{weekend notes}

It’s Monday peeps. 7 days till Christmas. Oh my. 13 days till 2018! Holy shit! It’s about to get real. I’ve been working overtime on my to-do list so I can relax and enjoy the final days of the most wonderful time of the year. And this weekend was just that. A perfect mix of friends + family. Holiday + relaxing. Cooking pretty food + eating all the pretty food. How are you spending the final days of 2017?

Intentions for the Week:

hand + foot girls exchange
watch Bay ride
find the perfect striped top
clean backyard after the nasty wind
get my Christmas hair done
complete friend/hostess gifts
teacher gift
find shoes for Bay’s Christmas dress
purchase gift cards
get 15K steps per day
chill out and enjoy the last few days of the Holiday season

What’s on your list for the week?

You can read last weeks intentions here {weekend notes}

Highlights from the weekend…..

Friday Night //

All Friday nights should start with pizza!

And girlfriends. Bay’s girlfriends, this time.

She invited 3 friends for a sleepover + Fab 40’s.

S U R P R I S E

Not just driving the Fab 40’s like the girls thought. I surprised them with a carriage ride though the Fab 40’s. Which made it so much more special. You see, all 4 of these girls are completely 100% horse crazy.

To be honest, I was a little surprised too!!

I’ve been trying to get a carriage ride booked since the end of October. With NO luck. Called every carriage company. On every wait-list. NO calls. So, we decided to just go for it and drive/walk the Fab 40’s Friday.

Around 3pm, the Top Hand Ranch called with an opening.

for 5 people

at 7pm

the same day!

It was meant to be ♥

And since it was so last-minute, they gave me a helluva deal too.

These girls were in heaven!!!

We sang Christmas carols. We wised every passerby a Merry Christmas. We laughed. It made my day to not only see Bay happy as could be, but her favorite girls with the biggest smiles ever.

Each year Bay + I count all the peace signs. We found 12 of them this year.

I highly recommend booking a carriage ride through the Fab 40’s. 1 hour cruising up and down the Fab 40’s was one I surely wont forget!!!

A trip to the Fab 40’s wouldn’t be complete without a stop at Rick’s Dessert Diner for milkshakes!

#sugarhigh

….and they’re out. This was around 2am…ha!!!

Donut delivery in the morning!

Brunch //

Saturday morning I hosted a brunch with my girlfriends. We did our annual Favorite Things exchange. Always, always a good time.

Even when your power goes out 1 hour before the start time.

FML!

Thank god it was only out for a short time.

It did allow some time to take extra pictures.

The pretty table

The pretty food

I made some killer potatoes. Sliced thin with a mandoline and baked in a cupcake pan. I will be sharing this recipe soon. Stay tuned…it’s a good one!!!

Baked brie topped with homemade apricot jam. Christmas tree crackers from BevMo. Spiced nuts (Lori Carrion’s recipe) and some rosemary to make it pretty.

The pretty Christmas Cake

Sugared cranberries + rosemary for my Christmas Cake. No joke, this is a pain in the ass. So worth it though. They not only look snowy and beautiful, but they taste pretty damn good too. This recipe coming this week too!! Thinking about doing a Christmas treats + sweets post.

The pretty girls

The pretty gifts

Have you seen these $10 sheets of scratchers? Well done Sarah, well done.

Toni won $100

I won….

Ha! I never win.

We ended up with 1 of each persons favorite thing. Pioneer women measuring bowls. Scratchers. The softest scarf of all time. Wine (Chard) + make up bag. Pioneer women microwavable bowl.

I love all the things.

And I’m going to share my table + recipes this week!!

Slow Sunday’s //

Only 6 more sleeps till Christmas.

I wrapped…I mean bagged!!

How cute are these gift bags from Serendipity Boutique.

12 bags for $5! You can’t beat that. And you don’t need a gift tag. SCORE!!!

No working during drinking hours….can I get a Hell Yeah!

we made a pit stop at Blue Note for a beer with the parents.

Remember when we’d be here every Friday night? I miss those Friday nights.

I need to find this girl a giant connect four game.

And we found some old friends too!

Finished the night off with a big bowl of posole. It was so so good. I might have to share this recipe too!

Hope you all had a good one. I keep thinking that Christmas is going to be here next weekend. In less than one week. Even more real is that 2018 will be there in 2 weeks. How crazy is that?!!? Here to finishing off 2017 with a bang!!

xoxo stacyb