HEY! Do you remember me? Once upon a time, I had a blog, and then apparently dropped off the face of the earth. WELL, I'm back to brief you on everything I haven't been doing for the past 11 days! For being the shortest month of the year, I feel as though it has been the LONGEST one to get through, what's up with that!? It still isn't over! That's okay though, I'm a winter lover and will take these days any day! I left off talking about my ski trip to Vermont, oh Vermont, I love you...
For Valentine's day (ya know, almost two weeks ago), L and I kept it simple this year and indulged in some heart shaped pancakes, and then went crazy with some heart and lobster shaped sugar cookies. I once again used my absolute favorite sugar cookie recipe which calls for...

Ingredients: 1 cup granulated white sugar 1 cup butter, softened 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract 1 egg 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 Teaspoons baking powder.
Directions: 1 - Preheat oven to 350 F 2 - Mix the butter and sugar together until it is creamy 3 - Beat in the egg, vanilla extract and almond extract 4 - In a separate bowl, combine the baking powder and flour. Slowly add to the wet ingredients while still mixing. 5 - Divide the dough into two batches. Roll one dough ball out (about 1/4 inch thick) onto floured parchment paper. 6 - Punch out your cookies using your favorite cookie cutters and then place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper. 7 - Bake 6 - 8 minutes and let cool completely before frosting and decorating. 

We did our own number with the frosting by mixing together powdered sugar, vanilla, food coloring and milk. 
I think Boston might be done getting dumped on with snow. Aside from the random snow hour that we get every here and there, it's starting to warm up and people are beginning to dig their cars out of the piles!

I just finished up day 24 of P90X3, and it definitely has me feeling stronger than ever. The first two weeks, I was eating whatever I wanted and wasn't feeling/seeing much progress. I'm now following the 21 Day Fix nutrition plan and have noticed a huge difference. It's all about portion control, and since your actual workout is only about 30% of the effort, and nutrition is the rest it has really helped me out! Basically the nutrition plan I have been following requires less carbs, and more protein. I am waiting on the edge of my seat for my Shakeology to arrive! I have all these fun recipes to try out like Shakeology balls or these Shakeology bites ... and they're good for you too!! I'll continue to post updates as I work through the program!!

 What's your weekend looking like!!?

Mountain Time

Happy Valentine's Day (yester-yesterday), friends!
As stated in my last post, I took last week off to spend some much needed mountain time with my wonderful family on our favorite mountain in New England. We have been coming to Okemo way before I can even remember to get our ski fix in and relax in one of Vermont's quaintest towns! 

We arrived midday on Saturday so instead of buying a half day ticket, we broke out our snowshoes and hiked our butts halfway up the mountain. I guess I underestimated how exhausting snow shoeing up a mountain would be because I was shedding layers left and right. There was definitely some tripping, slipping and falling business going on, but we made it back down the mountain and were able to take a mandatory picture in front of the ski lion!

In November, Okemo installed a new ski lift, the Sunburst Six, that seats six, has heated seats AND a bright orange shield that protects you from the elements. It is SO comfortable! I'm especially loving the bright orange pop of color that it brings to the white mountain. A couple of the rides up the shield was completely frosted over from the never ending wind and snow making it impossible to see out, you had to make your best judgement as to when you thought the shield would go up (automatically... fancy stuff, people) and you would be at the top. 

The conditions on the mountain were like none other last weekend. Day 1 was freezing cold. I was thankful for the Summit Lodge and the hot cocoa/ cookie break that day because my toes were breaking off one by one. It was really busy (as expected, hello Sunday!) but we were lucky to get a ton of great runs in. We got a big ole pile of snow Sunday night (and Monday) which left us with fresh, fluffy, powdery snow for us to shred up. We stuck to the South face of the mountain (a personal favorite) for a majority of the day and then wondered over to Jackson Gore for the rest of the day. Tuesday was groomed a little, however they did leave a little powder for people to play on, and I managed to make it to the waffle cabin to nosh on a chocolate covered waffle to wrap up the trip. SO GOOD.

 AND what's an Okemo trip without a squinty eyed chocolate covered waffle cabin picture!?

I would say staying slope side, inhaling chocolate covered waffles, getting a great leg workout from all of the powder snow, skiing with 17 other family members from all over the country, eating great food, and getting tons of snow made for another great ski trip for the books! I'm already counting down the days until next years trip!

We're Spoiled

We're getting spoiled over here in New England! Every week we are getting dumped on with several feet of snow allowing us to indulge in all of those fun arctic shenanigans that NE is known for. There is snow that is taller than me... I'm 5'7", people!

As I type I am on a train ride back into Boston from Vermont to get back into my daily jive and work, even though Boston is strongly suggesting that people stay OUT of the city so that they can attempt to clean the streets. They're working hard, they really are... there is just no more space to put the snow except for the river which is a big no no. Monday and Tuesday had everything cancelled once again which was absolutely fine with me as I was slope side with my beloved family, eating up this amazing snowstorm. We had our annual ski trip at Okemo mountain where we ate, slept and dreamed snow. The first day of skiing was FAH-reezing, the second day was right during the storm so we had tons of fluffy, clean snow that we shredded up, and the third was a bright, sunny and fair weather ski day. More to come.  

Other than the snow, us New Englanders also have the beautiful Pats victory to celebrate. I was biting my nails during the fourth quarter, but was proud to see them pull it off, as expected! The parade was pushed back a day to last Wednesday and they had the ducks out with the team to celebrate. Props to some of these Pats fans... they were out at 5 in the morning scoping out a place to camp out for the parade. In the snow. In the cold. 

How super accurate is this chart? I know that it's spot on with myself and my two sisters. I'll give you a hint... I'm a middle child!

I started my p90X a week ago so I've been staying busy with that. It probably wasn't the smartest idea starting it right before we went to the ski house and pigged out all day and night, but I started and I'm feeling sore and that's all that matters. My least favorite workout thus far is the yoga (mainly because I can't do ANY of the poses), and my favorite has got to be the agility. Combined with the soreness from P90X AND the amazing leg workout from skiing, I'm unable to move... it's great!
I hope everyone has a great Valentines Day tomorrow! I'll be stopping by with an Okemo post!