Outdoorsy Christmas.

Christmas in Pittsburgh

Last Christmas I needed a break from work, took a walk around the city and began noticing all the beautiful sites of the holidays around Pittsburgh. It was my first December working downtown, so I never really knew of anything but the ice skating rink in PPG Plaza. Well, little did I know the holidays were everywhere. I decided to do the same thing this year. Most of the buildings were decorated the same, but there were a few new additions and changes. Here's my Pittsburgh Christmas post from last year. Seeing this makes you realize that the littlest things in life can brighten your day!

Gallery in the Allegheny County Courthouse 

Allegheny County Hartwood Acres Mansion

Pittsburgh's City-County Building

Macy's Downtown

Holiday Market in Market Square 

Market Square

Holiday Market in Market Square

PPG Plaza

PPG Plaza Ice Skating Rink 

Allegheny County Courthouse Courtyard

US Steel Building

Beautiful Nativity outside the US Steel Building 

Getting in the Spirit.

I started my own holiday decorating yesterday! I bought the cutest gold mini tree from Target, then added my collection of peacock ornaments. I accidentally bought four new ones yesterday at Walmart--how could I not, they were $1.50 each, and super cute. One day I plan to have a big tree decorated in all my peacock ornaments, with beautiful peacock colored ornaments. Thankfully peacock has been kind of in lately, so I've been lucky finding some great decorations.

My second mini tree is for at work. I always like to decorate my office for each holiday. I figure, I spent most of my waking week hours there so why not make it homey? This tree has my Beatles ornaments and these cute little peace signs my old boss bought me! They're from 10,000 Villages and imported from Bangladesh!

Nothing crazy, but enough for me!

One of my Walmart ornaments--most of the rest are from Pier 1.

Looks much better with the lights plugged in.

Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With String

I know, I know this is a few weeks late. But as I was looking through my pictures I had to post these. They were just too dang pretty.

And ths little stinker decided she needed to help.

This year I did a little something different when wrapping my gifts. In the past I’ve used the standard Holiday wrapping paper, with the occasional ribbon and bow. This year I decided to go a bit more rustic. Plain brown wrapping paper with minimal decorative pieces. I printed out some vintage looking gift tags, added some bows, pom-poms and pieces from my tree. I must say I’m pretty happy with it & plan to experiment some more next year!

Cookie Post #2

If you like red velvet cake, and even if you don't you must try these cookies. I'm not usually the biggest fan of red velvet, but I am a fan of cheesecake. Again, just like the Lemon Burst cookies I posted about these were so easy to make but took a bit more time. 

Here's the recipe.

1 box red velvet cake mix (I used Duncan Hines)

2 tbsp flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup oil

1 tsp vanilla

Filling:

4 oz. cream cheese

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Preaheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix the cake powdered cake mix, flour, eggs, oil and vanilla in a bowl.  In a separate bowl, mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar and vanilla. Let both refrigerate for 30 minutes to harden a bit (this makes it easier to work with).

Form the batter into a patty and scoop cream cheese in the middle. Form another patty to place on top and mold the two together. I found it easier to make the outside a bit thinner than the middle, that way the filling doesn't pop out. This is much easier than it seems.

Place on a well-greased cookie sheet. Space these babies pretty far apart--they get huge.

Here they are! These were delish. My only change is the filling in the middle. If you don't put enough inside it can be hard to taste. So stuff in as much as possible. 

Happy Baking!