fresh fridays

tgif!!

1.  Getting contacted by schools that I have applied to is very exciting!

2. Thanks to Tracy for showing me this great list.  I need to start following some of the advice.  

I really like #22:  Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. – Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things.  The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you.

I also need to work on #28.

3. I really want this.  For wrapping presents.

4.  Which leads me to this.  Cam had one on Modern Family last week and it was inspiring.  As sad as it may be, I truly see one of these in my future.

And by the way.  Have you checked out Etsy?  Such a great site!!

5.  I have been making some great meals lately that I have not been taking pictures of.  Sometimes I want to just cook and not have to worry about taking pictures.  Of course these are the meals that have turned out awesome.  Like the vanilla sour cream pancakes.  Yum!  Next time.

6.  Holy Christmas in like one week!  

7.  I am obsessed with Panettone lately.  One of those Christmas flavors.  It is this incredibly delicious Italian Christmas bread that is so light and fluffy and sweet and has raisins and candied orange peel in it.  It is amazing on its own.  Or as french toast.  Or my absolute favorite, just toasted with a little butter.  Trader Joe's, oh I'm sorry Trader Giotto's has delicious panettone for not a lot of moulah.  I have bought two this week.  A couple years ago we found a chocolate chip panettone at Penn Mac.  I keep looking and hoping to find it every time I go there.  So far, no luck.

8.  I am going out on a girls night Sunday with Tracy and Anne-So.  We are getting dinner and going to Phipps Conservatory at night.  During the month of December, they remain open until 10 p.m. so that you can go see the beautiful holiday lights.  I hope to get good use out of the new camera.

9.  Have you ever had a chocolate orange?  Devin loves the combination of chocolate and orange and he told me about these things before but I had never seen them.  They had them at Trader Joes.  We bought one, I got to smash it, and it was very tasty.

By the way, on this particular Trader Joes trip, I bought panettone, a chocolate orange, trex mix and peppermint hot chocolate.  Hmm.

11.  Devin had his 6th grade Holiday Pageant last night.  It was called Last Stop Till Christmas.  I picked it out.  And it was awesome.  So funny.  The kids were great.  As usual, Devin did an amazing job.  I don't know how he puts these things together, but sometimes he really amazes me with how good he is.  And he looked pretty great in his christmas red shirt and tie too.  And we got a Lèige waffle from Waffalonia with nutella and bananas on top afterwards.  It was heaven.  I will dream about it.

11.  Whenever I do Bob's Total Body Transformation, I don't feel so much like my total body has been transformed as I feel like my total body is going to die.  It's awful.  Why do I continue to do it?  Because I bought it.  And it works!  I am ripped!  Just kidding. Maybe next year.  It does seem to work though.  It is pushing me through my plateau and keeping off the weight that I would probably be gaining from the panettone, chocolate orange, waffles and …. cookies ….

12. It is Christmas cookie time!  I originally planned on making biscotti and chewy chocolate chip cookies.  I have since changed my mind.  I am going to make two types of biscotti, 6 types of cookies and some brownies (I have been looking for a reason to make them again).  I know that it's a lot, but I am going to make just one batch of each (except for two batches of the holiday biscotti and chewy chocolate chips) and some of the recipes only make like 20 cookies or so.  Plus I have a lot of people to share them with.  I am probably crazy.  Oh well.

I attempted to figure out exactly what ingredients I would need for all of the baking, so that once I start, I do not have to go out to pick stuff up.  I was successful for the most part.  Except for the chocolate (see question marks).  I spent roughly $25 on chocolate and ended up with 3 bags of semi-sweet, 2 bags of dark (I have another already in my pantry), 2 bags of heath, and 1 bag of white.  I really hope that it will be enough.  How can it not be?  Possibly because I also want to make chocolate covered pretzels with red and green sugar on top.  Just for fillers in the gift boxes.  They need something.

I plan on baking Monday and Tuesday.  I will take pictures throughout the bake-off to share with you, but I will not document the steps of each recipe.  I will just post the recipes from the sites they are on, along with what I hope are fun pictures.  I hope you are as excited as I am!!!

So Long!