Tis' the season for

Even though I have never been into cooking, I am so ready to whip up some delicious meals out of those holiday food magazines.

Besides the drool worthy dinners and desserts, I'm not looking forward to Christmas day.
Theron is unfortunately due for work.
He will be up North for most of December, all the way through New Years.
So it will just be Landon and I in this big empty house. :(

Do you have any family recipes you cook every year? How about Holiday traditions? Do share! :)

Lately through instagram

Flower safari

Oh Florida, I love you so.. 

Found a new favorite place to go for lunch, best philly ever. mmm

The Jasmine smells sooo great. :)

Blooming Gardenia, may be sticky, but smell amazing. 

I will never not look at a gnome and wonder if at night or if no ones home will it move around like us. Thanks Gnomeo and Juliet. 

Alwaaays picking flowers to give to special someones. My sweet boy<3

Landon always loves exploring Papa and Nana's backyard. There is always a new bug, plant or flower to pick. 

Looking forward to another Starbucks blogging date, with Noelani at Our Beautiful Journey tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a happy Monday! :)

my big, fat chocolate chip cookies

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs

1 (8-ounce) block dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
(All ingredients were already in our home except the block of chocolate, so we substituted it with some white chocolate chips we had) :)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.

Place the butter, sugar, and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer; cream together on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat in the vanilla and eggs. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and continue to mix until a smooth batter forms. Turn off the mixer and fold in the chocolate chunks using the spatula.

To form the cookies, scoop about 1/4 cup of cookie dough into your hands and roll it around into a ball; place them about 3-inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets; you should get about 4 cookies on each pan. Press down the tops of the dough slightly and bake until the cookies are light brown, 12 minutes for chewy cookies, or about 15 minutes for crispy cookies.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough/cookie sheets.

Indulge.

( source! )

white chocolate filled raspberries

If these aren't the simplest and delightful sweets you've ever seen...

>> How to !!

Indoor Picnic

Dear Blogger,

Landon and I planned to go on a picnic today at a park near by. Unfortunately for us though, we had to cancel due to weather. Well.. not completely cancel. We did have our picnic... just.. a little bit differently then normal ones... :)

Fresh Market and pretty ribbons

Today, we took a trip to The Fresh Market. First time goer. Man... it was amazing. And we will definitely be going back.

Landon was having the time of his life in there. Since it's close to Christmas, they had baskets, barrels, mountains of candy. Ohhhh how yummy it all looked.

.

- drools. 

Definitely going back, cause everything in there made a greeat stocking stuffer!

best of all... 

The barrels full of a variety of coffee beans. 

What I got.

Personally, the lip-balm is my favorite. My lips instantly felt softer. And none of their products are tested on animals!

And so, with payday, follows shopping! A girls fave day, right? ;)
We went to Walmart, to get our Christmas on. We finally got all our decorations for our lovely tree. No bulbs this year. But instead...

Glittery snowflakes(yay!) :)

"Theron, Landon, Brianna"

The first of many presents to wrap for this month. But, since i'm trying something a little different, to make it a little more enjoyable, I decided to use ribbon, and create my own bows and pompoms. Didn't get a chance to make it to the craft's section, so I can buy some things to make tags with.

Tutorial One. (This is also creating your very own pompoms)
Tutorial Two. (Basic ribbon wrap around and bow)

Can't wait to do some more Christmas shopping, and get on the ball. This is one household incredibly excited for Christmas! :)

Do you have any special ways you wrap and decorate your presents? Do share!! :)