Weekend Report

I had big plans for a picturesque baking sesh on Friday afternoon with my girlfriend Shelby and her son Tucker, and, well....it didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped.

After an emergency trip to Target we finally got them done enough. Lesson learned for the future? Bake and cut before guests and then just decorate. 

Saturday morning we were up early to spend some time with Joel's brother Andrew and his wife Corie and sweet baby Sulley. We spent some time during the day at a winery near their house called, Orfila Winery - and what a spot. 

They had live Christmas music, a food truck, insane views, was dog and baby friendly.....it was a blissfully #basic afternoon.We all feel so lucky to have each other here in California....if I can't be in Chicago, California sure has it's perks.

 

Our tradition with Andrew and Corie is a little pizza bake off. Everyone shops for the ingredients together at Trader Joe's and then we each take turns cooking and grading our pizzas. 

My pizza went off first, and spoiler alert: won. 

 
I used this recipe and added red onion.  

Honestly. each pizza turned out really well and Joel and I added a few new recipes to our at home pizza repertoire. 

 

Joels burrata and prosciutto, mine, Cories bruschetta with goat cheese, and Andrew's bacon and pepper pizza. 

After our pizzas, we FaceTimed with the rest of Joel's family (his parents, older brother Jacob and wife Lauren, and their two babies Luke and Gracie).

It was fun to open presents with them and actually watch them open the gifts we had sent. Thank God for FaceTime.

After all of our food we took a pretty boozy walk around their neighborhood to check out lights and then it was time to turn in.

We got home on Sunday before lunchtime, watched football and did laundry, and soaked in our time in front of the Christmas tree.

I can't believe it's the eve's eve of Christmas Eve!
 

I've got girlfriends heading over today for a casual brunch and just an excuse to spend some time together on Monday - something we never get to do - so cheers to holiday break as an adult!