I’ve been to HCC many times since it opened but must not have ventured downstairs since they upgraded the space with a vast selection of vintage games and toys as well as a foosball table and video arcade.  The kids and adults were all content to play for 45 minutes, longer than our upstairs dining experience had lasted.  I learned that my husband spent his time at Yale doing more than studying and eating ramen noodles–apparently, foosball was a passion that is easy to reignite.  I also learned that many of the games and toys on the other side of the pond were the same as here–our English friends had the same joy of being tickled by memories from their youth.

My favorites:  LiteBrite, Trouble, and Parcheesi.  Evie’s favorites:  Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots and Jr. Pacman.  Chris’s favorite:  foosball.  Wendy’s favorite:  foosball even though she can’t see the table unassisted and Mr. Potato Head.

And the breakfast was pretty awesome, too–highly recommend the waffles and I was baffled by the girls’ robust chicken finger consumption at 10 in the morning!

So what are my current faves and greatest hits so far?

Current Faves…Chocolate and More Chocolate

PeerIndex has a program similar to Klout‘s perks program where you are rewarded for your influence with products. Yesterday, I received, courtesy of Abe’s Market, a mini very dark and large Jungle Fever chocolate bar from Montezuma’s, one of England’s cult chocolate brands. If you want to please me, give me free chocolate! It’s like Valentine’s Day a week early. And I’m eagerly awaiting my shipment from the new SheSpeaks Ghiradelli chocolate program.

Recent Faves

I recently got a chance to try LevelUp with a healthy credit courtesy of Klout perks. LevelUp is a payment and loyalty service where you use a QSR code on your smartphone to pay and you get a discount at the merchants. A favorite neighborhood place, Bao Noodles, is signed up so my husband got to enjoy a rare lunch together at a nice discount. I now work up at Morningside Heights and am glad to see that coverage has expanded uptown in the last few weeks. Next up, Che Bella or Appletree Market…

Greatest Hits

One of the biggest surprises was how my whole family enjoyed the opportunity to play with LaserPegs courtesy of a BzzAgent campaign over the summer. My girls, nieces and nephews, ranging in age from 2 to 13, were all completely engaged and working together on fantastic light sculptures. I don’t think I would have been willing to buy them without trying them but now that I have tried them, I would most definitely buy them as a special gift.

Unexpected Delights

So a novice blogger I am and will likely remain but I still remember the rush of learning that Kiehl’s was going to send me a gift just for being an advocate. They sent me a package of several of their Lip Balm #1′s which I shared with my <a href="http://www.shespeaks.com/SheSpeaks-Blogger-Society"SheSpeaks Blogger Society buddies. Not sure when and if a brand will ever do that again, but I remain grateful.

Do any of you have stories of favorite free stuff? Or do you believe there is no such thing as free?

I was raised during a time when my mother insisted that we don our best dress for air travel, learned the proper way to serve guests during dinner parties, and only wear white between Memorial Day and Labor Day. My mother didn’t buy a lot of expensive clothes for herself but she invested in handbags and shoes from the best Italian purveyors and made sure that they matched.

Somehow, she managed to balance her proper upbringing with the emerging trends of the times of recycling and care for the environment. I grew up in the age of the iconic TV ad of the Native American in traditional garb paddling his canoe through the polluted stream. So she taught us to do our share to be part of the solution. Every weekend, we would load up the station wagon and head to the municipal dump to recycle. And she was very proud of her early decision to do all of the laundry with cold water.

I’ve got to admit that I’ve had my struggles with laundry. Growing up with everything washed in cold, I had a few misadventures (lots of whites that are now gray, blue, or pink) when striking out on my own in a world where folks sort their whites, brights, and in betweens and wash clothes in hot or warm in addition to cold.

When I participated in P&G Future Friendly with SheSpeaks last year, I made the decision to follow my mother’s wisdom and return to washing everything in cold. In addition to saving money and energy, it’s made our laundry routine easier with skipping the sorting and no inadvertent whites turning other colors. That’s why I am delighted that Tide is now offering a full line of laundry detergents designed for cold water washing and that I had the opportunity to sample the Fresh Scent Tide Coldwater with my family thanks to P&G and SheSpeaks. I hope this means that washing in cold water is becoming as “au courant” as my Mom’s excellent choice of shoes and bags.

On that front, my beauty and wellness goals are to figure out how to exercise more and manage at least 3 haircuts per year with an occasional pedicure in the mix. I am fortunate that I easily meet the 5 mile walking mark most days within my daily shlep to the subway and trek home from picking up my daughters pushing 70+ pounds of girls plus my bag, their snacks, and whatever the art project du jour is. What I miss is a regular run–the endorphin high and the feeling of being in tune with my body instead of dodging pedestrians and taxis as well as providing snack, tissue and chapstick adjustments every few yards.

On the dietary front, I am happy to believe the reports of chocolate’s health benefits and am doing my best to make sure it is part of my daily regime. And nuts, too. I was fortunate to receive my inaugural Cravebox last month and was excited to dive into the chocolate offerings (please keep them coming!). The Baci brought me back to a trip to Capri when I was 12 and those were one of the treats on offer. I’m looking forward to getting my daily ration from the Perugina chocolate bar starting tomorrow.

I got a few treats in the Cravebox that I wanted to share with my readers in the hopes that they help you start your new year with style. I will be sending one lucky reader my Mereadesso Beautiful Body Balm ($54 retail value) and pale pink Nic’s Stic since I am incapable of putting on my own polish and was lucky enough to receive some Fresh bounty from my husband for the holidays. To enter the giveaway, please comment below by January 8th.

How will you be starting the new year in style?

While sharing photos on Facebook and photo sharing sites is great, what’s even better is having a tangible way to view the photos. Our girls are in a new school this year but in the old one, we regularly made “yearbooks” collectively as a class and the girls love to have “read” them as a bedtime treat.

Even though I think it is a tradition that is going to fade as people go “green” and “virtual,” I love receiving photo holiday cards–I used to decorate our front door with them as a way to share the joy of the season.

Recently, I became a host of a Shutterfly House Party. My party is Friday and will be full of family and friends and generate more beloved memories. As a House Party host, Shutterfly has provided me and my guests with coupons for 15 free cards and a free calendar each! I just adore Erin Condren’s designs and she has a partnership with Shutterfly so you can enjoy her designs at a more modest price point. (And if you want to indulge, her site is having its first 50% off sale on Black Friday for six hours–practice pads for the girls, here I come!!)

I just ordered New Year’s cards today with mine and I will have three extra coupons left after the party that I would love to share with you. The coupons cover everything except shipping and handling (about $6.50 for my 15 cards). To enter the giveaway, please comment below with your favorite holiday memory by Wednesday, November 30th.

Once I got pregnant with my first, I needed to rethink some of my old favorites in an effort to avoid parabens and the like. However, I still have a strong stable of favorites that bring my simple pleasure at home when the budget allows.

My love of food seems to extend into my choices of fragrances. Citrus, sugar, spice–I love them all. My go-to fragrances are Fresh’s Sugar and Jo Malone’s Nutmeg and Ginger. I love cookies and am very happy to smell like one. I love the whole Sugar product line: perfume, lotions, scrubs, and lip balms.

I love EO and use their body washes, shampoos and conditioners. I’m giving Occitane a whirl right now–their 5 Essential Oils Repairing conditioner is next on my list. They lured me in with the free hand cream sample on Facebook combined with a healthy discount on other purchases.

I’m also a big Burt’s Bees fan and swear by their Orange Essence Facial Cleanser and Extra Energizing Citrus and Ginger Root Body Wash. Both clean effectively but gently and smell great.

I’ve been a long time Kiehl’s fan and they recently sent me their holiday offer for $20 off through December 31st.. Anyone planning on shopping Kiehl’s for the holidays should let me know and I’m happy to share–you need to spend $65 to get the $20 off and they’re good in-store or online. I’m lamenting the demise of the almond scent for the body lotion but still dig the mango.

My girls also love role playing and the Melissa & Doug cookie set is a real favorite as is their train conductor and fire chief costumes. They also have been finding multiple uses for the alphabet puzzle book and it’s come in handy for the more unusual letters on Show and Share day.

I recently found out about a great opportunity through the SheSpeaks Blogger Society. Melissa & Doug want you to tell them which of their educational toys you think is the best! Just click on the image below to place your vote in the North “Poll!” You’ll Get a Melissa & Doug 25% Off Coupon** to use at MelissaAndDoug.com just for voting! And you’ll be helping me on my way to get a special blogger coupon, too!

I love chocolate salted caramels but sometimes find them too sweet or too salty. Finding the balance that works for my palate can be tricky. My last successful attempt was combining the salted caramel and chocolate gelato flavors at Eataly over the summer. I have a little leftover chocolate gelato in the freezer so next move is Salted Caramel Chocolate gelato shakes.

I was a bit apprehensive about how my experiment would turn out. Nevertheless, easy peasy–heated milk with chocolate syrup on the stove and stirred in a teaspoon of the Torani Salted Caramel syrup. Like having a coffee house in your kitchen!!

Check out my review on SheSpeaks. there are a ton of reviews of the other flavors there, too, if Salted Caramel isn’t your thing.

The bottle is so large that I just have to share the love. I have coupons for a free bottle (retail value $7.95) to give away to four readers who will be chosen randomly. To enter, comment below with your favorite Torani syrup flavor. Winners will be chosen on November 15th. To make it easy to find Torani near you, check out their product locator. The Union Square Food Emporium will do the trick for me!!

The single most used kitchen tool we own is our Bodum electric tea kettle. Without it, I would be in a perennial state of waiting and watching for water to boil. I touted its praises in the Tea Time post.

So appropriately caffeinated, I pulled out the Stonewall Kitchen Strawberry Pancake mix, eggs, milk, and butter and again, gave thanks for the Pyrex read from the inside measuring cup. Mix, scoop, griddle and a delicious breakfast was ready without breaking a sweat!

Hope your morning was as delicious! Fill me in on what are your old flames…

The Doughnut Plant: The Doughnut Plant’s Chelsea Hotel outpost is more or less on the way to the subway for my new commute–teach me restraint! I met up with a friend for coffee there yesterday and couldn’t resist the siren call of the fresh raspberry cake doughnut but was sorely tempted by the new seasonal variety–pumpkin with what looked like caramelized pecans on the outside. I recommend going with a few people so you can get a few different kinds and share!!

Eataly: I stopped in at Eataly on my way home yesterday with a mission of finding a meal that would keep my kids at the table for at least 15 minutes and eating what was served. Mission accomplished with two ravioli varieties (spinach and ricotta pansotti and ravioli quadrati) and a take home pint of two flavors of the gelato: chocolate and white peach. The girls like the ravioli prepared simply with just a little olive oil and we served the gelato with a side of fresh strawberries.

Russ and Daughters: I am planning a trek to this mecca of smoked fish and other delicacies this afternoon. You haven’t experienced what smoked salmon really is until you’ve tried theirs and they do mail order–it’s my care package of choice!