The weekend began with something that sounded so disgusting, it had to be delicious, an Eggnog Latte:
No, I didn’t drink it, I left that to The Best-Good Friend who once again decided to tackle the eggs benedict for breakfast, this time at The Birchwood Café:

You may remember her love of the Korean Beef Benedict at Eat Street Buddha last weekend for our “East Meets West” breakfast. She told me that the Birchwood’s benedict was all about the sauce where the Eat Street Buddha’s was all about the meat.
Located in south Minneapolis, the Birchwood was established in 1926 and was originally a dairy. In the 1940’s, it was converted into a neighborhood grocery and in 1995, Birchwood Café was born. They support sustainable organic farming and buy close to home.
I had the Brunch Scramble:

served with multi-grain toast and rosemary garlic potatoes (vegetarian)
From there, we headed to the 21st Annual Women’s Art Festival. Last weekend we were admiring the beautiful work of handweaver Carol Johnson (Studio Tupla) at The American Swedish Institute’s Julmarknad celebration. She had postcards about the Women’s Art Festival and I’m so glad we saved the date, this was by far the best art festival I’ve been to this season. Here are a few of my favorite finds:

This festival began in 1992 with a handful of artists and has now grown to over 100 who work in a variety of media.
After that, The Best-Good Friend and I parted ways. At home someone was inspiring me to get festive:

If we were going to get a tree, it had to be now or never. The Husband was sick, so I headed down the street to the local YMCA tree sale. Voila, our tannenbaum. It’s not decorated yet, but at least it has lights:
This morning I ventured out to the suburbs for my first Christmas celebration of the season – breakfast with The Girlfriend. We tried a new spot (local to her) and have found our new breakfast joint in Eagan, Ze’s Diner. The diner has a 1950s atmosphere and classic favorites:

The rest of the day was filled with errands and holiday preparations. I’m happy to report that The Husband was feeling better and we managed to sneak in a little dinner date at my favorite of the Minneapolis Town Hall establishments, Town Hall Tap. Their pretzel might just be my new favorite thing.