You guys, it's TWENTY-FIFTEEN!! Can you even believe it? I swear 2014 just started and then poof it was over and here we are in the best year yet! To round out our last week of twenty-fourteen, Moses, Vienna (#asausagenamedvienna), and I all headed up to Big Bear to stay at my Aunty and Uncle's amazing cabin on the North Shore of Big Bear Lake. It was amazing to get out of the city and completely reset and unwind.

We went grocery shopping the first day we got there and I cooked every meal for our entire trip. It was so much fun to plan out a menu, cook at a leisurely pace, and eat good, healthy (mostly), hearty meals. Towards the end of the year, we found ourselves ordering a little too much take out or going out versus staying in and cooking. I could blame it on all the cookies but really, I was just too lazy to plan our meals, go out for groceries, cook them up, and then after all that, clean up. However, the exact opposite applied when we were out in the mountains. Somehow, it was exciting again and no longer a chore.

Menu highlights included: Ozoni for New Year's Day luck, a Rose Apple Pie (from the Four & Twenty Blackbird's Book), and Overnight Yeasted Pancakes with Joy's Ultimate Syrup. I honestly rediscovered my love and passion for cooking. It was amazing. We brought along all our favorite new books (I got a bunch of new books for Christmas: Joy the Baker Homemade Decadence, Donna Hay's The New Classics, and Sean Brock's Heritage to name a few and Moses scored a bunch of cocktail books like Death & Co and The Bar Book) and spent a lot of time reading and getting inspired for the new year.

Oh, did I mention I had a nasty little cold while we were up there? Although it limited us a little, A.K.A. no snowboarding/skiing in the wonderful, powdery snow, we were able to do more than just cook and read. We went on long snowy walks, (there was a snowstorm the day after we arrived so everything was powdery white and wonderful!!!!), played with sparklers, made an Olaf, and generally just enjoyed life. Vienna played in the snow for the first time ever, and I think by the end of the trip, she ended up liking it, despite the fact that she was afraid of it for the first day. Ok, I might be exaggerating on the liking, she grew to tolerate it. Moses and I on the other hand LOVED it (we both grew up in Hawaii, and snowy holidays were not a thing growing up). We even had a snowball fight! I've never shoveled a driveway, so that was kind of a highlight for me, too !! At the end of the week, we were sad to say goodbye to the mountain but were so grateful to have spent a week recharging! Hope every had a great end of 2014! Get ready for the best year yet, as this is the year of dreaming, chasing said dreams, and being brave! xo

Easy as Rose Apple Pie: Big Bear Recap