Well, we’re here. The final countdown to Santa’s sleigh skidding to a stop on slippery, snow covered rooftops far and wide is mere days away. How did the arrival of Christmas and the jolly old elf happen so fast?
Am I ready? That depends on your idea of ready. Is the house all tidied up? All the presents purchased? Wrapped and under the tree? Ha! No, not yet, but I’m okay with that because this year it’s been about ‘time’. Time with my husband, time with my daughter, time to be together as our little nucleus that more often than not gets pushed to the side when deadlines loom and obligations prey.
Last weekend we scrapped our obligations and shot off to San Francisco to celebrate our wedding anniversary. With Smudge in tow. Word of wisdom: No matter how much you love Christmas, don’t get married at Christmas unless you want the holiday to completely overshadow the yearly celebration.
But San Francisco at Christmas…It’s a surprisingly festive place. And the main reason we dragged our baby with us: to jump start our holiday spirit.
I’ll be creating a new series in the New Year highlighting travel tips and advice from favorite cities across the land with San Francisco at the top of the nods. But until then, know that San Francisco needs to go on your holiday Christmas travel bucket list.
By the way, am I the only one who thinks that Elf on a Shelf is totally creepy?
Here’s something to make you feel better about not winning the mega millions lottery. Today’s the last day to enter My Favorite Things Giveaway, a blog hop giveaway with me and 8 other bloggers. Jump over and enter and then be entered into a grand prize drawing for an iPad Air. Now wouldn’t that make any little elf jolly?
Ho ho ho and Friday Faves.
1. Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake are on SNL this weekend. I’m SO there. Here’s a warm-up of JT’s top 10 SNL sketches.
2. What? I can burn 159 calories prepping my Christmas Eve feast and 48 calories wrapping presents? Joy to the world, let’s have another cookie!
3. It’s almost time for the resolutions to start flowing. Let’s start with learning about—and avoiding—the 13 worst money mistakes you can make. My dad would approve.
4. There’s still time > 50 DIY holiday gifts. I love the textured vases and the sparkly jewelry dish. Glitter!
5. I seriously think I may need to invest in a pair of these. Yea or nea?
6. How to enjoy the holidays, instead of merely survive them. #2 really hit home.
7. Some people just. don’t. know. how to read a recipe. 13 hilarious (?) holiday baking fails.
8. Husband, are you reading? (testing, testing…) THIS is my latest, favorite perfume.
9. This food blog. Those dogs. Brilliant!
10. The most Instagrammed place in the world is…a mall in Bangkok?
11. Fra-gee-lay. That must be Italian. Get yours here.
12. My walls are white. They need art. These pieces, I could live with them all. Bonus: they won’t break the bank.
13. Baby names > We had Apple (Gwyneth). We have Olive (Drew). Now we have… Cheese? No, I’m serious.
14. It’s holiday break for Smudge. 2 ½ weeks at home = 23 ways to keep kids busy.
15. My dream job as an 11-year-old was to work in the gift wrapping department of our local department store. So of course I’m besotted with these 50 ways to wrap holiday gifts in style.
and…
16. DIY glitter wrap. Done and done.
17. 100 Photoshop tutorials to improve your mad skillz.
18. My Mac ‘n Cheese Pinterest board is getting loaded up for January. Who else is ready?
19. The cutest tiny origami Santa you ever did see.
20. Let’s find some recipes with my favorite holiday flavor: EGGNOG. Pass the bourbon please.
The CUTEST Macarons you’ve ever seen!! from Raspberri Cupcake.
Cinnamon Eggnog Christmas Cookies that will melt in your mouth from Kevin and Amanda.
Wake up and smell the eggnog with Cinnamon Eggnog Oatmeal from Family Fresh Cooking.
Her grandma was right, more Eggnog Snickerdoodles plllllease! from Wanna Be a Country Cleaver.
These Eggnog Muffins keep all of the men in Two Peas and Their Pods lives happy.
Double dose of the nog in Eggnog Pound Cake from Chocolate Chocolate and More.
Soft. Puffy. Egg noggy. Soft Frosted Eggnog Cookies from The Baker Chick.
A pie that’s worthy of any fork. Or spoon. Eggnog Cream Pie from Lauren’s Latest.
Put that last drink of eggnog to work > Eggnog Waffles with Cinnamon Whipped Cream from Cookie Monster Cooking.
Let’s end all of this sweetness with a little cocktail topper > Pumpkin Eggnog Martini from Jelly Toast Blog.
As always, all opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting companies I partner with, which allows me to create more unique content and recipes for you.
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kemparaju says
There is a reason why I bought a Mac, it was not to be one of the cool kids that wanted the best of the best. No it was because of the music production I do on it. Hours and hours sitting in front of my Mac copying, pasting, moving, deleting, hour after hour just beating on my Mac in a endless assault to get my work done. That is the key part, my work. I work from home, it is great, but even if it is from home it is still work and it still needs to get done. So my Mac, I have it because it is fast, gets the job done and comes back for more.
But what happens when it doesn’t want to do those things anymore?
I move around massive amounts of information and yes even on the almighty Mac this can cause a problem after a while. Things fragment, programs get corrupted issues come up. My light speed Mac slows down to a crawl and all of the sudden I simply can not get any work done. Because I work from home there is no IT guy to call and ask to come fix it. No instead I have to figure out what is wrong. I am lucky, I did, but not after trying everything under the sun first and wasting countless hours looking for one program that can do what I needed instead of ten programs. One program to lead them all….okay that was a lame Lord of the rings reference, but that program was/is Detox My Mac. A simple to use program that did not just fix my issues, it put my Mac on overdrive again. A few clicks and my Mac was clean and ready to rock and roll again.
Read more here:- http://detox-my-mac.com?vhbshygdf398432
Lisa {AuthenticSuburbanGourmet} says
Love the eggnog round up! Hope you had a spectacular time in San Francisco. We live about 35 to 40 minutes from SF (depending on traffic) and love our city so much. Happy Holidays to you and your family and Happy Anniversary!!
Crista says
great round-up of eggnog recipes! i’m pretty much obsessed with all of them! xoxo
Barbara @ Barbara Bakes says
Another fun Friday faves. Those macs are fabulous. Now I want to go to San Francisco at Christmas too.
Kate says
Hi there!
You mos def need the Danskos! I’m on my 4th pair. I highly recommend any if the patent leather versions. I’ve had black and now have a color called “petrol” that’s very cool and in some lighting looks black and other lighting they look charcoal. There’s also a leopard print pair – and they are great too!
My daughter and I have been counting the days until Jimmy and Justin on SNL – it’s like our own little advent calendar of comedy.
And last but not least….Egg Nog Cream Pie – – thank you,oh so very much!
Cheers!
heidi says
That is great intel on the clogs! I directed my husband to come to your comment for a little Christmas shopping direction. Thank you!
Leah says
Merry Christmas to you & yours, Heidi! Great Friday Faves, as usual. It’s keeping me from getting my last post of the year up. Too many faves!
Amanda says
I have never tried eggnog. Now I have to go out and buy a case so I can try all these recipes. :)
Ashley says
Thanks for including my eggnog waffles Heidi! I can’t believe it’s almost Christmas – I should probably start wrapping presents! Happy holidays! : )
Audra | The Baker Chick says
Thank you so much for including my cookies Heidi! Happy Holidays to you! :)
Ali | Gimme Some Oven says
Love the eggnog recipe roundup! And yes on the clogs!!