncle’s home for Hanukkah which was a lot of fun.

New Years Eve was spent at Dave and Melissa’s house and there was lots of silliness and drinks (goes without saying).

We ended our vacation on Monday evening with this veggie and chicken detox soup. I have been basically inhaling the veggies the past couple of days as my body is craving them after eating a lot of heavy foods and lots of wine during my vacation.

I hope you all have a fantastic rest of your week and I will be back very soon with some more good stuff, including a recap of our little getaway in Newport.

 

Christmas Home Decor Tour

Happy Thursday! I can’t believe that Christmas is only 3 short days away. I’m soaking up every single second of Christmas cheer that I possibly can (Dan can attest to that) which is why I have been a bit absent although we have also been insanely busy as well. Today I’m sharing what is probably my favorite post of the year, our Christmas home decor tour. It’s even more special than usual since it is our first Christmas in our new home.

I used a lot of decor that we already had but I have definitely mixed in some new pieces because we have a lot more space to work with. We also have two trees, a real one in our upstairs living room and an artificial one in our basement. This way we can embrace the Christmas spirit regardless of where we are hanging out. I’m sharing a picture of two outdoor decor items, our HUGE Santa and our beautiful wreath that our friend Kylia made but we also have multi-color lights all around the roof line of the house, but they are acting up some nights so I haven’t been able to get a great picture.

Santa says hi!

I got that garland at Christmas Tree Shop for only $7.99! It’s one of my favorite pieces of decor.

I took a lot of pictures of our tree, during different times of the day/night. This is the real tree that we got at Glastonbury Fire Department’s Company 4 Firehouse.

Bella loves this blanket that I picked up this year from TJ Maxx.

I’m obsessed with the above Santa lamp that I got at Christmas Tree Shop! It reminds me of some of the classic pieces that my Grandma has.

As you can see, I took these a while ago but have been SO busy!

I built the above kitchen table centerpiece all with items I found at Michael’s. It was so much fun to come up with a vision and put it together!

I mean, how could I not get this?

I thought I would end it with a shot of our artificial tree downstairs. Although I am impartial to a real tree, I adore the way that this one lights up our sometimes dark basement.

I intend to be back tomorrow with another post with some last minute festive things. In the event that doesn’t happen, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! Dan and I both have next week off so I hope to have some time for writing.

Five Things Friday: The Week in Review

Happy Friday, once again! I found that some parts of this week went by super slow, while other days were over before I knew it. I’m trying to enjoy every single moment of this holiday season as it is my favorite time of year, and I think everyone can agree it always goes by way too fast. I figured I would use my five things today to provide a little recap of my week.

Monday:

Due to a lot of cleaning, meal-prepping, and just prepping for the week in general, I started off the week feeling very on top of everything and totally ready. I came home from work, completed a new-to-me video, Jillian Michael’s Killer Arms and Back, and had a delicious dinner with the hubby. On a side note, I will say that I absolutely loved this new video from Jillian and I highly recommend it, not just to work out the arms and back because it definitely provided a full body work out (aka I was sore as heck the next day). Our dinner consisted of a power bowl including apple chicken sausage, brussels, and brown rice, all drizzled with some Frank’s sweet chili sauce. SO good!

Tuesday:

Still feeling quite on top of things for the week, I came home from work and completed Jillian’s Killer Abs video which I also love (weird, I know). Dan had a fire department meeting so he prepared these delicious eggplant pizzas from Kalyn’s Kitchen. It was our first time cooking with eggplant and we definitely enjoyed it! I have already pinned a bunch more eggplant related recipes. I also enjoyed a green smoothie made with spinach, frozen peaches, raspberries, and blackberries which was delicious. I spent the rest of the evening in front of our Christmas tree watching Real Housewives and catching up on some blog reading.

Wednesday:

Randomly on Wednesday morning, I decided it was time to beef up my Spotify Christmas playlist that I had made last year. I added about forty more songs that I love and spent the entire day at work listening. Can you say Christmas obsessed? I think so. For dinner we had a good ol’ standby of chicken & avocado quesadillas made with our favorite quesadilla maker (thanks Mom and Dad!) after I completed level two of Jillian’s 30 Day Shred. I will say that I was not feeling so hot as I had a major headache but I somehow powered through that workout and felt better because of it.

Thursday:

I had all intentions of coming home from work, having a salad from Subway and getting some things done around the apartment. I did have that salad from Subway and it was so delicious! However, earlier that afternoon I had received a text from Natasha to attend Wethersfield’s tree lighting/holiday kickoff so I ended up meeting up with her, Alex, Alexandra and her sisters and did a little shopping and walking around there. We ended the evening with dinner for them/a bowl of chili and glass of wine for me at Birch Hill Tavern. I’m so glad I ended up going out!

Friday: 

I’m working from home today and I woke up early to tackle a chilly two mile walk around town, ending with a skinny peppermint mocha from Starbucks. After work, I am hoping to grab some grinders from Nardelli’s for dinner and relax in front of the tree with a Christmas movie before we head out with our friends.

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend doing all kinds of festive things!

 

 

Walking in a Winter Wonderland!

As you guys may or may not know, I am THAT person who is completely and utterly obsessed with Christmas. I mean I’m probably worse than a child. I hate Halloween because it gets in the way of Christmas and as soon as November 1st hits, I am listening to Christmas music on Pandora and secretly yearning to decorate for the season. This year I was able to wait until last Tuesday to put up most of our decorations (before Thanksgiving but not completely out of control). I’m very excited to share some pictures with you guys as my decoration inspiration has come from other bloggers as well as Pinterest (duh).

I thank my friends every day

I don’t really have a theme as far as my decorations go, I just buy what I like and it seems to all go well together.

Our coffee table, clearly I don’t have an obsession with candles 😉

My goal this year was to find an inexpensive advent/Christmas countdown calendar and we found one on sale at Target for $14!

Our makeshift mantle on our TV stand

I also have an obsession with Christmas lights and I have incorporated them as much as possible.

These little vases cost about $4 at TJ Maxx!

That tablecloth is also new, from TJ Maxx!

I bought most of these decorations at Christmas Tree Shop on a trip during our first Christmas living together and I believe that I purchased everything for only about $30.

I think that sparkly tree looks so cute next to the gingerbread Kleenex box

These stockings came from Target and I think they match each of us so well!

I wish I could have a career of just decorating peoples houses at Christmas, that would be my dream job!

I couldn’t let one room get away undecorated 😉

I hope you guys have enjoyed my little (ok, maybe kind of big) obsession and I’m glad I could share it with you! I will be sure to post a picture of our tree on Monday too!