Blizzard False Alarm

Well, I wasn't totally sure that I was going to make it back to D.C.  They predicted a huge snow storm to hit the east coast.  Well, it hit some of the east coast, but it didn't cause nearly the hassle predicted. 

Both my mom and my sister were very concerned about the drive back to D.C.  Like didn't want me to go concerned.  They spent a good portion of Christmas night trying to talk me into staying.  While staying would have resulted in me working from home on Monday (while my mom makes me breakfast and lunch), it also would have meant a long train ride and not getting back to D.C. until like 11:00 on Monday night.  Not ideal.

So the kid I was carpooling with and I left at 9:00 in the morning and we were prepared for the worst.  For the first hour, as we drove to Philly, we had some moderate snow.  Visibility was fine, but the snow was definitely falling around us.  From the moment we entered Pennsylvania until the moment we entered D.C., we didn't see a single snowflake.  And once we got to D.C., it was extremely light flurries. 

After arriving home, Ben and I made wings (hot wings for him, honey bbq for me) and put away all our Christmas presents. I'm just sad there is no Eagles game to end the night!
 

Christmas at home

Nobody decorates for Christmas quite like a mom.  Its no nice to be home and see the house decorated for the holidays.



Our Christmas tree.  Totally in the wrong room of the house.  It's been in our family room forever, but recently my mom decided to move it into the dining room

Ever since I was in the Nutcracker when I was in the 2nd grade, my mom has collected nutcrackers.  We used to have enough ornaments to fill a second tree.  One of the books in this display has my entire cast's signature.  

Remember when I told you my mom had every piece of the Lenox Holly china.  To show I'm not exagerated, above is a picture of not one, but three small lamps that are part of the Holly china collection.  See, the collection expands beyond plates and dishes.  We also have a lovely china nativity collection.  When I was little I was afraid to go even NEAR this nativity set for fear that I would break a piece.

Cute little mini-town

I guess Ben should be lucky that I only decorated our apartment a little bit, and didn't turn the whole thing into a Christmas wonderland :-)

I'll be home for the holidays

Well, my day started here:



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and ended here:




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and now I can work on a computer that lets me update with photos!  I'm exhausted now, but look for more posts throughout the weekend!

T-3 Days

Christmas is just 3 days away! I'm so excited!  Things have been super super busy, so I am very ready to head home for the holidays.  Just one more day of work and then off to my parents I go!

Well, I've been an epic fail regarding the Yoga 31 Day Challenge.  With the craziness that is December, I totally fell off the bandwagon.  I've done a handful of yoga classes, but I can't really say I've been really good about following it.  But at least I've been thinking about doing yoga?

I have however, started to work the elliptical into my workout routine.  I haven't done the elliptical in forever.  In college, I could just jump on to the elliptical and go for hours.  But give me a treadmill and I would practically cry my way through a mile (little did I know that after the first mile, it gets better).  The first time I jumped back on the elliptical, I thought, "well that blew!"  So I've decied to start weaving it the elliptical back in with running. 

Speaking of... off to the gym and then to pack for my trip back home!

Happy Holidays!

What a weekend.

Thursday night was the office Holiday party at Panache in the Golden Triangle.  The company rented out the whole restaurant and we had apps and cocktails.  It was a lot of fun to be able to mingle and meet everyone's significant others. 

Friday night we went to Shiro, a Japanese habichi steakhouse, with Tal and Geoff.  The place had amazing fried rice.  I went with Chicken Teriyaki and Ben had Filet Mignon - both were excellent choices.  Afterwards Tal and Geoff came back to our place to hang for a bit.

Since we are spending Christmas with our respective families, Saturday night we made a special steak "Christmas dinner."  Then this morning we woke up early and opened the presents under the Christmas tree.  Both of our parents were nice enough to mail us some presents to have under our Christmas tree.  Mrs. B got us a pasta maker and a bunch of Le Creuset cast iron cookware.  My mom got us some fancy tea cups, lots of tea and an indoor golf putting range that spits the ball back out at you. 

I'm working on my computer, which is holding on by a thread and not letting me upload pictures to the blog (its barely registering all the letters that I type....).  Hopefully pictures can be put up later. 

Today's regularly scheduled program....

Today's scheduled yoga workout video review has been interrupted due to ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas and Home Alone 2.

Christmas Cookies

It's December.  While I adore making cupcakes (and I think this month's open-ended Mystery Cupcake Challenge sounds like a great idea), to me, Christmastime means cookies.

So, now I just have to decide what cookies I want to make. 

• I know I definitely want to make some sugar cookies.  Last year, I got some great cookie cutters in Christmas shapes for Christmas.  I think some sugar cookie trees and angels sound delightful. 
• I'm also thinking about making some thumbprint jam cookies.  Cookie+strawberry jam = wonderfulness that is totally worth the calories.
• Peanut butter cookies.  This comes from the girl who keeps a jar of peanut butter at her desk and snacks on it by the spoonful.  Are you really surprised?
• White chocolate cranberry.  I absolutely love these cookies, but I can only make them during the holidays.

What are your favorite holiday cookies?