First off, I do apologize for this awkward selfie ... ha! It was a dark plane, okay! Anyway, we had quite the early morning as we made our way back home for the holidays! This weekend will consist of lots of family time and I'm soaking every bit of it up!
A few things ....
- We are so excited to be home again and celebrating Christmas with my fam!
- Also, Christmas is FOUR days away! What?! It's been a busy/full month.
- Jeffrey and I have called these last 6 months our "bulking" season ... ha! We are feeling every bit of the weight and we're so ready for a change for the sake of our health!! Haha.
Hey y'all! Yesterday was a fun day! Jeffrey and I continued our packing and for the most part, we were pretty productive. Even though we live in just one small room, it's been taking us a very long time to pack it all up. Ha. Spent most of our day packing and preparing for the future. I can't believe that Christmas is less than a week away!
Of course, made a trip to Target to pick up a hair straightener and a few candy bars!
We wrote encouragement/goodbye/Christmas cards for our single adults!
I started packing for our trip back to GA.
Then we finished the night with a little gathering and a secret Santa exchange.
Gonna miss this close-knit group!
Wow, it feels like the end of the year is coming up quick! There's still quite a bit of things that Jeffrey and I need to do before we can say "later" to 2017. As y'all know, we're getting ready to move in a couple weeks (this has been so weird - it doesn't feel like we're moving at all) so we need to pack like ..... so much! I really didn't think I had that much stuff, but after I started packing, I probably thought about 20 times how I was going to become a minimalist. Ha!
But wait ... before we can move, we've made so many other plans. We're going to be traveling down to GA this weekend for a funeral (can't wait to see ya, Vic) and then coming back to celebrate Christmas with our Indy fam. Then, we're going back down to GA to celebrate Christmas with my GA fam and we'll be there for one entire week - so excited! We bought our plane tickets a few months back so that's why we're making the tedious trips back and forth, but it's really no biggie since we're both not working right now.
All this traveling just calls for a ton of packing and unpacking, but it's all exciting stuff. Even though this year has been kinda hectic, it's been such a good, full year.
We attended our first Christmas party of the season with our church family here in Indy. It was the most chill event ever. Ha. Also, it snowed. The snow here in the north is so light and fluffy and it's beautiful and bright. I love.
This year, Jeffrey and I want to start baking cookies every holiday season (mainly just me, but totally forcing him to make them with me) and I have a recipe that I want to try. It's modified from Martha Stewart and they're called Peanut Butter Surprise Cookies!
H O W T O M A K E T H E M :
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp pur vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 granulated sugar (for rolling dough)
22 mini chocolate peanut-butter cups, unwrapped and chilled
DIRECTIONS:
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 350°. Place two racks in the center of the oven. Whisk flour, baking powder, & salt in a medium bowl & set aside.
Beat peanut butter and butter with an electric mixer on medium until smooth. Add brown sugar and beat until combined, scraping down bowl as necessary. Add eggs one at a time and then vanilla, mixing until incorporated.
With mixer on low speed, gradually beat in dry ingredients. Put granulated sugar in a small bowl. Use a 1 ¾" cookie scoop to form dough into balls.
Roll each ball of dough in sugar, coating completely. Use fingers to flatten dough ball a bit. Place on baking sheets lined with parchment, about 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies begin to puff up slightly, about 6 minutes. Remove from oven.
Press one chilled peanut butter cup in center of each cookie. Return to oven & continue baking until cookies are golden brown and chocolate has begun to melt, about 5-6 minutes more.
Let cool at least 10 minutes on baking sheet before transferring cookies to rack to cool completely (about 1 hour). It can take awhile for the peanut butter cups to set again. After cookies have cooled on the sheets for one hour, move cookies to the refrigerator to set the chocolate for about one hour. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.
Excited to be making these with Jeffrey!
Beat peanut butter and butter with an electric mixer on medium until smooth. Add brown sugar and beat until combined, scraping down bowl as necessary. Add eggs one at a time and then vanilla, mixing until incorporated.
With mixer on low speed, gradually beat in dry ingredients. Put granulated sugar in a small bowl. Use a 1 ¾" cookie scoop to form dough into balls.
Roll each ball of dough in sugar, coating completely. Use fingers to flatten dough ball a bit. Place on baking sheets lined with parchment, about 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies begin to puff up slightly, about 6 minutes. Remove from oven.
Press one chilled peanut butter cup in center of each cookie. Return to oven & continue baking until cookies are golden brown and chocolate has begun to melt, about 5-6 minutes more.
Let cool at least 10 minutes on baking sheet before transferring cookies to rack to cool completely (about 1 hour). It can take awhile for the peanut butter cups to set again. After cookies have cooled on the sheets for one hour, move cookies to the refrigerator to set the chocolate for about one hour. Store at room temperature in an airtight container.
Excited to be making these with Jeffrey!
At this time, I believe I was either a freshman or a sophomore. Vic wanted to surprise Chu with a little birthday party during Christmas break and we joined in on the fun!
A little gift exchanging fun!
The senior group enjoying the last of our Christmas days in college. Ha.
Friends forever! Hehe.
Christmas at the Grove!
A secret sister sock exchange that we started our senior year (the girls have continued it this year, too!) This was such a fun little idea to gather the girls together even in the midst of a busy semester.
Just reminiscing over all the Christmases that I've gotten to share with these good friends throughout college. College has been a blessing in its entirety and I'm so thankful to have gained friendships through this sweet community of women.
Here's my little Christmas playlist that I've been playing since October. Ha!
Some things I want to do before Christmas ...
1. Go ice skating
2. Make hot chocolate from scratch
3. Bake holiday cookies to gift to others
4. Wear PJs for one whole day
5. Celebrate Christmas with my Indy fam!
What are some things you want to do before Christmas?
1. Go ice skating
2. Make hot chocolate from scratch
3. Bake holiday cookies to gift to others
4. Wear PJs for one whole day
5. Celebrate Christmas with my Indy fam!
What are some things you want to do before Christmas?
What a sweet, sweet photo. This one makes me think of my mom.
I love how cute and simple her decorations are for the tree.
This has nothing to do with Christmas anymore, but! My mom....
She's always been such a simple woman and pretty sure that where's I get it from.
I'm so simple... HAHA!
There was a year we had zero presents under the tree. Chris and I went out together and we bought gifts for the family. We came home, snuck the gifts into my room, wrapped them so fast, and then brought them out to place under the tree. My parents came out all surprised and they were so excited to open their presents. I don't even think we were employed at the moment ... ha!
My family came from little and we didn't have much in general. Growing up, we weren't spoiled with expensive things, but what we were given, we loved and knew that we were gifted these things with love. Looking back, these times have always been a constant reminder of where we were and where the Lord has taken us. Each year, I find myself so humbled and thankful that after all this time, God has always been walking with us. How faithful is He that He would provide just what we need (not talking about gifts..haha), never less and never too much; that we would rely on Him alone.
My family came from little and we didn't have much in general. Growing up, we weren't spoiled with expensive things, but what we were given, we loved and knew that we were gifted these things with love. Looking back, these times have always been a constant reminder of where we were and where the Lord has taken us. Each year, I find myself so humbled and thankful that after all this time, God has always been walking with us. How faithful is He that He would provide just what we need (not talking about gifts..haha), never less and never too much; that we would rely on Him alone.
I know the photos are such bad quality, but I love these photos ... and I love my family!
Y'all should know that I enjoy a Christmas movie outside of Christmas time. Mai and I would watch Christmas movies in our living room back in college in like ..... October. Ha! Thanks for doing that, dude.
A F E W O F M Y F A V O R I T E S :
A F E W O F M Y F A V O R I T E S :
- Elf. A classic. A go-to.
- Any Hallmark Christmas movies. They're not that bad - you just gotta get past the cheesiness.
- The Star. As of yesterday, this one has become my top fave because it's that good! It's seriously so perfect, funny, and captures all the emotions perfectly. It tells the story of Jesus' birth and it made me cry! HA! I'm not that much of a cryer, but this one was good, not because it was sad, but because it was goooood newsssssss.
- How The Grinch Stole Christmas. I recently just watched this one, too, and it is so funny. We are always quoting from the movie!
What are your favorite movies to watch during Christmas?
Traditions are so great. I don't think my family really had any as I was growing up, though, which is totally okay. Now that I'm married and have my "own" family, there are a few traditions that Jeffrey and I would really like to begin implementing now and when we have kids in the future. A fun one is to bake Christmas cookies every Christmas Eve, send Christmas cards, and then we want to get matching pjs every year (I know .... I'm not too big into the matching thing, but I think this is totally a cute idea for when we do have kids, so maybe we'll start this whenever we do have kids). Another little tradition we want to start is to read the story of Jesus' birth together every Christmas Eve to remember our Savior. In the midst of a busy season where all the pretty things will be grabbing our every attention, we want to keep our hearts grounded in the true reason of our celebration. We create that space for ourselves where we can simply quiet our hearts and be reminded of Jesus.
What about you? What are your Christmas traditions? What traditions do you want to start?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Social Icons