Saying Hi

I thought it would be nice to just take a second to just say hi. This time of year is always a bit nutty but the past few weeks have felt so rushed and frantic, it feels nice to just sit down and write. How are you?

The Holidays

Every year I am surprised at just how quickly the holidays creep up. I was especially thrown off since there were a few days in November where the temps were upwards of 70 degrees. But here we are, ten days out from Christmas. We are keeping Christmas pretty small this year over here. My mom will be joining me in Connecticut and we’ll do some fun activities in NYC which I am looking forward to. I’m trying to remind myself to schedule time for relaxing which can be hard during this time of year especially if you’re traveling.

Celebrations

Dave’s birthday was earlier this week and we hosted a few friends at our house on Saturday night. It was the first time we’ve had people over and let me tell you, nothing motivates you to hang the photos and clean up like the morning of the day people are coming over. It was a fun evening and we all grabbed dinner at Kouzina which is very lively on Saturday evenings, including greek dancing, uzo, and swinging napkins. It made for a great night.

Gift Guides

If you’re reading this today, I’m hoping you’re fairly close to being done with holiday shopping but if you’re not here is my shameless plug for the gift guides I’ve created.

Shopping from your favorite creators’ gift guides is a great way to show your support. We occasionally earn a small affiliate dollar amount (I’m talking sometimes $1-2) based on what you purchase. For me, this helps keep B&B running. Any money that I earn from gift guides usually end up paying my hosting fees and domain for the year to come. So if you already have shopped the B&B Gift Guides- a gigantic thank you from me. I couldn’t appreciate your support more!

Meal Prep

I recently tried Feast & Fettle when we got back after Thanksgiving and OMG it was wonderful. They delivered four dinners, each of which were enough for two people. Dinners include a main dish and additional sides so you can mix & match – or you can pick your sides based off F&F chef recommendations. I couldn’t recommend this service enough and am already planning to have this the first week of January. There’s something so lovely about not having to worry about cooking the first week of the year.

Pure Barre

I’m still at it! Today I crossed off my 11th class for the month and I’ll have a couple more next week to get to 15 before I take a little break during the holiday. In fact, I’m loving it so much that there may even be an article coming out in magazine next month talking about my experience! 😉 I’ll share more as soon as I can! If you’re local and want to come to a class (with me or not, I’m aware 6am isn’t for everybody!) shoot me a DM on instagram to get a free class on me!

Other Micro-joys

I finished my 11th book for the year. One of my goals for the new year was to do a book a month and I’m currently on my 12th. I know it doesn’t seem like a lot but I usually do podcasts and with a very busy schedule, I wanted to set a reasonable goal. The thing I’m struggling with is realizing I may not like the book midway through and wanting to abandon it all together? What do we do in this situation? Do you stick it out and finish it? That being said, I did read some incredible books this year and I most recently finished Viola Davis’s book and it was so poignant. Definitely recommend. I love using the libby app – it’s free and all you need is a library card!

The house is starting to feel like it’s coming together. We have a lot to do (please do not ask about the blue kitchen countertops- yes they’re still there) but we make a bit of progress each week. There’s also something about holiday decorations that really make it feel homey. We have a working fireplace now and I have been loving cozy nights curled up by the fire. It’s truly one of my favorite things.