Life Before Christmas

Happy holidays, folks! This frigid weather in Chicago is making me want to fly away somewhere warm, but I can't say that I was sad about all of the gorgeous snow yesterday. I'll show you some pictures in my Xmas Day post. 

I spent a few days at my parents' house in the 'burbs. It was so relaxing and quiet, and I didn't want to leave. My parents just insulated and added windows to their screen room so that it can be used 365 days a year. We used to only be able to sit in it during the warm summer weather. 

It's amazing to be able to curl up on one of the couches in there and look at the beautiful snow. 

As always, it was great to be home with the pups. 

It was great to be able to catch up on sleep (no city noises!), go Christmas shopping with my mom, help with cooking and baking, and to spend time with my parents. We had a Christmas party at a family friends' home on Saturday, so my brother and Al came in from the city and stayed overnight. I went back to the city with them on Sunday. 

On Tuesday, we opened our Christmas package from Al's parents since it was Christmas Day in Australia. I was pretty excited about my colorful bracelets, but the best part was definitely the box of Cadbury Favourites! 

I talked about Cadbury chocolates here and here on my blog (and probably in other posts) when I lived in Australia. There are so many unique chocolate bars there (like Picnic Bars and Cherry Ripes), and the Cadbury Favourites box gives you a colorful assortment of mini-sized bars. We ripped the box open and started going to town on the chocolates. 

We also like this bad-ass Australia clock. I set it up underneath our TV, but I had to remove the battery already since it ticks so loudly! It's a great display piece, though. I love it 

I'm sad to say that we polished off the chocolates in about 24 hours. In true blogging style, though, I took pictures of my favorite "favourites" so that I could show them to you. Cadbury Crunchie bars (below) are chocolate-covered honeycomb bars. I didn't like them at first, but I changed my preference for them over time. They're very popular in Oz. 

Cherry Ripes are my personal fave. They're a mixture of cherry, coconut, and dark chocolate. 

Turkish Delight is always a pleasure to eat. It's a sugar-covered soft jelly candy that's coated in chocolate. 

Caramello is just chocolate-covered caramel. It's great, but I do prefer it in the block form. 

Picnic bars are my other fave (maybe a tiny bit less than Cherry Ripes). I dedicated a post to them when I lived in Oz (here it is again). I brought a bag of them home one time, and my family and friends loved them.  

We also got two Cadbury Marshmallow Santas and ate them both. 

I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas!