Wow – what a day!  I had the day off, but to be honest, it was an even crazier day than a typical work day   I woke up slightly later than my normal work wake-up time and it was SO nice to sleep in until 6:15am, it was weird to see Bill head out to work and me remaining at the door waving in my pj’s!

I started out the day drinking a cup of coffee and catching up on all of my favorite blogs.  I actually got my google reader down to 0 and now all of a sudden somehow it’s back up to 185 new entries – ahhh!  I can’t keep up

Then I headed out to the gym and had this Clif Z Bar on the way there…

When I got to the gym, I did about 30 minutes on the elliptical and then 30 minutes on the treadmill – a nice sweaty workout!

When I walked outside to get in my car, I was in shock because it was SLEETING!  Luckily, we missed the brunt of the storm unlike our friends up in the Poconos or North Jersey, but it was a little crazy driving in the sleet!  Instead of going home, I went directly to my parents’ house because today was BAKING DAY with my mom and grandmom…

We made all these cookies (oatmeal raisin, pecan balls, and butter cookies) in preparation for Christmas… If you want the recipes – just email me, I’ll be happy to share We do it every year right before Christmas and it’s become a little tradition for us!  My mom says she’s not a baker compared to my grandmom and me, but believe me she can hold her own!

We took a break halfway through our baking extravaganza to have lunch.  My mom ordered hoagies from the shop down the road since they delivered and our kitchen was a mess.  I ordered a dry turkey wrap on a sundried tomato wrap – it was delish.  I can’t wait until we move back close to my parents because then Bill and I can order from this sandwich shop again!

At the end of our baking, we took a tea break and sampled some of our cookies… I definitely had a few more nibbles than what is pictured here!  I was cracking up because after I took this picture, I realized I had chandelier tea!

By the time we finished it was around 5:30 so I packed up all my baking supplies that I brought over and headed home… Traffic was horrendous… I only live about 15 minutes away from my parents but it took me FOREVER to get home because of the storm weather AND I guess holiday traffic.

I decided on doing something easy for dinner since I had been baking all day and we still had to get our stuff ready for NYC tomorrow, so we each made up personal pizzas.  Mine had mozzarella cheese, tomato sauce and frozen spinach (which I microwaved) on it and then baked up until crispy.  I absolutely LOVE thin crust pizza w/ veggies on it, so this hit the spot.

On the side, we had some carrots and salsa for extra crunch & veggie power

Now I’m off to get out all of my layers of clothes so I will be all ready for tomorrow!!!  It’s supposed to be 32 degrees tomorrow

Did I mention that tomorrow Bill, my parents, Bill’s mom, my brother, and my grandmom are all heading to NYC for the day tomorrow? I’ll try to post a quick one in the morning, if I have time before we go   We are leaving at 8:30 so we can get the train by 9:30 and get to NYC by 10:30… Then we have tickets to go see Chicago on Broadway at 2:00 – I can’t wait!  My parents and I started this tradition to go see a show in NYC every Christmas a few years back and I look forward to it every year – I’m excited to share it with Bill and his mom this year   Afterwards, we plan on going to Carmine’s since it’s my dad’s very favorite restaurant!