Nadine

For some reason, my posts are not showing up on Bloglovin anymore. 2020. Can’t catch a break! Anyways, we are here for reading….so let’s go!

When the year started, I set a goal of 52 books for the year. I forget what my goal was in 2019, I think it was around 75? Anyways, I don’t even think I got to 50 that year. I think a book a week when you are a full time working mom to a toddler is a lofty enough goal. As of today, I read 69 books for 2020! I know I will have the one I am currently reading finished in the next day or two, so I should close out with 70.

In a weird ass year, books were my escape and I tried to read them as much as I could. I can see scrolling through them, that I clung to fluffy romance and a lot lighter reads. Usually I am about half romance and half dark fucked up shit. 2020 was a scary enough story. So if you are looking for some William Shakespeare level reading, my list probably isn’t for you. What I can provide is some lovely love stories, and a few others that really stuck out to me that I have thought about often. This isn’t exactly the best books I read this year, but the ones I enjoyed and remember the most.

Linking up with Steph and Jana. Thanks ladies for your continued support of the reading community! It is by far the best day in blogging each month.

Romance

Shipped, If I Never Met You and Billionaire were all new to me authors in the romance department. Shipped is a debut novel that read like it was written by a pro, highly recommend. Christina Lauren is one of my favorites, and Unhoneymooners was my favorite of theirs I read this year. Tools of Engagement is the third book in a series that I started with, and went back to read the first two because I loved it so much.

Fiction

Layla is nothing like anything Colleen Hoover has ever written. It wasn’t necessarily the best book from her, but it blew my mind and I thought about it quite a lot after I finished.

I love Sally Hepworth, and The Good Sister is everything I expect in a novel from her.

Honorable Mentions

I only read a handful of nonfiction books this year. My favorite is definitely Jessica Simpson’s book. I just love her and everything she touches. I love how raw and honest she was in her book, and when she could have been awful and petty…she kept it classy.

When No One is Watching was really interesting. It took me a little while to get into, but once it grabbed me, I couldn’t stop. The pacing of the book is all sorts of off, but the actual story…wow.

I enjoyed the first two books of Elin Hilderbrand’s Paradise series and just got the third from the library and will start it later this week. I have really enjoyed this series and cant wait to see how it all wraps up.

My favorite Christmas read this year was Christina Lauren’s In a Holidaze. Though I will say I am reading The Twelve Dates of Christmas right now and quiet enjoying it. By the time I finish, it may be my favorite.

Have you read any of these books? What was your favorite from 2020?

These are easy and amazing. You only need a few ingredients and some time to chill, and you have perfection! We prefer white chocolate for these, but you could try milk or dark as well. When I make these for parties or holidays, sometimes I will get fancy and add some coordinating colored sprinkles to make them extra festive.

What You Need

1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup powdered sugar

3 tbsp butter, softened

1/2 pound white confectionery coating/white chocolate (The original recipe calls for 1 pound and it makes way too much, you could double the other ingredients and make a double batch or dip pretzels or peanut butter crackers in the remainder)

What You Do

-Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

-combine peanut butter, powdered sugar and butter, mix well

-Shape into 1 inch balls and place on lined baking sheet

-Chill for 30 minutes, or until firm

-Melt white chocolate coating in a bowl following package instructions

-Dip balls and place back on parchment paper to harden

This makes about 24 balls if you make one batch. Beware that they tend to disappear quickly once people realize they are there.

Can you believe Christmas is on Friday?!?! What???? Even though this Christmas season started early for me this year, since we basically decorated the whole house the first week of November….I still feel like it went by way too fast and we didn’t do everything I wanted to do. Glad we still have a few more days left to fit some more in!

Jerry got out some ingredients to make sugar cookies Friday morning, so that was settled. After a crazy day of work, Zoe and I got to making our dough for sugar cookies. (It has to sit overnight.) I shared this recipe yesterday in a post because a lot of people messaged me saying they didn’t have a go to recipe of their own and I feel like you definitely need one! I have been making this one with my mom since I was little.

Saturday around noon, my mom and sister came over and we had an driveway Christmas visit. My sister brought the boys, and it was nice to see everyone all at once. It is the first and only time we were all together this whole year. I hate that it had to be outside and social distanced, but it was better than nothing at all. I cannot stress how over all of this I am. But now is the time more than ever to be diligent in our safety practices, as cases are out of control.

It was actually a gorgeous day, be it a little chilly. Zoe enjoyed playing with her presents outside while the rest of us chatted. After they left, we came in to ice and decorate the cookies.

Saturday night we settled in for the SEC Championship game. It was the most entertaining game we watched all year. Florida really hung in there, but we pulled out the big W.

Sunday it was cool and rainy, so we spent most of the day inside. I deep cleaned the bathrooms that were in desperate need. It is crazy that even though we are home all the time, I have less time to do household chores than I did before. How is that?

We ordered enough Tazikis to last us for lunch and dinner. After cooking breakfast, it was nice to not have to worry about meals the rest of the day. Why is so much of my time spent around meal planning, cooking and doing dishes??? It is a job in itself, and I experience major burn out from it all and want to throw in the towel often these days. I am hoping to get some new motivation in the near year.

My mom got Zoe this box of paints. The colors are absolutely gorgeous!!! They are non-toxic and washable, and so many colors to chose from. Some metallic, glitter, neon. So fun! Definitely great to pull out on a rainy day. I need to pick a few of Zoe’s pictures to frame in my office.

Most of they day, we just hung around playing with her new toys that she got from my mom and sister. We made peanut butter snowballs last night. I will be sharing the recipe tomorrow. They are one of my favorites, and always a crowd pleaser.

My fabfitfun box also arrived this past week. They gave me a code that I shared on Instagram for $15 of your first box. If you are interested, shoot me a message and I will send my code. Mac was impressed that his sweatshirt matched the pretty box.

I know the next few days are just going to fly right on by, and before we know it Christmas will be over and it will be time to take down all the décor and focus on the new year. I am trying to not have any expectations going into 2021. I don’t think that the calendar changing over on January 1st is going to magically restore anything that this year has done. I think it is going to be another unprecedented year. I truly hope that it will start to change for the better, but we have a long way to go. Have compassion and be extra understanding with others right now. We are all going through a lot. Be respectful of how others are handling the holidays and know that we are all feeling isolated and lonely to some extent. I know I tend to be depressed after Christmas in a normal year, I am not sure how I will feel next week at this time when it is all said and done. Normally we would be getting ready to go to Gatlinburg to spend the week with Chris’s family, and we obviously aren’t doing that this year. I hate it. It is another tradition and fun thing that we are going to miss out on this year. We all just need to keep focusing on the little every day joys. I have been taking it one day at a time, and I continue to do such to stay sane.

If you are taking a break this week to spend time with your families, I wish you a very merry Christmas!

Making sugar cookies with my mom is one of my favorite memories growing up. She had found the best recipe in an old cookbook, and we stuck with them every year. I get requests for the cookies from anyone who has ever had them, and I thought it would be good to share them here. After hearing from a lot of you, many don’t have a go to sugar cookie recipe and you should!!!

I am going to share my frosting recipe with you as well, because honestly, it is what makes these the BEST cookies to most people. But honestly, if frosting isn’t your thing…these taste great alone or just with few sprinkles.

What You Need

2/3 cup Butter Flavor Crisco

3/4 cup sugar

1 tbsp plus 1 tsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

2 cups of all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

What You Do

-Cream butter flavor Crisco, sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl at medium speed of electric mixer until well blended. Beat in egg.

-Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Mix into creamed mixture. Cover and refrigerate several hours or overnight. (I always leave it over night.)

-Heat oven at 375 degrees.

-Roll half the dough at a time to about 1/9 inch thickness on floured surface. Cut in desired shapes. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle with colored sugar and decors or leave plain to frost when cool.

-Bake at 375 degrees about 7 to 9 minutes. Cool slightly. remove to cooling rack.

The BEST Creamy Vanilla Frosting

This recipe makes A LOT of frosting. I usually make half a batch, but if you are going to double the cookie recipe or use it for something else, this would make enough for that.

What You Need

1/2 cup Butter Flavor Crisco

4 cups confectioners sugar

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

What You Do

Combine ingredients in bowl at low speed of electric mixer until well blended. Scrape bowl. Beat at high speed for 2 minutes, or until smooth and creamy.

If you are going to color the icing, you can mix it in now.

ENJOY!!!

It is hard to believe that this is the last weekend before Christmas!!! Work was insane all this week, so I never got to share our weekend shenanigans last week, or post anything I had planned. Pretty much the story of my life this entire year.

This weekend, we plan to do all the Christmas things. We are going to bake cookies (I will share our favorite recipe next week, including the icing), watch some Christmas movies we haven’t gotten to yet, wear our mommy and me matching jammies, read Christmas books, see my sister for a little bit, and do some more Christmas crafts.

Favorite Moments: The weather was gorgeous last Friday and Sunday. We spent every moment we could outside, knowing it might be one of the last for a little while.

We did our gingerbread village last Sunday. It was a lot of fun having several houses to decorate, but we always run into the problem of them caving in while we are doing them. I think next year I am going to purchase the already built one and just roll with it.

And of course our elf has been up to his own shenanigans each night. Luckily, he hasn’t made any more messes since the snowpocolypse of 2020 in our kitchen.

Favorite Purchases: My favorite sweatshirt came out in two new colors this week. A dusty rose and powder blue. I grabbed up a dusty rose for myself, and ordered one for my mom to put with her Christmas stuff. Of course, the package in lost in transit now….but I own enough of these sweatshirts to know I love them and have several colors in them.

I have been using the Colleen Rothschild conditioner/hair mask for several months now, and I absolutely love it! I have a really good hair routine down now, finally. I think that this has played a big part in how soft and healthy it feels/looks now. She has a tis the season sale, so now is the time to grab it! Her hand cream is also amazing. It smells so good and is not greasy at all.

Favorite Recipe: I need to really sit down and get some new meal plans in the works again. I have been in a food rut the last few weeks, feeling very uninspired. This Christmas salad looks so good! f

Favorite Kid Activity: How cute are these toilet paper snowmen??? Definitely making these this weekend!

Favorite Funnies: