I’m excited to share with you a little holiday recap from the past couple of months!
I’ve been meaning to get this post out for a bit now. I finally sat myself down with an iced toasted white chocolate mocha from Starbucks and my sweet Pepper cat to help me.
There isn’t a lot of festive photos this time around, but I still really enjoyed the holidays! Since we had only taken in Pepper in July, I didn’t want the hassle of putting up a tree for her to knock it down or destroy bulbs. And trust me, she would have had a blast doing that. 🙂
My parents and I went to the Huntington Mall in West Virginia sometime in December. This is probably the only place with a Christmas tree I took photos of (it’s the very first photo you see in the post), which is very un-blogger like, haha. I’ll do better this year!
This is a frequent place for my mom and I to sit while dad shops at Dick Sporting Goods for fishing stuff.
Even though it doesn’t have a tree in it, you can see some festive items from the cutest little cafe, Market St, about 45 minutes away from me. I love to stop in there! My frozen coffee from Dunkin is ALWAYS yummy. We don’t have one nearby, so we take advantage when we come across one.
My Office
I used our kitchen table as my desk for the longest time, both for work and for blogging. I really wanted an actual desk and to make an office out of one of our spare bedrooms. My best friend was so kind to make it my birthday gift, and I was thrilled to get it set up. My hubby was the best and put it together for me.
Next, I needed a comfy chair! I did so much research on chairs and there were just so many different kinds. My husband thought I was silly for all the aesthetic ones I was picking out, and he thought they would never be comfortable. That was likely true for many of them, but still! I finally found one that had great reviews for comfort, and it still was very pretty and the white went well with my desk.
I was incredibly blessed that most of the chair was paid for by a giveaway that Erica did from Coming Up Roses! It was a $75 Amazon gift card and put it to good use with the chair.
Fishing Adventures
While I am most certainly not the best at fishing, it was nice to pick up a new hobby that I could spend time with Kyle. He is always so busy working to provide for our little family. It made him over-the-moon happy when I went with him, and I really enjoyed that.
This paylake is beautiful and it’s so peaceful and quiet there. I’m sure not all of the time, but since we went very late for fishing season, there was barely anyone there. I caught my first fish late last year just to the right of the bottom photo. What’s not pictured here is our cooler that I filled with plenty of snacks!
All The Yummy Foods!
Because it was the holidays, I let myself enjoy all the yummy foods! Maybe a little too much, but hey, I’m back on track now…for the most part, ha ha.
Olive Garden is a favorite of mine, and I always get the same thing: five-cheese ziti. Yum! I went with my parents and we had a wonderful time. I am always a fan of coffee, and a holiday favorite that my local coffee shop still makes for me is their raspberry white chocolate macchiato. It’s so good, and super pretty too!
I started making these snack boards (I really don’t feel mine are fancy enough to call them charcuterie at this point!) at home for me and my hubby, and they’ve been fun. Not all of them were as healthy as the one in this picture though, ha ha.
I made some yummy desserts for our church dinners that we do every Tuesday, including the individual pineapple upside down cakes in muffin tins and banana cream pudding (I use vanilla pudding in mine, but of course put fresh banana slices in it) you see in the photo above.
My coffees here are not as pretty as my local shop, but still yummy. My hubby loves McDonald’s mocha frappes, so his in the photo along with an iced cappuccino from Tim Hortons for me. The photo below is for chicken taco night. I love throwing it in the crockpot to make things easy. Sadly, Kyle hates the texture of things in the crockpot, so I don’t do it very often – but he’s always a good sport about it.
Funny story: I put this on for four hours on this side of my kitchen, only to remember four-ish hours later that this side’s outlets don’t work anymore. It was FAIL! Ha ha. Not sure what happened to this side of the kitchen, but we really need to get it taken care of soon.
I hope this holiday recap brought a little magic to your day! I always feel like the holidays just feel a little more special than other times during the year. But we can definitely bring that magic along with us into February and beyond. 🙂
Stay safe out there for all of you who are in this winter storm right now! As I’m typing this, we have freezing rain and are in the ice storm portion of the storm. So I’m praying our power doesn’t go out, and the very same for all of you!
Teresa says
Enjoyed everything I read.
I’m so happy to hear that! <3
Ok, you are killing it with all of the delicious food and drinks! I really need to go to Tim Hortons (I think we only have 1 in St. Louis) and try it sometime. And, you have me craving Olive Garden now. I really like your desk area! So clean and organized! I am hoping to get a desk area set up this year.
Carrie
curlycraftymom.com
Aww, thanks, haha! I think you’d really like their iced capps, and you can get them light since I know you don’t like a lot of sugar. I’m sorry I have you craving Olive Garden when you’re all snowed in and can’t get out, haha. We are getting a lot of ice right now, so I’m ready for this storm to be over with. Thanks so much, I have no doubt you’ll get your desk all set up and it will be awesome!
Love this recap Ashley! The desk is great and dying over the yummy food. That pasta looks delicious. Our new kitty probably would’ve knocked our trees down too. Lol! Glad we got her after the holidays. Have a great weekend my friend!
https://www.kathrineeldridge.com
Thanks so much, friend! My pasta was super yummy. I almost forgot to take a photo, so you can tell I’ve ate a little piece of it first, ha ha! I’m so happy you got your sweet new kitty and she will be all ready to go before Christmas rolls around again. 🙂 Hope you have the best weekend!
Sounds like your holidays were wonderful! The food looks delicious! That was my highlight of the holidays 😂
Jennifer
Curated by Jennifer
I’m so with you on that, friend! Haha, love my food!
Beautiful recap… so glad you had a great time x
x Lisa I lisaautumn.com
Thank you so much, friend!
I love it that you have a great time!
Thank you very much!
So many fun things to look back on! I have only been fishing once but had the best time!
XX Angelica
So happy you enjoyed it when you went fishing!
I love your photos, what a charming life you lead! <3 I hope you have a happy Valentines Day!
Aww, thank you Gingi! You are too kind. 🙂 Hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day, as well!
Lovely recap! It looks like you had a wonderful holiday season. The food looks fantastic, and your office set up looks cool.
xoxo
Lovely
http://www.mynameislovely.com
Thank you so much, Lovely! I appreciate you and your kind words! 🙂
Sounds like you had a wonderful holiday! It’s hard to find a cute chair that is actually comfortable, isn’t it? Your new desk and chair look great! I haven’ t had Olive Garden in years and now I’m craving it!
Jill – Doused in Pink
Thank you, Jill! It truly is, but I’m so thankful it all came together and the reviews really helped on both the chair and the desk. Wish I could have shared my ziti with you, haha!
Cute! I’ve never tried fishing. Really enjoy watching others fish. It’s so relaxing.
http://www.fashionradi.com
It truly is relaxing, friend! 🙂 Let me know if you ever give it a try!