Ta-ta for now, Buffalo!  We packed in another full day and body, mind, and spirit are all willing and ready for a trip tomorrow to St. Thomas!  Errands of both the boring and holiday variety, elfing, and celebrating are all complete……now I’ve just got to worry about packing!

We started our morning with a little anxiety, and got all the not-so-fun stuff out of the way first.  Brat that I am, whenever someone talks about scares at the dentist I always blurt out “I’ve never even had a cavity!”  Well fate finally decided to shut me up, and today I got my first filling.  My cavity was teeny tiny so it ended up being quick and painless but I about scared myself to death in anticipation.

Fun fact – I was totally dressed as an elf today.  As I said to the husband; “if you’re gonna get drilled you might as well dress in costume!”

Yes that does look like a dressing room mirror, our main errand of the day was trip to the mall!

That crazy Christmas-week-at-the-mall feeling is probably why we thought sharing a mini Reindeer Blizzard was a good breakfast.

This had caramel, pie pieces and toasted coconut so I was expecting to like it more than the husband, but he went to town, practically ripping the spoon from my hand!

Waiting to find a Christmas party outfit until the day before we left probably wasn’t my brightest idea, but I ended up getting 2 super cute outfits!

Also on the agenda was Adam’s belated birthday lunch at Cheesecake Factory.  Sourdough bread with butter.

And one of the husband’s avocado eggrolls.

For my meal I ordered the lunch portion of the barbecue ranch chicken salad.

It was ok, I mostly ordered it for the corn and black beans, but the dressing was lacking the tang I was looking for.

Seriously though, this is the half-portion?!?

I couldn’t even eat half of this monster.  Though I did have room for a couple of the husband’s fries.

For dessert, we split a peppermint stick courtesy of J.Crew.

Honestly JC, you don’t have to bribe me, you’re already my favorite!

I thought I was stuffed, but after lots and lots of mall-walking (maybe those grandma’s in the ’90’s were onto something?!) I was ready for a snack when we got home.

Two servings of Silk Soy Nog with nutmeg.

Leftover cheeseball.

I wasn’t going to share this recipe because it’s both simple and similar to one’s found online, but so many friends raved about it at the party that I figured I should –

Spicy Creamy Cheeseball

• 16oz 1/3 less fat cream cheese (aka neufchatel cheese)
• 1/3 cup hot pepper peach preserves (I used Stonewall Kitchen’s)
• 2Tbsp chopped white onion
• 1Tbsp chopped long hot pepper (if you use the spicier jalapeno I’d cut back a little)
• 1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar
• 3Tbsp chopped pecans

Allow the cream cheese to soften.  Add all ingredients together in a bowl and mix well to combine; we found it was most effective to use our hands.  Shape into a ball if desired, and store in the refrigerator until serving.

My plan for dinner is the rest of my lunch salad.  I planned on blogging it, but – it’s 9pm now, I still haven’t packed, we have to leave the house at 5:30am tomorrow; you do the math!  Speaking of spotty posting, I just want to give you guys a heads up that my posts will be sporadic during my days in the islands (like anyone cares!).  I’ll recap everything in full, but I’ll be doing fewer, longer posts.

See you from the beach!