Month: December 2024

Hi friends! Happy Friday! How’s your week going? Friends who are celebrating this week: how have your holidays been?

Before we head into today’s post, a HUGE congrats to the winner of this year’s Favorite Things giveaway: Mary Anne C. Stay tuned for more giveaways coming up in the new year!

It’s been an amazing week. We spent a couple of nights at the Scottsdale Princess, which is one of our favorite winter traditions. They have so many gorgeous light displays, Santa, ice skating, rides, and the atmosphere is so festive and fun.

(They also have a ridiculous hot cocoa cocktail called the Nutcracker that is SO good.) We met up with friends and enjoyed all of the activities on property, and also had dinner at the new Toca Madera.

We were blown away by the food and the service. Everything was cooked perfectly – we shared guacamole, chips, oysters, and the Pilot and I enjoyed margaritas. For entrees, the kids got truffle mac and cheese and a chopped salad with chicken, while the Pilot and I enjoyed steaks and sides. We ordered three desserts (we want to try everything when we go out to eat lol) and the presentation was so unique – everything was on a board adorned with a lit sparkler.

While we were in Scottsdale we also saw the Ballet Arizona Nutcracker; one of my all-time faves!

The rest of the week has been Winterhaven lighs and a party with friends, Christmas Eve at my dad’s, and Christmas Day at our house. This week has been filled with everything I love: family time, chill time, and amazing food.

(All of our pajamas are from Hanna Andersson)

We had the usual nana’s egg casserole, tamales, beans, and homemade cinnamon rolls.

The Pilot made his famous egg nog:

and for dinner, we had a giant charceuterie board, caviar + accompaniments, shrimp cocktail, and for dinner, beef tenderloin with horseradish mustard sauce, smoked turkey, maple brussels, and mashed sweet potatoes.

Dessert was a yule log from dedicated,

homemade pumpkin pie,

assorted macarons, and a million cookies that madre and I baked 😉 These are some of the cookie tins we took over to our neighbors:

We played the saran wrap ball game and a few other games, and the Pilot and I capped off the evening sitting by the fire pit by the pool. It was perfect 🙂

It’s time for the weekly Friday Faves party! This is where I share some of my favorite finds from the week and around the web. I always love hearing about your faves, too, so please shout out something you’re loving in the comments section below.

12.27 Friday Faves

Fashion + beauty + random:

One of my friends said this was her favorite Christmas gift so I ordered one for myself. I’m excited to use it for our next get-together to keep food warm.

This sweatshirt is so cute for Valentine’s Day!

A perfect classic sweater dress 

Read, watch, listen:

Rules for modern life

Are you doing Dry January this year?

Fitness, health, life, and good eats:

While we were in Scottsdale, I was able to take a Pvolve class at their new Scottsdale studio. It was one of the best group fitness classes I’ve taken in a loooooong time. The instructor had fabulous cueing and energy, and I really love the Pvolve workout and format. It incorporates functional strength training with unique positioning – lots of internal and external rotation – balance components, and the tools are effective at adding an additional challenge. It was HARD and I was pleasantly sore afterwards! My full blog post review is here.

SO many sales on some of my favorite health and wellness brands. If you’re looking to use up FSA/HSA funds as we finish out the year, check out this post. 

– EquiLife is having a huge sale on tests and supplements this week. If you want to test as we head into the new year, I highly recommend starting with the Big 5 or the Starter Kit. (If you’d like me to be the one to go over the tests with you, send me your confirmation number to [email protected] subject TEST and I can make sure the results are tracked to me.)

– Last chance to get 20% off at HigherDOSE with the code FITNESSISTA20. If you want a sauna blanket, PEMF mat or red light mask, now is the chance.

Banana gingerbread muffins

January detox starts January 13th if you want to plan ahead! My code is FITNESSITA10 if you’d like to join in.

Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today! Have an amazing weekend and I’ll see ya soon!

xoxo

Gina

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