Month: December 2019

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah!  It’s been a busy couple of days celebrating the holidays. While my husband and I have been working this week, the kids have been enjoying sleeping in and relaxing! It’s hard to believe that the next Five on Friday will be in 2020! We are planning a low-key New Year’s Eve celebration with family game night and appetizers and snacks for dinner! Honestly, I may not even stay awake to watch the ball drop. I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year’s Eve! Here are five from this week:

1. Christmas Eve – our tradition is to spend Christmas Eve at my cousin’s house in Connecticut.  We only usually see this side of the family once a year, so it’s a fun time catching up.  We brought a dessert pizza and a variety of Christmas cookies from the different cookie exchanges.  There was also apple crisp, lots of other cookies and a panettone. But my brother brought this flourless chocolate cake that was not only beautiful but delicious!

2. Christmas – We always host Christmas with both my parents and Dana’s parents.  Plus, my brother came up from Pennsylvania and Dana’s aunt came over. We made turkey, rice and gandules, mashed sweet potatoes and roasted root vegetables with a balsamic sauce. It was another delicious meal and we all ended the evening stuffed! 

3. Holiday Gifts – Two of my gifts this year were this mug and a Fitbit Inspire HR.   Some of our other gifts included a new air fryer and sheets for our bed.

4. Reading – I have been reading holiday themed books this month.  I just finished Let It Snow by Nancy Thayer, which was a cute Christmas read.  My last holiday book for the year is 25 days ‘Til Christmas by Poppy Alexander. I hope to have this finished before the new year.

5. Watching – This past week we watched a couple of movies.  My daughter and I watched Where’d You Go Bernadette? I read the book ages ago and remember not liking it. However, the movie wasn’t bad. It rarely happens where I enjoy the movie more than the book! Dana, our daughter and I also watched The Art of Racing in the Rain since the three of us had all read the book.  It followed the book pretty closely and we all liked it.

Sharing with Five on Friday! Have a great weekend. Happy New Year! I’ll be back in 2020!!

Happy Friday everyone! This is the home stretch to the holidays!
Hanukkah begins on Sunday this year. The kids requested that we celebrate with potato latkes and jelly doughnuts. We will also be busy finishing up our holiday shopping and wrapping all the presents this weekend.

This will be the last post on the blog before the holidays. So before I get into my five from this week, I want to wish everyone a Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas and Happy Kwanzaa. Whatever holiday you celebrate, may you enjoy the time with your family and friends. We will be celebrating Christmas Eve at my aunt’s house. Then Christmas Day we will be hosting my parents and brother and my in-laws and my husband’s aunt.

Here are five from this week:

1. Supper Club – This month’s supper club was our annual pizza night and cookie exchange. Above is a picture of the different pizzas we had. My husband made a Chocolate Chip Dessert Pizza and I made a Mushroom Arugula Pizza. Plus, the daughter of one of the couples in the group decided to make pretzels. It was a delicious evening, but needless to say, we were stuffed!

2. Cookie Exchanges – At our December supper club we also do a cookie exchange. This year, I made Cranberry Bliss cookies, based off the Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars, which I’ve never had. Dana made Maple Brown Sugar cookies. Luckily, my cookie recipe made four dozen cookies, because I brought some in for my office cookie exchange, which was this week as well. This is always a delicious time of year!

3. Reading – This week I finished another Christmas read, Christmas at Little Street Bakery. This was an okay holiday read. I’m hoping to get a couple more holiday themed books in before the end of the year.

4. Band Concerts – This was also the week of band concerts. Of course, the kids’ concerts were on separate evenings. So we had two nights that we had to go. We always love hearing my daughter play with the smaller jazz band (pictured above) before the regular concert. They are really good!

5. Another Day Off – Tuesday, we got hit with an ice storm and enjoyed another day off school/work. It’s days like these, when the roads are hazardous, that I’m especially grateful that my husband can work from home.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Wednesday, I wrote about Westchester Winter Wonderland.

Sharing with Friday Favorites. Have a great weekend and a happy holiday!

Happy Friday! It’s lucky Friday the 13th! Christmas is less than two weeks away and we are busy, busy, busy!  This weekend is filled with Christmas festivities! I am going to a friend’s annual holiday party Saturday night and then Sunday we have our annual supper club pizza and cookie exchange.  Here are five from this week:

1. A Christmas Carol – last weekend we traveled up to Kingston to see the Ulster County Ballet perform A Christmas Carol.  The dancers were so talented and did a great job. It was a nice way to celebrate the holiday season!

2. Westchester Winter Wonderland – This past weekend, Westchester Winter Wonderland hosted us at their annual event.  This outdoor attraction is filled with lights, music, rides, entertainment and more. Stay tuned for a future post.  We had a fun time, but it was so COLD!!

3. Reading – I have been reading all the holiday themed books this month.  I am finising up Let It Snow by Nancy Thayer, which is a cute Christmas read that takes place on Nantucket.

4. Snow Beautiful – We had another snowfall this week and I ended up with a 2-hour delay and the kids had a 3-hour delay which was nice. The drive to work was so beautiful with the snow on the tree branches.

5. Holiday Prep – Our Christmas cards arrived from Snapfish and we are working on getting them addressed and stamped to mail out. Dana and I are heading out tonight to do some Christmas shopping. I’m really hoping it’s not too crazy.

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Tuesday I shared my November reads.

This week on the podcast we talk about Holiday Traditions.  Then we end with our Quick Hits of the week!

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!

Hooray for Friday!  New York had its first big snowstorm earlier this week which resulted in a snow day for the kids and I on Monday.  It was nice to ease back into reality after our 8 night cruise. However, even with a shortened week, it felt really long!  We had such a great time with my family on our cruise vacation. Read more below!

1. The Ship – We sailed on Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas.  This was our third cruise with Royal Caribbean, our favorite cruise line. The ship left from Cape Liberty in Bayonne, NJ, a little over an hour drive from our house. We enjoy cruising out of New Jersey, which allows us to not have to fly. With the Thanksgiving holiday, the cruise was filled to capacity with over 4,000 guests.  However, since the ship is so large, it rarely felt super crowded.

2. Eating – Umm, what weren’t we eating?!  The kids enjoyed ice cream cones at all hours of the day.  It was truly vacation for them, where they were eating dessert with every meal.  I may have indulged in some creme brulee and other goodies myself!  In the past we’ve been happy with the food on Royal Caribbean. Unfortunately, we weren’t wowed by the food on this trip.  But of course, we still did our fair share of eating. 

3. Warm Weather – It was so nice to be able to shed our winter jackets that we wore when we departed and enjoy the 75+ degree weather in Florida and the Bahamas.  The kids loved seeing all of the palm trees and we all couldn’t believe at how blue and clear the water was down there.

4. Family – My husband and I called this trip Thanksgiving on the Seas.  Normally, my sister hosts Thanksgiving in Maryland. But this year, we (my parents, brother, and my sister and her family) all decided to take a cruise together instead. We had a lot to celebrate this year including me and Dana’s 15 year wedding anniversary, my 40th birthday and my mom’s 70th birthday. Plus, Dana’s birthday was a few days before we left for the cruise.  And while we were on the cruise my niece turned 7. It was fun getting to celebrate her actual birthday on the boat!

5. Disconnecting – While you can pay for wifi on the cruise ship, we opted not to.  We wanted to fully disconnect and enjoy our vacation. And enjoy we did! While we were in port we left the ship and enjoyed excursions and the beach.  When we were traveling down and back from Florida and the Bahamas we enjoyed all the Anthem of the Seas had to offer including bumper cars, the rock wall, the North Star and lots of great shows!

ICYMI this week on the blog:

Yesterday, I posted a recap of past Westchester County Experience Gift Idea posts.

This week on the podcast we talk about Holiday Experience Gift Ideas.  Then we end with our Quick Hits of the week!

Sharing with Friday Favorites!  Have a great weekend!