Tuesday Things.
1. My mind is totally blown over this hot chocolate layer cake.
2. Yesterday on insta stories I shared a few things I grabbed at Trader Joe’s – because this is my absolute favorite time to shop there! They have the best holiday treats and foodie gift sets annnnd I might have broken into the box of chocolate toffee crackers even though I can totally make them at home.
3. Right now Max is really into seeing toy commercials on TV and asking if Santa will bring the toys on Christmas… and his current obsession is the pink and purple Barbie dream house. I never had one of those and uhhhh… sort of want Santa to bring it.
4. Speaking of, did you have an advent calendar as a kid? We never had one that has toys or candy or anything, but we had a felt one that hung on the wall and we moved a little mouse each day closer to Christmas. I think it was this one! The whole toy and chocolate thing every day did not happen.
5. And some of these tweets about eating all your advent calendar chocolate are so funny.
6. Can we talk about how much last week’s episode of This Is Us just KILLED me?! Oh my gosh. That show is so freaking good. Also, as I’m on my own self-imposed maternity leave, I’ve watched The Family Stone just about every day which is half torture, half pleasure.
7. So whyyy is it so easy to buy holiday decor but then when it comes to buying a picture for the wall or a piece of furniture, I just can’t do it? Riddle me that.
8. What to know before waking up at 4am. Which camp are you in? Early bird or night owl? I am so much more of a morning person but have had to somewhat switch that since having kids because night time is when I can get a ton of work done.
9. Who here has Sonos?! Tell me about it and do you love it?
42 Comments on “Tuesday Things.”
My parents just bought a Sonos sound bar. As my dad said, the price is about 50% product, 50% style.
We have Sonos and love it so much! We have the sound bar and sub in our family room, and then also have speakers outside and through the entire rest of the house. It’s taken awhile to accumulate – because they are definitely not cheap – but it’s nice that anyone can listen to whatever they want when in their bedroom or wherever. I would absolutely recommend them!
Advent calendars…I remember them well. We had ones that had beautiful Christmas scenes and numbered windows to open. It seemed so exciting and something to look forward to each morning.
That Hot Chocolate cake is amazing…such a shame to cut into something so beautiful.
Finally…I was resisting Trader Joes but now I will have to make a visit to check the treats
Totally had that mouse calendar as a kid. So many fights ensued over who’s turn it was to move the mouse!
We had that same one too! There were just two of us so we split it up by even and odd days. (I felt like I won because I always had evens and got to move it to Christmas Eve, haha.)
We had it too! My mom gave it to me so now it’s hanging in my house!
We have Sonos! We have in wall speakers in the living room, 2 outside in the backyard, 2 in the study/office and 2 in our master. We are loving them so far. It’s only kind of annoying because there is known issue with Sonos and iTunes music. Sonos will not let you play certain songs from your iTunes which is highly annoying. My husband also read that if you have music in your iTunes that you’ve uploaded from a CD – it will NOT play through Sonos – which also sucks. But if you can get past those items, we like it a lot. The sound is great and it streams Pandora perfectly.
So, you just gave me chills. We had the exact same mouse one as a kid. And when I had my son 2 years ago, my mom gave it to me because someone had given it to her when she had me. Now, it’s in his room and we move the mouse over every day! We also have one for the house that’s a candy cane with Santa on it.
Happy Christmas!
We got Sonos when we moved into our new house. I thought this was a completely unnecessary use of funds, but boy was I wrong! We LOVE it and use it every single day. It’s incredibly easy to control from your phone and is great for parties when you want music playing in every room. We have a portable speaker in the kitchen, in my office, a sound bar in the living room and outdoor speakers that aren’t technically Sonos, but work along with the Sonos app. It’s absolutely worth the investment.
My parents just got the Sonos and it’s incredible. Pump some Adele through it. It sounds like you’re at her concert!
Unequivocally recommend Sonos speakers. Set up is a breeze, the sounds quality is awesome (unless you’re a professional,) and the flexibility is fantastic. We have the sub and sound bar and multiple speakers throughout the house. They’re not cheap, but definitely great.
We had the same advent calendar growing up! Must have been a western Pa. thing.
That’s Crazy……… watching the same movie day after day……..welllllll……..I watched “You’ve Got Mail” every day after I had my 2nd daughter. Ha, ha, ha!
I am pretty sure my parents still have that mouse calendar! I should tell them that i need to borrow it…and never give it back
Jumping on the Sonos bandwagon to say that it’s an awesome product! We have speakers in our kitchen, dining room, living room, den, bedroom and outside. I love that I can walk from room to room or come in from outside and the music stays with me. It’s also possible to play different music in different rooms or shut off certain rooms. It works great with Spotify and it’s easy to start small with just a couple of speakers and expands as your budget allows for it. It also works with Amazon Echo now, although that’s still a bit buggy. Go for it!
Was your advent calendar the green one with the cloth mouse?? We had/my parents still have that one! I got to move the mouse on odd days and my sister even days. It was such a big deal!
We love our Sonos speaker and have had NO issues with the iTunes interface, including the above referenced “not being able to play songs burned from a CD.” This has NEVER happened to us and a significant portion of our iTunes collection includes burned songs.
The interface is easy to use and the possibilities for music selection are endless — if you are a Sirius XM subscriber, if you use Spotify and/or Pandora, in addition to iTunes.
I’m nocturnal, so I refer to myself as an extreme early bird.
i love this ! i am a night owl and feel like i live in an early bird world. i suppose if you stay up past midnight its is super early the next day !!!!
Yes! :)
I’m seriously asking: what do you love about The Family Stone? I hated that movie but you & many others enjoy it and watch it every year. (Or every day in your case, haha.) Tell me what I missed…
I’ve been doing an Advent Giving Month instead of a gift-based one for the second year in a row and I really love it!
Lindsey | This Miss Cooks
http://thismisscooks.com/advent-giving-month/
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We also had a felt advent calendar! Ours had little ornaments you moved to the tree. We have one with metal tins now. Half asleep this morning my six year old said “can you give me the number 5 can?” Lol
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I am so glad you asked about Sonos! I am here for these comments. I have wanted them for a couple of years but have never taken the plunge because for us that is an investment to outfit our whole house like I want to, and I have ALWAYS been a Bose girl. But black friday we got Echos, and we have them hooked up to our less expensive bluetooth speakers in our bedroom, living room and kitchen and having the same music stream bumping as you move throughout the house is amazing and reinvigorated my desire for Sonos ESPECIALLY after I read that they launched the Echo/Sonos interface this fall! I am so happy to hear that people love it! What i don’t love is hearing about the iTunes issues, and the fact that you can’t stream iTunes with Echo (you can through Sonos, just have to use the app and not Alexa). But, you win some, you dim sum.
My advent calendar when I was little was a wall hanging with little envelopes for each day. My mother would fill them up with puzzle pieces (that would all fit together) from a Christmas puzzle so that I could add to the puzzle each day and have a fully completed puzzle on Christmas. A little present would also usually appear on the last day!
I still have that calendar! I love it :)
Jessica and Friends of Jessica!! Something to combine the Advent calendar and Sonos conversation…I created this podcast, and it is coming out NOW, starting every day from Dec. 1 – Dec 24. It’s like chocolate or a moving mouse for you and your kiddies’ ears for the whole season.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/christmas-is-coming/id1315419153?mt=2
If you listen, I hope it brings you much joy. Please hit subscribe and rate it, only if you’re compelled to, and blessed holidays to you!!
-Sarah
We have sonos speakers in kitchen and den area and in bedroom. I love them! Plus the sound bar with the TV.
We have sonos speakers, sound bars all over the house, in a room over garage and outside. It is very easy to use and everyone in the house can listen to different things! Wonderful but not cheap.
My husband got a Sonos for us when we had our second baby. We LOVE it! our toddler points to it and says to play music all the time. We connected ours to our Spotify and Alexa to turn on and off as needed. Enjoy the holidays with your beautiful children!
I had the same exact advent calendar with the mouse as a kid and am using it now with my 9 year old =)
I tuck little chocolates or mints into each little pocket so it’s just as good as the store-bought candy advent calendars.
We had the EXACT SAME advent calendar growing up! My sister surprised us all this year on Thanksgiving and made advent calendars with little goodies (chocolates, chocolates filled with liquor, etc). for each day! It was such a sweet gift, and its fun for our whole family that we all have the same advent calendar and can share that with each other, even though we are all hours from each other!
i love our sonos sound system. the quality is fantastic and you have the freedom of playing pandora in one room while someone in another part of the house might choose another playlist in the room he is in. so worth it!
We love our Sonos! We started the investment about four years ago and keep adding speakers to more rooms in the house because we love it so much! We’ve never had issues with iTunes or anything, and it even works well with the two different wireless networks we’ve got in the house (we use a wireless repeater). Can’t recommend it enough!
I found a cardboard Advent calendar at a craft store that I painted and covered with scrapbook paper. I numbered each drawer 1-24. In each drawer, I add two Hershey Kisses, two small dog biscuits, and a little piece of paper with a good deed for my daughter to do. I do utilize a calendar and make sure some of the more complex deeds like baking cookies for the police dept are done on a weekend day. Week day ones are things like “leave a positive message in a random mailbox” or “pay for someone’s coffee.”
We totally had the mouse Advent calendar as a kid. I think it was from Avon? Idk. I know my sisters and I would argue about who got to move the mouse. My mom still hangs it up to this day. This year, I have a little Advent calendar that is a truck with drawers. I bought it at Hobby Lobby and fill the little drawers with candy. It’s my 3-year-old’s favorite part of each day.
My Grandmother was German (from Germany) and every year we did get the Advent calendar with the good chocolate. No toys, just chocolate- not that any of us were complaining! When she passed that came to an end, but I resurrected it with my kiddo (again, chocolate- no toys) because I loved it so much. But that mouse one is so cute… I can’t change now, but it’s tempting!
This is Us: I think I lost a little bit of steam for this season because Kevin just needed to hit rock bottom and they needed to stop dragging it out already. It’s still fantastic though! and then I went on to watch Bridget Jones and Love Actually because those are my holiday season guilty pleasures.
We had an Advent Calendar as kids! My mom made it herself and each box size was the size that two hot wheel cars could fit into. Apparently my brother and I were into hot wheels when we were younger. She would put different things in it every day. It’s one of my fondest memories. I asked if I could have it this year so she gave it to me and I’ve been using it every day to put something for my SO in it… things like coffee shop gift cards, chapstick, poems, candy, perfume or cologne, etc. Some day I will do it for my kids (definitely the hot wheels)! It’s a fun way to do something every day and count down to Christmas.
That Advent calendar comes out every year at my parents’ house! My son and his cousins move that mouse now :)
I had that SAME advent calendar as a kid too!! Gah that just gave me all the feelings :)
Re: Sonos – my parents recently got it (bar + sub) per recommendation from my brother and oh my gosh is it AWESOME! They went from waaaaay too many wires/speakers/boxes to just THREE: cable box & 2 Sonos pieces and all controlled by one remote! DO IT!