Family Time

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!! We had a great one! The week leading up to Christmas was pretty rough. We had a GREAT bake sale and surpassed our goal of $5,000!! Unfortunately, the girl that we were doing the benefit for took an unexpected turn for the worse a couple of days before the bake sale and passed away the night after our sale.

So, I was super busy that week with an unexpected funeral and helping her sister with a few things. The day of the funeral, I got a surprise in the mail from Anne, which really brightened my day.
She was my Blog Buddy in a Christmas exchange. I got this super awesome coffee cup (LOVE IT) and some unpictured bread which was amazing. I shared it with my grandmother and we are both in love. (And if you aren't too mad at me in being belated in thanking you, we would both love the recipe!) I apologize profusely for being behind in thanking you. I really loved the gift.

The kids and I have been doing a lot of this lately....

After all of the hustle and bustle of fundraiser planning (NEVER underestimate how much time that takes if you get a whim to plan one! ) and holiday stuff, it has been nice to kind of lay around. I've let exercise be an "if I get time" this week and I'm okay with that. Next week is a new week and a new year and snuggle time and play time are important!

I have to share a couple of great gifts I got in case you have any gifts coming up that you need to purchase (my mom's birthday is Jan 18th and I'm always out of ideas!).

First of all, from my friend Susan, these awesome bendable cutting boards and knives. Color-coded for food safety, each of the cutting boards has a picture -- poultry, fish, beef, veggies-- and a matching knife. LOVE this idea. And, if you are a vegetarian, you can always make up your own system.

My mom got me this SUPER AWESOME gift. A table top ov en. It has a convection setting, broil, etc and is big enough for a 12 inch pizza or pie. It heats up in a snap and I am in love. This will be even more handy in the summer when the kids want something really small and I don't have to heat up the whole oven. It will save some electricity also! I think it came from Wal Mart and was less than $100 (I think). Great gift!!

If you are wondering what is in the oven, it is a wonderful (and in no way nutritious) appetizer that I am pre-making for New Year's Eve. It is from one of my favorite blogs, The Pioneer Woman. (the link takes you to the recipe). They are insanely good (and look better when cooked!

My brother (who gives the best gifts ever!) (and is SINGLE ladies!) got me the Pioneer Woman cookbook and I am drooling. On a sidenote-he got me the coolest Nike shirt EVER with little patches on the front and one of them is a walking waffle iron. LOVE IT!

And on a final note, I went to a Weight Watchers meeting last night to get the information on the new plan and to watch my BFF lead her first Weight Watchers meeting. I also need to rid myself of these 6 pounds I picked up over Christmas. I really slacked and took it all (literally!) in this Christmas! (see above!) and it's time to get it back under control!

So, if you are doing the new plan or thinking about it and have comments/questions, leave a comment or email me (littlemp at gmail dot com). I'd love to hear your feedback or suggestions from those who have been on the plan for a few weeks. I am finding that most of the choices I had made on the old plan haven't changed that much. Really, just the snacks and breads.

Have a great week!