Hi All –

I’m a bit late on this post tonight, but staying up late tonight is fine with me since I am taking a SNOW DAY tomorrow! I am so excited to not have to go to work tomorrow – especially since there is a huge snow storm on the way! We are expecting at least 12 inches tomorrow – and I’m all ready to sleep in, stay warm, eat friendship bread, and drink hot chocolate tomorrow. I have nothing on the Agenda!

This morning I had a glass of milk mixed with just less than a scoop of my new protein powder, Aria. I love this stuff  for many reasons! First, it dissolves really easily – I don’t have to use a shaker to mix up the milk and protein powder. It just stirs in and makes a super smooth drink – it’s great! Another reason I like it is because it has a low amount of sugar, and a low glycemic index. Aria has a great combo of soy and whey proteins.  The final reason is that this is a protein powder formulated for women.  🙂

The reason I had a "light" breakfast this morning was because I knew I had a holiday breakfast at 9:30 with some of my Museum colleagues today. The breakfast was amazing and really fun.  My boss made an amazing blueberry coffee cake (I will have to ask her for the recipe one day!) and there was amazing fruit (raspberries, honey dew) and great Peet’s coffee (my absolute favorite). What a great way to start out the morning.

Becky, Katherine and I took a half hour walk today at lunch – I was so glad to get some exercise in.  Even though we spent a lot of the day talking about the coming snow storm – it was beautiful out today! It really was pretty warm and the sun was wonderful. We all felt lucky to be able to walk today, since the weather is going to be stormy for the entire weekend.

For lunch I had a turkey sandwich with spinach and mustard on Arnold’s 7 grain bread.  I am going to take just a moment to VENT about my ON GOING QUEST for Arnold’s Double Protein Bread!!!

Seriously – what is the deal? Last week when I went to the local grocery store in our neighborhood I was so surprised to see the double protein bread. But Ben and I could not get the bread last week, because the day before at the larger market we had just bought Double Fiber bread (my second choice – because that grocery store was out of Double Protein).

So this week – I figured I would get the bread at our local neighborhood grocer since I saw it there the week before. Of course when Ben and I went there yesterday they had NEITHER the protein or fiber bread – so I settled for the 7 grain. The question is – will I ever get a loaf of Arnold’s Double Protein Bread??? I am beginning to think that the answer is NO.  Why am I going crazy over a stupid loaf of bread?? I do not know. I am over it now!

Here is a picture of the sandwich – and of course my daily clementine. These things have been fantastic so far this winter – sooo wonderful! (Very filling for only 35 calories, by the way!)

At around 3:30 I had two cookies from the cookie swap yesterday. The first cookie was a lemon poppyseed  – which was simply amazing! I loved the consistancy, the texture and the flavor! Wow. I will have to get the recipe from Claire. These could easily make it into the top five favorite cookies of all time! The second was one of Jenny’s reindeer cookies – wonderful, of course!

After work, I drove back to Newton. I think a lot of people were trying to get out of town before the snow hits tomorrow (my guess) because my usual 20 minute commute took over an HOUR. Yikes! I cannot imagine what the commute home tomorrow will be like with the snow falling.

I met Ben at the mall after work for some holiday shopping. Then we met Ben’s cousin and her roommate at Union Street in Newton Centre for an awesome dinner to celebrate Lara’s birthday. Fun times! I ended up having a garden salad and a BLT – both were wonderful. We had a mini-birthday cake for Lara which I enjoyed a couple of bites of as well. All of the food was super good, per usual.

Ok, well it’s really late now and I think I’m going to sign off for tonight. I hope you are all having a great night – and for those of you in the Boston area, I hope you know where your snow boots and shovels are!!  🙂