<This afternoon I chomped on cashews, turkey and cheese. No pic, just crumbs to show for it.>
Dinah! There was a Groupon for Garlic Gold a few weeks ago and I jumped on it! I’ve been pouring it on everything savory since it got here. These nuggets take garlic toast to a magical level. Have you tried it?!
Tonight Ben and I finally decorated our tree (it’s been up for over a week just sitting there). To fully get in the mood Ben got really drunk and did impression of my family members sang Christmas carols while I made cookies.
I have come to terms with the fact that I am a bad baker. It wouldn’t be that unfortunate except for the fact that I am a very good eater. And I like baked goods.
So, I threw together chocolate chip cookies and when they came out decent I was super jazzed! (Yes, those chocolate chips are in fact a chopped up dark chocolate bar. Work with what you got.)
First in a bowl: 1/3c Peanut Butter, 1/3 packed brown sugar, 1/4c egg whites, dash vanilla. Mix well.
Add to that bowl: 1/2c white flour, dash salt, big dash baking soda. Mix. Add chocolate chips. Baked at 350 until they were firm. 
I know a lot of people have special Christmas traditions or rituals for their decorations. Ben I don’t have any holiday traditions of our own yet, but we do try to buy ornaments from the places we visit.
This is a Swallow from Mission San Juan Capistrano 
A butterfly from Panama!
And an ornament from our honeymoon in Belize <3
Lop-sided, but loved.
Have you been naughty or nice? You can use Santa’s Nice-o-meter to find out what he thinks.
My boyfriend and I do the same thing! It makes it so fun t decorate the tree and relive the travels we’ve taken together. This year we get to add the ornament we just bought in London!
Your tree looks beautiful, makes me excited to put mine up…perhaps tomorrow night?
Well according to Santa I’m in the nice category so far 🙂
I don’t have many traditions, except for we try and hit all of our various facets of family. They all live close, so it’s sort of a guilt trip from each section. But there’s just so many of them! I have no idea what we’ll do once we have kids.
My family’s always done the same thing with Christmas ornaments- I love that then when you’re decorating the tree you inevitably just end up talking about fun stories from some family vacation 15 or 20 years ago. Christmas trees are more fun when all the ornaments have stories.
Phew, Santa said I’ve been super nice 😉 Hopefully he brings me that puppy I’m asking for!
Your dinner looks awesome! Oh, and those cookies too 🙂
We’re getting our tree this weekend, and I have a lot of ornaments from my childhood that get special places on the tree. I love the idea of getting ornaments from places you’ve visited, I wish we got one from our honeymoon! I may have to adopt your tradition, that’s too sweet!
I love the idea of getting an ornament from vacation sites. I got one from my first marathon last week, and I wish more expos would sell them! Not just races that happen close to Christmas.
I’m to scared to look. 🙂 I’m just gonna go with nice.
Hey.. at least your tree is UP. A friend of our went up to the mountains and brought us back a freshly chopped down tree.
Its still in a bucked of water in the back yard.
Love your ornaments. We usually buy a couple new ones each year or let the kids pick one out.
That nice & naughty list thing is great! It said I was nice but should eat more veggies! Lol
I bought the GG groupon, too, but haven’t gotten mine in the mail yet! I’m dying b/c I’ve never tried them before…………!
We buy magnets for our fridge on every vacation. Ornaments are a better idea b/c our fridge is starting to look a little crazy.
No Vegas ornament?? 😉 Your tree is cute.
Be naughty and save Santa the trip! ;)!
Love that 🙂
My boyfriend (also named Ben) and I put up our Christmas tree this weekend. I really like the idea of getting an ornament from each travel destination, I might have to “borrow” it and start buying ornaments from everywhere we go! How does this go over when you are buying ornaments in June?
We’ve always been able to find ornaments while traveling in the summer 🙂