New ornaments for tree

I think this is the earliest we've put up a tree! I've been using the same ornaments for the past 5 years and was not looking forward to putting them on the tree so I went to my favorite store, Target, to buy some new ornaments to inspire me. I knew I wanted a Hello Kitty ornament and I used target.com's "find in store" feature to see if I should bother at the Target that is right up the street from me. And I was right, they were out of stock. But the Target two cities over was in stock so I decided to take a trip out there. Once I got to the Christmas section, I found the Hello Kitty ornament and it was THE LAST ONE! Hooray! Here is the cutie

Then I got a duck to represent the carnival ducks we had at our wedding (and keeping with the red and pink theme)

Whenever I see this ornament, I think of Lil Wayne's Lollipop song, totally inappropriate!

Whole tree and Meatball

Thanksgiving weekend

Thanksgiving was great this year! Danny and I hosted for the first time and he did all the cooking. We did two turkeys - one roasted in the oven (with lots of butter)

And one in a smoker

The reason the only two pictures I have of the turkeys is when they are raw is because hosting is exhausting and I was running around non-stop the rest of the day.

Then I decided that I wanted to try Black Friday shopping for three items - two ipods and a Mr. Coffee Keurig maker. If we bought all those items, we would get $85 back in Target gift cards and I go to Target all the time, especially for groceries, so it was worth it to me. After passing out at 8 pm after our hosting duties, Danny and I headed to Target at 12:15 am and saw the craziness that is Black Friday for the first time. We waited outside the doors for only 15 minutes, but once inside the line for the electronics section was about an hour. I got to see the people pushing carts with the huge flat screen TVs and discovered that the hot ticket item that many people were there for was the Dr. Dre's Beats headphones! Who knew? Those sold out while we were waiting in line. We managed to get the two ipods at the counter and pay for the coffeemaker and get outta there so it was a successful trip. I rewarded Danny and our other friend who met up with us with slushies on our way out. I don't think the slushie machine was meant to be on at 1 am at Target because Danny managed to overflow his like a geyser, probably because it was too soft!

Saturday night my friends invited me over for game night. I jokingly asked if we were going to play her original 1990s game of Mall Madness because I know my friend M has it and when I got there, look what was set up waiting for me

I didn't think they would take me seriously! Yeah I realized I'm not so good at Mall Madness. I kept running out of money!

Then to add more to the weekend, I promised my friend who is a comedian we would see him perform at Hilarities in downtown Cleveland. I was wanting Chipolte earlier but Danny and I wanted to go somewhere downtown so we settled on Zocolo, a Mexican grill with the menu designed by food network chef Aaron Sanchez.

I've been wanting to try it and I liked the little fundido appetizer we shared and the mango avocado margarita I got.

I would love to go back get the goat cheese quesadilla, that sounded amazing! The comedy show was just what Danny and I needed. It felt good to laugh. We also drove past some Christmas lights in downtown Cleveland.

I love action packed weekends like that! Makes the days off stretch so much longer!

Free movies part 4, Hugo

If you love free movies like me, the best thing is to do is get an account at gofobo and you will get surprise emails from time to time offering you movie passes. I usually get all excited and request every single movie offer I get and then get too tired or lazy to go. Last night I forced myself to go and I'm so glad I did. The movie was Hugo and just reading that it was directed by Martin Scorsese and produced by Johnny Depp told me it would be great. Also, this was my first experience with 3D glasses! The movie split itself between showcasing the cool 3D effects and paying homage to the origin and history of cinema. It was also interesting to see how they depicted the 1930s train station in Paris. I'm rooting for this movie to do well during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend!

Thirsty Dog and Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake Bet

I'm lucky I have a friend who's husband goes out of town probably the same amount of time that Danny works. Last night she promised her coworkers she would go to somebody's birthday party at the Thirsty Dog Brewery in Akron and she needed me to take her husband's spot who was in Chicago. I was by myself with no plans so I was excited to go. We pull up and wonder if we're in the right spot because it looks very industrial but then we realize that her coworker rented out a room in the brewery not open to the public. I just started to tolerate beer within the past few years so I was ok with trying some. I tried the Pumpkin Ale and the Raspberry Ale which were both very good. I'm lame and have no pictures.

This year we are hosting Thanksgiving at our house! Danny and I have a bet going on right now regarding dessert! I found a pumpkin pie cheesecake recipe with a pretzel crust on the Whole Foods website that I was going to make. My mom asked me what to bring and I forwarded the recipe to her and she said she would make it. Well Danny has never seen my mom make a home made dessert in the 8 years we've been together because she likes to buy stuff from the bakery. So we bet $5 - I win if she makes the pumpkin cheesecake recipe and he wins if she brings store bought bakery. I'm putting my faith in her, I hope she comes through and I can prove Danny wrong! Just for fun, even though my mom doesn't have a facebook, I posted this:

Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon When You Take the North "Poll"

Melissa & Doug want you to tell them which of their educational toys you think is the best! Just click on the image below to place your vote in the North "Poll!" You'll Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon** to use at MelissaAndDoug.com just for voting!

Editor's Note: I have a niece to buy for this Christmas and I've read so many good things about Melissa & Doug! I like so many toys that I can't make a decision!

Sweatin to the Homies

I like Zumba but latin music is not my favorite. I have the best time when the instructor plays Britney or another non-latin song. There's also a joke within my group of friends that I'm the only one out of the group that likes hip hop and I get made fun of constantly. When I found out there was a hip class near me, I was really interested in going, but scared at the same time. For two weeks I had something going on on Wednesday nights (see last post), but last night I finally trekked up there in the dark and went to see what this was all about. I felt bad that there were only two other people besides me. The instructor was really energetic and did the steps slow, which was great for me. At first I was thinking, this isn't doing anything...but by the time we were done, I was soaking in sweat! Even more than after Zumba! I'm going to try to get the word out and get some more people to go with me because I'm addicted now and I'll be sad if the class gets canceled due to no interest.

In other random news, I bought the dunkin donuts strawberry shortcake coffee that the Healthy Diva posted about:

Since I only have a Keurig and not a regular coffee maker, I had to bust out the Keurig reusable coffee filter that we got at our shower. Wow what a hassle! You have to take the little filter, scoop little teaspoons of coffee in it, and then wash the whole thing! I just started on the coffee train a year ago so I'm not used to cleaning grounds, but I felt like I was doing a lot of work for 8 oz of coffee, haha! No, I take that back, I was messing with coffee grounds at age 15 when I worked at McDonalds. The strawberry flavor was really good :)

Trying to be healthy

The wedding was wonderful but the stress surrounding it was overwhelming. I was really surprised how some family members acted. I guess a wedding brings people's true colors out. Everyone loved the carnival theme though and danced the night away. I'm so grateful to have been given a nice wedding by my in-laws, but I'm happy it's over and life is back to normal.

My new obsession is what I call "healthy living blogs". I've been introduced to the world of Whole Foods, protein powder, overnight oats, chia seeds, almond butter and a lot of other things that excite me. I've been trying to incorporate some of these ideas into my diet in these past few months. Another one of these cool blogger buzz words is kale. On hungry hungry hippie, I read how she tried this kale from the Pasadena Whole Foods made by a chef AJ. That rung a bell in my head and I searched my deleted emails from Whole Foods and saw that chef AJ was coming to my Whole Foods the following week for a demo and book signing. What are the odds that she would be in Cleveland?

The demo was very informative and explained why we shouldn't eat processed foods. Chef AJ used to be a comedienne and that really showed because she was very energetic. She said Cleveland is the farthest she's travelled so far. She also made fun of my Cleveland accent when I told her I visited Santa Monica and Hollywood on my honeymoon. I hate when I get nervous and that comes out!

Here she is in action:

Anyway she demoed a Nutrient Rich Chocolate Smoothie. The main ingredient is spinach but she used cacao powder and dates to sweeten it up.

Next was the famous Hail to the Kale salad that the hippie talked about. She used a whole jar of raw almond butter to make that dressing! So cool to actually be able to taste it!

Next was a black bean based soup.

And for dessert an amazing raw chocolate truffle (and a nice shot of my black work pants!).

I'm going to try to attend more demos like this in the future to keep learning about "healthy living" topics!