Cozy Christmas Day in the life 🎄shopping, wrapping gifts, & cooking for the holidays! Vlogmas

Who wants to do their advent calendar with toys? Look! This is for you guys. Come on, Stelly. Come and see. This is for you. Come on, Hank. Look. We're going to open these. Who wants a toy? Yeah! Who wants their advent toy? Okay. Let's go with number one. Who wants to be number one today? Let's open it up. You do? Okay. Come here. Come get your toy. Let's open one for you, Bean. Yes. One, one? For Bean? Okay. Let's do one for Stelly now. Oh, Stelly! Look, it's a squeaker. It's a squeaker for Stelly. Can you hold that one? I don't know if you can hold that one. hold that one. Cool! Okay, we'll do more tomorrow. Here, you want to trade? Yeah. Okay. You burying it? Are you burying it? Squeak it, Stella. You want Stella's toy up there? You do? You want her toy? What about your toy? Oh, she dropped it! Want the penguin, Stella? It's cute, it has a bow, it's a little girl. Nobody wants the penguin, huh? Oh boy. Get your tree back. Good morning, or good afternoon, or good evening, depending on what time you're watching this. Welcome to my channel. Happy Holidays. Can you believe that Christmas is next week? I certainly cannot, but I'm very much so looking forward to it. And today I have so many things that I need to check off my list before all of the holiday festivities begin. So I figured I would just bring you along with me today, a little holiday day in the life, and we would get some stuff done. I appreciate you being here. As you just saw, I already had my morning coffee, and the dogs opened their new advent calendar, which they were so excited about. Just in case you were wondering why we only opened three toys instead of four, because Minky could not care less about toys. She's 16 years old now, and she really doesn't have very many teeth left, and she just doesn't really care about toys. Honestly, she never has. She's never been a toy dog. Big treat dog. Loves the treats. Not so much the toys, though. So we just opened three, and they are loving it. I think they're gonna be so excited in the morning. We're gonna open another one, and I'm actually filming tomorrow. Also, another video, so you'll get to see them do that at least one more time. I hope it's okay that I share that with you. I just think they're so cute. I know a lot of you enjoy seeing them here, so I figured I would share a little bit of their holiday joy with you. Right now, I've got several things on the docket today. So later today, we are going to go finish up Christmas shopping. I'm really hoping to get it all done today. I just have a few more gifts to check off my list. I'm gonna take you with me, and we are just gonna go to some of my favorite local boutiques and maybe grab some lunch. So I think it'll be a nice little outing, and then when we come home, we will wrap gifts. But before we do that this morning, I actually want to test out my main dish recipe for my Christmas dinner that I'm hosting this coming Saturday. When I posted my dining room video this year, several of you asked what my Christmas menu was this year, so I figured I would share it with you. It's nothing spectacular. It's a pretty small menu. I am just hosting a little intimate dinner with some friends on the Saturday before Christmas. Today, I really want to test out the pan-seared chicken. That's gonna be my main dish, and I want to just make it, make sure I like how I'm going to make it, because I'm not really following a recipe. So I'm going to do that this morning, and hopefully it goes well. Make sure there's nothing I want to add or tweak or something like that. Again, nothing too fancy. I'm doing a soup and also a salad because I know some people prefer one or the other. Of course, my guests can have both. And then we're doing the pan-seared chicken with garlic and tomato. And then for sides, I kept it really light and easy, just some roasted asparagus and some garlic mashed potatoes to go with the garlic in the chicken dish. It's not a lot of garlic in the pan-seared chicken. It's just some cloves. So I think that'll be a nice complement to that. I love garlic, though, so hopefully my guests do, too. And then for dessert, my guests are actually all bringing a dessert dish. So we will probably have a lot of desserts, which is always welcome. I think it's gonna be a nice, fun, festive Saturday, and I'm really looking forward to hosting. If you are curious about my planner, this is actually a free download that you can find on my blog. It has a bunch of different planners in here. You have an event planner, a traditions planner, a shopping planner, a gift planner. And then, of course, you know me, you have your decorating planner. But if you are still checking off those holiday to-dos and you need to keep organized, you can download my planner. I would love for you to. It's on my blog. I will leave the link in the description box below. But we do have a lot to do today. So right now, let's go test out that dish and then get our day started. I am cooking five chicken thighs today. I did marinate these overnight in grasa olive oil with a bit of fresh lemon juice and a few garlic cloves. To start, I am just seasoning each side of the chicken thighs with salt and pepper. And I'm also adding a mix of a few other seasonings that I like. This is just a blend of garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika, and cumin. Once I get these all seasoned the way I like them, I'm going to just take them over to the stove and get them in the skillet on medium-high heat. Next, I am coating the bottom of my cast iron skillet with grasa olive oil. Grasa is actually the sponsor of today's video, and I am so excited to share them with you because I have been using this olive oil for about a month now. And I am officially hooked. This is hands down my olive oil of choice now. Grasa is incredibly delicious, high-quality olive oil, but at an affordable price, which I love. And it is made from one kind of olive and from one place in Spain. The source of your olive oil is so important, and grasa gets it right. They have two different types of olive oil. One is called sizzle, one is called drizzle. Sizzle, which I am using here, is designed for cooking. It's made from mid-season olives, which gives it a smooth flavor and it can handle high heat. I believe up to 411 degrees, which is great. They also have a drizzle option, which is their bold, extra-version finishing oil made from early-harvest olives. It is packed with antioxidants and perfect for topping off your dishes. I actually have been using it every single morning for breakfast because I'm a toast girly. I just love to drizzle a little bit of this olive oil over my toast. It is so good. I really love their squeeze bottles and the fact that once you purchase them and run out of olive oil, there's no need to buy a new bottle. It is simple to grab a refill can from their website or your local Whole Foods to refill your squeeze bottles. I actually love their product so much that I ordered a couple of sets to give as Christmas gifts this year to some of my friends who I know will love them as much as I do. They did give me a code to share with you all today. It is BRITTANY10. You just go to their website linked in the description below, or you can use the QR code here that you see on the screen. BRITTANY10 will give you 10% off of your order at checkout. Once the pan is ready, I place all five chicken thighs in, skin side down, and cook them over medium-high heat for about seven minutes on each side. The goal here is to get the skin golden and crispy. Once I flip the chicken over, I am now going to just add a little bit of butter, some cherry tomatoes, and some garlic cloves to the pan. I let everything cook for another seven minutes before transferring the skillet to the oven to finish it off. I did bake these in the oven at 425 for about, I would say anywhere between 12 and 15 minutes is usually good, as long as they reach an internal temperature of 175. Here is a peek at the chicken right out of the oven. I'm so excited to try this tonight after we get back from Christmas shopping. The aroma is making me wish it was dinner right now, but we have a lot to do, so I will definitely let you know how this turns out tonight when I get back. Okay, I'm about to head out to finish my Christmas shopping, and it's a bit of a dreary day outside. It's a little rainy, so I wanted to wear something cozy, so I just put on this really soft and cozy sweater dress, and then I paired it with a pair of knee-high boots that I have. They're faux snakeskin, and then I'm carrying my new favorite bag that I have been carrying for a couple of months now. This is from Teddy Blake. If you've been on my channel, then you know that I love me a good Teddy Blake handbag, and this is the newest one that I've added to my personal collection. I love this style so much. I'll show you on the inside as well, but it's really great. I believe this is the one that Eva Longoria carries in Only Murders in the Building. The style, at least. The perfect size to carry just day to day, run errands, do all the things. Love this bag. Wanted to share it with you. Teddy Blake is always so sweet to give me a discount code, so I'll put that in the description below in case you're interested. These make amazing Christmas gifts. I would love to get a Teddy Blake for Christmas. But anyway, that is the fit, so let's go do some Christmas shopping. First stop is Bernie, Texas for a little bit of brunch and then some shopping. This is one of my favorite spots in Bernie. I absolutely love their food. Their coffee is so amazing. Their mimosas, also amazing. And their gift shop is awesome, which you'll see in just a bit. But this is a must stop. If you ever come to Bernie, Texas, you have got to check this place out. You will not be sorry. Highly recommend. Basically anything on their menu, but their pancakes are some of the best of the best. I don't know what they do to them, but they are delicious. My holiday gift shopping would not be complete if I didn't stop into Farmhouse Market, one of my favorite local boutiques. I talk about them all the time. I've shared them here on my channel before, but they have some of the best gifts. It is always my go-to, and they did not disappoint today, so I was so happy that I stopped by to visit them. They actually sell all of their in-stock products online as well, and I have a discount code, so I will leave the link to their boutique in the description box. It's probably too late to shop for Christmas, but they have some amazing things, so unless you're local and you can do a pickup, they've got you. I'll leave it there just in case anything in the shop today catches your eye. Come here, Bean. Want to help Mommy wrap presents? Do you want to help Mommy wrap some presents? You're the best helper, did you know that? Are you okay? Why are you acting that way? Come here. Come give Mommy a hug. Come here. Come give Mommy the hugs. What's wrong? What did you do? Did you do something you weren't supposed to do or something? You did, okay. What did you do? What did you do to Mommy? Are you acting guilty? We don't have Buddy the Elf to help us wrap, but we have something better. We have Buddy the dog. Expert gift wrapper. As he leaves me. Just finished eating dinner. I tried that chicken. I'm glad that I tried the recipe early, because there are definitely a few things I want to tweak. I mentioned that I marinated it with the Graza olive oil and some garlic. Cloves of garlic, which it was delicious. But I think I will put the seasonings also in the marinade next time, so that it really soaks in there. And then I think I'll also add some red onion. I felt like it needed that. So when I make it this weekend for my guests, I'm definitely going to add that. So I'm glad I tested it out today. Thanks for hanging out with me while I cook. Now I've just got some wrapping to do. And I thought I would just wrap with you, chat a little bit. We'll see. I actually finished up my shopping today. Well, I say that. I think I have one more gift that I need to get, but I'm going to order it online. What should we wrap first, buddy? You know what, Bean? We didn't get any scissors. I'm going to go get some scissors, Bean. I am going to start with the gifts that are already pre-boxed. I think I shared a lot of these with you in the CVS haul. Hopefully my family members don't watch this. I'm going to try to be sneaky about showing things. And not showing you tags on certain size boxes, so people don't know what they're getting. But we'll see. We'll see. Okay, I know this one is hard. What do I want to wrap it in? This is a hard decision. I think I'll start with this. I love this paper so much. I shared this in my shopping haul. Found this paper this year at HomeGoods. I love that it came with two rolls of wrapping paper, ribbon, and cards. Great idea. Should probably take the giant sticker off this. It says 1999. These are pretty easy to remove once you get it going. You just got to get it going. You know what I didn't get before I sat down? I didn't get myself a trash bag. I hope you don't mind, but I think while I wrap, I'm going to put on a podcast. Or maybe I was going to put on some Christmas music, but I've been listening to True Crime Podcasts on YouTube. I've been listening to Annie Elise. I don't know if you know who that is. I think I'm going to put on one of her podcasts. If you have a recommendation for a True Crime Podcast, if that's what I've really been into lately, let me know in the comments below if you listen to that. I'm kind of into those. If you have a podcast suggestion that you think I would like, put it in the comments. I would love to know. I would love for you to share with me. I like to go ahead and wrap all my gifts in the paper first, and then I'll add the bows. So that's what we're going to do. We are just going to wrap everything in paper, and then we'll add all the bows last. I don't know. I feel like it just keeps everything nice and cleaner and more tidy. I will add the tags after I wrap everything. I'm going to wrap it so that I know what's what. I got a couple of different tags this year to put on the gifts. I, of course, have the ones that came with that one wrapping paper that I think are really cute. I love these little Happy Santas. He's so jolly. And then I got another set. These are just from my local grocery store. I'm in Texas, so I shop at H-U-B most of the time, and these are from my local H-U-B. I'll show you these tags as well. This one came in a set, and it's got tassels, and there's the Santa guy. There's also this little joy ornament. These two came in a set. I also just grabbed some plain tags. We've got red. There's some green, like green trimmed, and then there's also green and red trimmed. So I think I've shared it on here before. A lot of the time, I'll actually put a Christmas card on my gifts, write a little nice Christmas note, and I still may do that this year. I just don't have any blank Christmas cards currently. I would need to buy some, and so I may do that before we have our family Christmas and do a little note to everyone. But that's what we're doing right now. I'm going to go find a pin. I can take some of this trash with me, and I can get a trash bag while I'm at it. I need something to throw my trash in. Okay. Oh, Bean, you're so cute. Bean, what did you get? Oh, my goodness. Did Dr. B send you this from the vet? Oh, my goodness. That is so sweet. Bean, let's see. Come on. Bean, look. It's from the vet, and it's so pretty. It's a beautiful wreath from Lynch Creek Farm. Oh, we have the best vet in the whole world. We seriously do. Oh, my gosh. Look at this. Okay, I was in the middle of wrapping. I got up to get a pin, and I noticed we had a package at the door, and I have to show it to you because it's so beautiful. This is actually from the dog's vet. Their favorite, favorite person is honestly their vet. She's so wonderful. All the girls, everybody at our vet clinic is incredible, and they just sent us the most beautiful real wreath. Oh, my gosh. It smells so amazing. What a wonderful surprise. It officially smells like Christmas in here. This smells like Christmas to me. So excited. I'm going to go hang this. Okay, I'm going to put it on my back door here. It's kind of heavy, so I probably need to go get a wreath hanger out of the garage, which I have, but for now, I'll just put it on the command strip that I usually have here. Look at this. Oh, and the ribbon on it is gorgeous. This is so cool. I just love it. It's so cool. Oh, I got a maroon pin. This is what I get for looking for pins in the dark. I thought this was black. Okay, I got to go find a black Sharpie. Got this Sharpie pen, but you always got to have backup, so two backup pins. Was that not so incredibly nice of my bet? What a wonderful surprise this evening. Really made my evening. That was so sweet. I love them so much. Okay, let's see. Should I use? I don't really want to use the matching tag. I think I'm going to use on this one. Maybe this little red one will be fun. What do we think? Green? Green is kind of pretty. Let's see what red looks like. These are all tied together. They're all tied up. Maybe red or white or joy. Joy. No, I think this one or this one. Yeah. Okay. Am I going to like this pen? We'll see. You're a good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good boy. The best wrapping paper helper. The best gift wrapping helper is me. Who can I wrap up as a big present? Can I wrap you as a present bean? Okay, who can I put in the wrapping paper? Let's see. Who wants to be in a wrapping paper? Come on. Yeah, let me wrap you. I can wrap you up. Everybody wants to be wrapped up. Whose present are you going to be? Your mommy's present every day. Come here, Mimi. You need to come over here so Bean doesn't get you. Okay, sit with mom. Buddy, you don't need to get Mimi. I got a wrap. Can I wrap presents? You giving her kisses? That's really nice. Mimi, don't bite him. Okay, buddy. What are you doing? You want to come and get in the chair? Minky's in the chair. You want in the chair? Come here. You want to be in the chair? Okay, I'll be with you. I bought it at my local grocery store and I bought it kind of in haste. It was very busy that day and I saw it and I thought, oh, that's exactly what I need to wrap my gifts. What I didn't realize is, because it was covered in plastic, it was sealed up, is that it is completely covered in loose glitter. I am taking a lot of these to family members' houses for the holiday and I cannot just cover their house in glitter. I just can't do it. So I'm going to have to go back to the store and grab some more ribbons. I will be back, though, with another Christmas-themed day in the life. It's going to be a really fun and special video, so I hope you join me back here then. I actually have a day in December that I put on my calendar every single year and I call it my giving day. And basically what I do is I just spend the entire day focused on giving. Giving back to people that serve me, like my vet's office and the delivery drivers and the people that serve our community. And donating to companies and non-profits that I really care about. And also just doing things that are all centered around giving during the holiday season. And I thought this year I would just bring you along with me for my giving day. That's really exciting and we'll be doing that in the next one, so I hope you'll join me back here then. But I just want to say thank you so much for hanging out with me today while I check a lot of things off my Christmas to-do list and prep for the holidays. It has been a pleasure to share it here with you and spend a little time here with you. I sure appreciate being able to do that and I'll see you again soon in the next one. Anyway, I think I will wrap this video up and call it a night. Take care, Merry Christmas, and happy decorating!