Merry Christmas!

Some of our holiday decor this year

Enjoy and be safe!

2016 Year Recap: Part 1

January
Ashley from Wandering Weekenders visited from Texas and we organized a blogger dinner and drinks meetup at Universal Studios City Walk. It was a chilly night, as you can see we were all bundled up in coats and scarfs, but it was a fun night meeting Ashley and her husband while they were in Orlando.



I started off 2016 on a roll with making new recipes and sharing on the blog although that seemed to slow down as the months went on. I shared some of my favorite recipes for easy meals I created in the kitchen and a delicious recipe for homemade Moscow Mule cocktails.




February
Coincidentally we had another blogger meetup when Meg from Borrowed Heaven came into town for a Disney Run. Kate and I met Meg for lunch along with the husbands at Sea Dog Brewing Company which was such a great time meeting in person.



In February I also posted about some beautiful Caribbean Homes I visited while traveling in the islands.

I shared one of my favorite party-pleaser recipes called Bite Me Dip and featured some of the best restaurants in Orlando (according to me).




March
K and I went to St. Augustine for a weekend getaway to explore of one of my favorite Florida cities full of history, shopping and great restaurants!



I posted about some of the Best Happy Hour Spots in Orlando (according to me) on the blog.

We also threw our annual Easter Dinner for friends and shared some fun Easter Entertaining Decor & Recipes.



April
I tagged along on one of K's work trips to Miami. We stayed in Coral Cables which has a cute downtown area so I had a day to myself to walk around Miracle Mile and browse through the shops.



I was all about healthy eating and shared some fun springs salads along with sweet & savory salad recipes perfect for the warmer months.



I talked about shopping for a new home and weekends spent with my BFF.



We went to Cocoa Beach one weekend and then ventured to Wekiva Island the following weekend to enjoy the great weather and the "greater outdoors".
 

At the end of April we found our dream home and started the paperwork process while also trying to sell our current house.



I found that dream kitchen and it become ours.

It's always fun looking back at the year to reminisce and remember milestones, accomplishments and all that happened during that time. This is probably while blogging is perfect for documenting your life because, otherwise I wouldn't remember half of these happenings.

Happy Holidays my friends!

Cruising on The Majesty of the Seas

My company took us on a 3-night Royal Caribbean cruise a couple weeks ago and it's taken me some time to get a recap of the trip rounded up but here it is today!

The Majesty of the Seas ship leaves out of the port near Orlando so I've gone on this cruise a couple of times before but this time it was all my new coworkers.



Friday
We boarded the ship on in the afternoon and got settled into our cabins. My roommate/coworker and I had an outside-view cabin which means one round window allowing you to see out. Very basic as it comes but definitely a step up from the interior cabins with no windows or sunlight so you have no idea what time of day it is.

Leaving the port in Florida on Friday evening we caught a beautiful sunset and set sail south for the Bahamas.

Saturday
Cruising into Nassau, you get a beautiful view of the island and the huge Atlantis Resort in the background. While a few of us were on the deck watching the views, the CEO of my company offered to take a photo of me and I commented that "he was way too close to my face with the camera" but he snapped it anyway and one doesn't complain to the CEO. So there's that.

We had an excursion booked to go jet packing in Nassau on Saturday but the company cancelled that morning so we Plan B was to explore the island in groups depending what you wanted to see/do.

The events of this day were definitely the highlight of my trip!

We walked around downtown Nassau by the port area and did some local shopping. After a couple hours we took a taxi and headed over to the Fish Fry restaurant strip on Bay Street where you can get some of the best local food from a variety of different small restaurants/vendors.





- We listened to local music at a cute waterfront restaurant
- We tried some local beers and cocktails
- We had some conch and crab cakes which were amazing
- We walked on the beach and got some selfies of our group
- My boss asked the Jerk Lady to marry him (her food was amazing off the grill)
- The rest of us offered to take her back in our suitcases
- We tried the world famous Sky Juice
- We chatted with the locals and enjoyed the scenery

 Although most of us split up during the day to explore our different interests, we met up every night for dinner to regroup and eat together. The dinners are the best meal on the ship so you don't want to skip it plus our CEO requested that we all attend.
 


Sunday
The cruise ship docked at Coco Cay which is the private island owned by Royal Caribbean. It's a beautiful small island but I've been there a few times before so I opted to stay on the ship and relax/be productive. That's my favorite thing to do on Sundays plus I needed some "me time" after all the different activities and chaos that comes with large groups.

 
I grabbed a frozen cocktail and lounged on the upper deck of the ship overlooking the ocean and did some blogging/work.
 
 




In the evening we gathered again for our last dinner and shared our highlights of the trip. Other than the fun-filled day in Nassau on Saturday, the nightly dinners together was a close second favorite.

Monday
Monday morning comes quickly and it's a "get the hell off the ship at 7am shuffle" (not by choice but by schedule) and then to stand in line behind 200 people to get through the different security checkpoints. I should have thought to grab a coffee to get through this debacle.



All in all, it was a wonderful trip filled with so many fun and funny memories with my team and all the coworkers since we're a small company to begin with.

My #1 Tip:
For a short cruise like this: The night before you leave, be packed up and prepared because you need to be ready to go first thing in the morning, and in my case, have some time to get caffeinated enough to drive an hour straight into the office to start the work day.

Here's a recap of my trip to Nassau back in 2013 where I explored different parts of the island (and had a much better tan back then lol!)

Lucky 33 Birthday Brunch

My birthday was on the 13th so K and I celebrated a little early with a trip to Islamorada in the Florida Keys last weekend.

This weekend Kate and my girlfriends organized a birthday brunch on Sunday which, of course is my favorite meal, and was nothing short of amazing from the food, the different flavored mimosas, the bloody mary bar and most importantly the company of all my friends!



Lola also got to join the fun since it was a dog friendly restaurant.

I'd say it was one of the best birthdays yet...... from relaxing in paradise with K in the Florida Keys to celebrating with my favorite girls and guys yesterday for brunch!

So much to be thankful for!

Joining the lovely Biana.

Happenings This Week

My birthday week has come and gone in a flash. On Monday we returned from Islamorada in the Florida Keys feeling refreshed and ready to take on the work week.

Tuesday was my birthday but it was back to work like any other day with tons of catching up to do all week.

Since all of my birthday celebrations were done over the weekend, we had a quiet night at home. K cooked up a nice dinner - grilled grouper and asparagus - with some wine.

I opened some cards and gifts received in the mail and one very sspecial gift from Andrea that literally blew me away!

The package was filled with so much thoughtful, super creative and customized items sent with love from Andrea because she's such a gem!

On Wednesday I shared a Gift Guide for Her with some cute gift ideas for birthdays or the holidays.

On Wednesday night I had all intentions of catching up on reading and commenting on blogs and going through my emails to get all caught up. I even had my Nassau Cruise recap 3/4 way done to be posted yesterday but I came home to internet and we were told they couldn't send a tech out to fix the problem until NEXT WEEK TUESDAY! The blogger in me is livid because I use my evenings to focus on blogging and my husband is pretty much screwed since he has a home office and needs the internet to do his job. I think that's bat shit crazy it will take them a week to fix the internet that went out for no apparent reason.

On to brighter things...

On Thursday Sarita featured a Christmas Q&A featuring yours truly where I talked about some of my favorite Christmas traditions and share one of my favorite party pleasers. - the Holiday Cheese Ball.

Today is now Friday after a roller-coaster week and I'm now wondering how boring my weekend is going to be without having internet at home. I'm going to need a glass of wine to calm down my lividness. I'm not even sure if lividness is a word but you get my point and I'll leave you with this piece of advice for the weekend...

Enjoy yours!