Friday Favorites + $250 Target Gift Card Giveaway!

Happy Friday!

Today I'm linking up with Friday Favorites!

Hosted by: Andrea, Erika & Narci

Friday...you are finally here!

I have been waiting for you all week!

{ONE}

My group of friends who I watch The Bachelor with had our 2nd annual sock exchange!

This is one of my favorite holiday traditions.

These are the socks I gave.

These are the socks I got: 

Aren't they funny?

{TWO}
Have you heard of the Lost My Name books?

The books are so cute, you customize them with your child's name. Each child’s adventure is totally unique and based on their name

  Last Christmas we got Luke both of these books.

It's an outer space adventure staring your child & their house and they use an actual satellite image of your child's house. You can preview all the books with your customization. Luke loves them!

They now have a Birthday book called the Birthday Thief

I love how you can personalize it!

 I am saving that book for his birthday, but am giving him this one for Christmas:

  They have bigger discounts if you order more than 1.
They are having some discounts this week use the code ADVENT20 for 20% off if you order 2 books. Make sure you order by December 9th for delivery before Christmas.

You can order the books HERE

If you enter your email address, they will send you a $5 off your order code! 

{THREE}

Making Christmas Cookies is my favorite!

Every December my girls and I do a TON of baking. 

We bake cookies for friends, neighbors & teachers.
I have TWO new Christmas cookie/bar recipes I am planning on sharing here in the new couple of weeks, so stay tuned!

In the meantime.......here is a round up of some of my FAVORITE Christmas Cookie Recipes!

Warning......there are a ton that I am posting :)

Candy Cane Kisses {Recipe HERE}

Fudge {Recipe HERE} 

Ultimate Ginger Cookie {Recipe HERE} 

Christmas Monster Cookies {Recipe HERE}

Christmas Tree Brownies {Recipe HERE} 

Cranberry Cookie Bars {Recipe HERE} 

Snickerdoodles {Recipe HERE} 

 Peanut Butter Blossoms {Recipe HERE}

 Christmas Sprinkle Sugar Cookies {Recipe HERE}

We also like to make Donut Snowmen {Recipe HERE}

Donut Reindeer {Recipe HERE}

 Peppermint Ice Cream Cake {Recipe HERE}

Preztel Hugs {Recipe HERE}

 Ritzies {Recipe HERE} 

 Christmas Cookies in a Jar (and free printable) 

Get the instructions & printable {HERE}

Reindeer Food






Get the instructions & printable {HERE}

We love passing out goodies & gifts to our friends during December :)

{FOUR}

Good Earth Sweet & Spicy Tea is my favorite tea.

I have been drinking it by the gallon. I've been sick since we got back from NYC.

I love the quote on the tea bag. Perfect! 

 I had a fever, bronchitis and a terrible cough. UGH.
  I must have caught something on the subway or the plane, or in the crowds of people. But it was WORTH IT!!! Such a fun trip!!
 Seriously...take me back to NYC during Christmas time!!!!
 If you missed my NYC recaps, here are the links:

Day 1 HERE 
Day 2 HERE
Day 3 HERE {Thanksgiving Day Parade!}

Day 4 HERE

{FIVE}

My house at Christmas is my favorite....I love how cozy it feels.

 I also love watching Hallmark Christmas by the glow of Christmas lights.

Hallmark Christmas movies are my favorite.

  So many good  Hallmark Christmas movies...I've been recording them since before Thanksgiving...but you know me, I didn't watch them until after Thanksgiving. I have over 15 Hallmark Christmas movies on there right now. Sorry Kevin. I've taken over the DVR. Hahaha!

Anyone else addicted to cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies? They are the best!
My favorite one that I have seen this year is Switched for Christmas. So cheesy! So cute! 

I love that the girls also love watching them with me! 

{SIX}
Lash Boost....you guys....I am obsessed!!! It is my favorite!!! 
Our Lash Boost Holiday Special is going on right now!

It comes with Lash Boost (will last 3-4 months) & a cute travel bag:

Check out a fellow consultant's results:

CONDITION, MOISTURIZE, and NOURISH YOUR NATURAL lashes with Lash Boost and you will have longer-looking, darker-looking, and thicker-looking lashes! 60-day 100% satisfaction guarantee or your $ back! 

Send me an email if you want to order....I will be placing BULK ORDER of lash boost early next week.

You get the cute travel bag & lash boost for $135.

If you buy TWO of them, you get it for $244....so $122 each! 

 Get one for you & one for your mom, sister, best friend, etc!

This is good for current or new customers! 

Email me to order!
melissa_larson17@yahoo.com

{SEVEN}

This fall I was in a Book Club with some other moms from our kids elementary school.

We are doing the Present over Perfect book & workbook.

We had a PJ exchange party last weekend.

We pulled names a few weeks ago & bought pj's!

These are the Pj's that I gave. I also gave these socks:

If you have read the book, you will understand the significance :)

{EIGHT}

Stitch Fix is my favorite!
My December fix is scheduled to arrive today. I requested Holiday dresses for this fix. We have our a few Christmas parties this year, so I thought it would be fun to wear a new dress for at least one of them. I can't WAIT to see what arrives!
If you haven't done Stitch Fix before, I recommend it. I've been doing it since May 2014...every month it's like Christmas when your box arrives. You don't have to get one every month, you can do every other month, every 3 months, etc.
Did you know you can also give the gift of a Stitch Fix gift card?
Or, you can ASK for a Stitch Fix gift card.
Click the photo below for the gift cards:

 This month until January, your $20 styling fee is waived! 

Click HERE to get started! They have a men's line now, so I just signed Kevin up to get a Stitch Fix (he HATES shopping)

{NINE}

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

Last year I posted about Blessing Bags. 

You can read the full post about them {HERE}

Every year when we head to San Francisco during the holidays we bring our blessing bags to hand out to the homeless. This is one of my girls favorite things to do. I am so proud of them & how brave they are when giving the blessing bags to the homeless.

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

Another Random Act of Kindness that I started doing last 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!}

{TEN}

Target is my favorite & so are giveaways....so how does a $250 Target Gift Card Giveaway sound?!?!

Guess what?!?!?!  It's your lucky day....I am giving one away!!!

Perfect to get Christmas presents, stocking stuffers, winter clothes, etc!
Giveaway ends next Friday!
To enter, use the Rafflecopter below & comment with what you would buy if you won!

Happy Friday!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

New York City :: Day 4

NYC Day 4: Our last day here & had a leisurely morning. 

NYC was all decked out for Christmas by morning. 

(We literally saw crews putting up Christmas decorations on the buildings last night & putting up Christmas trees) 

We checked out St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

It is stunning...inside and outside.

We walked down to the Plaza Hotel (where Home Alone 2 was filmed) 








The Plaza was beautifully decorated:

 Loved the wreaths:

Inside The Plaza there is a shopping/food area:

 And, the tree in the lobby...just stunning:

I also loved the chandelier.

We took a carriage ride through Central Park, which was beautiful.

Central Park in late November is just gorgeous.

Beautiful fall leaves

Green grass & blue skies

I was in Fall heaven :)

The Plaza:

Our carriage driver Kenny was awesome.

In front of the "Friends" inspired fountain:

 Kenny said we had to have a photo at this spot:

 Our driver, Kenny has been giving Central Park Carriage Rides for over 35 years.

Central Park wasn't that crowded since it was Black Friday.

Pretty sure everyone was shopping on 5th Avenue.

We stopped at Tavern on the Green:

Outdoor eating area:

The bridge where the snowball fight scene from Elf was filmed:

I love Central Park!

Fall in Central Park is the stuff dreams are made of. LOL!
So peaceful to escape the crazy of the city and go to Central Park.

After the carriage ride, Kenny let Claire feed the horse (Roger) some carrots:

I highly recommend a carriage ride through Central Park, it was one of our highlights!

After our peaceful carriage ride we walked up 5th Avenue and headed back to Rockefeller Center.
Since it was Black Friday, the streets and stores were so crowded! 

We went to American Girl store (again!) You can design your own doll. My girls loved doing that.
 Note to self: Never go to American Girl store on Black Friday. Insanity. 

Went to the LEGO store...we waited in line for 15 minutes to get into the store, but at least we had a good view of people ice skating while we waited in line & could people watch:

All my kids love LEGO's!

 Loved the LEGO display of Rockefeller Center:

 So many pretty decorations throughout the city

 Finally has some New York Pizza. Delicious.

Went to Magnolia Bakery for cupcakes & their banana pudding. 

Can we talk about the Salvation Army Bell ringers?

The in NYC are at a whole new level of awesomeness. They sing & dance all day long. 

All of Salvation Army Bell Ringers  we saw were like this! AMAZING!

We walked around 5th Avenue looking at the incredible Christmas window displays.
No one does Christmas decorations like NYC, so fun to see all the lights, decorations & window displays.

5.7 miles & about 13,000 steps on our final day in NYC. 
We took a late night flight back to California & got home after midnight. 

You know it's a good trip when your girls wake up the first morning home & turn on the DVR so they can watch the Thanksgiving Parade again, but on TV. 
Kevin recorded it for us & this was the the first thing the girls did when they woke up Saturday morning :)

This is a trip I will never forget! I hope the girls never forget it either. 
So many great memories. Before the trip, I told them that this was their Christmas present, so they will literally have nothing to unwrap from us on Christmas morning but Luke will. I am all about giving experiences rather than gifts. They will get gifts from Santa & stocking stuffers, but this was their Christmas from Kevin & I. They were totally fine with that :)

NYC has ruined me for Christmas, they know how to do it right. California could take some tips from NYC on Christmas ;)

You can read about :
Day 1 HERE 
Day 2 HERE
Day 3 HERE
 
We could have done 1 more day in NYC. 
There are a few things I want to do next time we go back, but we just ran out of time. 
That list includes:
- Going to a Broadway Show (this wasn't a high priority for this trip since we saw the Rockettes and also because we see a Broadway show in SF once a year) 
- NBC Experience Studio Tour
- Tour of Empire State Building
- Try again to go see Jimmy Fallon. I'm not giving up! LOL!
 
We love you NYC & we will be back!  
Thanks for following along and enduring all the posts & massive photo overload about our trip!