One month until Christmas!

The countdown to Christmas is officially on! It feels a little strange since we haven't even had real Thanksgiving yet, but it's the 25th, so I'm counting!! However, with the countdown on, it means things are going to kick up on the holiday celebration front - translation: food, food, food.

This weekend was no exception.

We had a press conference at Job #1 on Friday. That meant having to dress up on what should be a casual Friday (boo). It also meant standing around assorted pastries for about two hours. I resisted. 1 point for team healthy. After the press conference I ran to PT for a quick tape job.

Back of my knee - I am supposed to wear this every minute of every day

I also grabbed a quick lunch at Wegmans with Sarah and got to finally hear all of the details of her marathon. 3 more points for team healthy (knee care, healthy lunch, time with friend).

Friday was also the day of the Lululemon grand opening.

Lisa, Rose, Babs, and Anna - we all have a problem...

And of course you can't buy new Lulu clothes without testing them out in a yoga class. Anna, Lisa, and I (and Kristin too!) hit up an after-work yoga class. I hadn't done yoga in a week... honestly hadn't really exercised in a week just because my week was so busy. I was glad I went, but for some reason, I just couldn't get my brain invested in the class. Oh well.

Later that night we celebrated Will's birthday over at his and Rose's house.

Birthday Boy Will

I did an excellent job of staying away from the baddies (stuck to fruit only), and also played my fair share of Dance Central... so even a little exercise. Yoga + no party baddies + Dance Central = 10,000 more points for team healthy.

Saturday - blah. Job #2. Worked out (good girl). Made an amazing dinner with Andy - paleo burgers made with bacon and jalapenos mixed into the beef. Laid on the couch watching MMA. Kind of a manly night, haha. 3 more points for team healthy (workout, dinner, downtime with Andy).

Sunday we woke up this...

First REAL snow of the year (about 4 inches)

I was a little nervous to see the snow because we had our wedding tasting scheduled for the afternoon, but thankfully they cleared the roads in time for us to make the trip out there. After much debate, our final tasting party included myself and Andy (duh), Lisa (connoisseur of lean cuisines and red wine), and Andy's mother Cindy (connoisseur of blush wines) and sister Ali (connoisseur of shellfish allergy and alcoholic grape juice). :-) 

At the tasting we tried a salad with three different dressings. While it wasn't anything to write home about, we ended up choosing the balsamic vinaigrette as that seemed like the safest (yet still classy) choice. Then the chicken dishes came out. Lisa decided that my most favorite one (grilled chicken breast with bell peppers on top) looked like a Lean Cuisine, and she was right - but it was so tasty! No one else liked it though, so that was crossed off pretty quickly. That meant it was between the tomato/mushroom chicken or the pecan crusted chicken. Lisa, Andy, and Ali all liked the tomato one. Cindy said she was torn. But I liked the pecan one best. For some reason I really did NOT like the tomato one.... so.... we're getting the pecan chicken. :-)

Then the steaks came. The sirloin steak had shrimp on top, which Ali could not eat. The shrimp was actually delicious, but smelled so strongly... the thought of a bunch of shrimp smells in the air grossed me out so I didn't really consider that one as a viable option. Then there was the strip steak with montreal butter. Who freaking cares what chicken we picked because that steak was DELICIOUS! Everyone at the tasting decided we would all order the steak on the big day. I'm already looking forward to having it again!

As for the sides, the fire roasted veggie blend and the garlic roasted potatoes won out. All in all, I think we'll have really good food for the wedding - certainly better than "average" wedding food.

At this point I figured it was time to go home. Nope! Apparently we also had to do a wine tasting. We were allowed to pick 6 wines out of..... 35! Holy cow!!! 

Ali, Cindy, and Lisa

Andy and Babs - deep in the tasting at this point

My future lady in-laws.

The wines we ended up choosing were a dry oaked Chardonnay, a semi-dry Reisling, a Vignoles (super sweet white wine), a blush (chosen by Cindy), a Cabernet Franc, and a Meritage (heavier blend of red wines). I'm so excited about all of the options we'll have - not to mention we also found out we'll have 6 to 7 of the venue's micro brews on tap. How cool! Being back at the venue and deciding on food and drink definitely made me more excited for the actual day. I think our wedding has the potential to be really fun!

We made it home from the tasting - by this point it's about 4:00pm. I'm hungry, tired, still possibly a little tipsy (I did not drive).... so what happened.... food fest. BUT! I will say, I didn't let it go too far before trying to decide what I really wanted. Turned out it was pasta with marinara and an oatmeal raisin cookie. We went to Wegmans, and I got them. And they were great (1,000,000 points to team cookies and pasta). And today.... I'm doing really well. I think listening to what I really wanted and letting myself have those things did the trick! It's a good thing too because....

Today is Monday - Job #1's potluck Thanksgiving lunch. Knowing I was off track the day before, and going to face a lot of food today, I started my morning with a shot of apple cider vinegar. HOLY FREAKING COW WHY DID I DO THAT AGAIN!!!! I was sick to my stomach all morning. Didn't even eat breakfast. But I think it was enough of a "punishment" that I wasn't even tempted to get anything bad from this spread...

Job #1 Thanksgiving Potluck Lunch

I brought a salad, so I knew I'd definitely have something to eat. Then I tried all of the vegetable dishes that were brought in too (plus some mixed fruit as my version of dessert).

Veggie Overload!

I noticed looking around the table how brown everyone's plates were.... turkey, gravy, stuffing, rolls, potatoes... I was very proud of my colorful plate. 

Ok enough typing - time to head home. I need to do laundry, put clothes away, make something for dinner, tackle the dishes, and do my PT exercises (ugh). 

Oh! One last thing - today I started the Elf4Health challenge. I was supposed to go "meatless" today, but with Job #1's lunch, I knew that would be hard to do. Well... not really hard, but it would generate a lot of comments I just didn't want to deal with. So I am moving my meatless day to tomorrow and instead did tomorrow's challenge today: Unsubscribe to 3 email lists you don't want anymore. I went overboard and unsubscribed to about 10. It felt good! Looking forward to a less cluttered inbox in my future. :-)