Five on Friday, Favorites + A Printable

Happy Friday!!! 

I have FIVE Favorites today & a free printable!

Today was the last Friday of school & now it's Christmas Break!!!

This was me all week:

#thestruggleisreal

Memes & Someecards are my favorite...these ones are just so true:

 

{ONE}

Full House was my FAVORITE as a kid! 

I am WAY too excited about Fuller House.

I may or may not have teared up when I saw the trailer last night.

Being born & raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, I especially love this show because it is based in SF. Earlier this year, we played "tourist" in SF and checked out the Full House house.

(The house has been repainted since the show last aired 20 years ago in 1995, it is much darker now!)

 Full House was my FAVORITE show growing up. One of the reasons it was my favorite show is because it was based in San Francisco and because it was a family of 3 girls, just like me & my sisters. I can't WAIT for the Fuller House show that is coming out in February! So excited!

{TWO}

Rodan + Fields Eye Cream is my Favorite!

I know that some of you missed out on my last bulk order, so I am going to place ANOTHER bulk order on December 31st!

I started using the eye cream right after Luke was born and WOW, it got rid of the bags under my eyes that I had from lack of sleep with a newborn. 

Our  Multi-Function Eye Cream combines powerful peptides to minimize the appearance of crow’s-feet, helps reduce the appearance of both puffiness and dark under eye circles while special optical diffusers noticeably brighten the eye area.

Ophthalmologist tested, this formula is ideal for maintaining the delicate skin around the eyes.  

This brave consultant only used the eye cream on one eye for 3 weeks!

It's less puffy & she doesn't have bags under that eye!

I will be placing a BULK order of our amazing eye cream December 31st.
For my bulk order, you can get it with my discount and it will only cost you $58 and I will cover your tax & shipping!
One jar lasts me at least 4-5 months.
Let me know if you want to order one! Leave a comment with your email or email me: melissa_larson17@yahoo.com

{THREE}

San Francisco during Christmas is my favorite...I love seeing all the decorations!

My sister's work has a Christmas party in SF every year at the Embarcaderro Ice Skating Rink...they shut it down just for the clients. It's so fun. San Francisco's Christmas decorations are so pretty this year:

{FOUR}

Random Acts of Kindness are my favorite....especially during the Holiday Season.

Yesterday I posted about Blessing Bags. 

You can read the full post about them {HERE}

Last night we headed to San Francisco for my sister's work party & we brought our blessing bags to hand out to the homeless. I was so incredibly proud of my girls, they were more excited about handing out the blessing bags than they were to go ice skating.  I told them that I would hand the bags out, but Claire insisted that she be the one to hand it to them. They weren't scared of the homeless people they saw & they were brave and handed them the blessing bag with a smile on their faces & wished them a Merry Christmas. All of the people were so incredibly thankful and one of them said  "I never get Christmas presents, this is so exciting! God Bless You!" 

 

I highly encourage you to make these bags....they truly bless people!

Another Random Act of Kindness that I started doing this year is taping this note to my front door along with Starbucks Gift Cards.

 I don't know about you, but I do 99% of my Christmas shopping online. This is what I have taped on our front door as a way to say thank you to our fed ex, ups & usps workers who are working so hard this time of year:

I posted that photo on Instagram & one of my friends texted me asking if I could email her the graphic that I made, so I decided to just make it a printable for all of you as well! 

 You can sign or write in your own last name :)

{To download, Click so the image pops up in a new window, Right Click, Then Save & Print!}

We had 2 packages delivered today & 2 gift cards were taken. I was so excited!

 

{FIVE} 

This base coat & top coat are my new favorite!!!

You can get them {HERE}

I have been searching high and low for a top coat that helps with chipping. 

I have finally found one!!! 

I have used steps 1 & 3 the past 2 weeks and my nails don't chip for 5-6 days!

You don't need to use the Step 2 polish...I have used other brands and it still works great.

I will be using step 1 & 3 from now on, no matte what polish I use! 

So happy to have found something that works! Yay!

So, there you have it...5 of my favorites!

I hope you have a wonderful Winter Break.

This is me right now...

{Love these pj bottoms! If you are tall like me...5'9, they are long enough!!! YES! And, super cozy flannel. Get them HERE}

If you need me this weekend, I'll be here in my pj's...staring at my Christmas tree, drinking wine (or coffee) enjoying the rain falling outside, listening to Christmas music or watching Hallmark Christmas movies. Can I get an amen for no plans this weekend & 2 weeks off school? I have a house cleaner come once a month & she came today, so my house is clean for at least a few hours!Merry Christmas, indeed!

 Hope you have a great weekend!

Blessing Bags

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is heading to San Francisco during December.

I just love the city during Christmastime. Growing up, my parents would take us to San Francisco to see all the decorations & now I love continuing that tradition with my kids.

San Francisco has a huge homeless population, so whenever we go to the city we see a lot of homeless people on the streets. It's heartbreaking. I have never been comfortable giving them cash, I usually give them food or a gift card. For the past 5 or 6 years, we have taken "Blessing Bags" with us to the city.

 What is a blessing bag?

It's a ziplock bag filled with items/food that you give to a homeless person. 

What's in a blessing bag?

That is up to you! Here are the items that I put in our blessing bags: 

-New pair of socks

-Peanut Butter crackers (or you could do cheese/crackers)

-Granola Bar

-Beef Jerky/Cheese Stick

- Package of Almonds

-Mini Water Bottle

-Juice Box

-Chap Stick

-Toothbrush/Toothpaste

-Travel Size Deodorant

-Cough Drops/throat lasenges

-Pack of gum

-Travel size Wipes

- $5 Gift Card to McDonalds (so they can get a meal and/or hot coffee)

***Other items you can add****

-Applesauce/Fruit Cups

-Hand Santizer

-New Mittens/New Beanie

-Bar of Soap

-Travel Size Shampoo

-Hand Warmers

 

 Put all of these items in a Gallon Size Ziplock Bag.

 I like to make 10 bags at a time to bring with us to the city. 

Here are all the supplies:

 Kevin usually keeps 1 or 2 of these in his car, so that if he sees a homeless person on the corner, etc. He can give them a Blessing Bag.

 My girls love to assemble these. We talk about how fortunate we are & that some people don't have homes & so this is something small we can do for them to help them out.

Kate told me this year that we shouldn't give them a McDonalds gift card because they don't serve good food and that we should give them In-n-Out instead. I explained that there are a lot of McDonalds in the city & no In-n-Outs and they don't have a car to drive to In-n-Out. 

I like to include a $5 McDonalds gift card because then they can at least get a meal and a hot cup of coffee.

 The girls also wanted to make Christmas Cards/drawings to add to the Blessing Bags this year. I thought it was a great idea.

 All of the items fit perfectly into a Gallon Size Ziplock.

I love the cards the girls made :)

 Our Blessing Bags all filled up!

We are headed to the city later this afternoon to pass out the bags & to go ice skating. 

These are just suggestions for what to put in a Blessing bag. 

You can make them smaller & put them in sandwich size ziplock bags, it's totally up to you!

It's a simple way to bless a homeless person. 99% of the time they are extremely grateful.  

Now, go bless someone who needs a Blessing Bag!

Life Lately + A Winner!

I can't believe December is halfway over! 

This month has FLOWN by.

I guess that is what happens when your December is full of fun Christmas activities!

Here is what we have been up to this December!

Last weekend (the first weekend of December) Kevin and I ran the Bah Humbug 5k.

It is a 5k race & people wear Christmas themed outfits.

Our neighbors run it every year, so this year we decided to join in the fun!

We wore ridiculous ugly Christmas sweaters.

It was the first time I have gone running in a wool sweater dress and let me tell you....it that was sweaty. LOL!

 My sweater dress had jingle bells on it, so the entire time I ran I was jingling.

Such a fun race.

Then we had our annual court Christmas Party & White Elephant Exchange.
We brought this lamp:

Our neighbors who ended up the lamp put it in their front window the night of the party & they have it lit up 24/7. LOVE it!

We had cippiono for dinner...it was delicious. 

The white elephant gift exchange was epic....so many laughs.

 I know I talk about my neighbors a lot, but it's because I love them so much.

I made my Peppermint Cheesecake for one of the desserts, it was delicious! I will have to blog it!

On Sunday we surprised the kids and took them to the Train of Lights.

It is a train ride & the train is decorated with Christmas lights & decorations on the inside & outside.

 The pictures don't do it justice...it was so pretty!

This is the first year we have gone on the Train of Lights. It was fun!

This past weekend was my 1/2 Marathon that I ran with Team World Vision.

Friday night (the night before the race) I was really nervous.

It was the anticipation of running another 1/2 marathon. I was more nervous for this one than I was for the Nike Women's Half because I think this time I knew what to expect...and that running 13.1 miles is HARD. 

I laid out all my gear the night before!

 I was up at 5:15 (if you know me, you know I am NOT a morning person...at all!!!)
It was COLD when we got to the race....38 degrees out. That is cold for us wimpy Calfornians :)
Me & my older sister Elyse before the race. So glad she invited me to be a part of Team World Vision! She has been running with them for 3 or 4 years.

 My goal for this 1/2 Marathon was to run a faster time than I ran for the Nike Women's Half. For that race, my time was 1:59:11. I wanted to beat that time because for this race I was running for Team World Vision & I was running for kids in Africa. It is a fundraising race and I have been training really hard for it. I wanted to get a faster time because I wanted people to know that I took this seriously and I really was running for a cause.

Elyse and I stayed with the 1:50 pace group. I felt GREAT the entire race. It was so nice running at a consistent pace. I did not do that for the Nike Race...my splits were all over the place (plus, there were tons of hills for that race)

For this 1/2 marathon, there were only 2 big hills...which is better than the 15+ hills that the Nike race had.
Whenever I was getting tired during the race, I would look down at my wrist at the orange World Vision bracelet I was wearing...

 It says Water. Hope. Life.
That is why I was running! For clean water for villages in Africa so that kids don't have to walk 15-20 miles a day for dirty water.

Here are some race photos they sent us...this was at mile 12:



 And, I had to laugh....here is a side by side comparison of me at mile 12 for the Nike run & this run:

 For the Nike run I was in so much pain at mile 12...those hills kicked my butt. For this race, I ran smarter and trained smarter and I was smiling at mile 12!

Crossing the finish line!

 My official finish time was 1:50:30. I couldn't believe I ran it 9 minutes faster than the Nike 1/2 marathon. I felt SO much better after this race. For the Nike Race, I messed my knee up on the mile 11 hill and walked with a limp for 2 weeks. For this race, my legs were sore for 2 days post race, but I don't have any injuries which I am SO happy about.
 
I thought this was so cool....at the end of the race, my total miles since I started my running journey back in July hit 300 miles on the dot!

I am a total numbers nerd, so that was so cool to hit exactly that at the end of the race. 

In July, I hadn't gone running in 10 years.....exactly 5 months later I have done 2 Half Marathons & have run 300 miles! You can do hard things!

 Love this sticker that they gave us. Don't worry, I'm not putting it on my car ;)
 

 It was a really great experience running with Team World Vision.
My favorite part was running the race with my sister.

I am so glad she invited me to be a part of this awesome event and raising money for villages in Africa to have clean water wells. I loved that before the race began, all 20+ of us from Team World Vision prayed for the villages in Africa that would be getting clean water because of our fundraising. It made me cry before the race!

I loved having my parents, Kevin & the girls there cheering us on. They had signs for us, it was so cute! My girls want to run the 5k next year & raise money as well!
I will definitely run another race with Team World Vision. It was a great experience!

 I am still a little short on my goal of raising $1,310 ($100 for every mile I ran)
If you would like to donate (you have until December 31st!)
Any amount helps..$5, $10, $25, etc...it's 100% tax deductible!
Thank you so much for your support!

 ++++++++++++
And, the winner of the $250 Target Gift Card is:
VICTORIA
Congrats!!! Leave a comment or send me an email to claim your prize!