Christmas Recap

Maybe one of my favorite parts of Christmas as an adult is just the built in excuse to fully indulge in all of the finer things.

Like, really really good champagne!

After a happy hour like that, no champagne the rest of the week tasted half as good, but it was such a fun treat to ring in the holidays.

When Joel got home from work on Christmas eve we went to the 4pm children's choir mass which was was as cute as can be, and then hurried home to get ready for dinner.

 

 

 

My cousin Erin and her fiance(!!!) joined us for a dinner and what a feast we had.

 

Joel is seriously an expert in cooking and eating lobster and it really is the most fun and decadent tasting dinner you can have.

But it's freaking messy. 

Half way through dinner, everyone put on aprons so that we could stop worrying about the mess and just go for it.

 

Erin and I have found each other in the same places a lot throughout our lives, but having each other here in LA together is the best one yet. 

   

And of course, most of all, I am just reminded again how lucky I am to have my little family. I feel beyond, beyond, beyond blessed with the fortunes I've been given. 

After dinner we exchanged gifts (couple to couple and then a favorite thing under $10) and then had the best cake I've ever had in my life (from SusieCakes) before it was due time to call it a night.

Joel and I exchanged our Christmas eve pajamas and then went to bed - however all way not calm outside. 

LA had a wind storm roll in with really high winds and we lost power on Christmas morning around 4:30am. 

We woke up and weren't sure what to do, I felt like I just couldn't do Christmas without a lit Christmas tree, coffee, and our traditional cinnamon rolls....

But we took a walk to get coffee and when it wasn't on when we got home, we said screw it.

We lit candles, played Pandora on our phones, and on the one shot we had to open the fridge grabbed bagels, champagne, and orange juice.

The power didn't come back on until after 2, but it turned out to be a really fun and special Christmas morning because of it. 

Joel made us a feast of appetizers for dinner and we cuddled on the couch in sweats for the rest of the night.

 

shrimp cocktail, turkey bacon wrapped dates, salmon dip, spinach artichoke dip 

On of my Christmas presents was "Tea Time with Tess" at the Peninsula, so this afternoon, Joel and I will be going to high tea for one final holiday celebration before we leave for paradise.

Christmas Card 2014

 

Happiest of holidays from our family to yours! 

What I Wore

Work It Girl

It's actually been really cold here in SoCal which has been a refreshing change of pace.

 

 

Wednesday 

 

 Paige jeans, gap shirt, BB Dakota sweater, Franco Sarto boots, hat from Paris

 

Thursday

   

H&M dress, gap leggings, franco sarto booties

 

Friday

 

Banana republic shirt, Calvin Klien sweater, gap leggings, tahari boots 

 

Saturday

  

Target sweater, gap leggings, steve madden boots, zara scarf

 

Monday

 

 J.crew sweater, joes jeans, tahari boots, loft necklace

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!

5 on Friday

:::1::: 

My sister sent Joel and I a bunch of Chicago spices from The Spice House for Christmas and we are obsessed. They've upped our game for fajitas, steak, chicken....seriously such a great gift idea!  

:::2&3:::

 I am so excited for Christmas and our trip to Mexico but I'm already sad for the anticipation of Christmas to be over. I just don't want to holiday season to end! On the flip side, it might be nice to start actually saving some money again...

:::4::: 

I'm in full holiday mode and that means lots of Christmas cookies and cocktail hours - and my influence is starting to reach the young ones....

 

:::5:::

This weekend we are making a night of Christmas cooking baking and then heading down to San Diego to celebrate Christmas with Andrew, Corie, and our sweet nephew Sulley! I'm so excited to celebrate the season with their new addition....it really just makes everything that much more fun and meaningful - and it's crazy to think last year's Christmas they weren't even pregnant!!

Holiday Traditions

Since I was little traditions have been very important to me. I would force my sisters to uphold our traditions (ex. sleeping in the same bed before vacations, holidays, etc. or anything else) whether they wanted to or not.

I got lucky marrying someone who is almost as into traditions as I am.

Joel totally gets on board with all of my crazy little things - and so we've been trying to start a few of our own Christmas traditions that we can start now and then continue when we have kids of our own. 

::: Christmas Eve Pajamas ::: 

This was my mom's tradition and it's one I will always keep. On Christmas Eve the only gift we could all open as kids were a new pair of pajamas that you could wear that night and into Christmas morning. It was always a fun gift, and I seriously appreciate a good pair of pjs, so it's a nice excuse! 

::: Christmas Cookies ::

 

I think by calling it a "tradition" I'm just more likely to make a big fuss of it. I like to try new recipes every year and then get them out of my house as quickly as possible. This year we are making a Friday night out of it and then bringing our loot down to San Diego on Saturday morning when we have our 2nd annual Christmas Pizza Off with the San Diego Shields fam. 

::: Holiday Light Tour :::

 

In Chicago, we didn't need a car, we would just make a night at the Lincoln Park Zoo Lights, but in LA, we've made it into a little date night. This year we went and had a drink and appetizers at Mastro's and then drove through some pretty fantastic neighborhoods to take in the lights.

::: "Take me to...." Church :::

Our church is literally 2 minutes from our house so it's really easy to make it over to the family mass on Christmas Eve. Seeing all the kids sing in the choir and get dressed up puts me in the Christmas spirit more than anything else. 

::: Christmas Eve Lobster :::

 

Who knows if we will always be home and Christmas Eve, or if we will always host it, but we had so much fun indulging in lobster last year and we're doing it again this year. It's such a decadent dinner and makes Christmas Eve the event that it should be. 

 

::: Christmas Movies ::: 

We try to get through all of our favorite holiday movies the whole month of December. I watch all of the Hallmark movies too, but Joel's new rule is that if the movie wasn't in the movie theater, he won't watch it. Thankfully that still leaves most of my favorites - Elf, Fred Claus, The Santa Claus, 4 Christmases, Miracle on 34th street....

:::Cinnamon Rolls:::
  a small, but must-have tradition. My mom started this off as kids, and I can't have Christmas morning without them! Now that I'm older, mimosas are served bright and early too.

::: Giving Acts of Kindness ::: 

This year we didn't get a chance to shop for a child in need. For the last 4 years I worked at a company that gave you the opportunity to adopt an angel and shop for his/her needs. I changed jobs in March and never found an outside organization with enough time. I feel really bad about it, so Joel and I decided to do a few random acts of kindness between now and Christmas. Leaving treats for our FedEx guys, paying for someone behind us at line, and tipping generously for great service are the things to do this time of year.

I think traditions are part of what make this time of year special. I'd love to add a few small ones to our list, and I think with kids we will find other special things, but what are your favorite things to do year after year?  

What I Wore

Work It Girl

 

Monday

 

francesca's dress, gap leggings, cole haan boots, jcrew swaeter

 

Tuesday

banana republic tank, old navy sweater, target pants, banana republic shooes

 

Thursday

michael kors turtlenck, jcrew skirt, burberry scarf, gap leggings, steve madden boots

 

Friday 

 

calvin klien sweater, joes jeans, ivanka trump boots

Weekend Report

The weather on Thursday night in LA was pretty crazy - downtown even had a touchdown tornado. We were safe and fine, but at 2:45 the government cell phone warning thing went off, and literally scared the shit out of us. My blood pressure never went back down enough to fall back asleep, but I was able to enjoy the sound of rain for a solid 3 hours before I finally got out of bed.

 Before my cousins got into town on Friday, I got my cut and colored. My hair has been getting so dark if I don't keep up with it, and it's still not as blonde as I would like, but I'm officially a short hair kinda girl.

For dinner Friday night, my cousins Nick and Cole (and their wives) and Joel and I went to dinner at The Hungry Cat. We had such a fun time and filled ourselves to the brim on seafood and champagne, and the only damn picture I took was this. 

 

Saturday the four of us and Roscoe went on a pretty tough hike and if you can peak past Roscoe, you can even see a little snow that some of the mountains got. 

 

After our hike and breakfast outside, Dre and I went to get massages. Nick and Dre had a holiday party for Nick's company, so once they left for dinner, Joel and I made pizzas, moscow mules, and watched Miracle on 34th Street. 

Sunday morning Joel snapped this picture of Roscoe a little too comfortable in our bed.

Roscoe normally sleeps in his kennel, but when we have guests over we let him sleep in our room since his kennel is in the guest room.

My cousin's left early Sunday morning and the only thing Joel and I had to do was plan our trip to Napa in January. After 3 solid hours, we've got a pretty fantastic trip planned. I don't want the holidays to end, but it's nice to have something to look forward to in mid-January. 

I can't believe this is the last week to get ready for Christmas - and for us - Mexico! 

(too many) Thursday Thoughts

::: I knew after Thanksgiving work was going to get crazy, but no matter how much preparing you do, it still seems to catch up with you. After today it'll start slowing down until the New Year which is a very nice bonus. 

::: Both Joel and I are very used to having me work from home with the ability and flexibility in my job to also manage to keep the house running. It's a very nice gig and It's actually been somewhat fulfilling to see things not run as smoothly without me. Another reminder to be thankful for the job I do have.

::: Sunday after Christmas shopping, Joel and I grabbed happy hour and then decided to go see Wild. The movie was good, but was very grief focused which I couldn't handle. I spent all two hours of the movie crying and ended up scratching the lense of my eye, so I've been in glasses all week.

::: Maybe it always is, but it feels like it has been a very busy season of life for us. Filled to the brim with goodness, but seriously feel like I'm in a constant state of chaos.

::: Although it's hectic, I'm determined to make time for my favorite holiday things; driving around to see decorated houses, listening to Christmas music and catching on Christmas movies, decorating Christmas cookies, and just trying to enjoy the season as much as possible.

::: Our wine fridge is actually overloaded, and it's been a fun problem to have. Joel got a few great deals on cases and my cousin Erin got a new job as a wine sales rep and she keeps bringing over extra bottles for us. 

::: We leave for Mexico on the 27th, which I actually can't believe. That's just 16 days away!! I actually can't even think about it until the 26th because I don't have room in my brain, but I'm pretty positive that I'm not looking forward to getting into a bathing suit any time soon. 

::: It has been actually hard for me to come up with a Christmas list for myself. I think my problem is that gifts that are affordable, I buy for myself and everything else I want....is far over Santa's budget...so this year, everything I get from Joel or my parents will be a total surprise because I really couldn't offer much help to them.

 

::: I've also been counting wrapping presents as a workout

Hope you're having a good week!