Simply Southern Stacie

It’s Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas

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I am so living for the weekend these days! We recently launched our new website and database at work and let’s just say that it’s going about as well as Obamacare. I am thankful to have a great job though, and I know that in a few weeks things will smooth over some (at least this is what I’m praying for everyday)!

This weekend was another great one! I feel like from now until Christmas, all my weekends are going to be pretty great. It’s just that time of year.

Saturday started with another 17 mile run. It was tough – not gonna lie. The fact that it was 70 something degrees in November did not help. The good news is that I managed to cut my time down by five and a half minutes compared to last week!

After my run, I had to get ready super quickly for Zac’s cousin’s birthday party. His cousin Leeanne’s birthday was Saturday and her daughter, Ava’s, birthday was today. Since Ava was turning 2, she got the birthday party – a Dora party to be exact!

I slept for over 10 hours on Saturday night, y’all. Between the 17 mile run and a stressful work week, it was just what my body needed.

On Sunday I had to run a few errands. My first stop was Sephora to get matched for a new foundation. I’m not a wear make-up every day kind of girl. My previous foundation lasted me two years. I figured it was time to mix it up and get something new. I had a super helpful lady match my skin tone. She suggested Hourglass Immaculate for my skin.

I like that it’s a more natural foundation (vegan, no parabens). It also has a liquid to powder finish so it’s not too heavy or cakey like some foundations. Most importantly, for my skin at least, it’s got some serious oil coverage. Now I’m in the market for a good moisturizer and primer? Any good suggestions for the make-up and beauty challenged?

After Sephora, I went to Target and did some damage in the Christmas section.

You know you have a Target addiction when you practically have to use a seat belt on your shopping bag.

I only wrapped three gifts, but it made me incredibly happy. Is it completely crazy that I already have some Christmas gifts wrapped before Christmas?

What Christmas gifts can you cross off your shopping list already? Speaking of shopping, have you heard of any good Black Friday sales? Do share!

Christmas/Oliver/Workouts

Workout Wednesday: Circuit City

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Happy Wednesday! I think that I have officially decided that I will try my best to post new workouts every Wednesday for you to enjoy (or hate me for).

Last week the focus was on the reps, but this week it will be on circuits. I love doing circuit work when I need to mix things up, or want a workout to go by quickly. In these circuits, they each start with one minute of cardio, have one strength move and finish with a one minute variation of a plank. If you have any questions about any of the moves, just ask me!

What do you think? It’s not too bad right?

In non-workout related news, this happened Sunday night:

I usually have a huge 9 ft. tree that I put up with all of my mom’s collection of ornaments. Since I was a little worried about how Oliver would react to the tree and ornaments, I decided to error on the side of caution this year. I got this little pre-lit (how have I put up a tree any other way???) 6 ft. tree at Target on Black Friday along with a box of cheap, shatterproof ornaments. At first this happened:

Then this:

Crisis averted! I’m proud to say that so far, we have only had one ornament casualty.Notice that there are no presents under the tree yet. Baby steps…

How did you like the Circuit City workout? Is there anything you would like for me to incorporate into next week’s workout?

How are your pets handling the Christmas decorations so far?

Articles

Christmas in the City Day Two: Christmas Shopping and Sights

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I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas! I’m so glad that I was able to take a break from social media (for the most part) and blogging for the week to really focus what Christmas is really about: the celebration of Christ’s birth and spending time with loved ones. The bad thing about this time of year is that I always go through a bit of post-Christmas depression. Does anyone else feel this? I dread nothing more than packing up all my pretty Christmas decorations for the year. Why can’t it be Christmas for like three months? I don’t think it’s too much to ask. Since I’m in my post-Christmas blues, what better cure than looking at Christmas decorations from my trip to NYC last weekend!?

Last Saturday, Anna Grace and I reserved the entire day for some shopping along 5th Avenue and seeing some of the classic NYC Christmas sights.

In front of the tree at The Palace (how Chuck Bass does Christmas).

Inside Trump Tower.

Inside Tiffany’s.

Against my better judgement, I tried on the bottom left-hand ring in the picture above (because I have a Kate Middleton complex). It was truly beautiful. Then I made the fatal error of asking the price…68,000! I tried not to let the salesperson see me cry.

Inside the gorgeous Plaza Hotel.

Of course we made a quick trip into Central Park. It was so weird seeing the lake frozen over.

We ended our day of shopping at the Christmas must-see: Rockefeller Center. It’s funny because in my head, I always pictured how beautiful Rockefeller Center would be at Christmastime, which it was. What I never pictured was the insane amount of people! The police literally had the streets surrounding Rockefeller Center blocked off. You could not move without touching a stranger. Even with all the people, I would still highly recommend seeing it at Christmas because, I mean, look at this tree!

After fighting our way through crowds all day, we just wanted to sit down and relax. We came across Patsy’s Pizzeria and stopped for dinner. The manager was so kind and must have seen how tired we were. He offered us some wine on the house while he got out table ready. Now that is some good service!

After resting up for a bit at the apartment, we braved the crowds yet again to see some of the coolest Christmas decorations ever.

Rolf’s is a tiny little German restaurant and bar that apparently like to do it up big during the holidays. I had seen some praise about Rolf’s on a couple of blogs, but when my friends posted some pictures on Instagram from there, I was sold!

Oh, we were so tired in this picture! But, seeing the decorations at Rolf’s was definitely worth the 30 minute wait to get in.

As tired as we were, we knew we only had one more day left in the city to enjoy – and what a day it was!

How was your Christmas? Anything crazy happen at your Christmas dinner? Any snow?

What was the best gift that you got? Mine is a tie between my new purse I got in NYC or my new juicer. (If you have any great juice recipes, please let me know in the comments!)

What was the best gift that you gave? The best gift I gave was probably the Coach wallet I gave to my mom. My mom is the type of person who never buys things for herself, but always gives to others. So, I was happy to be able to give her something nice that I knew she wouldn’t just buy herself.

Articles/Recipes

Christmas in the City: The Last Day

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Confession: I have been vicariously reliving my New York experience through these blog posts. I’m a bit sad that today is my last post on my New York trip. I bet you are excited for me to talk about other stuff though! I promise, it will be back to regular programming after this post…

Our final day in New York was hard to beat for me. We started the day in one of my favorite places in the world, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I go to the MET every time I’m in NYC, yet I’ve still only see probably half of it – if that! This place is just massive and filled with incredible art and pieces of history. One of my favorite pieces in the entire museum is Henry VIII’s armor. I’m such a British royalty and history nerd.

We spent a good couple of hours in the MET before walking around on the Upper East Side. I’d never really explored the Upper East Side, but I think I found my new home. All I got to do is save up a couple million.

Anna Grace had heard rave reviews about this macaroon shop, Laduree, that supposedly had the best macaroons outside of Paris.

Neither of us had tasted macaroons before, so I can’t fully comment on whether they are the best outside of Paris, but they were really good – I’m just not sure if they were ‘wait in line for 30 minutes’ good. And those suckers were expensive, so it’s a good thing we liked them!

For our last night in the city, we went to see one of my favorite Broadway plays, First Date. I first saw the show with my mom back in September, and we both thought it was hilarious and charming. Best of all, I got to meet one of my favorite actors, Zachary Levi, after the show.He was so incredibly kind and genuine. To our surprise, he was actually at the bar of the restaurant that we ate at after the show. We stopped by and had like a five minute conversation about God and His plans for our lives. It was easily one of the most surreal moments of my life. I say all of this because it will come into play in just a few moments…

After the show, we waited outside to get the casts’ autographs. When Zachary Levi came by, I handed him my playbill to sign. When he looked up at me, he said, “I’ve met you before…You came back to see the show again? I’m sorry, I’m really bad with names, but I remember your face.” I’m pretty sure my jaw dropped. The fact that he actually remembered me from months ago, even when he meets hundreds of people each night, completely blew me away. I told him that the show was so good that I had to drag my friend up from Georgia to see it again.

After he signed for everyone, he let everyone line up to take pictures with him. When Anna Grace and I walked up, he said “It’s my Georgia peaches!”

And this was the night that Zachary Levi went down as being the most humble and kind celebrity ever. Scratch the celebrity part, he’s just an incredibly kind person, period.

Of course we needed to end our final night in NYC with some good pizza, so we went to one of my favorites, John’s Pizzeria.

And that, my friends, is how we are intended to eat on vacation. All in all, I had a perfect last night in NYC.

I’m so thankful that I was able to go on this trip, kind of last minute, with one of my best friends. After a lot of stress over the pasts couple of months both personally and professionally, this trip was exactly what I needed!

How will you be spending your last day of 2013? Any New Year’s Eve plans? Zac and I are keeping it low-key this year and bowling with his family.

What was your favorite memory of 2013?

I hope you have a great last day of 2013! Be safe tonight if you go out anywhere!

I’ll talk to y’all in 2014! Here’s to it being the best year yet!
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