It was a very festive weekend before Christmas over here. I wish I could say that I got all of my holiday shopping done but that didn’t happen. What I did enjoy was lots of time with family and friends as well as downtime at home hanging out with the pups and cooking/baking.
Okay, I have to start this post with this picture. The girls went to Dilworth Dog Grooming on Friday and came home looking all sorts of cute and festive. DDG posted this picture on their Instagram and I was laughing over the difference in expressions here. If you live in the Charlotte area, I definitely recommend trying out Dilworth Dog Grooming. They do a great job and the girls get to play while they’re there. Check out this video from their Instagram.
Sullie was not on board with the bows and had already lost one by the time I got home on Friday.
Tanner’s mom and step-father were in town this weekend for early Christmas so we met up at the Lodge on Friday night for dinner. I had a salad with field greens, apples, candied walnuts and seared tuna. The salad was good, the tuna was just okay. I was trying to mix it up from my regular salmon so oh well.
Tanner’s sweet niece hopped into a post-dinner photo with me. It was so cold in Charlotte on Friday so I broke out of my comfort zone and wore a hat to dinner. (The fact that I took a yoga class right before dinner and didn’t have time to wash my hair also factored into that decision.) 😉
I hung out on the couch with Tanner and Sullie for a bit when we got home from dinner. Keep reading for more news on Sullie and the couch.
I slept in until 8 on Saturday morning and then made a smoothie before taking/teaching yoga.
We had lunch in the restaurant after class. I had the Namastay Bowl topped with two fried eggs and we ordered bacon on the side.
We did Christmas with Tanner’s family on Saturday afternoon and ended the celebration with birthday cake for his mom. Her birthday is on Christmas day! We picked up the Neapolitan cake from Whole Foods and it was so good.
I got all dressed up on Saturday night for our Y2 staff holiday party.
Dinner was way too much of Dorie’s artichoke dip which I can never stay away from along with plenty of cookies, crackers and other sweet stuff.
Our staff has grown to around 85 employees now that we have a restaurant and spa as part of our business. It’s pretty crazy but also so much fun. It was great to get everyone together on Saturday night.
We had to start winding the party around at midnight. Everyone was dancing and we have some really entertaining videos to document it! 🙂
We had a lazy start to Sunday.
I made brunch. Scrambled eggs, avocado toast and a broiled grapefruit with sugar.
I was in the mood to spend time in the kitchen so I made carrot butternut ginger soup, orange cranberry sauce and homemade granola. I also fed my sourdough starter because I’m going to bake bread this week and baked cookies.
I baked a batch of my matcha chai spiced sugar cookies and some chocolate mint Andes cookies from Giada that are ah-mazing.
Okay, let’s talk about Sullie. For 10 years of her doggie life, she was not allowed on the couch. We started inviting her up at night, like at the very end of the night before we go to bed. We say, “Sullie…it’s time.” Well, I took Tanner to the studio yesterday afternoon and was gone for maybe 5 minutes and I walked back into the door to find Sullie ON THE COUCH in the middle of the afternoon.
And she didn’t even move when I came in! I had to make her get down (after I took photos and laughed at her of course). I’ve always bragged that Sullie never does anything without permission but I guess she’s getting a little full of herself in her older age!
I ended the weekend with a 7 mile run with the little one. She loves running with me and it was a great night for it. I made sure that both of us were lit up with reflective gear and LED lights. So important for these runs in the dark.
So many puppy pics in this post and so not sorry! 🙂
Hope it was a great weekend for your guys too!
Did you attend any holiday parties?
Have you done any Christmas cookie baking? If so, what have you baked?
Most ridiculous post-groomer look your pups have had?
I thought our dog Frances was so well-trained until our dog walker told us she often discovers her on the couch in the middle of the day. Oops. Frances never tries it when we are at home. So sneaky!
I always love your doggie updates!
Hahahaha! I LOVE this! That is so sneaky. They are so smart!
The soup looks great, I’ll give it a try and maybe add a serrano pepper. Do you add the nonfat greek yogurt?
Nope! I leave it out. I don’t add any dairy to the soup.
Glad you are baking sourdough! I need to start building up my starter so I can make some dog biscuits since I’m almost out. Hope you post about your sourdough someday, I know sourdough baking can be is a complicated and time consuming project and I don’t always feel like making bread, but biscuits are easy!
Do you still enjoy red wine? I don’t see it in your posts very often anymore and was wondering if you had to give it up for your eyelid thing or something?
Ohhh can you share the dog biscuit recipe!? I would love to try and I’m sure the pups would love them too.
Red wine is still definitely my cocktail of choice. It definitely doesn’t help my eyelid eczema which I think is yeast related but honestly just can’t figure out.It still flairs on and off. Doing another Whole30 in January so will be interesting to see if it clears again.
Their expressions at the groomers are hilarious!!! The personalities remind me so much of my two!
Haha, I know. Zoey is like “this is amazing” and Sullie is like “this is humiliating.” 🙂 Love their little personalities!
Your dress for the Holiday party is stunning!
Thank you so much! A friend gave it to me last year. 🙂
looking gorgeous girl! love the outfit that you wore to your holiday party & crushing on that cute hat/scarf combo earlier in the post. on point!