Annual Christmas Shopping Trip

This weekend was our annual Christmas shopping trip to Easton! 

One of the highlights of the trip every year is wearing our matching cupcake hats. People go totally bonkers for them!! All day long, in every store, these hats cause a commotion!

Merry Christmas!

We had dinner at Brio! Wedge salads!

And pasta! Then we went back to the hotel and watched a House Hunters marathon.

Avocado toast for breakfast at the Courtyard by Marriott. You get two hard boiled egg halves with your toast, but Mom doesn't like eggs so Mer and I got to split hers. Three halves each! Plus today is Mer's birthday, so birthday breakfast!!

Lunch at Brassica! A delicious way to end the shopping weekend.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! We decided to have a fire pit on the deck this year. It was toasty!

 

Cheers! Fairytale of New York, our favorite holiday cocktail.

In the spirit of giving, Mer and Pete allowed Felix to tear up this stuffed squirrel. It already had a little tear in it, so they figured he could finish it off. Felix LOVES getting to destroy a stuffie.

He worked really hard on it and removed all of the stuffing guts.

Destroyed!

Carcass.

I accidentally took this photo while taking photos of Felix, and I think it turned out cool!

Carving the turkey.

Felix and Lucy got to eat the giblets! Look what GOOD dogs they are.

Lucky pups!

Dinner was delicious!

Mer and I went to the basement fridge to put some leftovers away and the dogs watched us like hawks.

Time for pie! Mom and Little Kate made apple pies!

And I made pumpkin!

Yum. Happy Thanksgiving, friends!

Happy Sweet 16, Little Kate!

Happy Birthday to Little Kate! Her birthday was the 11th, but this was the first date we could all get together to celebrate. I made wedge salads!

And Mer made French onion soup! It was a delightful match.

Make a wish!

Sixteen candles.

I hope you have an amazing year!

Composting Event

Athens Hocking Recycling Center held a composting event today! Mom and I went to check it out, and it was so fun! The idea was that you could come with your leftover pumpkins from Halloween, and smash them! 

There was a pulley system set up where you could raise the pumpkin all the way to the top of the composting facility, then drop it to the ground to smash. You can see that behind me. Then they had a station where you could choose your tool of destruction! They had an axe, a baseball bat, a crowbar, a sword, and more! I chose the axe!

And Mom chose the baseball bat! It was so cool to see the composting facility, and learn about their systems. They also had pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and coffee. We'll definitely go back next year!

TikTok Cooking Club

Valerie hosted us for Cooking Club this month, and the theme was "Fucking TikTok" or #foodtok. The idea was to make a recipe that you've seen on TikTok or other social media! Sadly, Nancy has a cold so she wasn't able to join us.

Yumi made a scrumptious jalapeño popper dip!

Summer did an egg taco recipe that was exciting to watch! First she fried some feta in a pan, and then she crack an egg in.

Then she put that on top of a tortilla with guacamole!

The egg yolk mixed with the spices to create a sauce.

It was delightful!

I made the infamous baked feta pasta. You bake a block of feta with a bunch of cherry tomatoes and olive oil.

Then you stir in freshly cooked pasta and it becomes creamy, tangy deliciousness!

Emily made this glorious baked cauliflower with tahini dressing. It was soooo good.

Valerie made a loaf of pull apart garlic bread, and Golden Girl salad.

The salad was super flavorful, and the bread had delicious pools of garlic nestled inside. YUM!

Val also made a French Apple Cake, to end the night! We had a lot of fun enjoying recipes from TikTok. I never really followed recipes on there before, but I will now!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I've been celebrating all week. I got a skeleton onesie at Aldi for $14.99 and it has been such a comfortable costume. I've always wanted to try painting my face with skull makeup. Cheers!

On Friday we went to a party at Chelsea's house. We stopped by Mom and Dad's on the way there.

I love Mom's ghosts!

Spooky!

Ahhhh!!!

Chelsea had pitchers of wine with EYEBALLS in them!

Piñata chaos!

Kyle and me! The weirdest thing about skull makeup was feeling like I shouldn't smile.

After Chelsea's party, we went to Casa for some dancing!

And some Unicorn Pegasuses. It's PICKLES!!

 
 

On Saturday we went uptown for the Honey for the Heart parade! It was a rainy day but that doesn't stop Athens.

 

We popped into Tony's for refreshments.

Emily went as Dorothy from Wizard of Oz and she looked exactly like her!! So good.

Then we went to see Emily's show at Central Venue! 

After that, we went to Bagel Street Deli for a Halloween party. They do a theme every year, and this year they turned the restaurant into an airport! It was so cool! Yumi and Suzie!

Janna, Jodie, Yumi and Suzie!

Inside the terminal.

 

The drink cart!

Dancing!

And then finally tonight was Trick or Treat! Look, Scott and I are twins! And I realized it's still fine to smile even with the skull makeup.

Michele and Scott at the Trick or Treat fire.

Mom!

Mom and Dad!

Trick or Treat!

Vana, Joe, Jasper, and Baby Violet!

Derrick, Kayla, and Levi (being shy!)!

I held down the fort and passed out candy while the little ones went Trick or Treating around the block.

Luigi, Mario, and Princess Peach!

Happy Halloween!