December Deals & Steals

Like for most people, December is a jam-packed month of buying. And, I must admit, I'm not the best holiday deal hunter. I hate black Friday and you won't see me bum rushing a store on the day after Christmas either. Normally, I don't leave myself enough time to buy gifts and mass purchase things on Amazon instead. This post also won't be as robust as it could be since I don't want to give away what I spent on everyone's gifts. So, here it goes....

1. Wii Sports Resort, $29. Original price, $50. The deals website we frequent posted about a random decrease in price for this game on Amazon. It was down to $40. As a past incentive for pre-ordering a different game, Joe also had a $10 code for any Wii game. End result, a $20 savings. Pretty good for a video game. Free shipping, of course.

2. Spider-Man 3 (Blu-ray), Wedding Crashers (Blu-ray), The Gladiator (Blu-ray), and Knocked Up. 4 DVDs, 3 of them blu-rays, $36. This was an Amazon black friday deal. I just went back on the website to add up with the same dvds cost today - $71. That's a savings of $35.

3. Wrap dress from Banana Republic, $37 thanks to a sale price, $10 off reward certificate and $15 off birthday certificate.

4. Two large jar Yankee Candles at $10 each thanks to Bed, Bath & Beyond 50% off sale plus a coupon for an additional 20% off our entire order. That's a savings of $30.

5. $34 of Christmas decorations for $17. This includes 3 boxes of glass ornaments and 2 mini Christmas trees. This is what happens when you end up in Target on the day after Christmas.

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!

The Blizzard of 2009

On Saturday, December 19th I awoke to a foot of snow already on the ground. By the time I went to sleep that night it had snowed almost another foot. On the 20th I measured about 21 inches of snow. Crazy! It has been a really long time since I've seen so much white stuff.


If you haven't figured it out by now, I love snow. Joe and I were watching the news the other night - the big story, of course, being how much snow we were getting - and they were interviewing people in the area. Well, one interviewee appeared on the screen with the caption under her name being "snow enthusiast" as she expressed her joy for the current weather situation. Joe immediately said, "That's what you are. A snow enthusiast!" Well, I completely agree.

We've played in the snow, dug Joe's car out using dustpans (you see, we thought there was no need to own a shovel because we pay our homeowners associations to take care of that kind of stuff...well all normalcy went out the window when 2 feet of snow fell from the sky), and just enjoyed watching everyone outside, slipping and sliding around on foot and in their cars. Today (Monday) we even got off work! How can you not love snow?

Tequila...I love it!

We recently returned from a little vacation in Mexico. Last weekend we were in bathing suits by the pool and this weekend we are waiting for the predicted 10-20 inch snowfall. Crazy! We traveled Thursday through Monday so we spent about three and a half days in Mexico. We stayed at the Iberostar Tucan in Playa del Carmen which is about an hour south of Cancun. Our favorite travel buddies, Jill and Adam, were along for the ride as well. It was a vacation all about sun, relaxing, and drinking and eating until we burst. I believe those are essential parts of a great getaway!

The pool was our favorite place to be. Especially with a drink in hand....


At night, we enjoyed having dinner together and catching the show at the resort.

We really had a great time. The weather was beautiful and overall it was just a much needed break. You can view all of my pictures here.

Which brings me to our travel year in review (2009):

January - Nevada & Arizona to visit Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon
February - Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland for skiing
April - Italy. We visited Venice, Florence, and Rome.
July - Williamsburg, VA for a little Water Country USA action
September - Kill Devil Hills, NC. Our anniversary at the OBX
October - Elon, NC for homecoming
December - Playa del Carmen, Mexico for some fun in the sun

Not too shabby! Here's to more of the same in 2010!

Happy Birthday to Me

Since my last post, I've turned 26 and gone to Mexico. It has been a nice couple weeks. I haven't been able to blog so now I'm playing a little catch up.

For the big 2-6, I celebrated with my wbffs at the Melting Pot in Annapolis. We indulged in tons of yummy fondue (spinach/artichoke cheese and smores chocolate are still my favs!). This was the Saturday before my bday. A highlight of the evening was that my friend Jill requested a 3 burner table so we were able to get a lot more pots to dip in. The restaurant was not very crowded because it was a snowy day and people were staying indoors.


My actual birthday day was just another day at work but Joe and I went out to Public House at the National Harbor afterward. It was a very lovely evening. Joey showered me with wonderful gifts.

Also worth noting is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert we attended the day after my birthday. Joe and I are both fans of their Christmas music so when I saw they were coming to D.C. around my birthday, I snagged some tickets. Overall, we enjoyed ourselves. It was a 3 hour concert but the middle hour we could have done without. Instead of the excitement of all their usual instruments, much of this hour was solo singers and low energy music. I was tuckering out, especially since the concert started 30 minutes late, but the third hour redeemed them as they switched back to what we came to hear.

What is the Trans-Siberian orchestra? You've probably heard them.....

Dinner at Our House - Chicken and Basil Calzones

We actually had this meal last week but I still wanted to share. It is good for you but it felt like we were indulging in something bad - a true sign of a good recipe! We definitely plan to make this again. It is from Cooking Light. And speaking of Cooking Light, I recently scored a year's subscription to their magazine for $5.

Ingredients

• Cooking spray
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 pound ground chicken breast
• 3/4 cup prepared pizza sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
• 1 (13.8-ounce) can refrigerated pizza crust dough
• 1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add garlic and chicken to pan; sauté 5 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink, stirring to crumble. Stir in pizza sauce and pepper. Reduce heat, and simmer 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in basil. Let stand 10 minutes.

3. Unroll dough onto a baking sheet coated with cooking spray; cut dough into quarters. Pat each portion into an 8 x 6–inch rectangle. Divide chicken mixture evenly among rectangles; top each serving with 2 tablespoons cheese. Working with one rectangle at a time, fold dough in half over filling, pinching edges to seal. Repeat procedure with remaining rectangles. Bake at 425° for 12 minutes or until golden.

The recipe makes 4 calzones so it was 2 meals for us.

Credit: Cooking Light