Oy vey, Happy Hanukkah!

Today is the third day of Hanukkah. I'm terribly sad to be celebrating the holiday alone this year (although Rob will be here Wednesday for the fifth night) since lighting the candles alone is a bit depressing...I think my menorah fits in pretty well with the apartment's other Christmas decorations/Tucker's stocking, right?

Saturday night, I ordered a pizza (solo) and poured myself a glass of wine for dinner. I felt like an old single lady and I loved it. SVU marathon plus pizza? Sold. After an exciting couple of hours, some friends and I went to a "Sloppy Santa" party at a bar near my apartment. Said party was ridiculously fun. Many of my coworkers and friends from Davidson were there, so it was a grand old time.

The entirety of Sunday was spent on the couch watching Downton Abbey. I am obsessed. Any scene with Mr. Bates and Anna ends with me crying. They're absolutely perfect and I love them and I hate Mrs. Bates!

Source

Source

Bates in real life with a baby!

 Later this week, I'll be preparing a Hanukkah feast...but more on that later.

December

December has been pretty busy so far! Last night, a bunch of friends from work and Davidson went to a Salvation Army charity event called Second String Santa. I went last year, but this one was a lot more fun! The band was great and I think everyone had a fun time.

In other news, Tucker has been acting up a LOT this week (eating everything in sight), but I still adore him.

Lastly, congratulations to Rob for finishing his last classes of graduate school and BUYING HIS FIRST CAR!!! He spent weeks and weeks and hours and days researching the perfect car and finally decided on the Chevy Cruze. Isn't he just the cutest???

Toggy Tuesday: December

1) Pajamas: With chilly weather creeping in (except in Charlotte, where is was 73 yesterday...), everyone needs a good set of pajamas. I love these sets from Victoria's Secret, but L.L. Bean has some cute ones, too. I might be biased since the VS ones were such a hit at Thanksgiving, but they are super soft and fit very well.

2) Peppermint hot chocolate: We all know the holidays are a time for indulgences. As much as I'll try and avoid packing on ten extra pounds this month, there's one thing that I absolutely love in December. Peppermint hot chocolate is absolutely delicious and is my favorite sweet treat for the winter.

Source

3) Hanukkah! My friends, Hanukkah starts on Sunday night. I'll be at a Christmas dinner, oddly enough, but I'm so happy that Hanukkah falls before Christmas this year so that I can light the candles and do my thing.

4) Les Miserables: The official countdown has begun and I am so so so so soooooo excited for this movie. Anne Hathaway, you are too cool.

Sweaters and Cars

This past weekend, I headed up to Winston for Rob's last fun weekend with his grad school friends (this coming weekend he will still be there, but has a 48-hour final spanning Saturday and Sunday). On Friday night, I tried to make turkey burgers but they ended up tasting like meatloaf. Not necessarily a bad thing, but just not what I was going for. I think adding mushrooms is what did it...oh well.

Saturday morning, I woke up bright and early to head to the YMCA and register for their Mistletoe 5k to raise money for childhood obesity prevention. After picking up a bib, I slept in my card for about 45 minutes before the 8:25 start time. It was really chilly - like 32 degrees - so the first mile was spent warming my lungs up. The course was hilly and full of little kids, but I had a great time! I love waking up early on the weekends and getting a workout done before breakfast.

The rest of the day was spent car shopping for Rob. We went to two car dealerships (which took about 4 hours) but we stopped at The Carving Board for lunch. I've been hearing about this place since I went abroad three years ago with some girls from Wake Forest who always talked about how good it is. Sadly, we got there just before closing so lots of the salads were out, but it was delish anyway.

That night, we went to a Christmas Sweater party at one of Rob's friends apartments. These are my favorite kind of holiday parties.

Sunday was a major recovery day. Dog park, nachos, and football. When I got home, I went over to the grocery store to pick up food for the week and ended up prepping a lot of stuff (peeling 5 lbs. of carrots, cooking up a bunch of chicken, and roasting some sweet potatoes). I had a juice for dinner because I was still feeling pretty sick.

Last night's dinner? Bacon wrapped chicken, sweet potatoes, and sauteed zucchini/kale/spinach. Yum. Time to start re-organizing the apartment to get ready for my new roomie! So excited.

A California Thanksgiving

This year's Thanksgiving was one of my all time favorites (I probably say that every year - especially the Watson Skreet Thanksgiving - but it really is the best holiday). On Wednesday afternoon, Rob and I flew to Los Angeles. Because of airline delays (we hate you, US Air), we had to sprint through the parking lot to the Airbus that took us from LAX to Santa Barbara.

After a glorious night of sleep, we woke up at 6:45 thanks to jet lag and headed out for a Turkey Day 5k down to Butterfly Beach. Unfortunately, it was pretty foggy, but the run was a really good way to start the day. I bribed Rob with Coffee Bean so he was a happy little camper.

The rest of the day was spent cooking and waiting for Emily's arrival. She had to work on Thursday and so my grandparents picked her up at 4:30 and then got to Montecito around 6:30. A late Thanksgiving, but we were so happy she was able to make it! Since dinner was actually at dinner time instead of the usual Thanksgiving 3:00 pm "dinner," we grabbed tacos from El Bajio for lunch. El Bajio has some of the best tacos in town and my dad is best buds with the guys who work there. Carnitas on Thanksgiving? Yes please. Back to dinna....we had turkey, mashed potatoes, mashed yams, roasted root veggies, arugula salad with goat cheese and apples, FOUR kinds of stuffing, and corn bread. Lots of wine and champagne. Pretty delicious.

Hanukkah came early this year and my parents gave us treats from their various world travels (scarves and candles and necklaces, oh my). I couldn't resist the gift giving season and got matching pajamas for Emily, Hilary, and Gillian. This was my dream come true. Matching outfits and a photo shoot? Yes please.

The rest of the weekend was obviously lots of fun, too. We saw Skyfall and Silver Linings Playbook, went wine tasting in the Santa Ynez valley, hosted a big brunch and met my parents' friends, went to the beach to see my aunt's open ocean swimming group, watched lots of football, and went to Grauman's Chinese Theater in LA. We mostly ate at home, but Saturday night we went to Plow & Angel at the San Isidro Ranch near my parents' house (where Drew Barrymore had dinner the night after her wedding!) and Monday night, my mom took Rob and me to AOC in LA which was phenomenal. We had such an amazing trip, I miss my family already, and I'm counting down the days until I go home again. 

One of the best parts of going home is looking through all the old pictures. This picture of Emily is definitely my favorite from this trip:

Toggy Tuesday: Thankful Edition

1) My family, of course. If you have read any post on this blog, you know how obsessed I am with my entire family. I'm so lucky to have supportive, fun parents who always set such an amazing example for me and two three sassy sistahz who I love more than anything.

2) My friends. Even though we're not all in the same city, I am so thankful to have these girls in my life! Thank goodness for cell phones and the internet, or else I'd be spending way more money on airplane tickets to see them every weekend.

3) Rob, because he puts up with my crazy and loves me anyway. 

4) And my wonderful cousin Caleb, who drafted into the IDF yesterday. Caleb is six months older than me and is basically my twin. Love him so much and I can't wait for this fighting to end so he is safe. 

Friendsgiving

Such a busy weekend! Sorry for the lack of posts (again), but I promise this will be a good, long one. Last week was a bit of a blur - nothing really special to report. Friday night, Brett, Joe, and I went to Red Sea, a small Ethiopian restaurant near our old apartment. We love Red Sea because the food is cheap, authentic, and delicious. On this visit, I got the lamb platter, but I prefer the vegetarian combo with lentils and cabbage. Mmm delish.

Saturday morning, I met Hilary for brunch at Toast in Davidson. We had a grand old time (as usual) chatting and eating. I got scrambled eggs with chorizo and a Bloody Mary. Yum. That afternoon, one of our friends got engaged! The rest of the day was spent celebrating at the Brickhouse with his family and then back down in Charlotte.

Sunday morning, I was not feeling so hot...but we all got up anyway because I had to pick up my turkey breast from The Fresh Market (Sunday afternoon was Friendsgiving and I had a few hours before ten people came over for a feast). An hour later and with a bagel in my belly and the boys on their way back to Winston, I got to cooking the turkey and roasting the chicken (although the chicken turned out to be total extra food, oh well). Everyone came over around five and the spread was amazing:

Turkey and chicken

Balsamic sweet potatoes

Roasted green beans with mushrooms and asparagus

Curried cauliflower

Cucumber salad

Grilled squash

Stuffing

Cranberry sauce

Pumpkin cheesecake

Apple pie

and wine (obviously)

 Some of us were a little more tired than others, but it was so fun having friends get together to celebrate Thanksgiving.

Prepping food

I have busy nights this week (book club and gift shopping, yes my life is hard) so I spent most yesterday evening cooking for the rest of the week. I peeled 5 pounds of carrots (some for dinners and some for juicing), roasted two sweet potatoes and carrots, hardboiled six eggs, made bacon for salads and breakfast, and baked three chicken breasts - one with a spicy rub, one with a TJ's seasoning mix, and one with rosemary and lemon.

I gave Rob most of the leftover pork from Sunday's slow cooking adventure, but heated up part of my portion for dinner last night. I was craving something light to complement the pork and decided to make lettuce wraps with romaine from my CSA. I chopped up some tomatoes and cilantro, doused the pork in Cholula, and voila - a filling and healthy dinner.

This morning, juicing was super fast and easy because I had already peeled the carrots and cucumber last night. Today's juice: kale, romaine, spinach, cucumber, apple, carrots (nom). I also FINALLY opened my Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar for a cleansing drink. I've been nervous to try this because I've read about how awful the taste is. I mixed 2 tablespoons with a half a glass of water and a small squirt of honey. I wanted to love it...but it was pretty awful. I choked it down anyway though...we'll see how I feel next week (I'm aiming for two vinegar drinks a day, but mixed with more water in the future).

Perfect Weekend

I woke up early on Saturday to take Tucker for a walk, and as soon as I stepped outside, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with my morning. I woke Rob up (sorry...) and made him run to Freedom Park with me and Tucker. He and Tuck watched the weekend soccer games while I ran through the park for a full 5k. It was the most gorgeous morning and I couldn't believe it was November.

We walked back to my apartment after stopping at Caribou for coffee. I've been wanting a morning like this since I moved to Dilworth and was so, so happy we finally did it. I whipped up breakfast for us (scrambled eggs with spinach, tomatoes, sausage, squash, and leftover potatoes) with toast and we ate on my back porch. 

In the afternoon, we went to Ten Park Lanes for a hoe down-themed Yelp event. Once a year, the Charlotte Yelp community has a free event with food and beer to benefit a local charity. This year, all the proceeds went to an organization that helps homeless children in the city. We got to try a bunch of beers and snacked on little food samples (not a good picture, but everything was delish: baked beans, brisket ends, coleslaw, and pulled pork).

We went to dinner with Blanchard again (weekend full of Blanch) at Pizza Peel so we could watch football and relax. We got wings + a special pizza (sausage and goat cheese topped with balsamic arugula) and both were delish. Blanchard made us stop at Krispy Kreme where he proceeded to spill coffee everywhere and took 20 minutes to order two donuts. Pretty typical. We had big plans to go out in Montford, but ended up at my apartment watching The Last Song (Blanchard's request, not mine).

Sunday was another day of lounging and football. I did a lot of tidying up in my apartment and threw out a ton of junk. I was feeling a little crafty, so Rob and I made a wreath! Yes, he helped voluntarily. Such a champ.

We put a pork shoulder in the slow cooker with teryaki sauce, but it wasn't going to be done in time so instead, we made a black bean pizza with lots of veggies. I know we had a lot of pizza this weekend, but at least the one we made was healthy.

Perfect weekend, once again. Thanks, November, you're really the best.