Weekend Snippets

Today I thought I'd share some random snippets from the weekend

1. Recipes. I mentioned these briefly in my week in review post. I made an appetizer and a dessert for our Ohio State/Michigan game party on Saturday. First of all, I made pepperoni rolls.
These are so easy to make, and sooo good! I just bought two refrigerated pizza crusts, and piled on the ingredients like I was making a regular pizza. I used lots of cheese and pepperoni, and also sprinkled on some Italian seasoning and garlic powder. Then instead of throwing it in the oven like that, I rolled it, starting in the corner and rolling diagonally. I folded in the ends, and put on a coat of EVOO. Then I put it in the oven (preheated to 400 degrees F) for about 15-20 minutes. I then took it out, and cut it in slices. I left the slices in the middle on the baking sheet, and put the rest on a plate. Then I put the middle pieces back in the oven for about 1o more minutes to make sure the dough was fully cooked.

Anyway, they were pretty good, and I can't believe I've never made them before! It was a great, easy little appetizer.

I also make this chocolate chip cheese ball, which I mentioned before.

I served it with chocolate Teddy Grahams, graham crackers, and Pepperidge Farm Pirouette cookies. It was very good, but not very good for you. haha! Click here for the recipe (From Kelly's Korner).

2. Trans Siberian Orchestra Concert. The annual concert was last night! It was such a great night, but way, way, way too late for a school night! Haha...I was absolutely dragging all day today. But last night was fun! We all went out to dinner on the way, and that was nice. Then we headed to Cleveland. We had to walk through Tower City to get to Quicken Loans Arena, and it was so pretty and festive for Christmas!
Anyway, once at the concert, we took our seats which were right on the floor...they were great! This year our group consisted of:

Me and Luke, Obviously
{Luke is doing No-shave November... hence the full beard. He actually isn't going to shave until January, because the band is all growing their beards for their trip to Colorado...let's just say I'm still getting used to it :-P}


My parents, who went for the first time this year!

And our friends from church, Laura and Stan. It was Stan's first year too.

I didn't take any pictures during the concert, because I wanted to be totally focused on it. Luckily, Luke took a bunch with his iPhone, so here is a preview:
The concert did not disappoint. I feel like I'm really ready for the Christmas season now!

3. Christmas. This weekend we basically began the Christmas season at our house. We put up our trees, watched Christmas movies, and I almost finished my Christmas cards. My goal is to send them all out this weekend. I really want to make this Christmas a special one, and I feel like we've gotten a really good start on things! My next step is to finish my Christmas shopping and wrap all the presents. And in a few weeks it will be time to start doing my Christmas baking. I love to bake Christmas cookies and hand them out to family and friends. And it's always nice to have some on hand when people come to visit.

Luke and I skipped date night last week with all the Thanksgiving festivities, but it is my turn to pick, and I think we're going to have a Christmas date night here at home this week. I want to make homemade hot cocoa, light some pine-scented candles, and turn off all the lights except the Christmas tree, and then watch Elf! I don't think I've watched Elf in a few years, and I am way overdue for a viewing!


P.S. I hope you have been enjoying my Christmas music player!