3 Things that put me in the Christmas Spirit

Three things that put me in the Christmas Spirit:

•   Santa Squeeze-my-cheeks:  My grandma makes these out of yarn and plastic canvas and I just love them to pieces.  You put a little Hersey kiss inside and it’s like Santa gave you a kiss! So adorable.

•   Making sugar cookies (and eating the dough):  We used to always make sugar cookies and my favorite part was eating the dough scraps leftover from the cookie cutters.

• Hot Chocolate with Marshmallow Fluff:  Is there anything better in the world than Fluff?  It’s even better now that I’m an adult and I can spike my hot cocoa. 

Last year me and the bf sent out Christmas cards to our friends and family.  They were pretty cheesy, but I thought they were cute.   See for yourself:

I plan to do it again this year especially since we have our nice camera now. We just need to take a nice picture!

Last night I went to yoga with my mom again.  I really need a new mat! The one I have has pictures of the poses all over it, and it's extremely slippery.   I'd love to get this one, but it’s a wee bit expensive.   Hey  Santa, are you reading this?

In other news, the race is this weekend! My brother picked up my number and t-shirt for me yesterday.  I convinced the bf to go and be my official photographer so I should have a few good pictures to share.

Here’s the official T-shirt and my number:

Dinner tonight is Chicken Pot pie.  Yumm! A good comfort food for the cold weather.  After dinner I plan to go for a run.  Should I brave the outdoors or chicken out and go on the treadmill?  hmmmm...

Oreo Balls (take 2) and Orange Clove Pomanders

Yesterday was a complete success.  I accomplished everything on my to-do list, and then some.  

I went for a run, and my first mile only took me 7 min and 59 seconds, which is really good for me.   The 5k is a week from today! I’m super excited about it, and like I told my brother’s gf, I’m not in it to win it.  I’m just in it to have fun.   However, I do want to finish it in under 30 minutes.

My brother's gf and I made Oreo balls, and they came out better than last time.  This time we blended the Oreos in a blender, and used baking chocolate to melt(it was way smoother than chocolate chips).

After making those, I ran out to pick up a few things.  I wanted to make some orange clove pomanders like I saw here.  They smelled amazing, and looked festive.

 The party was really fun and we took a ton of pictures with our new camera.  The drinks I made were a big hit. I made pomegranate mimosas, with Champagne, Pomegranate juice and seeds.  It was fun to drink in a champagne flute because the seeds floated up from the bottom.  I love the Holidays!

Red lipstick + Ornament earrings

Angela's Coal Fired Pizza (&new camera!)

I know what you’re thinking…more pizza??? Yes, more pizza.  I love it and I always make room for the foods I enjoy.

The BF and I met another couple here for dinner.  On Monday-Wednesdays they have half off cheese pizzas, which is awesome.  Their pizzas are amazing.  I love the sauce, and they sprinkle fresh basil on top before they serve it, it’s delish!

We ordered a family size house salad, and two large cheeses to split.

I really like their salads because they put a lot of stuff in it.  You know how some places just put lettuce in a bowl and top with croutons and call it a Salad?  Not Angela’s!  Their salad had red onions, kalamata olives, celery, hardboiled egg, chickpeas(<3), tomato, and slices of flatbread on top.

Now that’s what I call a salad.

Here's my portion

 When the pizza came, we all dug right in.  Official Mac&Cheese&Peas rating: 4 out of 5 peas!  It was just as good as the last time I came here.  

Since I ran a good 3 miles on the treadmill on Tuesday, I took Wednesday off.  Some days it’s impossible to find time to work out.  There just aren’t enough hours in the day.

Tonight, I'm going for a run with my brother.  Yay for Sibling 5k training!

In other exciting news, the camera came in! Finally! Now I just need to learn how to use it.  Any tips?

Here’s a few of my first shots:

My Momiji

matryoshka

My brother's awesome face

Dad

Candle in the window

Two Milestones

1. We’re buying a DSLR! My first professional Camera!
2. We're buying it together… it’s our first big purchase!

We did a lot of research for this.  We talked to lots of people, we tested the cameras out, we scoured the internet for deals, and then we finally decided on this:

Canon 60D with the Tamron 15-70mm 2.8 and the Canon 50mm for lenses.

And when I say talk to people, I mean stare at them and nod while they  talk about things like ISO and aperture.  My camera experience is limited to my trusty canon point and shoot.

Which I <3.

 

I realize I have a lot to learn, but I know I can do it.

We bought the camera body through Best Buy since they threw in a free camera bag and a free book of our photography from Shutterfly.  How nice of them.    

I’ve always had an interest in photography so I can’t wait to get started and learn to use this giant complicated camera.  I promise to show you all of the pictures that I take. :)

For today’s workout I took the Pilates class at my gym.  It was short, only half an hour, but I definitely felt the burn.  I used to dance, so I’ve had some experience with Pilates but I still find it very challenging.

This is my high school dance team- the Blue team.  I'm not kidding that really was our name.

  

I'm third from the left.

After the class I ran a quick two miles on the treadmill.  I was pretty sweaty by then end of it all but I love that because I feel like I really pushed myself.

Sweating=working hard!

Another reason that I wanted to run tonight was because I was close to reaching the next level on Nike+.  The first level is yellow and its 1-30 miles.  Tonight I made it to the orange level which is 31-154 miles! I’m so proud of myself (though I have a feeling I’ll be in orange for a while).  Basically the more miles you log the higher up you go in levels.  It’s a great way to motivate yourself to run farther and more often.

Only 123 miles until the next level!