HOLIDAY: Christmas Festivities!

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday this year! I am kind of glad it's over, but it was wonderful none the less. Charlie's mom was still in town and on Christmas Eve we got all gussied up and went to a family holiday party. Christmas Day was perfectly low-key. We busted out the waffle iron and made waffles with grilled apples and vanilla ice cream then we opened presents. After hanging out in our pjs all day, we made a fancy Christmas dinner of beef tenderloin with blue cheese cream sauce, roasted brussel sprouts with pancetta and a giant potato scallion pancake with sour cream and apple sauce toppings. The holidays were pure perfection and I am sad to be back at work today. We are being hit by a blizzard here in Cleveland so I am so thankful my job affords me the ability to work at home. Brrr, it looks cold out there. Hope you are staying warm!

Man if only this had been a few weeks earlier, it would have made a perfect Christmas card!

My Christmas party look. A little liner and mascara with merry and bright lips. Sephora #44 "Club Scene" A berry red with a little shimmer to it. This is also the longest I've spent styling my hair in a looong time.

The Mamaroo - apparently the mac daddy of baby swings and my mother-in-laws proudest purchase of the year by far.

Beef tenderloin and brussel sprouts from Every Day Occasions

Potato scallion pancake from Tyler Florence via Food & Wine

FAMILY: Christmas Brunch

Yesterday Charlie and I hosted his family for a Christmas Brunch. It was quite a success, but a little chaotic having so many people in our humble little house. Once I got past people having their snowy shoes on our Anthropologie living room rug it was quite an enjoyable morning. Which reminds me. I really hate when people say "just wait until you have kids". Does having kids mean you can't have nice stuff and you can't at least try to teach them to treat things nicely? Anyway, we served a breakfast strada with maple sausage, egg and cheese, I made homemade pain au chocolate (when you buy baking chocolate make sure it says semi-sweet and not unsweetened - oops!), fruit salad with a honey-lime dressing and we had a drink bar with Bloody Mary's, Mimosas and sparkling cider for the pregnant and under age. Sigh. Charlie also set up a coffee bar and made hand brewed coffee for everyone on the Chemex! I think being pregnant is heightening the stress level of the holidays for me. I've kind of been a little monster and I'd like to take a moment to apologize to my husband and thank him for his patience. Love you! Hope everyone is having a calm and happy holiday! :)

FAMILY: Baby Makes Three!

I know I have been MIA lately, but life has been a little bananas. And its going to get even more bananas in about 4 months. We are so excited to announce the impending arrival of our first little one! Maggie & Charlie + 1 on 4.25.12. The baby's due on NFL draft day, which is a religious holiday for Charlie when new seeds of hope are planted that make him say "this is the year" until about game 3 when the Browns are 0-3. At least he'll have something cute to distract him from the agony, right?

WEEKEND RECAP: The Eisenstat Family Fall Festival

It's my FAVORITE time of year. Good bye and good riddance shorts and swimsuits, hello my lovely layers,cozy sweaters and boots! I love everything about fall. The weather, the clothes, the flavors. When it arrives, I celebrate and savor every moment of it. Unintentionally we sort of had our own little fall festival this weekend. Events were as follows:

1) Dark nail polish is back! :) OPI's Suzy Says Da is one of my fave dark burgundys
2) We bought a fire pit
3) We made homemade spiced cider
4) We drank said cider around the fire pit with friends and roasted s'mores
5)  I wore BOOTS!
6) Charlie made a pumpkin mac and cheese recipe I pinned because I had a headache and he's the best
7) Charlie has a little scruffy beard - this happened a few weeks ago but I love it and its so fall

 

WEEKEND RECAP: Have Your Cake and Eat it Too!

A little late, but better late than never. The much needed long weekend was a good one. Got some cleaning done around the house and spent most of the weekend baking the most ridiculous cake ever, which I will get into a minute. But Friday night we had a fun double date with Kristin and Tim at Black Pig. Kristin and I split the cheese plate as an appetizer while the boys finished some drinks at Nano Brew. The cheese plate was an A+. I also kicked off the on-set of September with a Southern Tier Pumking Ale which was amazing! I had the croque madame for dinner which was pretty good, but I wouldn't order it again. Bread to filling ratio was not to my liking. The rooftop patio was a keeper though! Oh yea and we stopped at Sweet Moses on the way home of course :)

 

 

So now this silly Ultimate S'mores cake. I pinned this cake a while back, but the recipe can be found here. I kinda had the nagging feeling that if I made this cake I would feel like I really accomplished something. So with the long weekend and a family dinner on Monday I decided to give it a go. First I baked the brownie and cookie layers on Saturday, then I baked the cheesecake layers on Sunday as well as made the marshmallow and chocolate buttercreams. Then I assembled the cake Sunday night so it could be refrigerated over night. Was it easy to cut? No! But did it taste good? You betcha. I had mine with a glass of milk (with ice like I like it).

FUN WITH FRIENDS: Audra's Baby Shower

I made a little trip down to Columbus last weekend for Audra's baby shower. She is one of my very best friends and my first close friend to have a baby so I am very excited for little Greyson to arrive. It was a great Sunday afternoon and the timing worked out because I had a client meeting in Columbus on Monday so I just stayed the night at her house. Tell me she isn't the cutest preggo
you've ever seen!

 

 

HOME: Before & After Frames

My spray paint makeover obsession continues. These simple white frames were about $1 a piece at Target. A little bit of red spray paint plus my beloved cat prints and voila - the frames add some instant quirk to an empty dinning room wall. And they match the red chairs!

Cat prints are from Matou en Peluche via Etsy

FAMILY: Hurricane Frezza

Last weekend my brother, his mom, my sister-in-law and my three nephews blew through town on their way home from a wedding in Michigan. We had such a fun time. Our house has never been filled with such energy and laughter. My nephews are growing up so fast it's really hard to believe. In their short stay we walked around downtown, ate at some Rocky River staples, got in some backyard football and learned how to make my brother's basic red sauce! 2 years between visits is unacceptable and we will definitely be putting an end to that!

 

Danny Boy's



WORK LIFE: The Annual Golf Outing!

It's been a very busy week at work but I am trying me best to catch up on blogging, phew! We recently had our annual department golf outing at Springvale. We are a very spirited bunch and we take the team theme challenge very seriously. I had the most awesome team and we had so much fun even though we did lose best theme to the Jamaican Bobsled Team!

Scramble winner winner chicken dinner! 6 under par! 

 

Epic Jurassic Park theme. Those yellow rims on the carts - custom!

 

Devin wins best costume for little Tim

 



 

The worst part was that not in the context of our carts and dinos, Kristin and I looked like we might be in our normal clothes. And were NOT!

 



 

 I didn't have any green jello but I think this is a pretty darn good impression never the less.

 

 

 

TRAVELS: Chicago Part 3

On our last day we had a really nice day walking around downtown and even grabbed a drink and snack at the top of the John Hancock Center. Then we closed out the trip with the main purpose of the trip - going to the Coldplay concert, yay! I surprised Charlie with these tickets for Christmas so this date was about 8 months in the making! Oh yea and on our way out of town we got coffee at Ipsento. Their signature latte is made with coconut milk, local honey and cayenne pepper. It's so amazing it's not even funny. There nutella latte is also one of my top faves! Then after getting coffee we just had to grab a box of doughnuts from Glazed & Infused. I mean creme brulee and maple bacon? Perfect treat to bring back for our catsitters, the Fergusons.