the first part of my christmas was quiet-ish and low-key, spent at home in mansfield with my mom, dad, brother, and mimi. there was a lot of sitting by the fire, last-minute gift-wrapping, eating chocolate peppermint pretzels, sipping wine, shopping [the girls], playing ping-pong [the boys], and a little bit of cooking [not near as much as usual because christmas #1 was just the five of us and christmas #2 involved a week-long vacation and getting on a plane. we definitely went easy on the christmas cookies this year!]. we reminisced about the years when we still had dear old pops, but i’d say we had a pretty great christmas, despite him not being with us. the loss of a close family member makes our blessings, our health, our every moment spent with family that much sweeter.
a few iPhone snapshots from christmas #1:
we all went to whiskey cake [which i had fallen in love with the weekend before thanks to my friend noelle] for brunch and now my whole family is sold. it. is. awesome.
{any juice with the name jessica wabbit has to be pretty darn tasty if you ask me.}
{a moscow mule [for me] and the 3 little pigs [to share]. yep, those beautiful, heavenly little pulled pork sliders are served on a brick. one of a thousand reasons why i love whiskey cake. unfortunately, i failed to take photos of the rest of the meal, but picture a warm goat cheese fondue, which is really more of a rich, toasty goat cheese spread, hot out of the oven with good olive oil, greek olives, oven dried tomatoes, and fresh thyme served on grilled sourdough crostini… and that’s just the beginning.}
{they swear they didn’t plan this.}
{and it’s a good thing i didn’t wear this new silver zara sweater the same day! i wore it the next day instead. ;) love the back of it.}
{shopping with mom and mimi always involves delicious lunches, like this one from seasons 52, and a homecoming as described by this gem of a plate! we sent this picture to my dad on our way home from shopping, because he always has our wine poured and waiting for us when we get home from a shopping trip. what a good guy!} ;)
{my brother and his girlfriend priscilla playing the role of the paparazzi, something which lucky is oh so accustomed to.}
{and then this. so cute. case in point, though – lucky is no stranger to the camera! he knows what to do!}
{a beautiful christmas table setting. but if you know my mom, there’s a beautiful table setting for every occasion.}
{gosh, this one loves presents. so much that we had to let him open some presents early because he would already be at the kennel by the time we opened presents on christmas eve.}
{his favorite thing to do is put his nose right up to the fire and just stare at it.}
{nibbles is an outside kitty, but my soft-hearted dad can’t bear to see her out in the cold in the evenings, so she is now allowed to come in and sit by the fire with a “supervisor” – usually my mom – until we put her in the garage for the night. haha}
{i can’t stand the cuteness.}
{family photos after church.}
{being an adult at christmas is more fun than you might think!}
{these people made our christmas spectacular.}
{love this gift from mimi to mike – it fits him perfectly! and the first of many large gifts that i received this year – a map to pin all the place i’ve been! i’ve always wanted one.}
we had a wonderful christmas together. and i can only imagine how late we would have been up had lucky been there to open each and every gift! as mentioned in this post, mimi stayed the night at our house, and the next morning, dad made waffles and bacon and we packed and got ready florida! mimi headed home [she was getting on a plane later that day to visit my aunt and uncle in tucson], and we made our way to the airport for our 1 o’clock flight to tampa.
{these two kids in the back seat [with the suitcase in between them] are pretty pumped to be going to the beach!}
{around-the-world themed christmas trees at the airport. and more selfies on the plane…}
and so begins christmas #2!
{finally made it to the tradewinds resort in st. petersburg, florida!}
{if we couldn’t have an oceanfront view, looking out on the paddle boaters and swans was the next best thing!}
{we loved the resort. my parents had been there before, but it was new to the rest of us and we had a blast!}
{mom and me, ready for a day on the beach}
{our family plus nama and the cousins!}
{the boys}
{i can’t believe how tall allison is now! she towers over me!}
{me and brother bear!}
{it was partly cloudy, but we got some sun too.}
{i ordered blue crab at crabby bill’s and i’m ashamed to admit that i am not the most efficient peeler. let me at several lbs. of spicy crawfish and i guarantee you i’ll peel it all up before you can blink an eye, fingers burning and everything. but unfortunately i can’t say that i’m quite the seasoned veteran of crab. so needless to say, everyone was waiting days for me to get done! sorry guys.}
{we never buy the photos. but everyone looked so nice in this one that we made an exception.}
{mornings on the beach}
{toes in the sand}
{my camera loves the beach too!}
{that sunset was glorious}
{brother-sister date with mike – pina coladas and an evening walk on the beach}
{that strip of pink.}
{laying out}
{sunday mass in st. pete}
{sunday was our only truly rainy day.}
{so we spent the afternoon and evening watching all our football teams [lose, sadly]. mike was streaming the games from his macbook since the hotel didn’t get the channels, and all nine of us gathered around that little laptop in one of the rooms. a little pizza and beer didn’t hurt either…}
{pelicans and a boat to shell island.}
{that crystal-clear aqua water.}
{some of the “treasures” we found on the beach!}
{but the real treasures were the sand dollars! we found quite a few!}
{obligatory family photo on the beach}
{the best meal we ate! snapper’s… we shared grilled watermelon and panko-crusted goat cheese, you guys. my entree was pan seared scallops and jumbo shrimp over lobster risotto, finished with lemon-basil oil, diced roma tomatoes, and a fried leek garnish. yes, i’m for real.}
{dead horseshoe crab on my morning run.}
{a chocolaté croissant from an awesome little italian bakery in st. pete. it’s probably a good thing that we didn’t discover this bakery until the second to last day!} ;)
{buried in blankets and magazines in my cabana because it was chilly.}
{…and then the clouds rolled in.}
{fresh-squeezed margs. because we were in florida, that’s why.}
{awkward family selfies? haha}
{our last night together! also, couldn’t get my red eye fixer to work…}
{love these people.}
we were fortunate to be able to spend six nights at the resort and get lots of family time and lots of time on the beach. to be honest, my family isn’t the type to lay on the beach for a whole vacation, but there was a ton to do at the resort, from tennis to cornhole to ping-pong, and we went for walks and ran on the beach and explored the town of st. pete. and truthfully, i think we were all more content to relax by the beach than what we may have expected. must have been a combination of the chaos of the holiday season and the cold weather that made us appreciate it. it was great to see that side of the family, as we don’t see them too often anymore. what fun we had!
we got back on new years eve, just in time to watch the aggies BTHO duke [okay, so that game was a little closer than i care to admit. a good one, though], and then i went over to ashley and guido’s to ring in the new year with champagne and good friends. it was just the three of us, which was nice after being around lots of people for the week. my holiday started low-key and ended low-key, and i liked it.
{stole these pics from ashley since – no joke – i could not take a single more picture with my iPhone. it was completely out of space. luckily, i FINALLY got all those pictures off and was able to update my phone! it was about time.}
{started new years day with a heaping slice of berry pie for breakfast [sorry i’m not sorry], but i finished it more healthfully: torn kale with red d’angou pears, goat cheese, pom seeds, toasted slivered almonds, and a basic lemon juice and olive oil dressing. no traditional new years foods this year, but i’d say i did pretty well by these two meals.} :)
thank you to my family for such a fabulous christmas, and to ashley and guido for hosting me on nye! love you guys.
xoxo