Happy New Year!
I love her jacket & the very subtle mix of patterns. 
I love the attention to details in Lauren's look. From the hair to the purse to the glasses... 
Today I went to see Black Swan. Crazy-Crazy-Crazy! It was much different than I expected. I still haven't decided if I love it, but I was really glad I saw it. Natalie Portman was seriously amazing in it though. Such a good actress!
And I wore my new sparkly pink TOMS! This isn't the best pic of them, but I really love them!
We have a new grocery store in town that is DIVINE! It's called New Frontiers & is extremely allergy/vegetarian friendly. They also happen to have a ton of pre-made food options - which is like heaven to someone like me who is not crazy about cooking (I'm trying to do more of it though!). Well one day I found a slice of ginger mascarpone cake & had to try it. It was quite literally the best thing I've ever eaten. I'm serious. I read all the ingredients & decided that this was definitely something that I could make on my own. I of course threw out the packaging & forgot all about it until I stumbled upon a very similar (I'm assuming) recipe. I made it & it was SO YUMMY! It's basically really creamy cheesecake on a gingersnap (GF!) crust. It super simple & no bake. So, make sure to invite me to your next party so I can bring my new signature dish :)
We went to Trader's the other day to pick up some last minute holiday snacks & came upon a bucket full of peonies! I am no flower expert, but I thought these only bloomed around June! It's so great to have Christmas decorations everywhere & beautiful peonies on the counter!
Today is Henry's 5th birthday.
So, I had a small town adventure today that was so fun & so very Christmassy! My friend called me this morning and invited me to a special showing of It's a Wonderful Life at a tiny little theater called The Fair Oaks! We arrived (in the rain), donated our can (they were doing this all as a canned food drive for the women's shelter), and settled in for some wonderful Christmasness (making up words here). I haven't watched the movie in it's entirety (without talking through most of it) for years, so I thoroughly enjoyed seeing it again. Even better than the movie was the atmosphere. The Fair Oaks is the most DARLING little theater in downtown AG. It has one screen. How cute it that? What other movie theater let's you in free with a donation of canned food? I am loving this little town more and more. After the movie it was still pouring, so we got coffee & Mexican food and sat outside to watch it rain. What a perfect day!p.s. I couldn't help myself when it came to that picture. I apologize :)
Friday was Shelly's Christmas party! We had so much fun! Everyone pitched in and brought delicious snacks & holiday themed drinks (I think my favorite had to be the hot buttered rum!). It was just nice to get to spend more time with Shell & other friends too!
Can't wait for next year's party!
Then we headed to Babycakes. It's impossible to go to LA and not visit Babycakes! They had delicious pumpkin cupcakes.
Then we headed to Bunker Hill (made famous by 500 Days of Summer). It was a GORGEOUS day & we had such a pleasant afternoon. I miss living with Val & talking every single day. I think we've done pretty well these past couple of years though :)
We ended the day at the Grove. It was so beautiful for Christmas! They had a huge tree, hanging snowflakes & it actually snowed! We had happy hour at Cheesecake Factory, shopped Anthro, Gap, and Nordies, and left with Mexican Hot Chocolates! It was a perfect day & Val is a road warrior! We got to see so much of the city & just enjoy quality Meg & Val time.
First stop: Christmas party with Shell & Kenz! We've now been celebrating holidays/birthdays together for a while now, so it feels like a MUST to celebrate with these girls. We decided to go ice skating for this years festivities!
Of course we had to have dinner & gifts first though! We dined in Chipotle & opened our FABULOUS gifts! I have to say we all did pretty well this year! These girls have great taste & know me very well!
We opened gifts then headed over to buy our skating tickets.... I have to admit I was pretty nervous since I hadn't skated since I was 12.
Skating was so much harder than I remembered! I'm proud to say I didn't fall once though. Despite the pain in my feet, it was a really fun activity. Definitely out of the ordinary & it screamed of Christmas!
On the way home we opened up Shelly's "new" Kelly Clarkson CD & blasted it! I love car dancing with Shell!
It was another successful night! I love those girls a lot & they make everything tons and tons of fun. Can't wait for whatever we come up with next year!
My mom is obsessed with the Salvation Army website (it's like ebay)... I've gotten in on a little of the fun as well. A while back I decided I wanted to get some of my favorite childhood DVD's. One of them was available from the Salvation Army website with a bunch of other random movies. They came in yesterday, and much to my delight, I found that one of the DVD's in the package was Tales from Avaonlea! That was one of my absolute favorite TV shows growing up! Oh, old school Disney... Please tell me someone else remembers this show!
We arrived home safely! It was another fun filled week in southern California... I was able to see family and friends aplenty (we had 55 at the family Christmas party!)... Now I'm sufficiently exhausted. My grandma doesn't believe in letting me get a full night of sleep. I'm so looking forward to sleeping for more than 4 hours tonight! I'll post pics soon!
I think I really want to see this movie. I've read some really great things about it. It might be hard to get someone to see this one with me though...
I feel a bit like a transient these days. I don't even put my suitcase away after I unpack it because I know I will being using it again shortly! Don't get me wrong, I feel so blessed to be able to travel & go back to southern California to see family & friends, but packing gets very old. I just packed for this next week (I think I hate everything I own!). This week starts Christmas for our family. We're celebrating my grandma's birthday tomorrow, followed by more than a week of family & friend's Christmas parties!
Good news! I got a new camera! My parents bought it for me for Hanukkah! My picture quality is going to improve immensely! I can't wait to document this weeks festivities! Christmas here we come!
I bought this candle on a whim (and a $5 sale) & have not regretted it one bit. It smells so ridiculously scrumptious! I wish I could bathe in this scent. I'm serious. If anyone finds this scent in a perfume, call me! I stand over it and inhale... It's probably an unhealthy obsession.
I'm finally reading Gone With The Wind... I love Rhett. He's a terrible, but oh-so-intriguing & interesting!
Thanksgiving may be over, but I'm still eating cranberry as much as I can! I actually LOVE the stuff that comes straight from the can...
I would love to have a very Juicy Christmas... These stockings are to die for!
December 1st is the first day I allow myself to order a peppermint mocha! It feels like Christmas!
It was Henry's first real road trip. He did amazingly well! He has some serious space issues though. He was happiest when on my lap, the center console, or my moms lap. I"m pretty sure it's illegal to let him ride like that, but he is a little heat bomb & kept me so warm! It was freezing, so a blanket (even a live one) was much appreciated! We entertained ourselves on the ride by listening to John Denver, Carole King, The Beatles, Odyssey's, and of course my mom's favorite Amy Grant Christmas (aren't you sad you missed out of that one Andrew?)...
He's seriously the cutest thing ever! The only really annoying thing he did was when he would get super excited (which was a lot!) he lets out this horrendous noise! It's a mix between a whine, and yelp, and a straight out dog scream! I kinda couldn't blame him though - Yosemite was pretty exciting!
We had heard that it snowed, but there was no evidence of the snow until we got into the park. Almost as soon as we drove in we saw tons and tons of snow! It was gorgeous! Luckily my dad's friend had warned him, so we came prepared with chains for our tires. A lot of the road was pure ice! It was FREEZING though! I had like 4 layers on & I was still freezing...
Hiking up to see this waterfall was probably my favorite part of the whole trip. It was a short but VERY ICY trip to the top. There was a small hill you had to climb & the entire hill was probably 2 inches of ice. Surprisingly there were a ton a people trying to get to the top! When we arrived at the hill we saw people falling, slipping, and giving up and just sliding down on their butts. We didn't want Henry to freak out, so we took turns going up the hill. My parents went up first so I got to stand at the bottom and just observe. FUNNIEST THING EVER! In the 10 minutes that I waited by myself, I saw at least 15 people fall. I only wish I had a video camera. Most everyone thought it was funny though, so we all laughed together (and at each other!). Amazingly I made it up without falling. It was such a gorgeous view!
My dad got some pretty amazing pictures! We only spent one day in the actual park because most of the trails were closed because of ice & they were calling for even more snow. Yosemite is even more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. I can't wait to go back & actually explore some of the trails!
