Christmas Crushing

We recently planned our office Christmas party.  We are going to be celebrating a bit early this year because my boss is going to be having surgery mid-December.  I am excited to say that we are going out for Thai food this year!  I recently fell in love with Thai food and was able to introduce it to Hubs, who now loves it as well.  Have you ever tried Thai fried rice?  Awesome.  Not healthy. But incredible.

Anyway, instead of doing a white elephant, this year we are doing something new.  We each pulled a coworkers name out of a hat (pretty ordinary), but instead of searching out strange/unwanted gifts for that person--We have been commissioned to pick out something we have really loved over the last year (under $10) and gift that instead.  It will then be our responsibility to explain why we loved the object/s and why we think our chosen person will love it as well.  It’s different, right?

I’ve been thinking long and hard about what I’ve loved over the last year that my chosen person might also like.  In doing that, I thought it might be fun to share some of those things with you too.  This is completely random and unsolicited, but maybe in the process, I’ll decide what to get my mystery person. 

Here goes:

The first thing doesn't cost any money.  In fact, it is free for all and is located right here on the web-- It's Gina's SkinnyTaste blog! I owe this woman a huge debt of gratitude (93 pounds of gratitude to be exact).  Hubs and I create meals off of her blog almost every day.  Never have we eaten so well.  We particularly love her chicken enchiladas and her chicken rollatini with proscuitto and cheese.  Really, you can't go wrong with any of her recipes and she calculates all of the Weight Watcher point values for you.   

My second favorite thing this year has been Green Mountain's caramel vanilla cream coffee.  I am particularly fond of all their coffee flavors, but this is my favorite.  I even love it black and I'm pretty sure I've never admitted that before.  

My next favorite thing is inevitably linked to the coffee above--It's my Contigo coffee mug.  Hubs bought two of these travel mugs after using one at his brother's house.  We love them because they have an autoseal feature that prevents any and all spills.  In addition, I can fill my mug with coffee in the morning and still have warm coffee in the afternoon.  It's a Christmas coffee miracle!

Another one of my favorite things hails from Bath & Body Works.  It is their handibac moisturizing hand lotion.  I took two containers of the stuff to Greece with me and it served me very well.  So far, I've tried the fresh market apple, fresh lemon, the warm brown sugar and the sweet pea.  Not to give anything away, but I also just ordered the winter candy apple and pink sugarplum for stocking stuffers. 

Lastly, I would be remiss to not mention my new favorite ear warmer- my knit headband.  I actually got mine from a fellow grad student who makes them with her roommate.  I love that I can switch out the knit flowers on my headband because they are just buttoned on.  In addition, I love that my hair stays styled instead of getting flattened down.  Besides, it is just plain chic.

I hope this gets your gears going about what has been meaningful/helpful to you this year.

Have a blessed December night.