Truffles and Babies and the Theatre, OH MY!

I'm on vacation! Comin' atcha from South Bend, IN, I am happy to report that I've spent the last two days eating, relaxing, exploring Ancestry.com with the MIL and overall, not doing a whole lot. Oh. YEAH.

I have SO much to share with you guys! This post brings it back to this past Saturday, when I attended a cookie exchange party at my beloved friend (and bridesmaid) Christina's house!

My contribution to the evening? Oreo Truffles, natch! SO EASY. And they had been a huge hit at my party a few nights before! I prepped these Friday PM after officially finishing my first semester of grad school! HUZZAH!

They're essentially fool-proof. Crush a box of oreos. Mix in an 8oz package of cream cheese. Roll and freeze for an hour.

And then decorate as you please!

I dipped the top half in white chocolate...

...and then drizzled some regular chocolate on top!

I made three batches (yielding about 35-40 per batch), so while the going was EASY, it was very time-consuming. 

Skyping with sisters helps to pass the time during tasks like these.

The following AM my 100+ truffles and I schlepped out to Jersey for the cookie exchange!

The spread was impressive! The babies agreed... 

After the party Santa rolled by on his sweet ride...

And Auntie Keelie got to spend some time with this handsome fella!

After a 2.5 hour bus ride (for a one hour trip- thank you, NJ Transit), I met up with my upstate homies, Jarred and Gen! We're all actors... can you tell?

Jarred and Gen had dinner with some friends of theirs while I recovered from my food coma and then we went Joe's final performance of his show, Vampure. 

What a day!

Updates on my travel adventures comin' atcha! Are you guys traveling for the holidays or staying home?

Anti-Gravity Yoga and Holiday Party Fun!

Thursday was a busy but exciting day full of awesome friends! After finishing up some school paperwork in the AM, I headed into Manhattan to meet the gorgeous Katie of Healthy Diva Eats at Om Factory Anti-Gravity Yoga. 

Antigravity Yoga combines traditional yoga principles with elements from aerial acrobatics, dance, pilates and calisthenics. AntiGravity Yoga helps students realign their body and spirit with the tool of gravity that serves to achieve physical and mental decompression. You will learn to fly, hold and balance in challenging yoga poses longer, gain better kinesthetic awareness, build cardiovascular and muscular strength, become more flexible, increase joint mobility, decompress the vertebrae of the spine without strain and utilize the agility you've gained from yoga to play with gravity! The class emphasis is to have fun while learning new skills and experiencing a total body workout. For more information, visit the AntiGravity Yoga website.

We had a blast! Our instructor, Lorianne, took us through the basics and we had an awesome class!

There were lots of inversions and challenging core moves!

We had so much fun! It was such a pleasure to get to spend some time with Katie- she is even more beautiful, sweet and fun in real life!

After saying good bye to Katie, I rushed back to Brooklyn to prep for a get-together with my fellow first year Acting and Directing students- we've become quite close this semester so it was nice to have an evening to relax with everyone before parting ways for winter break. 

My classmate Patrick and his friend David arrived first, so I put them to work dipping the Oreo Truffles (so easy to make and a HUGE hit with the crowd). 

I also baked up some cookies throughout the evening... this was a batch of oatmeal chocolate chips... mmm...

I LOVE these ladies! From L to R- Gretchen (a 1st year MFA Director), Moi, Sarah (a 1st year MFA Actor), Andrea (a 1st year MFA Actor) and the fabulous Laura (wife to a 1st year MFA Actor). 

We passed around some gifts and played a board game! 

I may have harassed Patrick a little, too...

Jason (1st year MFA Director) and I played a round of Family Portraits- an Improv exercise. I SWEAR my dress is not as short as it looks in this picture...

Aaron, Sarah and I take charming pictures, no?

Some great hostess gifts!

I'm so grateful for days like this, surrounded by the people I love!