This is what Christmas looked like around here – my very first time hosting a holiday & my first Christmas away from home.  It was quite the full house with mom and sissy here (plus I was pet sitting a French Bulldog named Nixon) and most of the holiday weekend was spent cooking, baking and of course, eating.  I introduced my family to the wonders of Steak n Shake, my local donut shop and showed them how awesome of a city Chicago is (isn’t that picture of the bean amazing?!).  We baked hot chocolate cookies, chocolate dipped peanut butter cookies and about 20 pounds of Nutella bread pudding.  

Now that Christmas is over, I’m left feeling exhausted and a little bit sad – it always seems to go by so quickly.  I’ve already stocked up on eight new rolls of wrapping paper for next year (50% off at Target!) and I’m definitely going to miss the glow of Francine the Christmas tree in the corner of my living room.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend that was filled with all it should be – family, laughter, food and joy – and maybe a little bit of relaxation too.