Balthazar

A first time trip to New York City last February was one of the most memorable trips of my life. I am a obsessive planner when it comes to trips because I want to make the most of a short visit and see and eat as much as possible. Trying to plan New York was on overwhelming task. How can you possibly choose where to eat when there are so many choices and you are unfamiliar with the area? At home, I scoured guidebooks and asked for recommendations from people who visited NYC. I created a list where I wrote restaurant names, their address (and cross streets when I could find them), and phone number.

Someone recommended a French restaurant, Balthazar, to us and that was on my trusty list. Danny and I had gone to Greenwich village and went to some amazing hole-in-the-wall record and clothing shops. We found ourselves on Spring Street and had no idea where to go. A light clicked in my head and I remembered Balthazar was on Spring Street, but we couldn't find any addresses on the buildings to find out where we were. We ended up taking a cab up Spring Street and it dropped us in this area in Soho where we would have never found on our own. And there in all it's glory stood the huge restaurant Balthazar.

Yes it was extremely expensive for an impromptu lunch, the waiters were snobby and I think the iced tea was about 5 bucks, but I ordered one of the best salads I've ever had, the grilled brook trout over a warm spinach, walnut and lentil salad. Danny had a beef stroganoff. After our lunch I felt like I had truly visited a New York restaurant!

I just got my hands on the Balthazar cookbook, and after reading it cover to cover I feel like I had just eaten there again. The intro is a very well written description of the bustling restaurant from open to close and well as bios of the executive chef and managers. The food pictures are beautiful even though you know you're not going to make any of the highly difficult recipes in the book. Blurbs about technique and explanations of French cooking terms are interesting and at least the sauces and desserts look doable.

Cars and Crack

Today I had a much needed day off to myself. I love Christmas and all but Christmas night around 9 pm I was on family overload, especially since they decided to engage in a roaring loud game of Catch Phrase.

This morning I decided to do some errands that I would never get to do during the work day. My car is a 2001 Chevy Malibu which has been really good to me (knock on wood) but it has the most annoying lights and bells that alert you on the instrument panel. Every so often my coolant light goes on and won't go off until you add more coolant. My coolant light has been on for months and now my windshield wiper fluid light was on so I bought a bottle of each. I read on the bottle that your engine has to be cool to pour in the coolant so I popped the hood in the parking lot of the store and tried to open the cap of the antifreeze thing in the car. I unscrewed the cap and it seemed to be broken because part of it was in my hand and part of it was still snug inside the hood! I could not get this cap off! A nice older guy saw me struggling and tried to help me but he couldn't get it off either. I thanked him and told him I would have to take it somewhere. While driving home, I kept getting mad at myself that I couldn't get a dumb cap off. I went inside the house and grabbed a screwdriver and rammed it down the side of the opening until the cap was loosened and I could twist it off. It was the best feeling in the world to get this cap off after struggling for so long! There was barely any coolant inside of there and probably was dangerous that I was driving around like that.

After the car drama I got hooked on this show about Keyshia Cole on BET. They were doing a marathon and I couldn't stop watching it, not even to change the channel during commercials! I've always liked Keyshia Cole's music, but I never knew her life was like a soap opera. Her mother ended up in jail because of a crack addiction and Keyshia was raised by foster parents who essentially gave her a better life. We later learn that her biological mother had 7 children with multiple fathers. Keyshia bails her mother out of jail and invites her mother and her older sister Neffe to live with her in Atlanta. Neffe was married but learned that her husband cheated on her with her cousin. Great stories....I can see why this show is the #1 series telecast in BET history.

Christmas Survey

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? both

2. Real tree or Artificial? Real. Some people know this year my tree fell down and the tip broke off because SOMEONE didn't put it in the stand right.

3. When do you put up the tree? Sometime in December.

4. When do you take the tree down? After New Years Day, or whenever I get sick of it, whatever comes first.

5. Do you like egg nog? Yumm

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A huge CD/radio boombox

7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes

8. Hardest person to buy for? It's hard to buy for everyone when you're short on cash.

9. Easiest person to buy for? My mom and sister because they tell me what they want.

10. Mail or e-mail Christmas cards? Mail...I had to buy the special ugly sweater stamps too!

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? My great-grandma Ferritto used to make us knitted bootie socks with balls. That was a downer when you were a kid!

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Thanks to Danny and Neal: Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? This year I started in August when we picked up a gift on vacation.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Yes! But always something I would have wanted to keep.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Biscotti cookies

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Both

17. Favorite Christmas song? Joy to the World when church is over.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay in beautiful Cleveland! I usually slip and fall on my butt at least once on the ice because I stubbornly wear high heels.

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes. When I was 3 or 4 years old (before I could read), there's a home video of me reciting the entire "Twas the Night Before Christmas" poem from memory.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Usually a star but right now nothing because I have a wobbly TIP!

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Danny, mom and sister Christmas Eve. The rest Christmas Day.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? No parking anywhere and amateur shoppers.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? I have a plastic from Target theme going on right now.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I really don't care. Probably the side dishes.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? For it to be relaxing for everyone and NO BLIZZARDS!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Meatball = Love

Here's a picture I took of Meatball when he was 4 months old with a point and shoot camera and black and white film. I was cleaning my desk and found it and thought I would scan it in and share.

Special K Chocolately Delight

This stuff isn't good. At all. The flakes taste like cardboard and you never get a flake with a piece of chocolate because the chocolate pieces sink to the bottom. You end up eating a bowl of flakes and then a bowl of slimy dark chocolate logs. I just want to get the truth out there about this. When I bought it I thought the chocolate would be like chocolate shavings a la french silk pie and melt in your mouth. Boy was I misled. I can't believe I just wrote a whole post about Special K.

Yays and Boos, Numbers Edition

Boo for the electricity going out at work at 11:00 am.

Yay for getting dismissed at work at 1:30 because some construction workers hit a power line and the power wouldn't be restored until 4!

Yay for getting paid for all 8 hours!

Yay for moving my hair appointment up to 3:15 from 7pm!

Boo for the traffic and awful parking situation because people are NUTS at Christmas.

Yay for getting my mom's present done before my hair appointment at Victoria's Secret.

Yay for 40% off VS gift sets and a $10 off coupon!

Boo for the 3 hours it takes to color and highlight my thick hair.

Yay for only paying $5 because my sister is the hairdresser!!!!!!!!!!

Browns Blizzard

Yesterday was a blizzard in Cleveland. A time to snuggle up at home, drink hot cocoa and watch movies, right? Well I didn't get to do that. This was me yesterday.I accompanied Danny to the Cleveland Browns vs. the Buffalo Bills football game. Which I must say was an experience. One that I will try not to ever repeat, but an experience. The most frustrating part was standing in line to get IN to the stadium. We waited almost 20 minutes outside with gusting winds blowing in our faces and my makeup actually ran! I did get to stay warm once inside as we had club seats which have a little indoor bar area. The Browns ended up winning 8-0!

Pan fried Perch Po' Boys

The question I get asked almost immediately after I tell people my boyfriend is a chef is "Does he cook for you?". He does.....on occasion. He usually works 80 hour weeks and barely has enough energy to make Chef Boyardee. But today was a rare day that he had off so here is what he made me for lunch - Pan fried perch Po' Boy sandwiches. This is my favorite preparation for fish, pan fried with panko breadcrumbs!




DJ's Po' Boy Bangers
2 cups Panko Breadcrumbs
2 cups Cornmeal
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp. Old Bay Seasoning
1/2 lb perch fillets de-boned
Shredded cheddar cheese
Romaine lettuce
Hogie Rolls
Tartar Sauce
Bread and Butter Pickles

1. Combine Old Bay, breadcrumbs, cornmeal, salt and pepper in a bowl.
2. Lightly salt and pepper perch fillets.
3. In a medium saute pan, heat 1/2 vegetable oil on medium heat.
4. Lightly toss perch in breadcrumbs mixture, coating both sides and pressing down to make sure it sticks.
5. Carefully lay the fish in the pan. Cook 3-4 minutes until golden brown. Flip and cook other side 2-3 minutes.
6. With tongs, gently take out perch. Place on baking sheet and bake for 4 minutes at 350°.
7. Assemble sandwiches with fresh romaine, cheddar, tartar sauce and pickles (the pickles are for, as iron chefs would say, acidity).

Christmas is not cooperating this year!

This is my third Christmas living in this apartment and my third real tree that Danny has gotten and set up for me while I was at work. This year, the tree lasted a day and decided to fall right when Danny walked in the door at 6pm! The tip even broke off! The tree is back up with the tip ducktaped in, but I haven't had time to RE-decorate it yet.

On a happier note, here is my Meatbally Pooper. He hates wearing any type of clothing. Note the spit mark where he tried to bite the scarf off!

Columbus!

On Saturday I was asked to go to Columbus with my friend J and her friend to go shopping and see BODIES...The Exhibition. I lived in Columbus for 4 years in college and was so excited to go back for a visit! Unfortunately we only had time to go to the suburb where the mall and exhibit was and not get into downtown where I lived and went to school. I'll save that for next time I guess!

Onto the pics!

The Apple Store. The computer nerd in me had to take a picture of giant nutcrackers with ipods!


Lunch was at Cosi, a bistro famous for homemade flatbreads and salads. I had the Signature Salad which was mixed greens tossed with red grapes, pears, pistachios, dried cranberries, gorgonzola and tossed with shallot sherry vinaigrette. I was so happy eating that salad, I could have turned around and driven two hours home and would have been satisfied.


Ruehl No. 925. This store is owned by Abercrombie and Fitch geared toward the 25-35 year old crowd. The storefront is decorated like a brownstone in Greenwich Village, NY and the rooms with the clothing are set up like a cool, modern loft. Having just visited NY for the first time this year, I was really excited to check this place out. I found two shirts to buy and I actually got lost in the store trying to find the register! When I found it, there was no line and they had bar stools set up so you can take a rest while paying. The best part is when you get home, the shirts smell like cologne! Abercrombie really gets it right with store ambiance and I'm glad this store exists because I can't fit into Abercrombie clothes anymore.

I also did really good at The Limited buying two shirts for $22 thanks to a 25% off sale they were having throughout the whole store and a extra 30% off coupon I found online. I was very suprised since I usually find nothing I like there.

The extreme shopping turned educational with BODIES...The Exhibition across the street. I don't think it was worth $20, but it did give me a new perspective on how I should be exercising and taking care of myself in regards to the food I put in my body. We ended the night with dinner at McCormick and Schmick's where I had pecan crusted catfish with a marmalade sauce. No pictures because we had to bust into the bar with no reservation and were starved! I definately want to go back soon!

Christmas Blurbs

• Finished my Christmas Cards. I don't know why but it's taking me forever for me to feel "Christmasy" this year. After writing out 16 cards, I feel much more in the spirit. I HAD to buy the dorky Christmas sweater stamps to go along with them!


• Watched the Top Chef Christmas Special. This was a pleasant suprise to see some of my favorite chefs come back to compete. I thought it was genius to have the chefs prepare 3 courses and eliminate 2 chefs after each course, leaving some chefs with dishes that they weren't able to use. The addition of the on-the-fly dish encouraged the chefs to pick and choose from the eliminated which created even more tension.

• Kind of Christmas related because I always make my doctor's appointments around Christmas. I filled out the rebate form I got from the eye doctor to get $30.00 back for ordering a 6 month supply of contacts. While doing this, I kept staring at the bag they put all my receipts and rebate in. This bag just annoys me.


Get it? It's googly EYES because it's an EYE doctor. ha ha.........no.

Bye Bye Bianca!

I'm very pleased to see this little brat get kicked off this week's ANTM! She is bad at posing, has a mean face and a cocky attitude. It was good TV when they shaved her head though, I always enjoy a good tear-filled head shaving. To give her any sort of credit, she IS only 18 and still has an enormous amount of growing up to do. I know when I was 18 I was extremely shy, starving myself, and scared to go to college 2 hours away. Definately not the case now! The three girls that are left are on even ground on terms of looks, obeying photographers, etc. The judges are going to really have to split hairs to determine the winner.

Giant Eagle Secret Spy!!!

I was bored yesterday so I decided to register at Giant Eagle's website, the midwest's huge grocery store chain. While playing around on the site, I found out you can see how much money you are eligible to get off your gas via their fuel perks program. Cool. Then, I click on another tab called Shopping History. There is a list of all the shopping purchases I made for the last 4 months. No big deal, right? Well Danny and I share a Giant Eagle card partly because of his laziness to sign up and partly so we can get a bigger fuel perks discount. So now I can spy on what he buys!!!!!!! Muhahahaha!!!!! I found out he mostly buys Gatorade and Red Bull, but I also discovered some reacurring themes. Reese Sticks? Those fattening fried cherry pies? Bad, bad Danny!

Blog Love 2

A shout-out to all the people with blogs I sent my blog link to:
suffix.abuse - That amazing picture of sushi is making me crave spicy tuna rolls right now!
Anodyne Design - Shannon describes her Etsy shop as something that soothes, calms, or comforts and her blog conveys that soothing feeling too! Beautiful handbags.
The Quilterhood - and her puppies Buddy & Beulah.
mona millefiori - Love your new logo, very pretty!
nicole20 - I wish you the best for your newborn and you are in my prayers.

And also the blogs that were sent to me!
Toilet Roll Art - love, love, love the shoes you posted!
Kentucky Girl - I also share your love (opps I mean hate) for shopping.
Tina Lynn - thanks for introducing me to live journal! Cute cherry blossoms!
Mirawyn Crafts - I've always wanted to do ATC's and just never do them. Maybe your blog will inspire me.

Last Day!

Of NaBloPoMo!!!!! This was my first time participating and I truly had fun posting every day! Now onto December! I just convinced a guy I work with to go and pick up a pizza for me so I know it's definately going to be a great Friday!

Way Back....Back Into Time

Wouldn't you know my December is filling up faster than any of my other months this year, while November is still boringly plugging along. So today I give you pics of a sushi making night Danny and I had a while back. The lesson of the night was less is more as we put too much rice, fish AND cream cheese in these babies. Still very very tasty!

Blurbs

Here's what I did today:
• Woke up on the couch with Meatball with no alarm set. Thankfully I wasn't late! I was a little panicked when I saw it was light outside.

• Ate a Fizzix fizzy yogurt snack that I bought on a whim while grocery shopping at 10 pm. It's like a Go-Gurt without being horribly sweet, although you only feel the fizz in the first bite or slurp or whatever.

• Started reading a new book on my lunch break, Running With Scissors. So far it has been a fast read which is good when you only have 30 minutes.

• Watched ANTM. A part of me was really hoping Heather could manage her go-sees, but in reality she just couldn't do them. Hey, I would flip out if I had to find places in China, too! I don't even want to watch anymore that Heather's off, it's either going to be a stereotypical blond or black girl who wins. Hopefully she'll get some modeling gigs out of the exposure of being on ANTM.

London Ink

I tried to like this new tattoo spin-off that aired tonight on TLC. There's just no comparison to Miami Ink and LA Ink regarding quality of tattoos and personal stories of the customers. The narrator is dull and pronounces it "tut-oo". Louis Molloy is shop owner and famous for the huge backpiece on David Beckham of an angel with his head bowed. Along with him is grafitti style artist Dan Gold, japanese style New Zealander Nikole Lowe, and New Yorker Phil Kyle. After watching the premiere episode, I really like Dan Gold. He has had some hardships in the tattoo industry and his personal life and is striving to get better which I admire. He's somewhat of a ladies man, managing to tattoo a koi fish on a hot Britsh model. He's pretty cute with his glasses, spade neck tattoo and matching spade earring. Just disregard the teeth!

Blog Hunt

Here is my Swap-bot blog hunt. I had to find a blog that deals with:

Health issues - About.com:Women's Health

Children - Here in the Bonny Glen, blog by Melissa Wiley, author of The Martha Years books about Laura Ingalls Wilder's great-grandmother, Martha Morse Tucker, and The Charlotte Years books, about Laura's grandmother, Charlotte Tucker Quiner.

Spiritual issues - Roman Catholic Blog 12 years of Catholic school, baby.

Food (recipes, diets etc...) - Quarter Life Crisis One of my favorite blogs. It's not necessarily a food blog but she does post about food often and takes great pictures of food porn!

Free stuff - Mommy Saves Big I heart free samples!

Links to swappers:

Tamiknits Adventures in Crafting
Helenkosings's Weblog
Simone's Butterfly

Paws with Clause

Tonight I came up with the brillant idea to bring my crazy dog, Meatball, to have pictures taken with Santa. At the mall. With tons of other dogs. I ended up really enjoying the experience! It was a long wait (an hour) but they gave us numbers and called the number rather than waiting in line with a bunch of dogs sniffing each other's butts. Meatball was so cute slipping on the smooth tile floors and smelling all the other dogs. This event drew some hardcore pet owners because we saw a Great Dane, a lady with three Weimaraners, cats, and a little girl riding a PONY! Danny said what else can the girl ask Santa for? She already has a pony! So $20 later, we got 2 5x7's of Santa, Danny, me, and Meatball with his huge pink tongue hanging out. :)

Woot! Woot!

I stumbled across Woot! after seeing it on a couple different blogs. The concept is they offer one electronics/gadget/cool item every day at 12 am and when it sells out, it sells out. The items are deeply discounted and some are supposedly exclusive to woot.com. The site is cleverly written and they have a corresponding blog showcasing the items as well as a message board where people can post about the items they bought. Much like a grab bag, "random crap" is sold occasionally for a $1 plus $5 shipping and people post about what they got or how they got shut out of buying after all the random crap was sold out. Fun for nerds everywhere!

Black Friday

I avoid Black Friday. I love shopping.....by myself. I hate it when you are looking at a rack and someone starts looking at the same rack and bullies you out of it. I don't need flat screen TVs. So here's what I did today:

• Gave Meatball a bath. He's so furry and soft now!
• Watched Rachel Ray and Ellen which I never do. I could TiVo them but it's hard to know which one is good to tape since they are on every day. On Ellen that lady was out of control! Check out the website when she meets Mariah Carey.
• Saw Dan In Real Life. I was really excited to see this because it stars my two favorite comedians, Steve Carell and Dane Cook, but there were very few laugh out loud moments. It was very heartfelt and the pacing was so slow with so many minute details that I felt like I had just read a book. Which isn't a bad thing.

Happy Thanksgiving, now let me go to sleep.

I have to say, this Thanksgiving Eve night out was one of the craziest ever, in a not so good way. We decided to go to Lux in Akron, which was really nice but I would have been happier if it was not 18 and over. I don't want to get into it, but we saw a fight where someone got punched in the face, had to wait in cold rain for an hour for a cab, and a 100 lb Doberman pooped in the house on the carpet. Needless to say, I got 4 hour of sleep last night and I need to get some more!!!

ANTM China!

In The Girls Go To Shanghai, the contestants are pretty much getting used to China. Another pick on Heather incident where the girls leave Heather out of getting a bed. The prerequisite CoverGirl commercial for CoverGirl Queen and shoot. I'm glad they fed Heather her lines because of her disability, because I know some stars (ahem Jessica Simpson) need that help as well with no disabilities. Very predictably, Lisa choked on her lines and was sent home. Next up, my favorite favorite, GO SEES!

Lemon Bars Version 2.0

OK, here's the second attempt at my lemon bars. I originally had bought Krusteaz Lemon Bar Mix and tried the variation where you use cream cheese to make Amazing Lemon Cheesecake Bars. They came out miserable! I don't know what happened but the crust stuck to the pan, the cream cheese cracked down the middle and the sides browned while the middle stayed jiggly. I was so pissed off I looked up another recipe online from a blog and went to the 24-hour grocery store to get more ingredients. This recipe called for cardamom, so in my midnight stupor I bought a $12 bottle of cardamom to use a 1/4 of a teaspoon. I don't like how these came out either because the crust it too thick, but they're better than the original ones and made from scratch.

Update: I later learned that lemon bars are really hard to make from scratch so I feel a little accomplishment.

I don't like beer, but give me some cider!

It's always a big dilemma when I go out to a bar. What to order? I hate beer. Sometimes I feel funny ordering wine. I have to be in the mood for hard liquor. One night at The Boneyard, I noticed a funny looking beaver on the handle of one of the taps.

I asked the bartender what that was and they told me Woodchuck Draft Cider. I tasted it and was hooked. It tastes like a sparkling wine but looks like a beer. It's fun to go to bars and try the different brands of hard cider they have. So far I have also tried Wyders and Magners and my favorite flavor of Woodchuck is Granny Smith. :)

Shopping for Thanksgiving Eve

Every year we do a big night out on Thanksgiving Eve where we hit up the clubs and dress to the nines. Supposedly this is the biggest going out night of the year because most people have Thursday off and maybe even Friday. Danny told me to buy him a dress shirt because he didn't have time to get one himself. I ended up getting him a shirt that looks like this in a chocolate brown.

The brand is Alfani from Macy's and I must have gotten it on a one day sale because I got it for $19.99 and the website says $29.99. Yay!

November wedding

Today was Danny's cousin's wedding that I had been anticipating so much because this was the first wedding we are able to attend together in two years thanks to his new schedule. I had fun except for the fact of a terrible DJ who played bad songs and we had to leave a little earlier than everyone else. Here's a pic of the lovely fondant cake baked by one of Danny's aunts.

The Time Traveler's Wife

I finally finished this book! I had renewed it from the library FOUR times because I just couldn't find the time to read. Once I hit the halfway point, I finished it in 3 days. There's been tons of press and reviews on this book, but I do want to add that this a love story for people who don't like love stories. Niffenegger gives you the time and date throughout the book so you can keep up with Henry's time traveling, and once you get used to this system it is very easy to understand that he is 40 in the present and uncontrollably traveling back to the 80's to meet up with his future wife as a child. I actually reread the first two chapters after I was done to see all the events that are alluded to in the beginning that you could never understand without reading the whole book. I want to see what happens to Henry's daughter, Alba in her time travels. Maybe a sequel? In the meantime I am anxiously awaiting the movie version starring Rachael McAdams that is supposed to open in '08.

Don't talk to me

Today was a very exhausting day for me that involved driving to downtown Cleveland after work in pouring rain, getting stuck in rush hour traffic both ways and parking in a random downtown lot. I was a little early for my appointment so I stopped into Starbucks to waste time. I ordered the Holiday Gingerbread Cake because I didn't want to be stuck with a cup of coffee that I couldn't finish. I told the "barista" that I wanted the gingerbread cake. She replies "You can have it, but it's not gonna last long, that's how good it is." It took me a whole 5 seconds to understand what all these extra words were. Just give me the cake, I don't need your commentary about it girl!

Edit: Then I find this site which tells me that I just consumed 480 calories and 16g fat by eating that cake. Great!

Come on Heather!

The title of America's Next Top Model this week was called "The Girl Who Starts to Lose Her Cool". Obviously this was geared toward Heather, who screwed up the three sentences she had to say at the student designer fashion show at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising. The girls were also picking on her at the house about something silly like using the showers. This led her to take weak pictures at the burning car photoshoot in the desert. Come on Heather, stay in the game! You can do it! I think she's absolutely beautiful and also brave for going on this show and talking about her Asperger’s syndrome, a high-functioning form of autism that impairs social interaction and emotional development. All of the judges love her which is a huge plus in her favor also. I can't wait for next Wednesday to see Heather do a Cover Girl commercial. I have a feeling it's going to be painful to watch!

Martha Stewart The Art of Weddings: Cakes

This show is from 2005 and I had already seen it, but I was sucked into watching it again. Featured is NYC's Sylvia Weinstock, the lady with the huge black round glasses, among other amazing cake designers.

The Office Present Dilemma

Last year was my first Christmas at my work. I didn't know how they worked the present situation on the last day of work before Christmas so I just bought presents for my two female managers. Well my desk filled up pretty quickly with presents from EVERYONE. I felt like an ass because I didn't have presents for all 8 people, but I didn't know and nobody told me. Well it's that time of year again and I'm debating how to do this office present thing cheaply this year. I turned to my favorite site, etsy.com and I came up with two options.


1. Gingerbread Body Lotion - Body Wash - Holiday Gift Set from seller aBreathofFrenchair. $6 x 8 people = $48 + Shipping USPS Flat-Rate box for $8.95 =$56.95

2. 15 hour Votive 3 Pack from seller gabrielsaunt. $12.50 x 3 sets = $37.50 + 6.50 shipping = $44 plus I get an extra candle since there is 9!

Option 2 is clearly cheaper but Option 1 doesn't have to be wrapped since it comes in a gingerbread gift basket. I think the price is still going to persuade me to go for option 2 and I will painstakingly wrap all those tiny votives. That's what Christmas is all about, right?