This weekend was kicked off with a visit to Middle Earth! After work on Friday I met a girlfriend for dinner (she’s known affectionately as one of my ‘hobbits’ because of our shared longtime love of Middle Earth since we were in junior high) and then we went to the VIP theater in Windermere to see The Hobbit. It was so nice to see some familiar faces and places after thinking almost 10 years ago that we’d never see them again. When Return of the King was over, I remember feeling a bit of sadness that the magic was done. I’m so glad that we have this new story to enjoy! I wasn’t as impressed with The Hobbit as I wish I had been, but I still enthusiastically recommend seeing it in the non-3D theater.
On Saturday morning Husbie and I did some shopping at the Italian Center to pick up some of the ingredients we learned about at his birthday cooking lesson.We ended up coming home with some delicious pasta, pesto, fresh biscotti, tomatoes and a few Queen Anne’s Lace cookies which were immediately devoured.
We also met up with my MIL for a lovely stroll through the Antique Mall where I had a hard time not taking home every vintage Fisher Price toy that I grew up with (with the intention of giving them to my niece) or a set of Nancy Drew novels that my MIL discovered hiding on a bookshelf in a quiet corner. Husbie was on a mission to find some games for the Sega console that he just picked up (he returned the Atari and exchanged for the much more fun SEGA!) and ended up finding a few favorites from his childhood. My MIL and I are planning a trip back to the Antique Mall in the new year in order to spend some serious time poking around all the treasures. We have a common love for vintage items that tell a story – dangerous on my part because I’m running out of room in the condo!
Around noon on Saturday Husbie went on a road trip to visit a friend for the afternoon so I headed over to my parents house and played some Wii U with my family. I also had some serious snuggle sessions with my niece, as can be expected every weekend!
On Sunday J&D came over and we had a super fun baking session, complete with eggnog and some old school Christmas tunes courtesy of the era of Bing Crosby. We made some sugar cookies that we stamped with a fun “home-made” rubber stamp from Chapters and some thumb print cookies that we filled with raspberry rhubarb jam, Saskatoon berry jam and chocolate infused with Grand Marnier. On Sunday evening we went back to my parents house so that Husbie could finally receive his birthday present from my family and he was spoiled rotten! We also made some fun plans for Christmas – mainly involving eating since our family does that so well! I can’t believe that Christmas is now only a week away…is everyone ready?
//all photos from my Instagram (@nicwinski)
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