Hey guys, and happy week leading up to Christmas! Matt and I had another nice weekend here in DC. We worked from home together on Friday and treated ourselves to pho (at Pho 75 in Arlington – the best) for lunch. Perfect for such a cold day! We got there early and beat the lunch rush, which was a good thing because by the time we left there was a HUGE line. Guess everyone else had the same idea!
On Friday night, we whipped up a Sun Basket (<- affiliate link for 3 free meals) dish – this one was one of our favorites! Anything with tomatoes and capers = awesome. It reminded me of our Saucy Tomato and Artichoke Chicken but minus the artichokes and with salmon. The lemon on top was Matt’s touch for presentation purposes. 🙂 You eat first with your eyes!
Matt went out to a holiday party one of his buddies was hosting on Friday and I decided to stay home and kick it on the couch. Best decision ever – it’s weird because I’m such an extrovert all day long but then after about 8 or 9 I turn into more of an introvert and love just being home and cozy. Zara was excited about the idea as well, and kept me company while I watched TV. 🙂
On Saturday, I slept in and then spent some time wrapping Christmas presents! I was thinking a run might be nice but it was too icy out – and I also didn’t want to mess up my hair (priorities) because I had big plans for the day – a photo-shoot!
I’d been meaning to get some new photos taken for my AnneTheRD nutrition counseling business website for ages, and now that I’ve actually been in town for more than 5 minutes it was time to make it happen. I hired Taylor and Ben Photography for the occasion; Ben is a good friend of mine from high school, so it was fun to work with them – and most importantly they do an awesome job! (That’s Ben below trying to tame my massive hair!)
I highly recommend them if you are in the area and looking for a great photographer or videographer. They offer professional/corporate work (via Powell Media Concepts) and also do wedding photography/videography (they shot our wedding!) via Taylor and Ben Photography.
Those of you who have been reading my blog for awhile will remember that Ben’s older sister Jenny is my best friend from high school, and their younger sister Gretchen is also a good friend! Jenny was in town visiting so they all came over for the festivities and we hung out and had lunch before getting down to work. A bonus is that Gretchen is an amazing makeup artist, so I asked if she would do my makeup before the photo shoot. 🙂 She did such a great job! Thank you Gretchen!
I can’t wait to see the finished photos! Here’s a sneak preview that Taylor sent me over the weekend. 🙂
Saturday night’s adventure was an early Christmas celebration with my family! We’re heading up to Pittsburgh to spend Christmas with Matt’s family this year (we alternate holidays every year), so it was nice to have a little pre-Christmas with my family. 🙂 My mom set out our stockings and gifts just like it were Christmas morning – so fun and cozy!
After opening presents and enjoying some wine by the fire we moved on to dinner. My mom made her specialty: steak and taco salad. I’ve written before about my love for this salad (here’s a post all about it and how to make it: my most favorite salad ever), but basically it’s greens, grated cheddar cheese, kidney beans, tomatoes, and corn chips (broken up into smaller pieces) with Catalina dressing on top. Yummm!
My mom makes a mean steak, too – it was so good! Dessert was some vanilla ice cream with strawberries. Yum!
As for Sunday, I met up with Chelsea for a boot camp! I’ve written before about how we love the gym Definitions in Georgetown – they lead awesome interval/HIIT workout classes. They emailed and invited us to come and check out a free trial of a new class they have on the schedule – a Climb class! It’s similar to their normal interval classes, but one of the workout stations is these cool climbing machines. They were fun and also really hard – awesome cardio workout!
If you are local, like boot camp/interval style classes, and haven’t checked out Definitions yet, do it! (They have an awesome holiday special going on right now: 3 classes for $30!) Thank you to them for having us – we loved the new class and will definitely be back to take it again!
The rest of yesterday was filled with some stuff around the house, and I also attended a baby shower in the afternoon for my good friend Lara! It was CrossFit themed because Lara and her husband Jim are really into CrossFit – how cute is this barbell made of diapers?! I loved the kettlebell cake pops, too! Jenny and Gretchen made them all with the help of Pinterest. 🙂
Dinner last night was low key – another Sun Basket creation, but Matt improvised and added some extra veggies and some beans that were in the fridge to make more of a hearty soup. Solid end to the weekend! Also – I LOVE roasted cauliflower. My favorite way to enjoy cauliflower by far!
Have a great day, guys!
What’s your favorite kind of workout class? As you guys know, I really love interval classes – they are hard but fun and always fly by since the activities are so varied! And of course I love yoga, too – so calming!
