Stuff
Happy November friends!
Where is my blogging mojo these days? The combination of sitting in front of a computer all day at work and the evenings get dark so early has made me a little lethargic and not in the mood to sit in front of the computer AGAIN when I arrive home!
So here are just a few things that have been happening complete with photos from my iPhone. I swear I never take photos with my actual camera anymore…
Friday night my brother, Eric and I carved pumpkins. Can you guess which one belongs to who? Carving pumpkins may be my favourite part of Halloween! Especially because it means roasted pumpkin seeds to snack on. I decided to go the sweet route this year and made my pumpkin seeds with earth balance, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg.
I wish I could say that is all the damage that was done when it comes to eating mini chocolate bars but my food blog gives me away. Oh well, I still ate a lot less than I probably normally would have. Didn’t want to let the whole internet world know how much I love chocolate!
We also got trick-or-treaters for the first time ever, about 20 I’m told (I left for yoga around 6:30). The first little guy that came to the door was about 2 or 3, dressed as an elephant and said “can I have some food please?!” So cute! I love Halloween 
Things with the puppy are going great. I love going for walks, hikes and little runs with her in the trails. I am doing a post later this week on all the lessons we’ve learned since getting her. Basically we adore her and can’t imagine our lives without her.
On Saturday I drove to a city just over an hour away to meet Jamie for lunch and coffee. It was such a beautiful fall day for a drive along the water. The trees were the most amazing shades of orange, reds and browns. The photo does not do it justice at all.
It was also really fun to catch up with a friend over delicious lunch and pumpkin spice chai lattes
Life has been quiet but really really good lately. I feel content and happy. Oh and we leave for Orlando and Harry Potter World a week from Thursday! I’ll blog more details about our trip early next week
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Questions of the day: how was your Halloween? Do you get trick-or-treaters? Do you have a mini chocolate bar addiction like me? What kind of STUFF has been going on in your life lately?
Present Haul
I debated about doing this post because I didn’t want to seem like a braggy, spoiled-brat. BUT my family 100%, completely spoiled me this year so I had to share. This is the first year I’ve made a really detailed list of what I wanted and my family totally came through (clearly they read the blog!). I absolutely love every single present I got!
The first two seasons of Dexter! Not gonna lie, this show sounds weird. Super weird. But I’ve only heard amazing things about it so I’m excited to start watching it this weekend and form my own opinion about it!
Running stuff! More specifically, three pairs of recovery socks, three pairs of nike dri-fit socks, two road id’s (I usually alternate two pairs of shoes at once) and a spibelt! Love it all!
Slippers! These are the most comfortable, warm slippers you will ever wear! I got my Grandma a pair for Christmas a couple of years ago and this year she returned the favour
Vegetarian Cookbooks! Not one, but two! Told ya my family has been reading the blog 
A Canon point-and-shoot camera! I love my DSLR. Love, love, love it. BUT it gets annoying when that is your only camera. I was very excited to unwrap one of my presents and discover this little gem. It takes great photos too. Most of the photos on my Christmas Day Recap post were taken with this!
Cooking Stuff! This was something we desperately, desperately needed. You should see the ratty old oven mitts that Eric and I have been using. They are nasty. We also only have measuring cups from the dollar store and a couple of weeks ago the handle broke off of the 1 cup one. So happy to have these shiny new kitchen utensils to use
A set of 10 different sized frames! Eric’s mom and dad got these for us (me!) and I love them! Can’t wait to use them to make an awesome picture collage on our wall
A painting! Probably my favourite gift of all! My mom painted this for us. Can you tell who it is?
A French Press! I’ve already drank an entire thing of coffee made in this and oh my was it good. French Press coffee really is better than regular coffee!
A Miche Bag! I’d never heard of this before but wow is it cool! One black bag, two covers and voila – I have two purses in one. The covers can be bought online and they magnet onto the plain black bag so I can get as many different looks as I want out of one bag. So cool. I love it!
Sapphire Earrings! Forgot to include these in the first draft of this post (whoops, bad girlfriend!!) but Eric got me these gorgeous sapphire earrings (my birth stone)! We weren’t supposed to buy each other anything this year but he broke the deal. I am going to have to get him something really good for our anniversary in February I guess
I also got some other small presents – some boxes of chocolates, a few DVD’s.
It was a great Christmas – I know that Christmas isn’t (shouldn’t be) about the presents but it still felt so good to be super spoiled by my family with gifts that I absolutely LOVE!
What did you get for Christmas this year? Do you make Christmas wish lists or just let your family and friends pick out what they think you’d like?
Staycation
In case you missed it:
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I am attempting to re-stabilize my body after two days of eating my body weight in chocolate, wine and mashed potatoes.
Stabilizing oatmeal breakfast (with a little scoop of nutella thrown in ):
Not only does my mom have pretty bowls, she also has great lighting in her kitchen. Perfect for food photography!
The whole picture:
Can I get a big hip-hip-hooray for being on staycation this week!? I’m so glad that I decided to take a week off AFTER Christmas instead of before. Plans this week include blogging, running, hanging out with family and friends and sleeping in. I didn’t get out of bed until 9:30 AM this morning. It was blissful!
I do have a few freelance articles to wrap up today, but other than that my week should be pretty relaxing. I just wish it wasn’t so cold here – it’s – 25 C ( – 13 F) – today. A little too cold to do much outside!
I have some fun blog posts planned for this week including one about my first vegetarian Christmas, showing you guys my gift haul (my family really spoiled me this year!) and taking a look back on 2010!
What’s your favourite thing to do on staycation?