five day weekend, i adore you.
hey guys! happy friday tuesday! well, it is like friday for me because i don’t have to work tomorrow. or the next day. or the next day. or the next day. OR the next day. wow! holler at five whole days off.
loved hearing your answers to yesterday’s Qs. for a brief summary, i will show you the season-loving breakdown:
winter=7%
spring=25%
fall=32%
summer=36%
so basically.. i am in the minority and summer was the winner!
also, you all love yourselves some ketchup on yo’ burgers.
the end.
onto today!
breakfast was pretty dang festive.
mighty maple protein oats
wooooooooow. santa is coming to town real soon!
is it just me or is eating and drinking things out of holiday themed dishes just more fun?
mighty mapley. oh and YES lauren~i am so down for a bloggie switch. i have just been too lazy busy to reply to my comments this week :P
between breakfast and lunch i had to go to hell costco to grab a few things for my boss. and just because he made me endure such a crazy situation, i went ahead and let the company buy a new coffee maker for the kitchen. oh joy! i can’t wait to have delicious coffee… on monday :)
since my work fridge was bare and i was way too dang busy to do anything about it, i picked up some lunch to-go. from my favorite soup spot.. the soup kitchen.
turkey on jack sprat wheat + mustard, sprouts, lettuce, tomato & cup of tomato soup
favorite. soup. ever.
and the sandwich was pretty far up there on the delicious turkey sandwich chart as well.
when five o’clock hit i couldn’t get out the door fast enough. it has been SNOWING all day (hooray!) so the traffic was horrendous. the price i pay when i pray for snow. totally worth it.
i went to my mom’s town and met up with my sister and her fam!! they are in town from california and they were at the ski shop renting their skis for tomorrow :) my nieces have never been skiing so it should be a good time. OH and my sister and mom haven’t skied in about 15 years so i will make sure to take a LOT of photos ;P
as much as i wanted to work out, family time took priority. i munched on this clementine while catching up with them.
i just love that the sticker on it says “happy juicydays”~ha!
we ordered take out pizza from a new pizza spot here in bountiful. it is called arella pizzaria and just so happens to have a 100% rating on urban spoon.
we kept the order small.. just four 18” pizzas!
pizza #1: margherita
olive oil, basil, cheese, tomato sauce.
pizza #2: the arella
arugula & spinach tossed in blue cheese dressing, pears, caramelized onion? something amazing. this was the best.
pizza #3: combination
mushrooms, pepperoni, basil, peppers, sausage, tomato sauce.
pizza #4: half veggie, half hawaiian
veggie side: portobellos, peppers, tomato sauce.
hawaiian side: ham, jalepeno, pineapple.
not gonna lie. i ate 3 pieces of pizza.
yum. i loved the paper-thin crust. thanks for dinner mom! super delicious.
sooo after dinner we did lots of hanging out. i busted out some of my winter clothes so my sister could get some gear for skiing. in the meantime, my mom managed to find this volcom hoodie of mine that zips all the way up. and has a gnarly scary monster face. it was amusing so i decided to show you all~
awesome.
my kids were cute all night.
it was fun to have my sister and brother in law and nieces here. i wish they lived here.. but at least they are able to come for the holiday and we can have some quality time together!!
i was admiring my mom’s christmas tree. i don’t have one at my house this year. but i have a TON of ornaments tucked away just waiting for me to have a tree! something that has become a tradition in my family is to collect tree ornaments.. any time i leave town i get an ornament souvenir.. usually for my mom and myself and sometimes for my sisters.
i decided to photograph a few that i have given my mom over the years and or/been with her when it was purchased. we usually like to get an ornament that says the name of the city or country we are in (so we actually remember where they are from!!)
when i was 19 i lived in london and traveled to a bunch of countries.
this one is from paris~
this one is from holland~
this one is from london~
this one is from ireland~
my mom came to visit me when i was living there and we traveled to switzerland. i should definitely whip out the scanner and scan in some of those photos for a flashback friday post! it was so much fun and here is the ornament we got to remember our adventure~
one time when my mom and i were visiting my sister & her fam in california we went to the jelly belly factory which, of course, did not have christmas ornaments. so we got a key chain instead! sometimes you must improvise :)
we also went to santa cruz and had to get a key chain for our ornament~
pretty sure i was 17 years old when i went to niagra falls~
and this pearl harbor ornament was from just last year when marshall and i went to hawaii~
that is just a small dose of the ornaments we have collected over the past decade or so. it is so awesome to have all these ornaments and remember the fun places i have been. also, i NEVER have to wonder what souvenir i am going to get my mom! always on the lookout for an ornament.
i can’t wait until i actually have a house with my own christmas tree. sigh, maybe next year :)
well i didn’t get my workout in today. BUT i did do 50 crunches on the floor while staring at these two~
handsomes :)
and to be honest with you i kind of feel like garbage. i ate pizza and didn’t work out and i feel like a slug. i am craving a sweat session but now it is past 10 PM and i am not a crazy person so i will not be heading down to the gym for a workout. i will just have to get a good one tomorrow~which i totally think is possible since i will be snowboarding all day and have some time for HIIT afterward! so i just keep telling myself that and hopefully this slug-like feeling will go away ;)
that is all i have for tonight!
oh wait-one thing. see my blogroll there to the right? yeah.. it is SO outdated. i am going to make a blogroll page this weekend so if you would like to be on there and do not see your name~holler at me! please and thanks.
well.. hope you all are getting your last minute christmas shopping done and have some time to relax! also i hope nobody has to work too hard this week. it should not be allowed :)
Qs~
1. do you have any holiday (christmas/hanukah/etc) traditions you would like to share with the class? in addition to the ornaments, my family always has clam chowder on christmas eve!
2. it has been asked before but tonight seems fitting for me to ask… favorite pizza (as in toppings/crust/etc)? i am a thin crust, tomato sauce, lots of basil, cheese, bell peppers and mushrooms kind of girl.
xo. janetha b.
p.s. i haven’t forgotten about you all! my reader is just up past 200 :P
meals & moves 
I would love to be on your blogroll… I used to love pineapple pizza. Now I seem to have a mushroom obsession
My husband and I go to the Nutcracker every year. I cannot wait until J is old enough so we can take him to it!
Oh, I’d love to be on the blogroll as well! (Does that sound like begging now? Muahaha)..
And YES please make a Switzerland themed flashback friday! I want to know where you went. (Hope not to nasty places like.. Zurich or something ;)).
We have no Christmas tradition. The menu changes every year as well. We’re boring.
Fave pizza topping would be 23897237 veggies. And mushrooms & mozzarella.
This is so random but your sandwich looks exactly like the one I made a few weeks ago.. (Well I used goat’s cheese instead of turkey). I swear, even the layers were the same! (Ok that was really really random).
these pizza look awesome! thin crust pizza is my favorite! favorite topping? any veggie! :D
I have 5 days off, too – thank gosh!!!! Fave pizza is just lotsss of cheese.
Awesome!! I am so glad you are in for a blogger swap. Just let me know what I can pick up for you my dear. I will be going on 1/18, so you have some time to collect your list. ;)
I lived in London when I was 18!!!! Get out! I lived there for about 6 months and stayed with a family in an exchange program. It was unbelievable. We have so much in common! ;)
Have a wonderful vacation sweet girl.
My favorite pizza is homemade whatever toppings I can find. Those pizzas of yours give me some good ideas! However, I can’t make the crust paper thin (yet!) and that is my true favorite!
It would be awesome to be on your blogroll if you’d want me. *sheepish grin*
We do ornaments too! I have one for every year and place I’ve been to as well.
Pizza toppings: White pizza with fresh tomato, garlic, basil and artichokes. Yum!
Awww, I love cute stickers on fruit!! I’ve actually bought fruit before just because the sticker made me smile :)
That pizza looks awesome, especially the blue cheese/pear one. Love creative toppings!
1. My family just gets drunk every Christmas Eve :P
2. Thin crust with pesto as the sauce, tomato and real mozzarella slices. Or Greek with LOTS of feta!
Don’t feel too bad about that sluggish feeling. Pizza + no exercise always does that to me too. Thankfully, it always passes, and some snowboarding action will definitely help!! xoxo
That hoodie rocks.
1. My mom always has my Aunt, Uncle and cousins over (which is odd b/c it’s my dad’s brother and my parents have been divorced since I was three) and we bake cookies. When we were younger, my mom used to make “goody bags” (like stockings for Jewish people, I guess!) for the kids but I guess we gave up on that part.
2. Thin crust, heavy sauce, heavy veggies, light cheese. Yum.
Aw, I love your ornaments! We have 6 on our tree…but I filled it in with some of our pics from the year. It’s cute :) And that pizza it totally food porn-tastic. I have not had pizza in forever! That second version with the pears and caramelized onions looks like it would be a new favorite, but for me, it’s always a toss up between bbq chicken and hawaiian. yum!
So jealous of your five day weekend! I work at an insurance company and not even Christmas Eve is a paid holiday.
Sounds like you had a blasty with the fam. That pizza looks fab and I love your ornaments! Especially the little London guy :)
Hope you have a blast snowboarding today!!
One holiday tradition I have with my husband is we each buy an ornament for each other and give it to each other on Christmas. He always buys the ugliest, tackiest ornaments! lol love em though:)
My fav pizza is thin crust, loaded with veggies.
Also…I wouldn’t mind being on your new blogroll ;-)
omg that pizza looks amazing! that is exactly the kind of pizza i love, super thin, fresh, and so worth every bite. :) favorite toppings? just plain, sometimes i like pineapple and i’ve tried andouille sausage- so good.
holiday tradish? my family and i go to a movie and thai food on christmas eve. it’s fun. :)
i’d be lying if i said i didn’t want to be on your blogroll, but only if you think about it after getting your good ol reader back down to zero. (The trick is making it stay at zero! agh.)
that pizza looks AMAZING i totally don’t blame you for going down the 3 slice train so worth it :)
hahaha that sweatshirt your mama dukes is wearing is hilarious. i think you should sport in on the mountain to the little kids slopes. see if they can handle a good scare.
haha thats terrible julie.
we collect ornaments too! I LOVE THEM. currently we have way to many Giants football ornaments on our tree. it’s like it threw up ny football pride.
have fun on the mountains girl!
That hoodie is so cool, lol. Love your ornaments too- and would LOVE to see your Switzerland pics. Hope you have a fab time on the slopes today! we have about 6″ of snow here which is record breaking for this city so I thought of you when i was walking down the hill and wishing I had some skis to fly past everyone.
1. do you have any holiday (christmas/hanukah/etc) traditions you would like to share with the class? we used to always have my dad’s homemade pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream for breakfast…only time we ever had pancakes during the year. That stopped when my parents got divorced. No holiday traditions now except lots of debating in the lead up to christmas what we are going to eat!
2. it has been asked before but tonight seems fitting for me to ask… favorite pizza (as in toppings/crust/etc)? thin crust, tomato sauce, spinach, mushrooms and buffalo mozzarella drizzled with pesto. Roasted vegetables and goats cheese is also delish.
Im on your blogroll and would love to keep my status if I may :) I love you girl!!!
The jelly belly ornament = awesome!!!!!!!!!
Traditions for the holidays? Yes we go away every year and leave the madness behind and escape to where no one can find or call us LOL
I absolutely love all of your family pics…ok that’s not completely true – I love ALL of your pics. Your blog is seriously one of the most fun to read – do they have an award for that? Your food pictures are always so cute (eating/drinking out of holiday dishes definitely makes things more interesting), everyone is always so smiley, your kids are so darn cute and your writing just oozes your bubbly personality. I just love you!! :)
It’s going to be so much fun having your nieces and nephews skiing for the first time. My dad has asked me 500 times if Chris and I can go skiing this year since we went on a big family trip to mammoth last year. I hope so! One day I’d love to go with you. That’d be fun!
Ok I’m writing my own post here in your comments section…must STOP!!
That is the most fabulous hoodie ever! and yaaaayyyy summer! ;)
LOVE that hoodie and LOVE you as well!!
fav pizza THIN crust, with lots of veggies, I love a greek style with feta and all the fixins also grilled chicken on there never hurts!
such a cute sticker on that clemy! so much more happy to eat it when its wishing me a happy holiday LOL
I love you rinternational ornaments! so beautiful! (like you!!)
xox
such cute ornaments & what a fabulous idea! i looove the paris one!!!
our random family tradition is that no one cooks on christmas eve .. so we always have some form of take out/delivery (pizza or chinese food)
:)
don’t let a couple pieces of pizza get ya down girlfren, you’ll get back in the gym, and it’s the holidays – time to be with the fam :)
When I was a kid in Hungary, we used to put our little boots out on Christmas eve for Santa to fill with candy and toys. I have the fondest memories of that. Nowadays we get together on Christmas eve and exchange presents. My Mama always makes her infamous open face sandwiches for us to snack on. I love those stupid things. :)
My favorite pizza is simple. Cheese & mushrooms.
I would love to be on your blogroll!
I’d love to be on your blogroll :D
1. do you have any holiday (christmas/hanukah/etc) traditions you would like to share with the class? lots and lots of family get-togethers!
2. it has been asked before but tonight seems fitting for me to ask… favorite pizza (as in toppings/crust/etc)? cheese, with lots of veggies – spinach, peppers and onions are good.
I adore those international ornaments! What a cool idea. I may steal it, lol.
I love your doggies, SO much. :)
Pizza = thin crust, heavy sauce, low cheese, lotta veggies, red pepper flakes, garlic powda!
I would love to be on your blogroll… :)
The pizzas look amazing. I love pizza with super thing crust; the thinner the better. And I love tomatoes, mozzarella & tons of fresh basil.
Have a wonderful day today; that’s so excited that your nieces get to ski for the first time!!! Can’t wait to see some more snow pics! :)
Those ornanments are so cute! We get a new one from our parents every year so I’m going to have a collection when I move out!
I love spinach and tomatoes on my pizza. I actually like pizza with out sauce if I order it from somewhere. I love all you oranaments on the tree.
3 days?! Well…2 DAYS?! Holy shit! Remember when it was 17? Ohhh the good ole days ;)
Our tree is like yours with ornaments from all over. I love it! I’m not a big pizza eater but those pies look fab!! I used to be all about the Hawaiian pizza – thick crust, pineapple, and ham.
I’m on your roll so that’s all that matters – I KID!
I’d love to be on your blog roll!
I love Hawaiian pizza. But my fav is thin crust at bertuccis. I could eat an entire pizza with mozzetella balls. Yum.
Traditions. Mom loves the snowman so we watch it. Make chestnuts. And bum around.
I’m all about the vegetables on my pizza! Onions, BANANA PEPPERS, bell peppers, and olives, especially. Not that an olive is a vegetable….
I love pineapples on my pizza. Even though people say that’s not a real topping. Eff them!
My mom makes eggrolls every year for Christmas and gives them to neighbors and friends. Did you get to eat one at my baby shower?
P.S. Loved your Christmas card!
Love the ornaments, esp the first couple european ones! lovely!
I share the slug feeling – way too many starchy carbs yesterday, and no exercising this week except for a bit of yoga at home. eeeee
do you have any Christmas traditions you would like to share with the class? I was all thinking I did, but not really! huh! Hubs and I are gonna have to start some :)
2. it has been asked before but tonight seems fitting for me to ask… favorite pizza (as in toppings/crust/etc)? thin whole wheat crust, tomato sauce, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, or spinach/tomatoes.
and if you’d like to add me to your bloggieroll you can but you don’t have to :)
Thanks for sharing all the fun ornaments. I didn’y get all my Christmas stuff out or a tree one year. Big mistake. Even though it’s a lot of work it just completes the Holiday. My family would always make eggs bennidict for Christmas Day breakfast. I still keep that one up.
…your blogroll…Hell to the Yeah… I would love to be on there!
Pizza-light sauce (white when I can afford the calories), shrooms, peppers, artichoke hearts, garlic, spinich and tomato, oh and cheese. ;)
Love all the ornaments! I didn’t have a tree this year either but I am definitely getting one next year. My ornaments are too pretty to be sitting in a box!
The pizza looks amazing! Especially the rella. I would have had like 10 slices :)
Have fun on the slopes with the fam!
I’d love to be on the blogroll!!!!
My fam always has some sort of seafood on Christmas eve as a nod to my dad’s Italian heritage (although we dnot usually have seven fishes, just a few).
I know this makes me a secret (or not so secret) fat kid, but i kind of love pepperoni…
mmm pizza! sorry you didn’t feel so great afterward, but it sure looked delicious. how great to have your nieces in town, i hope they like the snow and have a great experience on the slopes. everything does taste better on holiday themed plates/mugs, etc. but sadly i dont have any!! Not a single one! But i have a plan: go shopping a couple of days after Christmas and score great clearance prices on all of the Xmas-ware…my holidays next year will be extra festive :)
Oh I’d love to be on your blogroll! I’ll double check that you’re on mine too.
Since my BF isn’t Jewish I’ve gotten to do Christmas-y things for the past 3 years and it’s been fun. On Christmas morning his mom makes sticky buns (O.M.G.) and we open presents, etc. It’s fun.
And as for pizza…I’m a bit of a pizza whore because my favorite changes all the time. I’ll also admit I like pepperoni, but I also like BBQ chicken, cheese w/fresh basil, veggie (no mushrooms or olives tho, blech) and Hawaiian. Yeah guess I’m not that picky :-)
Love the sweatshirt!
We always go out for Sushi Christmas Eve!!
And my favorite pizza is a three-way tie: Greek with spinach, feta, tomatoes and lots of garlic, BBQ Chicken and Hawaiian.
Enjoy your 5-day break!
xo
K
Happy Holidays to you and your family!!!!!!!!!
I love thin crust pizza with spinach and white cheese!! My fiance loves Chicago Deep Dish Pizza, thats where he is from, we are going to Chicago for New Years so we will be eating some of that!!!!
Happy Holidays!! xoxoxo
I hate to quote a McDonald’s commercial, but you deserve a break today! (well, yesterday) You’ll be getting a may-jah skiing workout.
Pizza is the one food I’m allowing myself while losing weight. It’s weird because I never thought I couldn’t live without it, but I just have to be ABLE to have it. Yours looked delicious and actually pretty healthy compared to a lot of the stuffed-crust cr*p that’s out there.
Loved the Tour D’Ornaments! Have fun with your fab family!!!
(PS. My bosses know I refuse to go to Costco between Thanksgiving and New Year’s so they just have to deal. We haven’t run out of Kirkland toilet paper yet!)
Your posts never cease to make me SMILLLEEE! I agree with the 7% winter. hahaha Chicago SUCKS 93% of the time during winter, but unfortunately 50% of our year is in “winter”. hahaha :P
HEY it pizza looks that good, i would have 3 slices myself…if not more actually…:P
Janetha, you are my idol. hahaha For havin’ the good old guts to buy a coffee maker for the company at Costco on the bosses tab. I wish i had the balls (or i guess…tits?) to pull that off, but it is definitely for the good of the entire firm. Kudos to you! :)
I’m a thin crust, EXTRA sauce, spinach, garlic, onion, mushrooms and grilled chicken kinda girl. teehee
I love the look of that tomato soup, total comfort food right there! Looks like we got your snow because it snowed all night and still is….bah.
Love the ornaments and THANK YOU for the cute Christmas card! :)
Jealous of your 5 days I have 3 after tomorrow : )
My fav pizza topping (when I could eat gluten and dairy!) was pepperoni so good! x
oh wow I am totally obsessed with your santa plate!! its way too cute :)
mmm pizza is so good. For some reason I think it taste better during the winter months.
have a lovely break!
i LOVE all those ornaments! so many memories there!! and your pizza is making me want some..the best pizza i ever had was at mellow mushroom w. banana peppers, chicken, spinach, and feta cheese .. YUMM!
have a lovely christmas girl!
My family always has this other family over Christmas Eve (because all of our extended family lives in Ohio. We do not live in Ohio) and we eat pounds and pounds of shrimp. LovE!!
I need mushrooms on my pizza. Cheese, yes, but there must be mushes!!!! hahah
glad you got to spend the night with your fam!
pizzas all look great, i am a veggie lover! the more veggies, the better!
jenna
i had my fave pizza in the world today, so happy.. love the pix of your ornaments.
ugh costco seriously is hell. Damn their hugh jass bags of pop chips! they lure me in every time.
ornaments are my favorite! I love that they serve as a little reminder of each Christmas. So special! Lucky mamaaaa.
aw marshall and the pooch.. the perf. motivation for an ab sess ;)
<3
i love fall the most, but fall in cali NOT on the east coast because then we hit winter too soon. i love skiing and all, but on the west coast, not the east coast. tahoe rocks my world, vermont skiing is for pansies. trust.
anyways…i digress…im mad jealous of your five day weekend, im working the next four days in a row and im gonna try and be happy about it, but lets not kid ourselves…i wanna be homeeeeeeeeeeeeee. thanks for the holiday decorations and plates, etc. made me smile :)
Wow those pizzas seriously look incredible!! YUM ;)
And your ornament tradition is so neat.
1. My mom always makes Corn & Crab Bisque on Christmas Eve, and we ALWAYS walk across the street to visit our neighbors who are like an adopted set of grandparents to me.
2. I really like Margherita style pizza with thin crusts–the way the Italians do it.
Love love love the fact that you collect ornaments- that’s more practical than what I collect from foreign lands: patches. So that when I’m 103 I can sew them all onto a blanket. Thrills.
Not gonna lie, unless your santa placemat is huge, your oats look TINY. That would fill me up for oh, about 5 minutes! :-) I guess you don’t get hunger issues!
Yah, I HATE that slothy feeling. I deal with it quite a lot actually. On the days that I’m not running around like mad, I am slothy and I feel terrible. I have a post in the queue about it. Will publish it one day. You’ll get back. I’m surprised that you would go Snowboarding and then do HIIT. Isn’t that doing double duty??
Love any pizza with very very thin crust. My fave.
We are often out of town in different places. So our tradition is to be totally nontraditional! Doh!
Hope you’re having a really super day! :-) ho ho ho!
OMG Pizza. I don’t even like pizza that much, but those look killer right now!
So, at home, I shared your Christmas card with everyone. The dogs were loved by all and my Grandma wanted to know what the shirts were about! haha so cute.
Our Christmas tradish is to go to our neighbors’ house on Christmas Eve, chat, drank, be merry. It wouldn’t feel like Christmas without it.
Onto the next! (I’m so sorry. Saving the best for last isn’t always the best method. I would never want you to feel as though I’m not reading! I love you too much for that!)
“your kids” are so cute. Like I said, I’ve hardly been on the computer but I did open up your blog really quick to show my mom (who is a major animal lover) your dogs! She agreed they are adorable!