If you know me, you know that among all the chaos of my life, it’s the simple pleasures that get me through it all…and keep me going with a smile on my face! Especially at this time of year, when it’s easy to forget the meaning of the season and slow down to savor life’s little joys.

Last evening, our family spent time together putting up the tree, decorating our house, and making homemade pizza, which was such a nice break from all the busyness of traveling and shopping this weekend!

And as I go through each day from one place – errand – task to another, you will always see me with one of my simple pleasures – a tasty beverage! And my favorite, of course, is a Caribou Coffee mocha. Typically I get a Mint Condition Mocha or a Caramel High Rise, but I love any coffee with chocolate, so I’m super excited about Caribou’s new Topped by You promotion, where you can create your own combination of drinks and toppings!

A couple weeks ago I attended Caribou Coffee’s Pop-Up Coffee Lab at the Mall of America, where everyone was invited to create their own holiday drink with toppings – for FREE. It was awesome – and I was the first to try it out!

The Mall of America’s Rotunda was decorated with their ginormous, lit Christmas trees, the perfect backdrop for Caribou’s holiday toppings event. I arrived just as they were putting together all the finishing touches and a line started forming. (It started at the same time as Toddler Tuesdays – I think Caribou purposely came just in time for all the caffeine-craving moms!)

I’ll take this many mochas, please.

Time for coffee!!! I was brought to a table to pick out my choice of mocha or hot chocolate. I picked my milk chocolate mocha and got to choose my flavor of whip – chocolate, vanilla, mint or raspberry. I chose chocolate (and lots of it).

Then it was off to the toppings station! All their team members were awesome and basically let me loose to help myself to whatever I wanted. They had tons of toppings to pick from – some they have in their shops, and some extra surprises. I chose fudge coated toffee and toasted marshmallow sprinkles – yum!

Then I was brought to the camera area where I was invited to get a picture taken of my drink, which was then emailed to me. Anyone who shared their drink picture on social media with hashtag #TopBou would then get to see their picture on the big screen! I posted my pic right away on Twitter and Instagram, and they were the first to be shown – it was so cool! [Read more…]