053. Happy New Year!!

(Side note: I wrote this post this morning, but my internet went down right before I hit publish. I had to leave before it came back up hence the delay.)

Last night was a pretty fantastic way to start the new year!

To start the evening Chris and I had his mom, grandma, and brother over for dinner. I made a fabulously healthy dinner that everyone really enjoyed! I was so glad to share a healthy meal with people I care about and have them really love it. So what was on the menu you ask? I made spaghetti squash with marinara (and a little Boca "meat" for some protein) and topped it with sauteed garlic and zuchini. We also had some fresh mozzarella to top it all off with.

While I was finishing up dinner, the guys were teaching their mom and grandma how to play Wii bowling!

Grandma getting her Wii bowling on.

I made some Ghirardelli chocolate brownies for dessert. I used some of my seemingly infinite supply of apple sauce instead of oil. Man were the brownies good. They were super moist and cake-like.

Right as we were finishing up dinner Chris' buddy Mike came over and the party began. We played Rock Band and Wii. It was a total blast. This is definitely my favorite way to ring in a new year! We also managed to switch to TV just in time to see the ball drop in Time Square.

I was by far the best Rock Band singer of the night.

Hello? Mario? Are you there?

Mike decided to bust out the robot.

Then Chris joined in.

And Tim couldn't be left out of the fun.

The kiss at midnight. We kind of look like awkward teenagers.

Chris's bowl of snacks - a giant brownie and some chips.

I ended up over-indulging just a bit on the alcohol side. I definitely ended up the drunkest in the room. Oops! My drinks were just so tasty though! I started with a couple glasses of pinot grigio. Later in the evening I made myself some pomegranate martinis from Effen Raspberry vodka and some pomegranate juice I had in the fridge. Thankfully, I had the good sense to take a few Advil and drink two glasses of water before bed so I'm not suffering today.

Since Chris had to work at 10:00 this morning, we did call it a night pretty early. We were in bed by 1:30. All in all it was a fantastic night!

How was your New Years Eve? What did you do to ring in the New Year.

I had to take Chris to work this morning since I need my car today. After I got back I made myself some breakfast - scrambled eggs with mozzarella cheese mixed in and some red potato hash browns with garlic and red onions.

This afternoon I'm heading over to my friend Kristin's house to watch the Winter Classic. Right now I'm making a loaf of Cranberry Apple bread to take with me. I need to go Whittle My Middle and then get in the shower.

Have a fantastic first day of 2010!

052. Breakfast Mash-Up

First things first my dear friends, HAPPY NEW YEAR’S EVE!

Is everyone ready to put 2009 behind them and start fresh?

While 2009 was by no means a bad year for me (I made a lot of really positive changes in myself and my life,) I am so ready for a new year to begin. I’m really looking forward to making even more progress in my life and my happiness this year. I’m looking forward to checking of most (if not all!) of the items on my 10 in 2010 list!

This morning was one of those mornings where there wasn’t anything particular I wanted to eat. I wasn’t in the mood for oatmeal which has been my go-to breakfast recently. I ended up throwing together a totally random breakfast. I had an open-face egg sammie with a bit of sharp cheddar cheese and a bowl of vanilla Okios with a sliced up banana and a ¼ c. of Kashi Honey Almond Flax cereal. (Holy protein Batman!) Despite my not being in the mood for anything, my breakfast really hit the spot.

This evening Chris’ mom, grandma, and brother (and possibly his friend Mike) are coming over for dinner. His mom and grandma haven’t seen our place yet, and they wanted to come see our tree and Christmas decorations before they get taken down. I figured tonight would be a perfect night for that since I’ll be getting out of work early which will give me lots of time to cook.

I’m planning to make spaghetti squash with marinara topped with sautéed garlic and zucchini and some fresh mozzarella. I’ll probably add some Boca crumbles to the sauce as well.

What are your plans for this evening? Do you do it up big on NYE or keep it low key?

I think NYE as a whole is pretty over-rated. I much prefer a low key evening with friends to heading out to a big party downtown somewhere. In high school, my friends Scott and Sarah always had a big party for all of us at their house. This kind of celebration is definitely my favorite way to ring in a New Year.

Chris and I decided last night to stay in tonight and have a few people over to have some drinks and play some Wii or Rock Band on the xBox. His brother Tim is coming and his friend Mike. I invited my friend Nicky over as well. My friend Jennie is having people to her house as well for I may go over there for an hour or two. Like I said before, I much prefer low-key celebrations with friends.

040. Christmas Recap!

Happy Boxing Day to all my Canadian/ British blogger friends! I've got about 3 posts to get written up today, but I figured I'd start with the Christmas recap.

Christmas started Wednesday afternoon. I got out of work early and headed home to spend some quality time with my future sister-in-law Nicki. We baked cookies, got sushi, drank wine, and watched Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. (We're both HUGE Harry Potter nerds.)

We made chocolate dipped shortbread cookies, chocolate covered pretzels, and Snickerdoodles.

Triple chocolate shortbread cookies - dripped in white chocolate and then drizzled with dark chocolate and milk chocolate. Talk about yum!

Somehow, the Snickerdoodles went unphotographed.

Nicki and I enjoyed a couple pretzels before going out to get sushi and sitting down to watch HP. The goofy looks can probably be attributed to the bottle of wine we polished off.

Christmas Eve

My family used to spend Christmas Eve with my dad's family because it was my Grandma Ruth's birthday. After both my grandparent's had passed, we started the tradition of having the most indulgent dinner ever on Christmas Eve. Every year we have Alaskan King Crab legs, steak (filets), and creme brulee for dessert.

This year we added lamb to the mix. Nicki's mom and brother Jon joined us for dinner as well.

Sitting down to eat dinner.

This is one of the reasons I love Nicki. She is always a great time. Nicki! Don't play with your food!

The chaos and carnage.

My dad schooling us all in how to torch creme brulee.

My dessert plate. My mom's amazing creme brulee and a Snickerdoodle (the ones that didn't got photographed on Wednesday.) I was only able to eat about 1/4 of the creme brulee because I have a pretty low tolerance for dairy.

After dinner we opened one present each and then headed off to play some Wii and entertain ourselves (or in my case nap) until it was time to go to midnight mass.

I got a double boiler. I assume my mom got this because I stole hers on Wednesday to make my cookies.

Nicki got a page-a-day, brain teaser's calendar from Alex.

Nick was really excited about his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Wii game.

A little Wii Bowling tournament. Nicki's mom kicked our butts. Beginners luck?

And a few Wii Tennis matches. Look at Nicki's mom's form!

I came home after church and Chris and I exchanged gifts before going to bed. I bought him Rockband 2 for XBox, and he got my a new computer monitor which I really needed. Mine had one foot in the grave.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning Chris and I headed over to my parent's house for presents and Christmas Day brunch which, you may remember, I was making. We got to my parent's just after 9am, and I started cooking while Chris played Wii with my brother. The menu for the day was Peanut Butter Yogurt Dip and Pumpkin Spice Stix, from Angela over at Oh She Glows. I also served a fruit tray of slice apples, pears, and grapes. All of these went really well with the dip. The main course was a breakfast casserol I made based on a recipe I found over at SparkRecipes.com. We also had mimosa's with a splash of passion fruit juice. Everything was delicious and thoroughly enjoyed by all family members.


I did have a bit of a kitchen mishap while making the casserole. You needed to bake the hashbrowns for about 10 minutes and then pressed them down into the bottom of the pan before adding the meat, veggies, and eggs. While I was pressing the hasbrowns down, I caught my wrist on the edge of the pans, and burned myself! I got it under cold running water right away, but it's a little raw and definitely stings a bit!
We opened presents while the breakfast casserole was baking. Santa was very nice to me this year. He brought me a Wii, with Wii Fit Plus and Wii Play. He also brought me some various Wii accessories. My brothers and Nicki got me a box full of Christmas kitchen/ dinner room stuff all matching the snowman placemats I currently have. I got a cookie jar, salt and pepper shakers, two placements, a couple hand towels, mugs, and a serving platter. I'm really excited about this stuff. I love snowman stuff because you can leave it out all winter long, not just during the Christmas season! Chris got some large cereal bowls (so he can stop complaining about how small ours are), a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, and a really nice Columbia fleece jacket.

Other gift highlights from the day were Nicki got a new wakeboard and bindings from my brother, my dad got a Snuggie, my mom got muffin top pans and an iPod touch, Nick got new wakeboard bindings and a new computer monitor, and Alex got a new stereo complete with a giant sub-woofer.

Christmas Evening

After spending Christmas morning at my parent's house, Chris and I came home so I could shower and get ready (and he could play some Rockband) before we headed to his mom's house for Christmas dinner and more gifts. Dinner was all the traditional holiday dishes - turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, seven layer salad, cranberry sauce, corn casserole - and a few other dishes - polish sausage, pierogis, sweet and sour carrot salad. Desserts were even more Christmas cookies!



Santa brought Chris and me even more cool stuff. We got wine glasses, a wine chiller and electronic bottle opener, a Christmas tree serving platter, some other white serving dishes, a set of 6 Pyrex bowls, and a Chris got some clothing and other fun stuff.

Grandma got a Snuggie too. It must be the year of the Snuggie.

Nick was jealous he didn't get a Snuggie so he put his robe on backwards.

Chris and I were nearly buried alive by our (really heavy) gifts.

The post gift unwrapping chaos.

So there's my lengthy Christmas re-cap. I have so many more photos. They're all over on my Picasa site if you want to take a look.

My mom's going to be picking me up to go to yoga and the gym soon. I need to start working off some of these Christmas calories! My ringworm is nearly cleared up, and it doesn't itch when I sweat so running starts again today. I think I'm going to revise and get back on track with my 15K training plan. I abandoned that about 2 weeks in.

I also plan to get caught up on blogging. I'm going to be on a blogging roll today!

Still to come...

• My brother's engagement
• My 10 in 2010
• My re-focused fitness plan