Shay’s Friday Fave’s {12.06.24}

 

Happy happy FRIDAY, friends!

I hope you had a wonderful week!  Even though I am bummed not to be…

…on Nantucket for Stroll this year (it’s tomorrow!), I am super excited about our weekend plans here in McKinney.  We have festive things to do and see, and that makes this mama really happy.  I hope you have festive fun ahead this weekend too 🙂 .

Today’s post is SUPER BIG, so let’s get right to it!

As always, I’m linking up with my friends Andrea and Erika and wishing you a wonderful weekend!

OF COURSE THIS IS #1 THIS WEEK…

…you guys, I’m going to cry!!

Once again, THIS COMMUNITY SHOWED UP and RAISED A TON OF MONEY FOR ST. JUDE!!!!!

Sheaffer and I are blown away yet again by your generosity from yesterday’s ST. JUDE FUNDRAISER & GIVEAWAY!

Yesterday, this little community here raised another $23,699.12 !

That means over the last four years, together, we have raised $208,272.12 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital®!

HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!

Okay, I am in tears now.  I am just so grateful and humbled by all of your donations, support and love to this very, very, VERY worthy cause.  I cannot imagine what these kids and their families are going through right now, and I am so very grateful that we were able to contribute together to fighting pediatric cancer globally.

I am just so blessed by each of you.  Thank you.  Truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.  Sheaffer and I are just so grateful.

Even though we all know it isn’t about the “giveaway” part of the event, Sheaffer and I love celebrating someone who donated.  Our contact at St. Jude pulled one of the donor’s names at random to win this year’s prize of a Louis Vuitton Speedy Bandolier 25.  That winner is Carly Heideger.

Thank you so much for being a donor, Carly!  We emailed you this morning.  Please email us back ASAP to claim your prize.

Another amazing year giving with you ladies.  Again, thank you so very much.

Whew!  How do we pivot to the rest of the post?  Nothing will top our #1 🙂 .

On Tuesday night, I hosted my ANNUAL RECIPE EXCHANGE!

If you missed my post on Wednesday, I shared my TOP TIPS FOR A RECIPE EXCHANGE/FAVORITE THINGS PARTY, so make sure you read that as well.

Here’s a little recap of this year’s party…

…this year, I picked up these initial ornaments at Hobby Lobby for people to place by their yummy food as an indicator of who made what dish.

I had my table set…

…with fun light up headbands…

…and we were all ready to go!

This was my 108th year to host this party, so I *thought* I was being kind to my sweet friends by telling them two things:

#1: There is no theme, you can just bring your “best” recipe to be shared.

#2: Instead of making a recipe book, I’ll just send out the recipes digitally after the party to whomever wants one.

You guys, I was trying to be “easy going, no big deal, let’s make this party more casual” for everyone…and it backfired on me.  Every single friend said “we needed more directions, we needed to submit our recipes early, we needed a theme, why did you change it, this year was hard”.  Bahahaha!

Many apologies to my favorite people.  I told them next year, they will have to submit those recipes, stay with my specific theme, and I will print out books.  After alllllll of these years, shame on me for trying to take shortcuts.  I should have read my own blog post 😉 .

So, what did I make? Well…

…I haven’t officially photographed it yet nor created a recipe post for it here in blog world, but they all seemed to really love…

…my breakfast casserole 😉 .  I have been calling this “my ultimate breakfast casserole”, but Erika said it should be called “the meat lovers”.

Here is the recipe:

1 loaf of challah or brioche, torn into pieces
1 pound of spicy breakfast sausage, browned and crumbly
6 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups of milk
1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese
1½ cups of shredded pepper jack cheese
about 8 green onions, chopped
1 pound of bacon, cooked crispy
salt and pepper

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Grease your 9×12 baking dish and then layer all of your torn bread across the bottom.  Next, sprinkle your cooked and crumbly sausage all over the top.  Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together your eggs and milk and then stir in your cheeses, onions, and crispy bacon along with a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Pour this mixture over your casserole dish.

At this time, you can cover and refrigerate up to 24 hours before baking or pop it in the oven right away.

Bake about 45 minutes or until the edges are browned and the center is not wobbly.

Remove, allow to rest five minutes, slice into squares and serve.

Here are some pics of what everyone else brought…

We had a soup, sandwiches, sausage balls, a salad,  deviled eggs, dips…

…and believe it or not…

…Jeni brought homemade sour dough bread along with two different types of butters and…

…her butters won 🙂 .  Yup.  Butter won.  They were delicious!!

I try to sprinkle in recipes throughout the year to share from this party, but as I don’t have them all yet (see above, I didn’t make the books!), I don’t have any to share today.

I will try and share them in 2025 as I get them and make them.

Truly, one of the very best nights of the year!!  I love these friends of mine SO MUCH!!

So, what did people bring as their “favorite thing” to gift each other?  I took pics for you to see…

…Sheaffer gifted everyone these adorable (and super practical!) mini slow cookers.  I took an individual pic of this because of it’s size, but the other gifts were…

…right here.  See?  I told you it was a fun collection of favorite things.  This year was a mixture of super cute mittens to a favorite natural deodorant, things to keep us organized, a devotional, candy, cleansing cloths, a makeup brush, and more!

What did I give as my very favorite thing of 2024?

You won’t be surprised…

…because I love my friends and want them all to live better longer.  As you can imagine, Sheaffer was thrilled 😉 .

Here’s what I wore…

…y’all, this OVERSIZED MERRY CHRISTMAS PULLOVER is so comfy!  I paired it with my PJ PANTS and SLIPPERS.

I loved the fabric!

Speaking of “merry” tops…

…let’s review what I’ve been wearing this week.  Spoiler alert: it’s all comfy!

I bought my SNAP SWEATSHIRT in bright red, but it comes in 11 other colors.  I’m wearing an xs, and it’s still very comfy and over-sized.  It’s on sale too!

I wore it with THIS SEAMLESS SPORTS BRA underneath.

Then there was this…

…MERRY SWEATSHIRT from Target.  Please note, I found the sweatshirt and wrapping paper at Target but left without any gifts.

Please also note, three days later…

…the wrapping paper is still on my floor. #sigh

On this night, I was heading to Ashby’s Christmas Choir Concert and wore my FAVORITE FAUX LEATHER LEGGINGS with this FAIR ISLE SWEATER.

So cute!

Guess what though?  By yesterday…

…the wrapping paper had been put away 🙂 .  This is called a ZIP UP BEAR HUG, and though I’ve never hugged a bear, I would imagine it’s JUST AS SOFT!  It’s also on major sale and comes in other colors.  I’m wearing an xs, and it’s nice and over-sized too.  It’s so so soft and would make an excellent gift!

A “favorite” this week for sure is that tonight, Lovejoy plays in ROUND FOUR of the 5A Texas football playoffs!

WE ARE SO PUMPED!!!

We took at 5:00 AM flight home from Detroit to make it in time for kick off at last week’s game…

…and it was worth the 2:00 AM wakeup 🙂 .

We are loving every minute of this stage of life.  There are some fun parts of having teens and school spirit/community is certainly one of them.

Here are just a few more pics from our merry little week…

…cozy mornings make me happy…

…middle school choir concerts make me happy…

…and Jingle Jangle does too 🙂 .

And finally…

…in honor of my Recipe Exchange this week, I’m sharing my very best and oh so delicious HOLIDAY APPETIZERS!  Make sure you check out that post today too!

I will be back tomorrow for a bonus Saturday blog post, and I hope to see you all here.  In the meantime, have a wonderful Friday and GO LOVEJOY LEOPARDS! xx