Hope your Monday and final week before Christmas is off to a great start! While I am being a bit of a scrooge about getting in the holiday shopping spirit (yep, still haven’t started), I am enjoying the opportunity to spend time with friends and family. Last night we had friends over for dinner and tonight we are meeting friends for dinner that are in town from San Diego. So happy! Lots of other fun wine dates and reunions in the works for the next week or two. 😀

Backtracking a bit…I spent Sunday yoga-ing, relaxing around the house and cooking. It was so nice.

I spent the morning teaching the 9:15 hot class at Y2 and was really excited when Jordan introduced herself after class.

Jordan is from Charlotte but in school at Johns Hopkins and said that she and her friends are faithful blog readers. She was so sweet to come to my class while home on break! Thank you, Jordan!

I grabbed coffee with a friend after teaching and then came home and made brunch. Egg sandwiches on bagels. Mine had avocado, a scrambled egg, spinach, tomato and cheese. Apple slices and an unpictured ginger cookie on the side.

I was able to squeeze in my own 90 minute personal practice on Sunday afternoon between preparing the house for our dinner guests and getting food prepped. I went to Suzanne’s hot class at Charlotte Yoga and it was perfect, as always. Her classes always leave me feeling “reset.”

It was so nice to have our friends Matt and Lelia over for a Sunday night dinner. We were supposed to meet out somewhere but at the last minute I thought it would be cozier to have dinner at our place and I had a menu in mind (which never happens…I am so indecisive!).

I put together a quick cheese plate. I think cheese plates will forever remain one of my favorite appetizers.

We started with a salad (same one I did for our dinner Saturday night since I had everything on hand). Mixed greens, pears, almonds, blue cheese and dried cranberries with honey dijon balsamic.

Dinner was Pork Tenderloin with Balsamic-Cranberry Sauce, roasted brussels sprouts and mashed sweet potatoes. And please take note that I served the meal on our china…why oh why do I keep it locked away all the time? Does anyone else do this? It’s so festive and fun to use for random dinners.

I have had this recipe for Chocolate Whiskey Bundt Cake saved for over a year and decided that yesterday was the day to finally make it. I’m so glad that I did because it was delicious. Definitely a “grown up” spin on chocolate cake.

I served the cake with a small scoop of ice cream. It was the perfect end to our meal.

And with that I am off to finally start on some Christmas shopping before I have to teach again tonight.