Laughing

A new tradition

Hi! Can you believe it’s almost Christmas? I’m very excited to spend time with mine and Jimmy’s families. This time of year–when we remember and celebrate Christ’s birth–is incredibly special. The traditions and festivities are always so memorable, too. Over the weekend, my mom and I decided to start a new tradition. We got together and spent the day baking cookies and treats, and assembled the baked goods on trays to give to our neighbors.

23775264431_83b68eadf5_k

I think that we spent about eight hours baking. I’m sure four of those hours were probably spent laughing. I don’t know what it was, but we had a major case of the giggles all day. It could have been because my hand twitched when I was holding candy eyeballs?

23240090273_94b7690765_o

Then I said something (I can’t remember what) and it made my mom laugh so hard that she drooled on a cookie…which we promptly threw away. We also burned a batch of gingersnaps and couldn’t figure out why. It turned out that we accidentally used wax paper to line the cookie sheet instead of parchment. Yikes!

My sister and her boyfriend were at my parent’s house for a little while on Saturday, and they wanted me to take pictures of them by the Christmas tree. Hannah’s boyfriend was helping her get ready and I walked by the bathroom and saw him blow drying her hair. It was such a sweet moment!

23562029550_511716c1d4_k23749396502_6f9ba25624_k

It was also nice to hang out with my parent’s dogs, Brandy and Reggie. When I talk to Jimmy about them I sometimes refer to them as one unit and call them “Breggie” haha.

My mom and I ended up making sugar cookies, gingersnaps, Russian tea cakes (also called snowballs or Mexican wedding cookies), peanut butter blossoms, penguin cookies, chocolate crinkles, cranberry bars, and peppermint bark. We both agreed that either the cranberry bars or the penguins were the hardest thing to make because they required so many different steps and ingredients. The easiest cookies were probably the Russian tea cakes. The treat that was the biggest hit was the peppermint bark.

PicMonkey Collage23749379762_4648790b25_k 23229591574_8458ad2b7f_k

Jimmy and I delivered cookie trays to seven of our neighbors on Sunday afternoon, and I don’t think I stopped smiling for the rest of the day. We both agreed that it felt amazing and like it was the least we could do to give back to the people who have been so friendly and welcoming to us since we moved to our community in 2014.

Do you bake around Christmas time?
What’s your favorite type of cookie?

Family time

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Hebrews 7:25

All week last week my 3 bedroom house held 9 people instead of 5. It was insanity. Fun insanity.

Yes, that would be my crazy hair flying in the wind.

My mom’s sister and her 3 kids (my cousins!) came from New York to Pittsburgh for their spring break.

(My momma on the left and her lil sis on the right)

All of the cousins together:

Idk why we were forced to wear hats for this picture…? Random!

What did we do the whole week?

*Ate

*Shopped

*Laughed

Seriously, that about sums it up!! It was such a fun visit, though I wish I hadn’t had classes the whole week. UGH. Us girls stayed up late a few nights just laughing and laughing. The whole family ate at a Pittsburgh Classic… Primati’s Bro’s!

I ordered a Greek salad because all of their classic sandwiches included meat. 😦 Boo. In case you didn’t know, Primanti’s is famous in Pittsburgh because they put fries AND cole slaw IN their sandwiches! This was my first Greek salad and I totally loved it. The bread on top was the best part though 😉 hahaha.

Another random update… that  is my dog Eddie. He was in the car on the way to the vet.

He has to have surgery on Wednesday because he has a tumor :/ blaaah I am super scared for him!

Well, I hope everyone has a good day today. I should be hanging out with my bff and attending my last week of classes *woot*!