This weekend the weather was just I'd what been craving: cold (which is what we call 50s here) and wet. It was the perfect weekend for being inside, listening to Christmas music and cooking, which I did most of the weekend.

On Saturday I made spicy vegetarian chili to freeze and have when my parents visit next weekend (yay!) and a batch of my favorite beans and rice + cornbread for a friend who just had a baby. 

Early Sunday morning I found myself wide awake with a kicking baby in my belly at 3 AM. And because we couldn't sleep any more and because we are CRAZY we just decided to get up at 4 and made hot cocoa and toast. Obviously Drew is the smart one because he stayed in bed for another hour.

But I love the dark, early mornings (and I imagine we'll be seeing a lot more of them in a few months). Chris worked on the crossword and I made Joy's cranberry, orange and pecan coffee cake to have with my in-laws when they came over for coffee.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I was pretty proud of this coffee cake (thank you Joy the Baker!) - it turned out just like the pictures! And it was delicious. Just what I wanted to serve on a cold, holiday weekend. I thought we'd eat half a loaf with coffee that morning with my in-laws but we easily ate the whole loaf. (But don't worry Mom! I've got another loaf in the freezer to have next weekend.)

Hope you had a cozy weekend too!