Tuesday was my daughters birthday but we took it pretty easy that day as far as dinner went. I did swing by the grocery store for a cake since my oven was still broken from Thanksgiving. It was amazing how many times I forgot and would try to preheat it for something. (Thank you, Patti, for letting me use it for the egg bake on Sunday. You know you love ‘em.) 2 cousins that live only 10 miles away were able to come over & of course they had a blast together. I was grateful for the cake leaving with my sister-in-law for the family left at her house so it didn’t stay at our place!

Thursday we went to the seafood buffet at the nearby Casino. It was only $9.99 & wonderful. The surrounding towns respond well to this special. The line remained all the way to the hotel door for hours. I was glad we were told to go early. My daughter put away more than her share of crab legs (as did the rest of us). The meal was truly only $9.99 because we didn’t go gambling after dinner like they probably hope. Sorry, Jackpot :P

Friday was her birthday party with her classmates – she went with a Chinese theme this year. Most of you know the extreme I usually go to with her parties but I was very well behaved this year & just let her wreak havoc on the Oriental Trading Company catalog. She picked out several different crafts & decorations on her own & did an excellent job. Of course to fit the theme we ordered Chinese food. It was also excellent. I set it up buffet style so of course we ate ’till we were about to explode again. (At least I ordered a marble cake so I wouldn’t eat any!)

Saturday was my company Christmas party so….we went out to eat…again. I’m glad hubby can finish off what I can’t. The portion of Walleye was excellent & HUGE! I brought the raspberry vodka that I made this summer along to share with everyone & a couple of layered cookie jar mixes that I made up that morning  just in case there were no drinkers. What was I thinking? I now have 2 jars of layered cookie mixes that I can make for my family:) (See pic below if you don’t know what I’m talking about. These aren’t mine but you get the idea.) They are fun to do. When you go to make it, you just need to just add the butter, eggs, vanilla extract if necessary, etc. & just dump in the jar of ingredients.

So… needless to say. My month of torturing myself with Jillian Michaels was a bust! I’m off to Chicago on Friday to meet some of my favorite loons from my forum with more of me to love still! I’m sure there will be dozens of fabulous restaurants to tempt me (dangit!) but hey… its December. You’re supposed to splurge, right? I’ll get back on track in January. That’s my story & I’m sticking to it anyway.

In your face, Hoo. You can bring the video along but the only curls I’ll be doin’ are the 12 oz ones!