On the Menu Monday (MPM) - Week 49 - 2015

To say that this year has gotten away from me is an understatement. I don't know where the time goes. It seems like the older I get, the faster time goes. 
I thought I would try to get back to my regular blogging routine, maybe it will help me remember what we have done in the past, and stay on schedule. I did get our holiday cards out this year, the day before Thanksgiving, that was a huge accomplishment!

We had a really nice long Thanksgiving weekend. Thanksgiving was spent at my sisters with her family and my mom and dad. The first time in years that it was just us, and it was really nice. I made Patti LaBelle's Over the Rainbow Mac and Cheese which was so good but so decadent. I also made Ruths Chris Sweet Potato dish, which was a big hit and of course, our favorite Cranberry Cream Cheese Dip recipe. I have been making this for the past four years and we all just love it.

  My niece Gracie always spends Thanksgiving night with me and we go and do lunch Friday, sometimes some shopping and always take in at least one movie, but usually we try to do two. This year we saw Mockingjay Part 2 (we saw Part 1 last year on Black Friday) and The Good Dinosaur. We loved both of them and neither of us could decide which one we liked best. The only Black Friday grocery shopping we did was at Byerly's, our local grocery store who had some good deals. Later that afternoon, we had a few people over before the Alison Scott Holiday show at Wayzata Community Church. Ali is married to Scott's cousin and we always enjoy her shows, but this one is really special. Two of Scott's aunts and uncles came over and it was really good to see them and spend some time with them. 
Saturday we spent the day getting the house decorated, organized and cleaned up in preparation for a birthday brunch on Sunday to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday. I hadn't put out any Christmas decorations yet, so we started but didn't finish. Just did what we could. We went over to neighbors across the pond, who had a bunch of people over to watch the Gopher/Madison football game. They have an awesome pub at their house and it was packed and a ton of fun, I am glad we went, it was a good stress reliever. 

Sunday my mom and sister showed up early to help with everything. My mom made her French Toast Bake which is one of our favorites with apples and craisins (we have this every Christmas morning at my parents), my sister made her cheesy potatoes and I made two egg bakes, one Italian and one Mediterranean as well as a ham. We had lots of sweets as well, muffins, breads and rolls. It was a wonderful day celebrating my dad. His sisters and my parents close friends were all here, it was really nice and everything went off without a hitch. 

This week is hopefully going to be low key leading up to our biggest party of the year. We have a lot of get togethers, celebrations on the deck, but our annual holiday party is always at least 50 people, a ton of food, lots to drink, our closest friends and too much fun! Last year we had our party for the first time on Friday, I decided to do it again this year on a Friday. It worked out really well last year. I take the day off and get everything ready, I usually have at least one friend willing to come and help me early and we have hired help that serves food, keeps making appetizers and cleans up. There are so many parties that people are obligated to in the weekends leading up to Christmas, this is a chance for everyone to let their hair down before things get crazy (or maybe this is when everyone lets their hair down!). We have a really fun gift exchange that gets really competitive, I actually still have to get my gift for Friday!

Monday

Plans - Laundry, home, first big snow storm of the season

Breakfast and Lunch - Leftovers - French Toast Bake, Mac and Cheese

Dinner - Steaks, leftover hashbrowns and sweet potatoes

Tuesday

Plans - It is supposed to keep snowing, we are both working from home, so I am thinking the tree will go up, more decorations out and hopefully an appetizer or two prepped for Friday. 

Breakfast and Lunch - More leftovers!

Dinner - We have three meals coming from Hello Fresh this week and next week. And then we have three meals coming from Home Chef the following two weeks. I figured with everything going on during the holidays, that this would be a good idea to do to make our lives easy. Scott loves making these meals and he does a great job. This week we have Smoky Chicken Fajitas, Seared Steak and Crispy Potato Salad and Walnut Crusted Salmon with Broccoli and Cous Cous. We will probably do the fajitas. 

Wednesday

Plans - We have friends that are leaving Friday until December 28th, so not only will we miss them dearly but Grace's birthday is today so there is some celebrating that needs to take place. 

Breakfast and Lunch - More leftovers.

Dinner - Redstone, out with friends to celebrate!

Thursday

Plans - Final prep for Friday. Make any appetizers that I can in advance, make sure the tables are ready, candles are ready to go, get my spruce top planters done. 

Breakfast and Lunch - Egg and Bacon, salad from Costco for lunch. 

Dinner - one of the Hello Fresh Meals

Friday

Plans - All day prep for the party. I am having my hair done at noon and our cleaning woman is coming at 1:00, so it is going to be a hectic day. I decided to have my hair braided for the party, something festive. I have my 28th Stitch Fix box coming, I am hoping it comes early in the day, I haven't planned an outfit for the party yet, which is really unlike me!

Meals - will be on the go until the party, and then I need to remember to eat!

Saturday

Plans - Ahhhh, clean up, a nap and relaxing! We might hit a movie in the evening. 

Sunday

Plans - My mom, sister, niece Grace and I go to see a musical every Christmas. This year we are seeing Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I can't wait. We always have lunch first, should be a great day! 

For more recipes and links to other menus, check out the orgjunkie.

Finishing Cards

Stationery card

View the entire collection of cards.

Etiquette Question. . . .

This is a tough one. I know right from wrong, and I know that this is probably wrong, but would really like to get some more input. I am getting ready to order my holiday cards. This will be my 4th Christmas with the boy. My whole entire family has met him several times, all of the aunts, uncles, cousins and what not. We do not live together. We are not planning on getting married (these are personal choices for both of us and we are both perfectly comfortable with this and feel very secure in the relationship in the state that it is in). When I plan parties of any sort I always include him as a host. I have not in the past included him on my holiday cards, but I am considering doing so this year. I know that it is not Emily Post or Miss Manners standards, but due to all circumstances, what are your thoughts? And here is the big one, picture or no picture? Would love any and all feedback. Thanks!

Things I am digging. . . .and card exchange!

I don't have what I would call a true list this year, I don't really "need" anything, although there are a few things that I would like. I picked out my big gift from my parents, which they have told me I could have early, I may take them up on that because it could come in handy for my holiday party. But here are a couple of things that have caught my eye, not that I need anything, but these would be "fun" to have!

I have been using the same planner for years, and while I have an electronic one, which also sync's with my phone, I love being able to write some things down. I stumbled across these and I cannot get over how adorable all of the covers are! LOVE the pink tapestry one and the fact that part of the proceeds go towards CPMC where her son was born and continues to be treated for a heart condition makes it even better. LOVE this!
So I think I am on my third phone this year. This will definitely be the last though. I lost my first phone in 13 years a couple of weeks ago, and while I was bummed, it gave me the opportunity to try something new. I still do not even know how to work the camera, and I can't hear when someone calls me, so I have to put them on speakerphone, but I am sure at some point I will have a chance to spend some time and learn how to use this one.I know I have never owned a gaming system before, but I must say, we have really been enjoying the Wii. We had friends over for dinner last Friday night and had a mini bowling tournament with this game, so much more fun than the bowling that the system comes with, the characters are seriously hysterical!
And nothing beats Wii Fit. It has been my new friend and I just love it, I get a little dose of it every day and it keeps me sane! Especially with the MN winters and the fact that I am not a gym rat like the boy, it keeps me moving. The kids love it as well, I get such a kick out of G-man doing the hula hooping!
I am a hat girl, just in case you didn't know that already. I love love love all of my hats. Especially, again, during the winters here, it really keeps me that much warmer. I saw this one over at BR and think it would be a great addition to the collection, although I am still looking to replace one that was black velvet that I lost last year. . . .
So have you guys been getting holiday cards in the mail yet? I cannot believe how many have arrived already. Mine are close to being ready to go out, but there are some tweaks yet. I of course bought a ton of stamps this year, so now I have to go out and get the difference to put on them. I have some of your addresses, but if anyone else would like to exchange cards, please send me your address to jillski at hotmail dot com.

Holiday Card Exchange

The holidays are right around the corner. Yesterday I spent part of the evening going through my spreadsheet with all of my names and addresses and such. My cards arrived yesterday and I ordered my stamps. So all set right? Nope.

Last year there were a few people that started a blogland card exchange. So, if you would like to exchange a card with me, just email your address to me (jillski@hotmail.com), and I will get a card off to you! I am going to keep this post on top until the 20th of December. Hope you are all well!

Cards Have Arrived!

My holiday cards arrived yesterday from Designhergals and I think they turned out pretty good! I really like them and I think that it is great that I was able to create something that is a little different and unique. They really have my personality which is nice. I highly recommend checking them out. A portion of any purchase that you make goes towards their gal-to-gal foundation which helps to raise funds and awareness for women with stage 4 breast cancer, you can't beat that. Also, if you place your order by December 15th and spend over $40, enter this code: HOLIDAZE and you will receive anywhere from 10%-25% off of your order. I am truly happy with them and at my age, being single and childless this time of year can be tough. I get so many cute cards in the mail with pictures of my friends kids, and I love them because for the ones that I do not see that often it really is fun to watch them grow and change, but sending my own out can be dull. Store bought or personalized cards can be nice, but these cards really have my personality. The boy had fun helping me create them too, picking out my outfit and choosing my hairstyle and the background and such. It was fun.

My move is happening this weekend, and of course it is supposed to be cold. I am SO ready for this move. It will be so nice to give up the commute which right now is an hour one way. I wouldn't mind it if I was sitting on the train and could read or something, but driving and sitting in traffic gets to be a little much. Being downtown and just a couple of blocks from the lake will be nice. I know that I am really going to enjoy it this Spring and Summer. I also cannot wait to have a fire in my fireplace and just get unpacked and settled. My commute should be about 5 minutes, cannot WAIT! I also cannot wait to get everything in it's proper place and be organized, I guess that is the OCD again. It will be nice to have a lot of space again. I am trying to figure out a way to take Friday off, but I am also slammed at work. We will see, but nonetheless I will be in by Sunday! The boy will be helping me all weekend which will be nice too. It is going to be interesting to see how this changes our relationship or if it does. My new place will be closer to his work, but MUCH further from his house. Right now I am living about 5 minutes from him, which is convenient. My new place will be about 10 minutes from his work, but about 25 minutes from his house. I am sure all will work out, but I must admit, it does give me some anxiety.

Wine club tonight, we have 14 confirmed at the moment, we will see how many show up this time. Trying another BYOB wine dinner at a restaurant. It seemed to have worked pretty well last time, I am hoping for the same again. The boy is going for the first time too, it will be interesting to get his take on things. Off for a Target run, need sock monkey pajamas to keep at the boys house.

Ta-da List!

I hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving! Life has been a bit hectic over the past week or so. The boy has been recovering nicely from his lasik and he is really happy that he got it. I am happy for him as well. Last weekend we spent the weekend dinging around estate sales and watching more Nip/Tuck. We did not find any real treasures at any of the estate sales, but we did have a really good time and it is nice that it is something that we can enjoy doing together.

We saw the new Bond movie last Tuesday after dropping off a couple of rugs at my new cottage. It was a good action movie, but as far as Bond movies go, it was terrible. If you didn't see it yet, I won't give anything away, let's just say I do not like the new Bond or the changes that have been made. We also tried out some carrot cake at one of my favorite bakeries, Wuollet. They have fabulous cakes. The boy wanted to bring a carrot cake to his sister's for Thanksgiving and I thought this was a good option so we gave it a try, he loved it, so it was winner. We grabbed some dinner at Hooters, don't ask me why, neither of us like going there, but it was right next to the movie theater. Our waitress was a ditz, I hate to generalize. . . but. . . .

Wednesday was one of my busiest days ever at work, I could not wait to get out of here. I met J for a drink at Bellanotte before heading over to the boys, then of course he wanted to head out for a bit, so where else would we go, but Bella. Might as well keep it a theme night. It started getting really crowded and young in there though, then turned into a meat market with girls wearing ensembles I cannot even put into words. Oh well, we headed home and I very quickly fell asleep on the couch. It had been a long day.

Thanksgiving was nice, different from my own of course but that is okay. His sister and her family is very nice and the food was very traditional, nothing wacky and of course they had the Minnesota food group, jell-o which I will never understand. We just kind of hung out, nothing major.

I was going to get up early and head to Circuit City to pick up a flat screen tv during black friday. But the line was unbelievable so I skipped it, SO not worth my time. I would rather just spend the money. Friday was a nice quiet day at work and I was able to head out for a nice long lunch (at Bellanotte) with my friend Ben. We spent a long time just chatting and catching up, I so miss my daily chats with him. Friday evening the boy and I decided to get a couple of things crossed off of my TA-DA list and we picked up a headlight for my car and a couple more rugs at Home Goods. We have really been lucking out in the rug department there and have gotten some really nice rugs. From there we went to CPK to have a nice chopped salad and then we headed over to catch a movie. We saw Deja Vu with Denzel Washington which we both really liked, we had a little popcorn and when the movie was over and we were getting ready to leave, we decided we weren't really that tired and we thought what the heck, and we went to see Deck the Halls with Mathew Broderick and Danny Devito. It was a cute fun family film. Nothing to earth shattering though.

This past weekend we again were on the hunt. There are a lot of things I still need for my place and I move this weekend and of course want it perfect right away. We hit four estate sales on Saturday as well as a thrift shop. Nothing too terribly exciting but I did manage to pick up a really nice cedar trunk. It needs to be refinished so Saturday night while the boy worked on his rocking chair in his basement, I stripped the trunk. I think it is going to turn out really nice and will be perfect to store my sweaters in. Sunday we went to brunch at Bar Abilene which was nice and then went and dropped off the other rugs which look really nice. We stopped by the Cottage Shop to see if they had anything of interest and I really lucked out and was able to find the dining room table and the chairs I have been looking for. It is a Duncan Phyfe and I just thought that it would be so versatile in my dining room. It seats two perfectly and then can expand to six nicely and has two leaves to expand to seat twelve. I cannot wait for my first dinner party. I decided not to do my holiday cocktail party this year. Just too much stress with moving and everything else at the moment. I am going to do some kind of a fun party in January. I thought about a Chinese New Year's Party, Mardi Gras in February or a beach party in January. I will just have to wait and see I guess.

I cannot wait to get moved and settled. I made a really good chicken chowder at the boy's last night, but of course have been too busy today to even have a bite. I am headed over there now to make some chicken sausage tortellini dish and work on my trunk project. It would be nice to have it done before move in day Saturday! I still have a lot of preparations to do to get ready for move in day, hopefully all will go well. I think I am going to take Friday off to prepare, I just cannot wait to get settled, unpacked and get my holiday decorations up! Looking forward to it. I will try to be better about posting this week, but I have been really busy with moving preparations and work in general, I am checking in though on all of my regular blog reads throughout the day, some days that is all that gets me through the days. It is good though, and a good community. It gives me some great ideas for gifts, decorating and just things I need to do! On that note. . . .

A few of my fellow bloggers are doing a holiday card swap which I think is an excellent idea! I love sending cards as much as I love receiving them! I just ordered mine finally this past weekend (after much debate I decided to incorporate my "I've Moved" with it, they are a little cheesy but the boy says they are all me!) I thought this was a grand idea. If anyone who reads this would like to exchange cards, please email me, with subject line, Holiday Card Swap, and send along your address which will be kept confidential of course, and I will add you to the list (which I just went through and updated today)! I am looking forward to exchanging cards with some new friends this year! Should be fun!

**Just as a side note, I just received an email that my cards are shipping today! These are custom cards and I just ordered them Saturday night, so I am impressed! I have never ordered from this company before so I am a little worried about the card stock and print quality, but I am going to keep my fingers crossed. I don't want to say where they are from yet, just in case, but as soon as they arrive and have the seal of approval, I will post a picture and a link to the site!**