Weekend Recap

How was everyone's weekend?!?  Mine went by waaayyyy to fast per usual; however, it was extremely productive which I love!

Friday was a fun day.  My company had a holiday lunch (catered by Panera) and meeting.  The lunch was obvi amazing - lots of assorted sandwiches and big salads.  They even had cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes. After lunch we had our monthly company meeting.  After the normal updates, it was time for the holiday portion to begin.  Our company is made up of about 65 employees, divided amongst about 8 different teams. Every Christmas meeting, the execs put together a slideshow for the employees.  This years slideshow theme- the Winter Olympics.  Each team was given a sport, and then a slide is created for each employee.  The slide consists of a picture of a real person from that sport, with the employees head superimposed on it.  My teams sport was the biathlon- you ski for about 15 miles and shoot at things.  Our creative department creates the slides, so the pictures looked extremely accurate. Then, each manager said really nice things about each person on their team.  It was actually a really nice presentation.  After the meeting ended we were free to leave to get ready for our company holiday party that night.  Our holiday party was at Daniel O'Connells Irish pub in Old Town Alexandria (the owner of the company is from Ireland...)  Open bar, great food, and fun co-workers and dates= a fun night overall!

Saturday was a pretty chill and relaxing day.  I FINALLY did some baking.  I made Sally's Baking Addiction's Chocolate Turtle Cookies and red velvet bars- but instead of red food coloring I used green and renamed them Grinch Velvet bars. Very clever right?!

The Grinch Velvet Bars before going into the oven

Chocolate Turtle Cookies

 Later that evening, to kick off PR's big birthday celebration, we went to Founding Farmers for dinner.  If you haven't been there yet, I would definitely recommend going.  It's so delicious. I would also HIGHLY recommend making a reservation because this place is always packed.  We arrived a little early for our reservation, so we just hung out in the packed lobby.  Because they were a bit behind on reservations, a waiter walked around and passed out pieces of cornbread and their signature popcorn (flavor of the day was ranch). This was such a treat for me because I've always wondered what their popcorn tasted like but always felt silly ordering it because well, it's popcorn.  It was so amazingly delicious.  For dinner, we ordered the fried green tomatoes followed by PR's order of chicken and waffles with a side of mac and cheese and mashed potatoes and my order of the vegan hamburger.  I know, I know, a vegan hamburger?!? holy amazingly delicious!!! The "patty" was made out of 11 different kinds of fresh veggies and nuts and they added the most delicious sauce that tasted just like Z Burger's sauce.  It paired nicely with the side of arugula.  I will definitely go back there again!

 On Sunday, after finishing what felt like 1,000 errands, I headed over to PR's family's house for another bday celebration.  This time we were celebrating PR and his dad (his birthday was about two days ago).  The birthday boy got to select the menu for the evening- filet mignon, mashed potatoes, asparagus, salad, and homemade 7 layer caramel cake.  His mom is an amazing cook/baker, so everything was delicious.  Mr. PR even got his own personal cake, too- vanilla cake with a raspberry jelly filling and butter cream frosting, holy decadent! 'Tis the season for cake ya'll!

Two Generations! Two Cakes!