Christmas Photo Recap

Here's a little snapshot of our Christmas festivities:

And to all a good night. :-)

Happy Festivus!

One of my favorite Christmas activities is setting up a gift wrapping station on the dining room table where we can surround ourselves with ribbons, paper, bags, and bows. Yesterday we set up the table and wrapped only about half of our gifts before calling it a day. I guess we'll need another gift wrapping day soon!

Last night, Jenn and Justin came over for a little Christmas get together. Terry did a spectacular job cleaning the house while I was away at work for the morning, and we worked together to get dinner ready. We made citrus chicken, roasted Brussels sprouts, and brown rice with mushrooms and onions. Jenn also made a delicious salad with spinach, gorgonzola cheese, pecans, blueberries, and raspberry vinegar, and Terry sliced up some cheese and salami for appetizers.

Here are some photos of our Christmas decorations, since I neglected to post them earlier.

On our dining room table.

Even the bathroom joined the party!

We all exchanged gifts, and Jenn and Justin gave us a beautiful blanket for our little one and some new coasters, a particularly thoughtful gift since I've been wanting some new ones. We gave them a gluten-free slow cooker cookbook and a canvas print of their choice, which will hopefully come in handy for their recent engagement photos!

This morning Terry and I awoke rested after nine glorious hours of sleep. We took a long walk around our neighborhood and then headed out to a Christmas lunch with some of Terry's family. We had a great time catching up and especially loved hearing all the banter about the baby to be.

This evening turned out to be perfectly mellow. We changed into our pjs (our Christmas jammies?), baked sugar cookies (some of the best I've ever tasted! here's the recipe), stuck with a simple appetizer plate for dinner (apples, blueberries, cucumbers, whole wheat pita, hummus from our farmer's market, salami, sourdough bread, brie, and gouda), and cried while watching Up. Does that movie get you every time, too? It kills me.

Our plans this week:

• Lots of work at the store for me (four days, including Christmas Eve morning)
• Our next doctor appointment is tomorrow! Hopefully we'll get to see our little one or at least hear the heartbeat again.
• A few days of workouts, and I'm hoping to try to run three miles again one day.
• Perhaps a movie or two.
• As much time as possible just enjoying our quality time together. 

And happy Festivus for the rest of us!

A Day in the Life: Two Jobs Edition

Since taking on a part time, holiday-season-only job, life has really sped up around here, which is actually a good thing. With Terry gone for work so much in November, December, and January, I needed a distraction to keep me feeling like I'm a useful part of society instead of a soft lump on the couch. So here's what my day looked like Wednesday, when I worked both jobs.

Morning

2:02 am - Woke up in the middle of the night, took about 40 minutes to fall asleep again. Apparently sleeping on my stomach and back is no longer an option.
5:08 am - Alarm went off, I hit the snooze.
5:10 am - Alarm went off again, I hit the snooze.
5:10 am - Terry called me to wake me up. I barely remember this call, but it happened. It was nice to hear his voice first thing, though!
5:15 am - Showered, got dressed, dried my hair a bit, fed the cat.
5:45 am - Ate a quick bowl of cereal while making my French toast, started the tea.
6:00 am - Sat down to eat breakfast while Scout played to entertain me.
6:03 am - Scrambled to finish getting ready, packed my bag, grabbed snacks for the morning.
6:15 am - Out the door.
6:35 am - Arrived at school, subbed for a friend who was out sick. She teaches 6:45 to 1 pm, so I followed her schedule, which involved almost no breaks! I'm impressed that she does that every day (when I taught for four years, I always had my prep period in the middle of the morning, so I got some nicely spaced breaks).

Afternoon/Evening

1:00 pm - Got called to the office, which was super weird.
1:04 pm - Arrived at the office to find the best surprise ever: Terry! He came home two days early and surprised me! Woo hoo! I turned bright red and got all teary, but it was awesome.
1:20 pm - Stopped at Trader Joe's to grab a few groceries.
1:55 pm - Scrambled around the house hiding my gifts for Terry because I had planned to wrap them before he got home but obviously didn't get to it.
1:58 pm - Got started on roasting spaghetti squash and heating up marinara sauce while we also sliced up some cheese and salami for lunch.
2:10 pm - Ate lunch, watched Monday's episode of How I Met Your Mother, played with the kitten, relaxed, chatted with Terry.
3:30 pm - Terry drove me to work (one of many perks of having him home!).
4:00 pm - Started my shift at the store.
8:45 pm - Clocked out, Terry picked me up to head home.
9:05 pm - Arrived home to the dishes and laundry DONE!!!
9:10 pm - Heated up spaghetti squash with mozzarella for myself and scarfed it down, along with a bowl of cereal to bookend the day. We watched some TV and chatted while I ate, and Terry played with Scout.
10:30 pm - Got ready for bed, checked my blogs, hoped for a good night of rest.


And that was that! My routine isn't too different now that I'm pregnant, but I'm sure things will evolve over the next few months. My belly (though still not really showing according to most people but definitely there according to me) is already preventing me from bending down too quickly and from sleeping on my side or back, but those are minor adjustments so far.

Today we even managed a pretty tough workout together. I made up my own version of the 1000 Rep Workout:

Complete 10 reps of each exercise; complete 10 rounds total. Exercises are all body weight exercises, unless indicated. If using dumbbells, choose a light weight--you are doing 100 reps, after all.

• Bent over dumbbell rows
• Walking lunges (5 per side)
• Dumbbell biceps curls
• Plie squats
• Push ups (<--you better believe I did all of these on my knees)
• Squats
• Dumbbell overhead shoulder press 
• Dumbbell chest press
• Glute bridges
• Bench dips

I definitely feel fatigued after that one! Somehow, though, we mustered up more energy to make one of our favorite comfort meals: shepherd's pie. We loosely follow Sunny Anderson's recipe minus the mushroom gravy, and today we used bison meat. Hello deliciousness! And the best part...plenty of leftovers! Even Terry, with three servings, couldn't even eat half the dish.

I also baked up a new-to-me brownie recipe, promised to be the best I've ever had. They're in the oven now, and the house smells heavenly, so I'll let you know what I think!

Oh, and since I mentioned it, here's one of my maternity purchases from this weekend. Burgundy pants aren't normally something I'd be brave enough to buy, but I feel like I can make them work. 

Hope you had an awesome day! 

A Wonderful Surprise for WIAW

Another Wednesday here and another round of foods. Interestingly, even though I initially reportedthat I have no aversions, I’ve stumbled upon quite a few “problem” foods that, for one reason or another, have caused enough trauma to make me want to avoid them. That list includes:

• Chipotle—I’ve now gotten two severe cases of stress stomach (aggravation of my nonulcer dyspepsia) immediately after eating Chipotle, so while I still enjoy the food, I think it’s best to avoid it altogether. But man, they have good guacamole.
• Candied nuts—This one is so strange. While we were in Europe and I was only a few weeks pregnant, Terry went crazy over the candied nuts available at Oktoberfest. I ate a few handfuls one day, but after that I felt completely repulsed whenever I smelled them around Europe (which, surprisingly, was rather often). Ironically, we never eat or buy candied almonds here in LA, but of course one day (before we had announced the pregnancy), we went to a football game with Terry’s family, and Terry’s uncle kept offering everyone—what else?—candied almonds. Ugh. My stomach churned every time they went by, but since we weren't announcing yet I had to just deal.
• Morning tea—Another weird one. Most books and my doctor agree that some caffeine (up to 250 mg, or about one or two cups of coffee) each day is okay. I don’t drink coffee, but normally I love my morning cup of tea. Lately (just the last two weeks or so), while I still think tea sounds good, I’m just not enjoying the taste. So I may need to find a new morning routine to enjoy, because sipping out of my mug while curling up with the kitten—even for five minutes—makes the mornings just a little bit better. Perhaps five minutes of reading or stretching instead…
• Sweets—I did mention this one last time, but I feel it’s worth another shout out because I never would have expected it. I think I assumed my sweet tooth would get even more intense with pregnancy (although, when you crave sweets after breakfast, how much worse can it get?), but it’s gone the other way. Some days, I don’t eat any dessert. It’s not an aversion; it’s just a lack of desire. And that’s just so strange.

But overall, I’ve enjoyed most foods as I normally do, especially homemade foods. I think the Chipotle incidents have made me nervous about eating out. But I went to Lazy Dog Café the other day and enjoyed their chicken hummus salad and edamame without any problems. Here’s what I ate today:

Since my morning started extra early (I subbed for a teacher whose schedule begins at 6:45), I ate an extra hearty breakfast to get me through to lunch—a small bowl of cereal plus one and a half pieces of French toast topped with peanut butter, sliced almonds, and syrup.

For my midmorning snacks I had an apple around 9 am and then a KIND bar at 11 am. I grabbed a small brownie from the faculty room before the last class of the day, around noon. It was only okay.

And then I got the world’s best Christmas present: Terry came home early!!! He was supposed to arrive Friday, but he showed up at my school and was waiting in the office when I finished work. Of course, several of my friends were in the office at the time, so I turned bright red, but I was too thrilled to see Terry to be embarrassed. What a wonderful way to celebrate the season! I was even happier than the time I bought all those OXO containers:

On the way home, we stopped for a few groceries at TJs. I had a giant spaghetti squash waiting for us at home, and I couldn’t wait to roast it up to enjoy with that spinach, some marinara, and mozzarella. But since that process too awhile, we decided to plate up a big board of salami, cheeses, crackers, hummus, and cucumbers, plus a spinach salad. We also nibbled on a few Christmas cookies, a gift from our neighbor. I left the squash for Terry for dinner and headed to work.

After a fun, quick day of work, I heated up some leftover spaghetti squash with mozzarella and then devoured another bowl of cereal. 

And now I'm so tired from it all that I can't eat or write anymore. It was a long day, but a wonderful surprise in the middle made it a fantastic one. I still can't believe Terry is home for the holidays (at least through the first weekend in January!), and I'm beyond thrilled. 

Another little fun surprise today was a sweet gift from my mom--more maternity clothes! She got my some leggings and a few tops. I'll be sure to snap some photos of my maternity outfits, because I've found it pretty tough to do maternity shopping. Mostly, I've stuck with Pea in the Pod (sale items only) and Motherhood. I'll let you know how I feel about the quality once I've worn things a few times!

Hope you had as wonderful a day as I did!

Gift Guides Galore

It turns out that, even though first trimester is over (good riddance), I'm still feeling major effects of fatigue in situations that surprise me. Granted, I've kept myself rather active and busy, but the exhaustion sets in sooner than I expect and just knocks me out.

Sunday I spent a few hours shopping; Monday I subbed and then worked at the store; today I cleaned house and then ran about ten Christmas errands. And now that I've sat down to write this post, I don't think I can get up again.

(Just kidding. I totally just got up to get a bowl of cereal. What can I say? The power of food is apparently greater than the power of exhaustion.)

No, it's not cereal, but it's a nice photo.

These past few days have felt rather productive, though, and I'm pretty close to finishing my Christmas shopping. And I actually love the whole shopping experience. Finding the perfect gift for someone makes me so happy. And this year has been a good one; I feel like I ended up with too many ideas for most people, rather than walking around aimlessly, desperate to just purchase something and get home.

A lot of bloggers have created some awesome gift-giving guides. I love the idea of a gift guide, but it's just not going to happen for me this year, so I thought I would link to some of my favorite gift lists if you (like me) still have some shopping to do!

• Peanut Butter Fingers: Foodie Finds
• Peanut Butter Fingers: Fashion and Beauty Finds
• Peanut Butter Fingers: Fitness Finds
• Peanut Butter Fingers: Gifts that Give Back
• N Her Shoes: Hubs' 25 Manly Stocking Stuffer Ideas
• N Her Shoes: Holiday Gift Guide
• Fitnessista: Stocking Stuffers and Homemade Gifts
• Fitnessista: Gift Guide for Your Fitness-Loving Friend
• Fitnessista: Gift Guide for Your Guy
• Fitnessista: Gift Guide for the Little One
• Fitnessista: Gift Guide for New Mamas and Moms-to-Be

And just for fun I chose a few ideas of my own, both reasonably priced and splurge options:

For the fitness lover in your life: New workout clothes (I'm always more motivated when I have fun, stylish, comfortable clothes!)--I like TJ Maxx and Marshall's--or a Polar Heart Rate Monitor 

My favorite jacket from UnderArmour

For the home chef: The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook, any Ina Garten cookbook, or a nice slow cooker (we have all of these items and use them regularly; I guarantee satisfaction!)

For your guy: This shirt:

Why not?

For anyone special in your life: An "experience" gift. My favorite gifts to give and receive are those that involve going somewhere, doing something, spending time with the person to whom I'm giving the gift. A few years ago I surprised Terry with a trip to Denver for a brewery tour trip, and it's still one of our favorite vacations (and he says it was one of his favorite gifts!). You can't go wrong with tickets to a sporting event, a night out to dinner followed by ice skating, or supplies for a mellow picnic at home with a new-to-you movie.

Hope you're enjoying the holiday season! What's your favorite gift (given or received) of all time? 

Currently...

I love reading these posts when other bloggers do them. It's a good way to provide a little snapshot of what's going on, especially since I've struggled with a regular blogging routine lately. I'm not able to blog when I sub, and on days that I work at the store I have a tough time feeling motivated to write a quality post at 9:30 pm. So now here's a little insight into life around here lately.

Eating...overnight oats! During my first trimester, large amounts of dairy weren't my jam. But lately I've been able to eat yogurt, ice cream, milk, and cheese with no problems. So when Terry requested overnight oats the other day, I made a bowl for myself, too...and LOVED them all over again!

Reading...Bringing Up Bebe by Pamela Druckerman, a recommendation from my friend Jenn. It's a book that follows an American woman raising her first child in Paris, observing and researching the major differences between French and American children. Terry and I are reading it together and loving it! It's so interesting to read about a different culture's childcare and child rearing customs.

Feeling...the Christmas spirit.

Learning...firsthand what round ligament pain is and how uncomfortable it is. Some parts of pregnancy are tougher than others, but even the painful stuff makes me feel like I'm right on track.

Finding...new clothes! A few of my friends have mentioned that they wish they had gotten into maternity clothes sooner, so I figured 15 weeks was as good a time as any to splurge on some new stuff for myself. I found a few pairs of leggings, some sweaters, and new bras. My mom had already bought me a few shirts, and I got a pair of maternity jeans from Old Navy around week 12, so I feel pretty happy for the time being. Hopefully these items will last me the rest of this pregnancy AND through the next one!

Missing...Terry. But I'm so thankful he'll be back quickly this time around!

Planning...our babymoon! We have no idea where we're going yet, but we're throwing around some ideas. Warm and tropical? Somewhere with snow? Local? Far away? Any suggestions?

Loving...my body. I'm so excited about my growing belly and learning what it means to accept whatever else grows, too (hips, thighs, tush...it's all happening). I'm also so proud that my legs carried me three miles jogging yesterday!

Wondering...why this guy chose to sunbathe in our apartment complex's parking lot. We have TWO pools.

What about you? Anything fun going on?

365 Breakfast Casserole

As long as I can remember, my mom has made her breakfast casserole every Christmas morning. Occasionally she would bake it for some other special occasion, but on Christmas we could count on this delicious dish alongside Cinnabon cinnamon rolls (she'd stop at the mall a day or so in advance to pick some up for us to share), fresh berries, and, as we got older, mimosas.

Of course, growing up, the casserole included white bread and 2% milk and a few other ingredients I prefer to avoid now that we're eating real food as much as possible. So this week I finally created the real food approved version of this beloved dish, and I am happy to report that it's just as delicious as my mom's! I called it a 365 Breakfast Casserole because it's no longer a splurge--it's perfect for any day of the year. (But if you're going for the Cinnabon on the side, stick to once a year.)

365 Breakfast Casserole

Serves 8, because people are going to want seconds

*Note: This is an overnight recipe. You'll make the dish before bed and bake it in the morning.

• Butter to grease the casserole dish
• 10-12 pieces whole wheat bread (ideally, find whole wheat bread with as few ingredients as possible)
• 6 eggs
• 3 cups whole milk
• your choice of "fillings" (ideas below)--about 3 cups total
• salt and pepper to taste
• your favorite cheese, grated, 2-4 ounces

Lightly grease a 9x13 casserole dish with butter and set aside. 

Cube up your bread slices. I cut them three times across each way so I end up with 16 squares per piece of bread, but you can go slightly bigger or smaller. I think my mom removes the crusts, and I think she just leaves the bread pieces whole and layers two slices of bread in the casserole dish, so go with what works for you. Either way, the entire bottom of your dish should be layered evenly with bread.

Next up: work on your filling. You can get creative here! You'll need to roast or saute your fillings so they are fully cooked before adding them to the dish. Here are some ideas:

• sauteed onion
• sauteed bell peppers
• wilted spinach
• cooked and crumbled bacon, sausage, pancetta, and/or ham
• roasted zucchini or other squash
• sauteed mushrooms

Once you've cooked your fillings, sprinkle them evenly over the bread. You could even make a half-and-half casserole if you have folks with different likes and dislikes (my mom loves mushrooms, so her corner always has tons, but the rest of us stick with a normal amount). 

Next, sprinkle most of your grated cheese over the fillings. I like to leave a little for the end to sprinkle on top to brown a bit. 

Time for the egg mixture: Whisk the eggs and milk in a medium bowl, along with salt and pepper to taste. Then pour the egg-milk mixture over the cheese, fillings, and bread. If you saved some cheese, sprinkle it on top. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. The bread will soak up the egg mixture, and you'll get a light, fluffy texture when you bake this baby!

In the morning, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and remove the foil from your casserole dish. Bake, uncovered, for 35-40 minutes, or until a small knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 

Enjoy! It's a great meal to prepare alongside dinner (you can saute some extra veggies while you cook dinner and throw the casserole together before bed) and perfect for a weekend brunch. You could make it at the beginning of the week and enjoy it reheated each morning, too. Of course, it's also awesome for Christmas morning.

What fillings would you choose? I think my favorite ever was a combo of spinach, bell peppers, onion, and bacon. Hearty and filling!