butterscotch blondies

fresh out of the oven

Celebrating the Season with ICE!

Ok so the last few days have been fairly uneventful as far as Holiday Happenings go so that is why I haven't written very much but I have been keeping up with my Celebrating the Season album and we did manage to squeeze in a festive evening out with Monika and Dave at the ICE exhibit at the Gaylord Palms resort! What a great time we had!! Unfortunately I could tell that Mike was sick the moment he got in the car Wednesday night and the days following he has only gotten worse and worse - he's home from work today so hopefully a day of rest will get him back to good health.



Ok now back to ICE! We had gone once before a few years ago and forgot just how fun it is. There are all these beautifully carved ice sculptures and they keep the exhibit rooms at 9 degrees so they hand out parkas and we brought along hats, gloves and scarves to make sure we stayed warm. There is one room with a huge ice slide which Monika and Dave slid down, maybe next year I'll brave the slide but this year I just took photos. After we finished our ICE! experience we went for our free hot cocoa and then dinner. It was such a nice evening out with friends and really pushed me into the holiday spirit!!




Last night I caught up on my Celebrating the Season album. Since the days have been light with activity I made sure to include a fun photo of one of my favorite holiday things - Starbucks! I so love their holiday flavors and it is the one time of year I really have a tough time deciding what to order because I love every one of their holiday drinks!!! This year Starbucks has added the Caramel Brulee Latte and if you haven't tried it go right now and try it! I do think that the tastes of the season are just as important as any other holiday tradition - there is nothing like closing your eyes and taking a sip or bite of something that can transport you to a different time or place. What food or drink means the holidays to you??

Celebrating the Season - Day 3

Today I once again was not feeling great, which is a total bummer over the holiday weekend but in a way a nice way not to let the holiday slip too quickly away with all the running around and craziness we had originally planned.

We did get more of our decorations up, we are pretty much done. I got my mini tree up and this year we put up a second tree in the dining room which is pretty exciting for me. We also went and got more lights for the porch and around the windows so our house is looking very very festive! I'm loving every minute of it. I can't believe the weekend is just about over and tomorrow it's back to our normal routine. As much as I loved all of Mike's yummy Thanksgiving food I'm getting a little burnt out on leftovers so tomorrow it will be back to a healthier diet - well at least until I start baking Christmas cookies!




Tonight I did the pages for yesterday and today in my album. I'm really loving this project and can't wait to fill every page with good times, traditions and holiday spirit!

Celebrating the Season - Day 1&2

I love the day after Thanksgiving almost as much as I love Thanksgiving itself, why you may ask? For one it feels like the holidays are officially underway, also, Mike is off and we take down all the Christmas decorations and put up our tree. We also did something we hardly ever do on "Black Friday" we went shopping! We weren't out long and we certainly weren't out at 5AM but we did cross a couple of items off our lists so that's always a good thing!

Yesterday we also had our friends/neighbors Tom and Anna over for leftovers it was so nice to have them here and to share in some of our holiday with our new friends who are becoming to mean quite a lot to us. I unfortunately didn't get any photos of them here because I was too busy eating and talking haha!

After they left the tree went up. We have an awesome pre-lit artificial tree that goes up in three easy pieces, particularly easy for me since well, I just watch Mike do it! He then shapes all the branches and puts the star on top. I then jump in and put all the ornaments on. I love unwrapping all of my ornaments, they all have such special memories and some have some great stories behind them. I have several ornaments from when my mom was young and some from when I was a baby and then there are those I've collected with Mike over the years. Mike just watches and snaps photos for me and of me.



Today I woke up feeling under the weather - way under! When my alarm went off I just couldn't even think of getting out of bed so we canceled today's plans and I stayed in bed until 11AM! This is very very unusual for me since I'm an early riser and I love the mornings. So today was another day we didn't get as many decorations up and out as we had planned but Mike did get our porch lights up and he set Mickey and Minnie under the tree. We are planning to get more lights for the porch and windows and just around the house in general but for tonight it's so nice watching the lights flicker and glow and me, Mike and Hooper cuddle on the couch.



Here are the pages I created in my December Daily AKA Celebrate the Season Album. I will post today's pages tomorrow!

Cover of the album. I used the holiday House of 3 items to create the title!

Thanksgiving Wrap-up!

Do you ever have a holiday that you feel is absolutely perfection? Where everything goes just as you hoped? This Thanksgiving was absolutely one of those days! I woke up and did yoga and watched the parade, I lounged while Mike cooked, I took tons of photos. After dinner Mike and I went for a walk and watched the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special and we listened to Christmas music and cuddled. We never got to playing games but that was not a big deal.

So now what you've been waiting for - Food photos!!!! Mike really outdid himself making 2 chickens, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, corn bread casserole and warm pears with blue cheese. I added stuffed mushrooms to the mix and then I was in charge of dessert which was caramel apple pie and pumpkin cheesecake.







To say we ate a lot is an understatement but it was a great day! Mike even humored me and we set up the tripod and put the camera on timer and took some family portraits it was so fun and we got some great pictures out of the deal. This is something we plan to do all season long so stay tuned!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It's Thanksgiving morning! It is one of my favorite days of the year, I am watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - one of my favorite holiday traditions, Mike is already busy cooking in the kitchen and it smells heavenly already!! Yesterday I made an apple pie and a pumpkin cheesecake (stay tuned for photos) and stuffed mushrooms so today I just kick back and enjoy the day. This year it will just be me and Mike for dinner and I'm actually looking forward to the relaxing dinner, going for a walk with my husband afterward, playing games and watching movies.

I'm also taking time today to remember all the things I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for my family and friends, who listen, who support me, who encourage me and who love me unconditionally. I'm thankful for the fur babies who make me smile, laugh, who cuddle me and just make this apartment a home. I'm thankful for my health and for my continued motivation. I'm thankful for my amazing husband. I'm thankful that the Yankees won the world series, I'm thankful for how lucky we are to visit Disney all the time, I'm thankful for my scrapbooks and the stories I continue to tell through them. And though we aren't together today I'm thankful that I'm so close to my parents, sister and grandmother that we will talk so much today that it will be the next best thing to being together! I'm also thankful for those of you who read my little blog here, I appreciate you and enjoy sharing my life with you!

Now I don't know about everyone else but I am eagerly waiting for Santa to make his appearance in this parade so that we can officially kick off the holiday season. Now you see I gave my blog a little holiday decoration - thanks to House of 3 for releasing AMAZING holiday items!!! Tomorrow we will put up our decorations around the house and I will start listening to Christmas music (sorry Mike!) but I will admit, like so many people seem to be this year, I got into the spirit a little early this year. A couple of weeks ago we got a little blast of cold air here in Florida and after I picked Mike up from work we headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios for the Osbourne Family's Spectacle of Dancing Lights! It was so great getting there in time for the switch flipping ceremony and to be there when the crowds were still light. We plan on going again but at least we went one day where we could just take pictures and bundle up or you know wear hoodies haha!




Part of the reason we are planning to visit the Studios again is because this year I'm working on a project inspired by Ali Edwards December Daily album. You can read more about the project on Ali's blog here. I'm doing mine a little differently which Ali encourages us all to do instead of just doing the album from December 1st until December 25th I'm starting my documenting tomorrow and going through to January 1st! wish me luck! I have my foundation pages done so tomorrow I will just start taking pictures and documenting the spirit and activities of the season! I plan on blogging each day so I can share all my stories with all of you so I hope you will take the journey with me!!

Now it's time for me to get back to the parade, Santa will be arriving in just about an hour!! Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving, take time to remember what you are thankful for and hug your loved ones!

That's What Friends Are For!

Some friends are there for the good times, they are there when you need someone to go out and party with and laugh with. Some friends are there for the bad times, always lending a shoulder to cry on. There are friends who know you inside and out, friends who no matter how long it's been since you've seen one another you can pick up right where you left off. There are friends who can make you laugh and think and smile. My friend Ruth is all of those things so it was so great to spend a day with her at Epcot for a little Food & Wine fun! We talked, we laughed, we acted silly and we ate and drank of course!



Ruth has gotten me through some really rough times, she's been by my side through some really great times and once many years ago I tried to fix Ruth up with Mike - this was long before Mike and I got together and something we all laugh about now! Ruth has an ability to know what I'm thinking and to keep me from getting in my own way and I love that I can be 100% myself in front of her. We don't spend as much time together as I would like but it's certainly more time now that we live in the same state! And now we have more fun plans on tap for the future which I am super excited about. So stay tuned for more stories and photos from my adventures with Ruth and thank you Ruth for being such a great friend all these years - you may be the younger one but you are also the wiser one! Love ya!