Christmas Vacation Scenes

Our house was beginning to look a lot like Christmas. K and I spent weeks decorating and organizing the house for the arrival of my parents and sister to spend our first Florida Christmas together until we got the news that my dad was in the hospital. So to make a long story short, only my sister made it to Florida. I was really upset at first but we made the best of it and decided to take a road trip to K's family on Christmas day.

 We celebrated early at home on Christmas Eve opening gifts with my mom via FaceTime and cooking a smaller version of Christmas dinner.


 
  
I wanted to get that out of the way before backing up a few days when my sister arrived in Orlando. We were all disappointed by the news but decided to make the best of it and planned a few extra things to keep us busy.

Last week Friday we visited the Pulse Nightclub memorial site and then went to see the Christmas lights at Wall Street downtown Orlando before heading to the Amway Center to watch the Magic vs Lakers game.

I'm happy to report the Orlando Magic won and my sister had a blast at the game!

On Christmas day, we made our way to Florida's west coast with my sister to spend Christmas with K's extended family.

My MIL absolutely spoiled us with gifts but most of all she spoiled me with 3 gorgeous Pandora charms to add to my small yet growing collection.

We stayed Christmas night at a hotel near the water and woke up to beautiful weather on Monday so we walked around the riverfront before grabbing lunch and making the road trip back home.

On Wednesday night we had tickets to go see Dancing With The Stars live at the new performing arts theater downtown. My cousins drove into town (to take my parents place) and we all went our for some dinner before the show.

 

We had amazing seats quite close up to the stage and they put on a fantastic show staring Laurie Hernandez the winner of Season 23 (also US women's Olympic gymnast).

It was pretty difficult snapping any quality photos with the fancy lighting and the movement of dancing but I'll share some more of the fun details next week.

To wrap up, it was a far from traditional Christmas this year but it all worked out. My Dad is doing much better and technology helped us stay connected with my mom all weekend long. 

Today we are on to another adventure.

Happy Friday and enjoy the weekend!

SIL's Wedding Weekend

Another fun weekend for the books spent with family and awesome weather on Florida's west coast.

On Friday afternoon we drove two hours for my sister-in-law's wedding weekend. By the time we checked into the hotel and got settled it was already 7pm so we walked to the nearby marina and settled for some seafood dinner at Pier 22 riverfront restaurant.

After dinner we met up with my SIL and her wedding party at their favorite pub where they went to hang out after the rehearsal dinner.

On Saturday morning, we got properly caffeinated and relaxed at the hotel before getting dressed and dolled up for the wedding that afternoon.

 

The ceremony was short and sweet at their childhood church and then the reception was at a cute banquet hall for an amazing dinner, live music, and lots of mingling with family and the kids. The wedding ended fairly early and I opted out of the after-party for the sake of getting some rest.

Sunday was a gorgeous day which made it very hard to want to leave. We checked out of the hotel and decided to enjoy the weather by walking around the marina and getting some lunch at Riverhouse Reef & Grill before hitting the road.

 Beautiful weekends like that make me wish I lived closer to the water. I hope your weekend was just as fulfilling!


Joining the lovely Biana for some Weekending fun.

Friday Reflections

Four posts in one week...who am I? I guess that's what a mandatory hurricane curfew and a three-day weekend will do to you. No complaints here since I feel somewhat organized again.

My SIL's wedding is this weekend so that calls for pretty nails and this is the color combo I'm rolling with: Essie's Chinchilly (my favorite), Lady Like and Sugar Daddy.




I just recently found out about the soft as silk LuLaRoe leggings from a coworker so I had to buy a pair, except I cheated and found them for half the price on Amazon. They're from VIV Collection but honestly you can't tell the difference. I'm tempted to buy 10 more pairs!
 



Another Bath & Body Works haul happened recently because when 50% off 3-wick candles comes around... that's when I stock up. I got my usual fall/pumpkin candles but I also bought some year round scents such as Hello Beautiful.




I finished Amy Schumer's The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo audiobook earlier this week and since then I've moved onto The Girl on The Train. I know I'm late to the party but I'm late to reading books altogether. So far I'm confused with the story but starting to pick up the pieces. I'm not sure I could sit through physically reading this book but the audio version will do on my commute to and from work.

The new Hello Kitty wine collection is quite adorable and since it's the weekend, why not share? 

Cheers to the weekend!

Joining my fellow Floridian Amanda for Friday Faves.

The Weekend with Hurricane Matthew

With Hurricane Matthew approaching us on Thursday afternoon and a mandatory curfew set until Saturday at 7 am, we planned to spend the 3-day weekend at home and just pray we didn't get hit too hard from the storm.

The anticipation of a Category 4 hurricane heading towards us was quite scary so we stocked up on supplies last week and prepared for the worst.  I can't speak for other parts of the country but we got very lucky with no major damage to our house and didn't lose electricity either. The curfew was lifted sooner than expected on Friday afternoon so we headed out for some dinner at Outback.

Most of Saturday was spent cleaning and doing errands before taking Lola out to enjoy the beautiful weather at a lakeside restaurant and market.

Sunday was another gorgeous day although I managed to be a coach potato for most of it watching TV and blogging. Lola was worn out from all the fun on Saturday.

For Sunday dinner, I tried my hand at making Eggplant Parmesan Lasagna, which turned out amazing (recipe coming soon). I enjoyed all the relaxing and I'm thankful the hurricane has fizzled instead of looping back around and hitting Florida a second time as initially predicted.


Joining the lovely Biana for some weekend whereabouts.

Weekend Plans Cancelled

I was supposed to leave today for a 3-day cruise to the Bahamas but Hurricane Matthew has threatened the east coast of Florida so the cruise was officially cancelled yesterday. I'm not hugely disappointed because I've been on this cruise ship twice before and really didn't want to chance getting on a boat knowing a huge storm is lurking nearby. Safety first and I'll gladly take a quiet weekend at home. I'm just praying Matthew doesn't cause too much devastation which I know it's already caused in Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas.

We are supposed to be hit the hardest at 8 am today so I'm not sure if I'll have electricity or internet. The uncertainties of a natural disaster are the worst feeling to experience because you just don't know what exactly to prepare for. The gas stations have been out of gas since Wednesday and the shelves were empty when I went to Target this week but I managed to get some essentials.

Since I already had a few things lined up to share today, I'll stick with the program...

I finally jumped on the Audiobooks train after procrastinating for way too long and decided to get started with Amy Schumer's new book The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo. I've been listening to it every day this week on my commute to and from work and I've been really enjoying it. It's raw and uncensored and I like her take on life.

On Wednesday, I shared some cute swimwear options that offer a little more coverage. The cruise this weekend was supposed to be a company event so I wanted some less skimpy swimsuits to take on the trip and I found some really fun suits at Target and Express.

I just received my semi-annual Ulta haul (I just made that up but it seems to be every 6 months). Lots of products were repurchases of my favorite products but I did add in some new products such as the Benefit Eye Brightening set and Lip Crayon.

POREfessional Pore Minimizing & Eye Brightening Set  //   Gimme Brow Fiber Gel
Tarte Amazonian Full Coverage Foundation  //   ULTA Matte Lip Crayon - Carnival

This cute Benefit makeup bag also came as a free gift with my Benefit Cosmetics purchase.

We finally purchased a dining room table for the new house. Something so simple to be excited about but it means we're getting closer to fully furnishing our house.

Since we've been working on getting settled into our new house, I just hope this hurricane doesn't set us back and have to fork out money for repairs instead of interior decorating and furnishings.

Enjoy the weekend break and I'll catch you next week with an update on Hurricane Matthew.