Friday Favorites: Goodbye 2016

I can hardly believe that this is the last week of 2016!! Next time I post it will be 2017 - how did that happen!? Here are my favorite things from the last week of 2016.

1. First off, I'm in my absolute favorite state this weekend - Vermont!! And I am with my absolute favorite people!! I love celebrating the New Year surrounded by a few of my favorite things!!

2. I am making 2 of my favorite dishes for dinner to share with our friends and this Stromboli is one of them!! I adore this Stromboli and ate it way too often this summer!! If you are interested, you can find the recipe HERE.

Top 5: Chrismtas Gifts

I have been sharing a whole lot about Christmas this week, and I'm sharing a little more today! Today, I'm talking about my top 5 favorite presents that I received this year for Christmas! I got some really fun gifts, but here are my favorites...

Christmas Day Recap

I decided to split up my Christmas festivities into a few posts because there was just so much & I thought I should spread it out. Yesterday, I shared a wrap-up of my Christmas eve (you can find that HERE!) and today, I am sharing how I spent Christmas day!

Before going to bed on the 24th, I made a deal with the Bean that we would get up to open presents at 9:00AM. I made that deal thinking she would get up at 6:00 excited and chomping at the bit and hoping to get a little bit of a sleep in because there has not been a lot of sleeping in for me! Well, that was a big mistake because it turns out I was the one who woke up at 6:00 ready to go - really I woke up several times throughout the night!! I was so darn excited!

I helped my mom fold some laundry while we waited for my dad and the Bean to wake up. Once everyone was up we got to open all of our presents!! 

Christmas Eve: Free Food

I have mentioned how my family spends Christmas Eve, but I don't think I did it justice! So here is a little wrap up of my family's Christmas Eve...

Music for Monday

Christmas happened and it was glorious around here! I hope your Christmas was marvelous too! Well, because Christmas is over I'll stop sharing Christmas music every Monday - which means I have to return to my pre-Christmas Music for Monday graphic! And if I'm being completely honest, I don't love the regular graphic half as much as I love the Christmas one! So, It might get re-vamped in the new year! Until then, I have a fantastic song to share with you today!

Friday Favorites: Merry Christmas

This week has been so full of Christmas goodness & I can hardly believe that the big day is THIS weekend! Here are some of my favorite things from this week...

1. When I did a little Christmas house tour, I forgot to include one of my favorite decorations... This sign! My mom picked this up a couple of years ago at a local gift shop & I love putting it up every year!

Gingerbread Men

I shared a recipe for mini gingerbread about a month ago. This is the exact same recipe but instead of quartering it, I made it in its full form! The recipe is from Sally Fields' cookie book & it made about 100 four inch gingerbread men.

Start by creaming together 1 cup of softened butter and 3/4 cup of brown sugar in a medium sized mixing bowl.

Biscotti

In a few posts lately, I talked about my family giving tins of cookies to our friends and family at Christmas time. We usually included Hershey Kiss Snowball Cookies, Peanut Blossom Cookies, Shortbread Cookies and these biscotti cookies! This Biscotti recipe comes from the All Around the World Cookbook by Susan Lukins, but here is how I make them...

I used an electric mixer to make these, because I was doubling the recipe and making several batches, but you could easily do it by hand or with a food processor. Start with 1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour.

Jammy Cocoa Christmas Party 2016

My family had our Jammy Cocoa Christmas Party this past Saturday and we had so much fun! Here is how we host this party...

First, we ask everyone to come for 6:30 in their favorite Christmas jammies. The picture above is the Bean and I in our matching pajamas. We ordered these pajama bottoms from The Company Store last August and we paired the bottoms with a Pajama top that we got a couple of years ago. I highly recommend The Company Store for Family Pajamas! They are very reasonably priced, especially if you order them off season. You can find their selection of PJs HERE!

Music for Mondays: a couple songs

This is the very last Monday before Christmas, which means this is my last day to share Christmas songs. So, I'm sharing three because I couldn't choose just one!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday! This week was a good one. I got to do a little bit of all of the things that I love - cooking, crafting, baking... Here are my favorite things from this week:

Hershey Kiss Snowball Cookies

These cookies remind me of Christmases when I was little. I used to help my mom unwrap all of the Hershey kisses and roll them into the middle of each cookie! These might just be my all time favorite Christmas cookie and I highly recommend trying them!

Christmas Decor

This past weekend, my family got our house all decked out for Christmas and I have been loving it! The twinkle lights have been such a joy to cuddle up and read by! Here is how we do Christmas decor at my house...

Picking our Tree

This past Saturday, my family drove up to Hadley Christmas Tree Farm to cut down our Christmas tree! This is a tradition that my family started last year and it has become my favorite! I love the drive up there, running up and down the rows of beautiful trees, the hot chocolate afterwards... I love it all! Here are some pictures and a little bit about how we get our tree!

Music for Monday: I Pray on Christmas

Happy Monday, everyone!! My family put up our Christmas tree this weekend and got our house all decorated so I am in full Christmas mode! I will be sharing all about our latest Christmas adventures tomorrow & Wednesday but first a carol for you to enjoy!

Friday Favorites: Finals Week :(

This week has been long! I had one final exam Wednesday and one yesterday evening, so my days have been full of nothing but studying! Here are a few of my favorite things from this week...

Top 5: Christmas Movies

Today, I'm talking about my five favorite Christmas movies. I posted about my favorite non-holiday movies back in July - you can find that post HERE. When I did that post, I had a hard time not including all of my favorite Christmas movies, but I wrote them all down & saved them for today

Party Games: Christmas Edition

The holidays are quickly approaching, which means you likely have some holiday parties coming up. I thought it was about time I share some of my favorite Christmas party games that my family has used at various Christmas parties over the years. My family calls this game 'Twas the Night Right Before Christmas Present Pass and here is how we play:

Cinnamon buns

I was scrolling through Pinterest on Friday and found a recipe for 45 minute cinnamon buns from The Recipe Critic - so I made them! :) They took a little longer than 45 minutes but I think they will get easier the more I make them! My whole family loved these and after one bite were already making plans for me to make them again! You can find the original recipe HERE and here is how I made them...

Music for Monday: On this Winter's Night

There are only 19 days until Christmas - that's 2 more Christmas Music Mondays (not including today's)! I have so many holiday songs that I want to share, I should have started sharing in September! The song that I am sharing today, is one that my mom discovered last year and it was my absolute favorite song last Christmas. I have to admit I kept listening to it all through the winter, because it is kind of less Christmas-y and more winter-y - I will likely do that again this year! :)

Friday Favorites

It's December and I can hardly believe how quickly November went! I always find this time of year goes by so quickly, so I do my best to enjoy in my favorite things! Here are some of my favorite things from this week...

Winter Things :)

It's December and I could not be happier! Today, I am going to share some of the things I am looking forward to doing this month!

Shortbread Cookies

This shortbread recipe is very dear to me, because it is my Poppa's recipe. It is one of my favorite recipes to make around Christmas time and it is easy as can be! Let's get started!

Peanut Blossom Cookies

This recipe is one of my all-time favorites! One of my favorite things that my family does at Christmas time is bake (really, we bake all year!) but at Christmas time we bake cookies to give away to our friends, neighbors, and family! We fill little tins with a mix of cookies and deliver them to our favorite people! Well, these peanut blossom cookies are one of my family's favorite to include in our cookie tins!

Music for Monday: Love is Christmas

There are 26 days until Christmas & this week marks my very last week of school, so I am a happy girl! The song that I am sharing today might be one of my favorite Christmas songs of all time...

Friday Favorites: It Snowed!!

Happy Friday! I am in the thick of end of semester exams, essays, projects... so I have been a little exhausted lately. Despite my exhaustion, there were still so many good things about this week & I am excited to share them all with you!

Apple Crisp

My family had this apple crisp for dessert on Saturday night and I had never realized how perfect apple crisp is for fall, but warm apple crisp is where it's at! I have been making this recipe out of the Fannie Farmer cookbook for about 10 years and it is always good and easy as can be! Let's get started so you can get baking! :)

Homemade Popcorn

 

I love homemade Popcorn - and I didn't realize how easy it was to make until recently! My mom often makes popcorn and she has a couple of fun recipes that I will share eventually, but for now we're sticking to the plain old salt & butter popcorn! Here is how we do popcorn in my house:

Almond Snowball Cookies

On Friday night, I finished all of my homework (yeah, I did homework on a Friday night - I'm a party!) and then my mama told me she was craving a dessert with almond in it. Well I took this craving and my own personal craving for snow and went to Pinterest! And as always, Pinterest delivered! These almond snowball cookies are pure bliss - you can find the original recipe HERE, but here is how I made them...

Music for Monday: Shake Up Christmas!

If I'm being completely honest, I've been listening to Christmas music since November 1st (maybe even a little before). And I have been keeping a list of songs to share with all of you, but I've been waiting until it is more socially acceptable for me to advertise Christmas music. So there are 5 (FIVE!!!) Mondays between now and Christmas and I can't wait to share my very favorite Christmas songs with you between now and then!

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday! My house usually has some fun treats but this week the desserts and snacks around here have been especially delicious! Here are my favorite things from this week...

Apple Crumble Muffins

I know these are called muffins, but they really are just like cake. These apple crumble muffins are so good, I have been enjoying them as snacks all week!

 The recipe is from a cookbook called Cooking with Love - The Best Recipes from Montreal's Finest Cooks. My batch made 23 muffins but you might be able to stretch it to make 24.

Mini Gingerbread Men :)

Yesterday, I posted a delicious gingerbread & cream cheese frosting cupcake frosting recipe and today I'm sharing the recipe for those cute little gingerbread men that sit on top of the cupcake! You can find the cupcake recipe HERE and here a picture of the cupcake for reference:

So cute, right? Well the recipe I used for the little ginger bread men is from Mrs. Field's Cookie Book and I quartered the recipe because I only needed 15 gingerbread men. I ended up with 88 (!!!) mini gingerbread men! So if you want to cut this recipe down even more - go for it, but the extra gingerbread men are delicious for snacking on!

Gingerbread Cupcakes

Last week was a little nuts, and by the time Friday rolled around, I needed some Christmas in my life! These adorable, festive cupcakes were perfect! Today, I am going to share the recipe for the gingerbread cupcake & the cream cheese frosting and tomorrow, I am going to share how I did those little gingerbread men on top because they were quite time consuming and I figured they deserved a post of their own! You can find the recipe for the gingerbread men HERE.

I found this recipe on Cooking Classy and if you are interested, you can find the original recipe HERE.

Music for Monday: If it Kills Me

Happy Monday, friends! I have a sweet Jason Mraz song to share with you this morning...

Friday Favorites

Friday is here & I am so ready for the weekend! A little bit of real talk before we begin - some weeks, I do a great job of tracking my favorite things but this week was not one of those weeks! I had so much school work this week, I'm amazed I was able to stay on top of all of it & keep blogging everyday! Here are a few things that keep me sane during the crazy weeks...

Top 5: Quotes Edition #3

I love looking at quotes on Pinterest and I am excited to share my favorite quotes as of lately! I have two posts exactly like this one from July & September, you can find them HERE & HERE.

Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

These cupcakes are chocolate perfection! I have shared the recipe for the cupcakes before, so what I'm really sharing today is the frosting! You can find the recipe for the cupcakes HERE! This recipe makes A LOT of icing - it definitely makes enough to frost 24 cupcakes and I always have a little left over.

Waffles

This waffle recipe comes from the little pamphlet that came with my family's waffle maker - so it is nothing fancy but it is delicious and I am so excited to share this recipe with you today! Small disclaimer before we start, I did a terrible job of taking pictures for this post! I missed a whole bunch of the little in between steps so I will do my best to explain everything and hopefully compensate with more picture when I make these again!

Music for Monday: Alessia Cara

Hello Monday readers! Last week, I got to see Alessia Cara - holy moly! She was amazing! I have some favorites of hers that I already knew going into the concert. Like...

Friday Favorites

Happy Friday & Happy November! This week has been absolute fall bliss for me! Here are my favorite things from this week:

Party Games: 2 Minute to Win it Games

 

These are 2 great games to use a 'in-between' games at a party. I typically use them in between dinner and cake or in between cake and presents because they are so quick but you can play them a couple of times to stall until the next activity!