O Christmas Tree...

Morning everyone!!  I hope you guys had a GREATTTT weekend!  Ours SKYROCKETED by, but was lots 'o fun...as you know that this weekend was:  CHRISTMAS TREE WEEKEND!  Wohooooooo!  And we ALWAYS start off CTW with a trip to Starbucks:)  It's the one day of the season where we delve into the obscenely calorie laden holiday Starbucks menu and indulge:)  Scott went with the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate while I opted for the Caramel Brulee Latte...

And I was quite delighted when I popped off the lid to see that it actually looked just like the picture...sugar chips and all:)  So very festive:)  Go Starbs! 

And we needed warm drinks to keep us toasty because it was quite a BRISKKKKK morning...we even spied a few flurries and the tree sap frozen to the branches!

It felt like we were out there for a loonnnnggg time as we searched...

...and searched for the perfect tree:)

And just as my toes and finger tips were going numb, the tree gods parted and we found our year's holiday centerpiece:)

Which, might I add, looked wayyyyyyyyyyyyy smaller 'in the wild' ;)

Bringing home the prize:

We felt like the Griswold's...

In our jungle gym of ropes and strings:)

And yeah...here's where the tree ended up staying for the rest of the weekend as our Sunday morning attempt at decorating the tree was thwarted after this baby needed WAYYYYYY more lights then we originally planned;)  But me thinks this might just be my favorite tree so far (well, at least it's the BIGGEST one:) 

(Although, tell me that in July when I'm STILL cleaning up needles from this baby:)

So aside from all the CHRISTMAS  Tree/Yoga (soooooooo nice!) fun, I actually seemed to be out & about for a lot of meals (Saladworks x 2!, Rio's & Federici's:) sans camera, unfortunately:(  However, I did snap a picture of our Sunday morning Cinnamon Rolls....

Can't lie:  These aren't from scratch, as they were an impulse buy during my Trader Joe's festive shopping trip;)  And they were MIGHTY lovely...let me tell ya;)

And dinner last night turned out to be a fun one:)  I figured this week would be an appropriate time to try out this recipe: Spicy Sweet Potato Latkes!

A little time consuming (30 minutes my a*% , Rachael Ray!:), but really delicious.  My only bummer moment was when we cut into the avocados I bought for the guacamole and they were WAYYY over ripe:(  Especially since I would have LOVED to have tried the coooool avocado along with the little hit of SPICE in the latkes from the cumin, coriander, chipotle powder, chili powder & paprika.  Oh well...next time;) 

And men out there, don't worry, Scott rounded out his latkes & roasted cauliflower with some ham:)  I don't let him go hungry...ever:) hahahahahahaha

Annnddddddd I thought I'd finish our fun & festive weekend (and also to thank Scott for unpacking all 200 of our tree ornaments while I was out and about being a "lady who lunched" yesterday afternoon;), so I thought I'd try my hand at (are you ready????)  Chocolate Pots de Creme with Maple Caramel Sauce and Sea Salt....

OK????

And believe it or not, despite the 'fancy title', these were actually pretty quick to make!  And...yeah...there are really no words for how good they were:)  The chocolate was soooooo rich, smooth & decadent, the salt just made the whole thing OUTSTANDING and the maple caramel was the suppppper gooey topper....

A perfect way to end the weekend...even if I sooooooooooo needed one more day this weekend!  On the plus side, I realized last night that I am about 95% DONE with all of my Christmas shopping!  Wohooooooooooooooooooo....now onto baking, Christmas cards, wrapping, more decorating and even MORE baking:) hahahhahahahaa...oh well, gotta enjoy all of it since it goes so quickly!

Have a great Monday everyone!