Holiday Wrapping Anxiety

Evening everyone!

If you love high-end bath and beauty products, check out this awesome giveaway from my alter ego blogBistro Chic! You may just win a fabulous gift from Crabtree & Evelyn.

Around 11 AM, I was soo wanting a little something sweet. I walked into the staff lounge to find not 1, not 2, but 3 big coffee cakes! Apparently, it was a coworker’s birthday (the woman who sits next to me to be exact – shows you how much I’m clued into those things :-( ) Anyway, I debated on whether to have a sliver of the apple, the pecan, or the chocolate.

12.7 Chocolate Coffee Cake

And Chocolate it was! Oh so yummy, especially with a big cup of Tazo Awake tea to wash it all down…

12.7 Tazo Awake Tea 2

For lunch, I brought a salad that I premade last night before going to bed. I love to make my lunch ahead of time because it saves me SOOOO much time in the morning. And it also prevents me from going out to eat, aka spending money.

12.7 Chicken Salad

I think I overdid it on the lettuce a bit because this salad turned out to be HUGE! However, the chopped parmesan-crusted that Scott made last night tasted awesome in the greens!

I made it home from work first so I was in charge of making dinner – Turkey Tacos!

12.7 Turkey Tacos 1

I did most of the chopping and prep work last night, so making dinner was snap. I accidentally filled my tortilla WAY too full and could barely pick up the monstrosity up without having it fall apart…

12.7 Turkey Tacos 2

My ONE monster taco was enough to fill me up – along with a few chips and guac. 

Post clean up, I debated on whether to completely throw myself into my personal training book to study, or tackle the mound of presents that I need to wrap. Hmm. maybe a little of both.

12.7 Crate and Barrel boxes

I started with the gifts for coworkers – all from Crate and Barrel. I obviously like shopping there if you can’t tell. It was very dangerous when they opened a huge store 5 minutes from my house! Anyway, having C&B so close does come in handy around the holidays. I was able to pick up a duo of these shiny tealight holders for everyone on my list…

12.7 Crate and Barrel tealight holders 2

They came in a bunch of different colors so I made sure everyone had a different color set – pretty snazzy I think ;-)

Does anyone else buy their coworkers gifts? 

Well, I got through two of the presents and decided I just wasn’t in the wrapping mood. I don’t actually mind wrapping presents – sometimes I really enjoy it. But around this time every year I have wrapping anxiety – where I’m afraid that I’ll wait until the last minute to do my wrapping and then have to do it ALL on Christmas Eve.

12.7 Green Present with red ribbon

I can always tell when I’m getting tired by how lax my wrapping gets. This one didn’t turn out too bad, despite being so wiped out from the day.

Now, I’m off to study. I need to get up extra early tomorrow to run because Tom Skilling – Chicago weatherman extraordinaire – is predicting quite a bit of snow in the early morning. That means a rough commute for me!

Have a great night!

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Bistro Chic: Crabtree & Evelyn Holiday Giveaway

Hey RWC fans – Want to try an awesome Crabtree & Evelyn product for free? Scroll down to learn more!

Morning everyone!

I love waking up to a beautiful sunshiny Winter morning! After a brisk run on the trusty treadmill, I chomped on a bowl of Kashi Go Lean Crunch…

12.7 Kashi Go Lean Crunch 2

Nothing else in the bowl – just Kashi. But then again, unless you’re adding fruit, what else do you need besides Kashi in your bowl? Also had a shot glass of OJ on the side…

12.7 Kashi Go Lean Crunch 1

Here’s an idea for a great freebie! In an effort to encourage others to become more conscious about the environment, Origins will give you a sample of any of their products if you give them one of your empty cosmetic tubes, bottles, etc. It’s a great way for everyone to recycle and get a little something for it! I’ve known about this program for a while, but just took my first empty contain in to Origins this weekend. The sales associate was so polite and spoke very highly of the program. I walked away with a little sample (about the size of a quarter in circumference) of their Modern Friction facial scrub – it’s very light and leaves your skin looking amazing!

12.7 Origins Face Scrub 2

Bistro Chic Holiday Giveaway

And, speaking of bath and body products, check out this great holiday giveaway at Bistro Chic! One lucky reader will win a fabulous gift from Crabtree & Evelyn!

Gotta run for now – have a great day everyone!

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His and Hers Wines With A Chocolate Mousse Ending

In a continuation from yesterday’s post, Scott and I literally shopped ALL afternoon yesterday and ended up dropping some semi-serious cash-ola on holiday gifts. Good thing this only comes once a year! For us, the key is to buy most of our gifts using our debit card so that we are not shocked when we see our credit card bill in January.

Toward the end of our shopping excursion, we had a totally fabulous dinner at a chic French bistro…

12.5 L'Eiffel Bistro

The restaurant, L’Eiffel Bistro & Creperie, is a little out of the way for us to drive, but it was well worth it. It was our first time at the bistro but we read great reviews online so I was super excited! We arrived for our dinner reservation at 7 PM and were promptly seated near the window. Then, it was time for le vin…

12.5 wine

His and Hers wine – Hers would be the chardonnay, naturally, and His the cabernet. A perfect toast to our Christmas shopping marathon!

Just curious, do you ever feel that a particular drink or food is more male or female? For instance, I usually associate white wine more with women and red with men; or chicken with women and steak with men. 

I was so hungry by this time in the evening that I didn’t hesitate to break into this tasty duo…

12.5 bread and tapenade

A little somethin’ somethin’ of crusty bread and sun-dried tomato tapenade. Oh my, I would definitely buy this tapenade if it was available in a bottle – so good!

By the way, all of these photos were taken in extremely low light, but my new, handy dandy, Canon S90 camera just so happens to take GREAT low light photos – how conveeeenient!

Next came the salad…

12.5 green salad

…a super fresh green salad with some awesome dijon vinaigrette. For my entree, I ordered a classic French dish – a warm and fluffy crepe…

12.5 Pancetta and Brie Crepe

I ordered the “country” crepe with pancetta, brie, spinach, and mushrooms. I honestly picked this crepe for two reasons: 1) brie cheese – love it, can’t get enough of it!, and 2) pancetta – close enough to bacon for me to crave it upon seeing the name in the ingredients. The crepe was good, but it had way too many mushrooms for my liking. 

And finally, what Scott had been waiting for all evening…the quintessential French dessert – none other than chocolate mousse…

12.5 Chocolate Mousse

This mousse was so thick and creamy, it reminded me of a very smooth frosting, only not as sweet. It was a fantastic way to end a meal.

One thing I must also add is that the service was amazing!! From the server right down to the gentlemen who cleared out dishes – they were all extremely polite and prompt. I think this restaurant is now my new favorite date-night spot ;-)

Have to run for now. Must read over my new and more expensive insurance plan from my work -there goes $300 more a month from my paycheck – blah!

I may see you all again before the day is through :-)

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