Sunny, Cold and Lovin' it!Another sunny Sunday!! Welcome back!  I'm loving the cold weather here in New York. I know many people don't like when it's time to get out the winter coats and gloves, but I just find it so refreshing!! Have a number of shopping errands to do today. Have you ever shopped at Fairway? It's my new favorite store to do my food shopping. They have great organic products, but also maintain all the popular brands as well. After running around a bit this morning, I'll head back home and prepare a delicious tomato sauce for dinner. Going to also make some chicken meatballs, pasta and salad for an informal dinner with Denise, Marcelo, Madison and little Mia. Gianna also made some amazing cookie dough yesterday, rolled it out and baked a batch of "snowmen" and "Christmas Trees" for all the girls to decorate later.  Gianna's Cookies to be decorated today Denise and I are going to work on yet another PTA event - The Father-Daughter Dance, which has become a beloved tradition for the girls and their Dads. With any luck, we'll chat a it about a few upcoming trips during the next 18 months. First, the Cousins Niagara-Toronto Road Trip this coming July 2015 is going to have a caravan with the addition of Denise's family. I told her the best part of these road trips is that the kids like to spread out between the cars, so us Moms get both peace and happy kids throughout the long drives!  Flag of Portugal I'm hoping I can get Denise to book her hotel (the same as mine and Tanya's) today. Secondly and very exciting is our pending "Portugal" trip which is schedules for June/July 2016. Marcelo and his family are from a small town in Portugal called Sapelos. He has wanted to plan a family trip to his homeland for a number of years. Moreover, Denise has yet to visit Europe, so I'm so stoked that we will all have this experience together!!! I'll be pushing her to get passports for her and the kids asap, because they will also need them for our Summer Niagara trip.  Belem Tower, Lisbon, Portugal (courtesy lisbon.net) So, that is my day - will be back tomorrow with more "Christmas To Do's"!! Have fun today with whatever you do!! -E Just play. Have fun. Enjoy the game. | Busy Fun Days!Hello there everyone! I hope that you've been enjoying your weekend! We had so much fun and quite a full day yesterday! We headed out at 9am and didn't return until after 1am! It was non-stop... And it was kinda of funny that during our late dinner, Jet had told me that she doesn't understand how I can do this (have such full and busy days) all the time while we are on vacations... She was exhausted and said that she doesn't know what she was thinking when she had agreed to join me in more of the festive holiday fun days/events that I have planned for the upcoming days that lead to Christmas!! Well, it definitely made me laugh and she said that she plans to just stay home and rest up until our next event! Keep in mind that Jet is a very fit mom and takes care of my dear sweet niece Chaplin 24/7, but she is just not a very active/busy person and as Newton's Law goes...  And yes, I am... A little extreme and on the opposite end of the spectrum on the staying in motion - keeping busy - running around side of that chart! So as I mentioned yesterday, today I'm going to do a Weekend Highlights Recap from Friday through today. Here goes: Friday went by so super FAST, like at lightening speed! I was out all day doing some holiday prep and taking Dominic Christmas shopping, then before I knew it, it was time to take the kids to the Choir performance that they had that evening. After the show, we had come home, I made dinner, and then we went out and caught the 10:45p showing of Horrible Bosses 2. Now while I've been known to doze off at such late showings, this movie had us each chuckling and laughing quite a bit, and I had no issue keeping my eyes open and enjoying the comedy which stars Jason Bateman - who I've been enjoying since his days on 'Silver Spoons'!  International Peace Choir Next up was yesterday, where we started with what was suppose to be a lovely breakfast and I think that everyone except for me had a lovely breakfast. I just didn't really enjoy my order of a Pesto Tofu Scramble whatsoever - they just didn't make it right. We then went to the Sawdust Festival Winter Wonderland and from the moment I walked in I just found it decorated so cute and adorable that I was hooked - this will definitely be on my annual list of holiday to do's! And that was even before seeing all of the talented local artists and their crafts. Great time!  Me and the kids at the Winter Fantasy Sawdust Festival   After that, and just as soon as we got in the car Dave C, Dominic, and Cosette fell asleep and were zonked out for hours at this point!!! We headed over to the Irvine Spectrum to meet up with Jet, Andrew, and Chaplin. And to pick up lunch. Once the trio met up with us, we caravanned to La Jolla. The sleepyheads woke up, we had a little picnic, observed the ever adorable Harbor Seals, and watched a beautiful sunset!  Harbor Seals   La Jolla Sunset Our next stop was the San Diego Seaport Village! Where we rode the carousel, saw the huge Poinsettia Christmas Tree, and shopped in the cute boutique stores! Chaplin was having such a blast, that once we were ready to head to our late dinner and part ways with her and her parents, she had asked them if they could continue joining us and come to the restaurant for a late night dinner!
 San Diego Seaport Village We finally pulled into the driveway after 1am and after our busy and fun filled festive day had put our jammies on and hit the sack! Today I'm heading out to the mall with Dave B, then we are all going Christmas Tree Shopping, this evening the kids have yet another performance, and after that we will come home to me in the kitchen and another great Sunday Night Dinner with the family! Hope you are having an awesome Sunday and spend it well, -T  |
