Annual Sweet Swap 2014

 Cookies, Sweets & Treats.... Oh My!

 

Yesterday I attended the cookie "sweets" swap I go to each year and as usual, it didn't disappoint! The festivities got underway around 1:30 ~ we had lunch and cocktails and mingled a bit. Then around 2:00 we played some reindeer games! This year was so fun.

The first game we all put a paper plate on our heads and had to "draw" a Christmas scene onto it while on our head. It was crazy. After the person giving instructions was through we got to look at our creations and count up points. I came in 2nd with 18 points!

Next we played "name that tag line" from famous Christmas movies.

Our team tied three ways with two other teams but lost in the tie breaker to the question "What year did Charlie Brown's Christmas" come out. We guessed 1964, it was '65

 

Then we did our cookie tasting...

 

Then did our judging
 

Their are 4 categories:

Best Tasting

Best Packaging

Most Time Consuming

Most Creative

Mine are in the red mini loaf pans :)

The Sweets participating were:

Devil's Food Cookies

Chocolate Reindeer Pops

Gingerbread Caramel Cups

Snickerdoodles

Chocolate Oreo Peperment Crunch Bars (mine)

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Mint Crunch

Fruit Drops

Lemon Puffs

Ginger Snaps

Hot Cocoa Cookies

Christmas Bark

White Chocolate Cherry Shortbreads

Reindeers

Thin Mints

Didn't manage to snag a photo of these before I brought them to work! 

Italian Florentines

The winners were as follows:

 

Best tasting was the gingerbread cups. 

My gosh they were delicious!

Best packaging was the hot cocoa cookies.

Most creative was Rudolph pretzels which if you ask me was kind of cheesy but whatever. 

And lastly. 

 

The most time consuming was the Italian Florentines.

Overall. It was a great time as usual. My very amazing friend Heather always hosts such an awesome exchange! 

And can we take a minute to drool over her sister in laws fireplace?! 

 

It was so much fun and I am stocked with cookies and treats for Christmas!

Today is my last day of work until January 5th!

I wish I was off yesterday and today, but sadly I am not.

This awful AWFUL cough I have is wiping me out so badly.

I can't wait for it to subside and for my health to get better!

No one wants to be sick at Christmas :(

 

Happy Tuesday

 

~Tiffany~

Out of Commission!

My apologies! I've been super sick since last Tuesday! I stayed home from work Friday and literally slept ALL day! And baked my heart out on Saturday for our swap and had a house showing! So tomorrow I promise to divulge all the details of my sweet swap! It's one you don't want to miss!! 

Scarf Exchange!

I participated in a blogger scarf exchange with a few ladies and it was so fun!

I am a HUGE fan of scarves! I love all kinds. My most recent obsession is with blanket scarves as seen below...

 

So when this exchange was organized by Vanessa & Deena, I was super excited to participate with the girls.

 

My package arrived as such:  

Super cute festive box :) 

 

Red & Black ~ My two favorite colors!  & The pattern?! HELLO! Awesome!!

 

Disregard the weird angle and iphone pic - I've been sick and did this kind of quickly :(

I love it! It's so soft and matches the majority of my wardrobe Haha

(Again, its pretty obvious that I'm sick in this photo don't mind the glassy eyes)

 

Thank you Vanessa for this adorable scarf!  

 

I had so much fun sending my scarf to Sarita although it was sent back to ME twice! I guess my package looked suspicious!? Maybe it's because I was trying to send matching nail polish (Sorry girl!)

Check out the rest of the scarf exchange !!

 

Happy Wednesday Ladies!

One week to go until Christmas Eve!!

~Tiffany~

An AMAZING Shrimp Dip Recipe

I am KICKING myself for NOT taking a picture of this dip.

It is so good! I promise if you like Shrimp Cocktail, you will like this!

 

Shrimp Dip

 

Here is what you need:

 

1 block of cream cheese

 

About 15 cooked, cleaned, peeled shrimp with NO tail

 

Cocktail Sauce 

 

Dried Oregano 

 

Grated Parm 

A Plate, Crackers, & Spreader

 

What you do:

 

Spread your cream cheese on a large plate - like the size of a dinner plate

Then dump your cocktail sauce into a bowl.

(I add a few dashes of tobacco & worchestershire for a little extra kick of flavor)

Next, chop up your shrimp into very small pieces

(I use my Pampered Chef Chopper for this step)

Then toss the shrimp into the bowl with the cocktail sauce.

Mix it up real good

Pour it on top of the spread out cream cheese

Then sprinkle on some oregano, just a little to lightly cover the surface

Then sprinkle on the parmesan cheese, a little more than the oregano

And Voila!

 

I serve this with Townhouse crackers and a cute little cheese spreader

(I have like 80 of them)

 

It is DELICIOUS! And a perfect Christmas/Holiday/Anytime App to wow your guests!

 

 

Tomorrow will be our Blogger Scarf Exchange Link Up!

So excited to share about my scarf!

 

~Tiffany~

Weekend Wrap-Up

 

This weekend was pretty busy, as most are around Christmas time…

We had Asian take-out from Xina on Thursday night– an amazing place right before the island near my moms house. It is absolutely delicious. So fresh and always on point!

 

Friday at work, I ate some runts and realized I'm pretty biased with which ones I like and which ones I do not like!  



 

Friday night, we had a little dinner party. Of course I forgot to take pictures of the amazing meal I made, but I'm going to tell you about it anyway...  

For appetizers we had various cheeses and crackers as well as what I call “Cold Pizza” which actually has shrimp in it. (Will be sharing the recipe soon)For dinner we had Filet Mignon with a brandy mushroom cream sauce, green beans sautéed with shallots and twice baked potatoes. We had lovely challah bread from Philly which one of our guests brought. And for dessert I made chocolate cream pie which we accompanied with eggnog & coffee.

I was exhausted Friday night and couldn’t wait to get into my bed, but we had a great time making memories with amazing friends.

 

Saturday Ted & I went shopping at the mall. WOW - what a mess THAT was. We only managed to get a few things... because it was crazy

 

While at the mall, we stopped for a little snack - This little Italian place has the best Bruschetta!

 

Sunday, I proudly wore my 2nd blanket scarf to church

 

Sunday afternoon I watched a little Dirty Dancing... because when any girl sees that movie on, she immediately stops to watch!  

 

Santa came through out neighborhood on the fire "sleigh" which always warms my heart each year..  

 

And I rocked my other blanket scarf from Tara Lynn's 

Which by the way, I'm on their instagram page today if ya'll haven't seen already :)

Iced Peppermint Mocha = Delish (btw)

I can't believe Christmas is 10 days away!!!!! So excited!!

~Tiffany~

Christmas at Mom's House

There is literally no place like home.... My mom's house, the house I grew up in, the house I still refer to as home, and the place where SO many memories were made, is BY FAR my favorite place at Christmas time.... Here's a peek into my "home" at Christmas. My mom does such an amazing job and the house is always so cozy and warm. There is usually a fire going and Christmas music playing throughout the house at all times from after Thanksgiving until New Years. My dad wired speakers throughout the whole house a while back and I love this about "home"

 

This is the front of the house...

 

Her lamp post.... so cute. There is usually a big thing hanging off the hook and it is currently there, not sure where it was when I took the picture

 

The front door

 

Entry Table - she made the Frosty hat

 

She made this snow man a few weeks ago... so talented she is <3

 

Dining room looking into the kitchen

 

Dining Room Window

 

Kitchen Island



 

Kitchen Windows

Guest Bathroom

 

Love these hanging pine cones, so simple yet so perfect!  

My Piano <3

 

Her Elves :) 

The mantle

 

LOVE <3 !!

 

I love being there, especially at  Christmas.

 

 

In other news.....we got our tree this past weekend... :-)

Ours, my moms & my brothers all stuffed into Ted's truck!  

 

Little big  ~ Oops 

 

TGTF!

 

Catch up with me tomorrow for Friday Favorites

 

~Tiffany~