Grits in the City - discounts and faves

Hope you enjoy all these as much as I do!

national zoo and bbq

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With everything going on, I haven’t had the focus to write here but working now to pick that up however I can. So here we are. I’ve had this post in the works for a while so I guess you could say it’s a bit of a lovely trip down memory lane of our last family trip of sorts.

While most people think of Black Friday for shopping, we have a several year tradition of a different sort. It involves getting out of the house and an activity of some sort to keep Q entertained. And now L, too. This year’s winner? A trip to the National Zoo!

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peloton ride #150? check!

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in late January, I took my hundredth Peloton ride. My husband tackled naptime solo with our two kids so I could clip-in in real-time with Ally Love’s Sundays with Love. I ride in our basement, which isn’t the most beautiful of backdrops. I bought all kinds of “100” decorations and hung them from our low ceiling. Definitely helped to brighten it up for the occasion. Two of my fellow NYC new mom group members joined with me – one cross-country in Cali also taking her hundredth and another from NYC. I also had some of the amazing ladies from our Pelo – Bachelor Nation Facebook group join in as well, passing high fives all around.

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winter ONEderland birthday party

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When I started looking at first birthday ideas, Winter ONEderland was a standout to me. It was logical for L’s big first birthday party. I learned pretty quickly though it was more challenging when it came to decorations. So many first birthday party ideas are very boy / girl or more summertime themed. Pulling this one off required a bit of planning. I’m sharing where I found all our things in case you’re interested in planning one, too!

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melted snowman cookies

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I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do to decorate our house for L’s recent first birthday party. Well, aside from these super cute snowman cookies. I saw them in Instagram. I saw them all over Pinterest. So these were pretty much all I was planning on when I decided to commit to a theme and send out the invites.

I’ll be sharing more about how we pulled together her recent soirée but wanted to start with these since they’re so easy for how cute they turn out. I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe you can find here.

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4 indoor family activities for winter

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Winter has always made me a bit stir crazy, something that has only gotten worse since having kids. There are so many things that we do during nice weather that all the sudden is off-limits during these cold months — and their underlying energy to go, go, go? It goes nowhere, leaving us in need of something engaging to keep them occupied.

Luckily there are several things you can do when time outside is not in the cards (on those days you don’t want to, or perhaps don’t have the option to, leave the house). Below are some activities to stash and pull out, as needed, to help get you through those rough months. And, before you know it, playground time will be back in the mix.

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2020 resolutions

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I love starting a new year. Even though in so many ways it’s not, it feels like a fresh start. A blank page, with a new story to write. I always use this as a time to think through what I want to accomplish and set some big goals (with the plan of being kind to myself if I don’t manage to accomplish them all). And because this list just keeps going the longer I work on it, I’m wrapping it up now before I bite off more than I can chew! Essentially, it’s the year of more.

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2019: the highlight reel

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2019, you weren’t half-bad. Like any year there were some lowlights. Some of them continued from other years and others were new challenges to face. It was a year of bittersweet beginnings and sweet new smiles. It was year of decades… a new personal one for me and some important missed ones, like my parent’s 50th anniversary and what should have been my mom’s 70th birthday. 

We started the year with the bang. Our baby girl that wasn’t due until February 9 decided she should instead be a January girl, surprising us by arriving over two weeks early. I think she was as excited to meet us (and her big brother) as we were to finally see her! I took a little extra time for this maternity leave with L and loved every minute of our time together. It’s been fascinating to watch her grow and see how much of her own person she is compared to our experience with Q. So far, she’s proved to be quite the foodie – open to trying just about everything!

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afternoon tea at the pembroke room

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Even though it’s almost always to a place I’ve never visited or even heard of, I always know that there’s a tasty meal in store when my friend N comes to town. Wherever it is we end up going. We used to meet up for a big Saturday dinner. That changed to Sunday brunch (easier to coordinate with the kids) before taking a new twist this time — a full weekday in the city instead!

I started the day at Rockefeller Center, enjoying some coffee and a bit of shopping (the Rock Center Anthropologie is my absolute favorite). I just barely missed getting to meet Hoda Kotb on the TODAY Show Plaza, which would have made for the most appropriate unplanned addition to my staycation tourist day. I’d planned to go simple on breakfast but instead indulged in coffee and cream cheese danish (my weakness) from the Rock Center location of Bouchon Bakery.

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christmas tree meringues

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Every year, we decorate gingerbread houses with the family. Each year, our choice of gingerbread houses evolve to those that are even more pre-made (such a wise move) and I’ve begun to use this as an opportunity try a new holiday treat. This year I chose these Christmas tree meringues from Make Bake Celebrate.

The upside of these is that they don’t take too many ingredients. The main thing you may not have is cream of tartar. The downside is they take a long time (bake slow and long) and the piping process, if you aren’t already a piping pro. I want to get better at piping before baby girl’s upcoming first birthday which is another reason I chose to give this recipe a try.

The version below is slightly altered as I learned my oven has a minimum temp. I did some googling and apparently this was done to try to help present salmonella, which I get, but also found annoying! Thankfully the recipe worked just fine.

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