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A Happy and Sad Weekend

Hey friends. I hope your week is off to a great start.

I’m backtracking to the weekend for this post…it was a very happy and very sad weekend. Happy because I got all of my Christmas decorations up and my house is feeling festive and sad because the Dawgs lost to Alabama in the SEC Championship. That was a HUGE bummer, especially since we were playing so well for most of the game.

Here are some photos of our weekend, including my Christmas decor and the cutest little Bulldog fan!

Here is my living room fireplace/mantle decor. I picked up these initial monogram stockings at Target last week and I love them! I did big ones for Finn and myself and small ones for the girls.

A friend who is moving to Arizona gave me some of her Christmas decorations, including this nativity scene. I am in love with it!

And thank you guys, so very much, for the encouragement to go for an artificial tree this year. It’s the first time in my life that I haven’t had a real tree but I also really appreciated the ease of bringing this home and getting it set up…and I think it looks pretty darn nice! My favorite thing about it is that you can switch between white and colored lights and also set it to do light shows, which I am sure Finn will love!

I was somewhat dreading pulling out all of the Christmas decorations and doing the holiday stuff this year but I have to say that it wasn’t nearly as unpleasant as I’d thought it would be and I actually loved doing it. I’m embracing the season and making memories with my sweet boy!

Virginia came over for dinner on Friday night and I made chicken thighs (using my spiced chicken recipe…so easy and good!), roasted broccoli and roasted sweet potatoes.

Chef Alyssa's Kitchen

Finn and I headed over to Chef Alyssa’s Kitchen on Saturday morning for a free brunch event.

Chef Alyssa's Kitchen Brunch

I met Alyssa over seven years ago when I first started teaching yoga. It’s been so much fun to watch her career take off here in Charlotte. She and her husband own and operate Chef Alyssa’s Kitchen. They offer amazing cooking classes, kids camps, corporate catering and now Saturday brunch! I got to try some of the brunch menu items and they were delicious. I had a southern bowl with mixed potatoes, brussels sprouts, housemade bacon and an egg. I also had a gluten-free sorghum blueberry muffin. While I did not order the pancake tacos, I had to take a photo of them because what a genius idea!!!!

Chef Alyssa's Kitchen

They just moved into a new space four months ago and it’s incredible! Super bright, clean and open. I am going to have to get myself to one of her classes soon! And I’ll definitely be back for brunch.

Related…Finn was an excellent brunch date. Just in the last few weeks he has started making consonant sounds and is “talking” up a storm. He was babbling to me the whole time I was eating. Also related, I loved listening to this podcast about baby talk on Hidden Brain.

The rest of my Saturday included a coffee meeting + watching the very, very sad game.

I ended the evening on the couch and made another veggie burger bowl with leftovers from last week. This time I also added a dollop of hummus.

This is what most of our mornings look like. This is a delivery/nursing robe from Pink Blush but you would never know that it was made for that because it fits like a normal robe!

Our morning activity was a trip to Ikea to buy the cheap high chair that everyone raves about. I seriously received so many Instagram DMs about this thing so we are giving it a try. At $23, it’s a steal and everyone loves that it doesn’t have fabric and is easy to hose off. We also stopped by Old Navy and Marshall’s.

Finn took such a long afternoon nap that it was dark by the time I got him fed and headed out for our walk. I threw on my reflective vest for safety and enjoyed looking at the Christmas lights on our walk. It was also unseasonably warm, which was nice!

My weekend ended with cake and an early bedtime.

Which all the creatures in the house were on board with.

See you guys again tomorrow! 🙂

Do you have your Christmas decorations up? 

Any reflective products you love for dark runs/walks? (I’m trying to figure out how to light up the stroller…haha)

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