Looks & Life Lately {12} Christmas Break

The "looks" part of looks and life hasn't been key in these posts lately and I promise to change that and do better next time and maybe even just throw a few fashion posts in on other days just because.  I also promise that after today they'll be back to the shorter usual posts - this one is definitely photo heavy.

Today, it's all about the past two weeks and Christmas Break.  This first week is dragging by and I'm already itching for the weekend to curl up under a blanket and get back to my normal routine from break… naps!

Other than heading into the office one day to finish up some year end stuff, I was off all week to rest, relax, take bubble baths, get the house tidy, walks with Stella along with skipping a few workouts (oops) and endless amounts of college football.  I also had a not too terrible cold which gave me an excuse to lounge even more.  A few date nights, lots of family time (I think I saw some of my extended family about four different occasions), time with friends and some nights in.  One Saturday I don't even think we got out of bed until 11 - it was the best to be home the entire break.

Christmas Baking:
With some extra time I enjoyed trying some new recipes (which I'll be sharing very soon) and made sure to get in a few trusty favorites that I like to make each year including holiday chocolate pretzels, thumbprint cookies (the easiest!) and peanut butter blossoms.





December 26th: 
I'm going to try to go in order because I love remembering these little parts of the holiday, but the 26th is still a holiday - in my mind.  A lazy, lounge around in your pj's, re-look & organize your gifts under the tree, do some Christmas baking and enjoy a delicious dinner kind of holiday.  We enjoyed our final day at my parents house just lounging and doing what we each wanted.

Instead of rushing it all in before the holiday, I like to get some baking done after Christmas especially since we've always got events to go to during the following week.

I think I've talked about this before but for those who are new here, our family has a football bowl pool.  About 20 or so members of the family make their picks for all the games, put their points on each team and it gets so competitive! We all spend so much time watching the games. 

Throughout the football, Mom made us up some pasta fagioli soup along with these delicious (and festive) appetizers - cucumber/tomato bites, antipasto, peppers and dip and a new pepperoni dip (loved it - recipe coming soon).  As if that wasn't enough Mom made up some manicotti in homemade sauce after - did I mention I love being home? Give me all the food.

My favorite spot at home - the little sitting room off the kitchen.  I love curling up on the couch alone to read or watch TV next to one of the few trees of the house and of course, sip some wine.

Stella ate up the attention.. from everyone…

Sunday we made a recipe that's been in my family for years - candy cane cookies.  They turned out delicious but not so pretty - it's quite hard to work with the dough when it's too warm out and given the extremely crazy Christmas temperatures, it was hard to put them together.  Then it was time to hit the road for home.

Family Christmas Night:
For the second year in a row, Derek and I hosted my extended family for one of our Christmas gatherings - throughout the week we try to have a couple events.  We did some festive type appetizers to start - peppers and dip, cucumbers and tomatoes, cheese skewers, pigs in a blanket and a family favorite - clam dip.  Baked ziti is a favorite of mine when hosting and I served it with meatballs sliders and salad.





New Year's Day:
We ended up with an impromptu football viewing day (what else - have to track our brackets!) and had some people over to our house for a very relaxed late afternoon/early evening of comfort food appetizers (and crockpot potato soup along with buffalo chicken sliders.  We tried to polish off the Christmas cookies too.





Taxslayer Bowl:
Going into the game, I was sure we'd win.  In the first quarter after Hackenberg got hurt, I knew it was over.  Although, at least the team made quite the comeback and didn't make us look too bad - I thought we might have had it there at the end but ultimately lost 24-17.  With my favorite hoagies, pasta salad, clam dip and a few chick fil a nuggets, it sure did taste like a tailgate.



The weekend brought final glass of wine in my Christmas glasses taking in the view of the glistening tree.  We left everything up until Saturday because why not and as much as I miss all the decorations it is nice having a clean and tidy house again.

Enjoying her edible dog card that Steve found for her

I think this sums up the Alamo Bowl - how crazy was that game???



Starting to take advantage of using holiday gift cards.  Or in this case a gift card from our anniversary.  Three months ago.

And just because an update isn't complete without these shots… 

Linking up with Jenn & Jessi for "What's Hap-pinning Wednesday"

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